Team Shredder

Yes, Old Blue here has been whoring the voice about these last couple weeks. And like any good whore, I always bring back a little something. Gleaned from a wise-but-not-wizened opera coach (and the bulletin board of an unknown Texas opera coach in one case) you might ask if these aren’t just words for the singer, but words to live by.

Match your frock to your fach
Your fach is your voice type. But not just your voice type – its also the entirety of your potential. Your fach describes how high or low you sing, the weight or character of the sound, whether you can move it around quick and easy or foghorn it for hours. Your vocal attributes are loosely attached to character traits, which glom onto a fairly simple menu of possible roles. If youre a lady you’re either the tricky little maid, the ingénue, the bad ingénue, the good woman who tries to save her man from the devil, the good woman who is a victim of circumstances like say poverty, trauma or syphlis, the good woman’s best friend, the aging woman who loses her lover, the homicidal cunt, or the pant-role. The pant-role is different from butch, by the way. Please opera queens and diva-divers, can we stop the violence? but I’ll save that conversation for another day. When you go to opera school you learn to rock your fach. What choice do you have really? If your fate makes you an ingénue or a her best friend well suck it up. Suck it up and then get your wardrobe in order. Because you might think, as I did before hearing better, you can get away with wearing a $2,000 pink Jackie O’ skirt suit for your Met Audition but let me tell you, as it was told to me, not if you’re a spinto or dramatic soprano. Not if you’re singing Lady MacBeth you won’t. You’ll hear about it from every single judge. Now maybe that notion puts you in a downward spiral into methamphetamines and self-mutilation, but buck up! There is always the lucrative field of the ugly new opera where the roles are usually distilled to neutered symbol or eroticized crazypants. Either that or some naturalistic shit where you’ll actually have to act and try to show complexity with outsized physical gestures.

Speak to everyone as if they were writing a book about you
I just glimpsed this one a couple days ago so I have yet to fully digest what this might mean. Seems like projecting a vampiric curiosity onto everyone you come into contact with could make interacting difficult. Maybe we can all try it and compare notes. I mean, if was on an opera bulletin board its prolly great advice.

The last bit of advice is actually just handy but what it really has to offer us outside that audition situation is a reminder that tips travel better in a sparkly little frame. My coach friend said to me, “I’ll tell you now what Lotfi Mansouri told Renee Flemming early on: When you go into your audition, focus on doing just one thing well.” Mmmmhmmm. Thanks Lotfi. Thanks Todd.