Audition 5 - Hamburg
I was warned by my friend Amy that these agents in Hamburg hold nothing back with regards to their opinion of your voice, so I kind of knew that I would get an ear-full when I auditioned and BOY HOWDY was I right...
But, before I elaborate on my fifth unsuccessful audition, I want to clarify something for my readers who are not also classical musicians who have been through the thankless, subjective audition process before... The fact that I have been rejected and heard negative feedback from agents does not mean that I will never find a job. And, it does not mean that I am a bad singer. I do get a little upset when agents choose not to accept me, but I want to make it clear that I was forewarned about this before I went to Germany and, even if I come home without a contract, singing for so many different people in so many different settings has given me more auditioning experience in three months than I could have received in years if I had stayed in the US.
So, now onto the audition. The ZBF office in Hamburg is very nice and there were rooms for the singers to warm up in. Again, when I went into the audition room there was a small stage with stage lights, three agents behind a table and an accompanist at a grand piano. This accompanist was absolutely amazing. If I could have put him in my bag and taken him home with me I would have.
I sang two arias for the panel (Smanie implacabili and the Mother scene from Hänsel und Gretel) and after I was finished they invited me to sit down. The spokeswoman for the group dove right in to tell me that I am definitely not a mezzo soprano and I had no business singing the rep I was singing. She told me that if I was trying to sell myself as a mezzo, it should at least be as a lyric mezzo and that my decision to put the Hansel and Gretel piece on my rep sheet was a HUGE mistake. She and one of the other agents tried to be helpful by telling me that if I did still want to continue auditioning as a mezzo, I should stop putting that rep (Carmen, Mutter, Dorabella) on my sheet and only sing light, lyric pieces. But the woman was CONVINCED that I was not a mezzo and looked pained when she told me that there was nothing they could do for me because no opera house would want to hire such a confused voice such as mine. One of the man agents also said that I moved around too much onstage and should stand more still and just let the meaning of the words organically come out of me rather than use the stage they have given me to move around a lot.
Oh man. My voice teacher warned me that an agent would say this, but I think it is the delivery that is still shocking. Overall, they were helpful and tried to be nice, but it was yet another rejection on my resume.
On a brighter note, I received a response from the Cologne opera studio program and have been invited to audition for them in November. So, that is at least one other audition I will be able to have.
Second Stop--Salzburg!
When Cougardiva and I arrived in Salzburg it was like coming home. This is where our very first big European adventure started way back in 2001. Cougardiva and I lived in this dorm, which is attached to St. Sebastian Church. We also stayed there on this journey as well. Our window was the one facing the street, so on the right side. Our dorm room window from five years ago is on the top floor on the front of the building, second window from the right. Ah, memories.
The next morning after eating breakfast, Cougardiva and I decided to hike up the Kapuzinerberg, which is located right next to the Linzergasse, the street where St. Sebastian is. This is a small alp and is only about 1000 feet or so high, so it wasn't a very strenuous climb. From various points on the mountain you can see many beautiful things. This is the fortress in Salzburg that is one of the most well-preserved fortresses in Europe.
After being surrounded by city and people for several days, Cougardiva was really happy to be out in the woods. Since it was a weekday and fairly early in the morning, she had the whole mountain to herself. It was so peaceful and calm. And very beautiful, too.
This is another view of the downtown area. Later this morning we went shopping and tried some Mozartkugeln.
In the cemetary right behind St. Sebastian are the graves of Mozart's wife and father.
In the Unversitätskirche(university church) in one of the town squares, the designer came up with a really great idea for decorating the inside. He used plaster to make these puffy-looking clouds for the angels to hang out on. In real life they looked like they were floating around the walls of the church.
This yellow and white building is where Mozart was born. I always find it a bit silly that the people of Salzburg today make so much out of Mozart being born there, when in reality he was never really happy there and didn't find much success until he left for Vienna as an older boy. Ah, but the real story isn't as romantic, isn't it...
