2 down....8 to go!

I am not sure if I can put into words the insanity of these past few days.....wow, what an experience! It has been tough keeping this thing updated as I have been on the road so much with not a whole lot of internet tme......so let me get you all up to date.

My first audition was three days ago in Munich.....I auditioned for Barbara Gulzlow, an agent based out of Munich. Natalie and I arrived at the audition with our friend Benoit right on time. I was amazed that to meet 2 other American singers there! It was really cool....they were all quite a bit older than me but really nice to talk to....that is the first thing I noticed.....everybody who was auditioning was A LOT older than me.....probably like mid 30's to late 40's....it was crazy. There were only 12 of us there....and everybody sounded really amazing! Totally different from the normal young artist program auditions I have been doing the past few years.....these people sounded really pollished.....it was all quite overwhelming. Needless to say though, I had a great audition and was able to get through speaking a bit of German as well which was exciting. I found out after that the agent enjoyed my audition, but unfortunantley has no more room for my voice type on her roster....oh well it was a great experience for me anyways :) The next day, I attempted to crash an agency audition but was unsuccesful.....I will be singing for them later on in the month in Leipzig. After the attempted crashing, Natalie and I headed to Hamburg where we were staying that night and then having an audition the next day. Now, let's talk about where our Hotel was......what Natalie and I liked to call "sex strasse" because it was a ton of strip clubs and hustler like stores.....it was actually pretty hillarious.....I guess they are not too modest over here when it comes to that stuff.....we took pictures though, because we couldn't believe that this was where our hotel was located.....nonetheless, the hotel was actually awesome! Very comfortable and clean. I was happy, even though the location was in the middle of the sex strip. In Hamburg, I auditioned for Florian Fellner, the agent who heard me when I was in Weimar. I was the first person to go, and he told me that there were some people from a local newspaper who wanted to watch my audition and then interview me afterwards.....so I will now be in a local paper in Hamburg.....how cool is that?? The audition went fantastic! I started with Quando m'en vo and then they asked for O waer ich schon, from Fidelio. After I sang they corrected a minor diction problem and told me I sang really well and am singing the perfect repetoire, which was great to hear. Florian was also glad that my German had gotten better since Weimar, because I know that was a big problem of his. They told me that postings for auditions for Fest contracts don't come out until Nov 12th and that they will email me when they hear about any auditions coming up, which is great news to hear! They did tell me that my voice type, which is very popular, does not have as many openings in houses as other voice types, which I knew. They also invited me to this audition of 60 singers in March who are able to sing for a ton of different houses all at once, whcih would be a great opportunity for me.....they said meanwhile, they know of an opera studio in Bremen which would be good for me to audition for.....it is a new program which lasts for 2 years (although you don't have to stay the whole time) and would help me greatly with my German along with having a place to work at. They said because I am still so young that it might be good to do a stuido program, just so that I could stay here legally for a year or two, which I am totally cool with....so we will see. Good news is they want to work with me, and will hopefully be sending some things my way in November :)

So.....I am now sitting here in Weimar at John Keyes's place enjoying some down time.....I am going to get to work with him over the next few days on my audition rep which will be great. Unfortunantley, I woke up this morning with a cold :( I have been busy taking some Wal-greens meds that John has from the states which I am hoping will aid me in a quick recovery. My next audition is on Monday, so I should be ready to go by then after having a few days of rest here in Weimar. It really takes a lot of energy to do all these auditions.....anyways, I guess that is it for now! Will keep you all informed :)

Bis Bald!!
Lisa