First stop--Vienna
Cougardiva and I took a week-long trip through Austria and Switzerland and had a lot of fun. After 11 hours on the train from Hagen to Vienna, we arrived at a very friendly youth hostel where Cougardiva had to sleep in a room with 10 other boys and 1 other girl. It was like a bear's den because so many of the boys snored! It was a lot of fun, though, because we met so many people.
The day of Cougardiva's audition, we decided to run around Vienna and re-aquaint ourselves with the city.
This is St. Stephan's Dom, a big, pretty, dirty cathedral in the middle of the old part of town. There are lots of very nice shops along the streets leading into this square, so it took us FOREVER to actually make it to the church. Cougardiva kept wanting to stop and look for new clothes everywhere we went! Silly girl...
This is the Vienna opera house. Cougardiva has always loved this building and actually saw an opera there several years ago! Inside it is just as beautiful as what you see here. What was very funny was that there are employees of the opera house that stand around on the street dressed up as Mozart and try to get people to buy tickets to concerts. Now there's one way to make a living...
Cougardiva must be destined for greatness, because why else would a manufacturer put her name on a pair of gold slippers?????
I really like Goethe and feel like he understands me, too. He invited me to take a rest on his foot while Cougardiva consulted the map and decided where we should go next. He's a very nice man, this one.
Audition 4 - Vienna
Wow, what a whirlwind. This audition was almost totally a blur. When I arrived there were several men sitting around a table in a very large conference-bar area in this building that appeared to be a hotel or conference center. They were all smoking and drinking beer or coffee, so I didn't know if I was in the right place. But, there were also some nervous-looking singer-types in the room, so I figured I must be close. One of the men helped me sign in and then another took me to a room to warm up. Let me tell you, these guys were having a really fun time. They were telling all of us not to be nervous, but at the same time one of the men also said that the person who I would be singing for was the son of the General Music Director for the Vienna State Opera house. Okay, uh, so no pressure there...
I was put fifth on the list and normally that means the wait to sing would be about an hour or so. Well, the agent obviously wasn't interested 1) in having a meet and greet or 2) hearing more than one aria a person. We marched in and out of their like an assembly line. The auditions started at 6 and I was done with my aria and out the door by 6:20.
Older men to the rescue! As you can probably predict, we all came out of the room looking a little shell-shocked and disappointed that we were dismissed without anything other than a 'Danke.' So the older guys were telling us that the agent really has a poker face and even if he loves a singer, he will still send them away without a word. Sheesh.
Anyway, I thought I sang okay, but he didn't want to hear the Mother's aria from Hansel und Gretel, which was my choice on my little form. I ended up singing 'Non so piu' with a really great pianist on a really nice stage in a really live room. About halfway through the aria I realized that I was a little tense (all these rejections are really starting to take a toll, let me tell you.) So, I told myself that the other four singers before me only sang one aria, which means I needed to just let go and be myself because my time was running out. But, nevertheless, no feedback.
So, now I'm in Vienna for another night and then off to be a tourist and forget about agents for awhile!
Audition 3 - Düsseldorf
Yesterday I sang for my second independent agency in Düsseldorf and it was my third audition overall. I was really excited to be singing in a town only 40 minutes away by train. It gave me the chance to sleep in, get ready and warm up at home and then be at my audition only a short time later.
I was second in the group of singers and when I went in, the room was fairly small but was extremely live due to very high ceilings. The piano was lovely and the accompanist was very attentive, which was great. Unfortunately, I sang my first high G a little off in my first aria, which didn't set a good tone. I think vocally this was my best audition (I sang 'Smanie implacabili' first and 'Non so piu' second) but that one bad note kind of haunted me.
It's funny singing in broad daylight for one person who is sitting only a few feet away from you. I could tell about halfway through my second aria that he was done wtih me. He was the most attentive of all the agents so far so it was clear that when he started shuffling papers and he put my form away that he wasn't interested.
After I got done singing he asked me what I was doing at the moment (job or study) and then what kind of work I wanted to find. Then he told me that a ZBF office would be the best option for me at this point because I would have better chances of finding a position either as a soloist or in an opera chorus through them. So, he was nice, but one more rejection.
The most amazing thing happened in the waiting room before my audition that I wanted to share. There was me, a guy from Puerto Rico, a girl from Germany, a girl from Finnland, and a guy from Korea. And get this, in the course of just a few minutes, people were speaking either English, German or FRENCH! And if you do the math and figure that the finnish and korean guy each speak their own language, that is an INSANE amount of experience with other languages. It blew my mind. Singers are smart!! :)
Leipzig!
Cougardiva was a little cranky after her audition at the ZBF office, so I took her on a walking tour of Leipzig before we went home. There are some very great historical things to see in this town, so we used our city map to wander around and see the sights.
The opera house in Leipzig is really large and scary-looking. Very East-German if you ask me.
There are also several touristy attractions related to Goethe's Faust story. As many of you may know, one of the scenes in Faust takes place in Auerbach's Keller, which is still a restaurant in Leipzig. When Cougardiva and I found it, though, it was in the middle of an extremely schwank shopping center (über-high-end shops) including a haute couture store called 'Mephisto.' Barf. It was all so lame and touristy that we decided we didn't need to sit in a tourist trap restaurant during a beautiful day just because it was in a historical play.
The highlight of our tour through Leipzig was definitely the Thomaskirche. It is one of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen and very much Cougardiva's style. It has many different architectural elements that all seem to be smooshed together in the church, but the resulting effect is arresting. It was hard to tear Cougardiva away.
Cougardiva likes this kind of ceiling. The big organ was being tuned when we visited. What a beautiful instrument!!!
Here I am at the front door. Heh heh, hi there little Lion. Goooood lion. Heh heh, um, Cougardiva, did you take the picture yet?? Cougardiva??? Help!!!!!!!!!!!
For those history buffs among my readers, you already know that the Thomaskirche is famous because Bach worked there and composed many of his compositions to be performed under that beautiful ceiling. There are lots of Bach things in the church, like this book of his that was kind of like a work journal. Can you believe this is Bach's handwriting??
I couln't pass up the chance to have my picture taken with the big guy himself. I think he must have smiled more in his lifetime, because Bach wrote a lot of happy music. But this statue kind of makes him look a little unfriendly, huh?
What really are my chances of making it?
Yesterday I had a nice visit with a friend of mine who is also auditioning in Germany. She has already done 4 auditions and will sing three more this week. In one of her auditions they told her that she may have a chance getting a spot in an opera chorus, and even gave her the telephone number of an American singer who is currently singing in Mannheim's opera chorus.
I got a chance to meet this woman last week when I was in Mannheim and found out that she's been here for 6 years. My friend and she had a phone conversation yesterday that made us both wonder what our chances are of getting a job over here.
The draw for American singers to go to Germany to find work is fairly obvious. There are lots of theaters in Germany and they do dozens of operas every year. There really isn't even a comparison to the US in how much opera is performed in Germany every year. Therefore, it seems logical to come here to start a career.
However, it seems to be coming out through these auditions that ensemble sizes are getting smaller, budgets are getting smaller, and competition is getting more fierce. This woman in Mannheim said that they haven't had an opening for a new chorus position in 6 years--since she got her position. And, when they do have an opening normally about 60 singers compete for that one spot. And for a solo contract, you can imagine how many thousands of singers are peddling their arias to agents all over the country just like me.
So, what are my options? I can try and find a solo contract, a chorus contract, or even a young artist contract. Like many US opera houses, several theaters in Germany also have studio theaters where younger singers are contracted to perform roles kind of like apprentices. My frind Desiree is helping me get in contact with several of these houses to schedule auditions.
But, the fact remains that Germany isn't a magical land where all you have to do is waltz into an agency and within two weeks you'll have a contract. Quite the contrary, apparently.
My 7th grade basketball coach didn't call me Ms. Tenacious for nothing, so we'll see how many auditions I can get in the two months I have left here. Hopefully with continued hard work and putting myself out there as much as possible I will be able to find some work.
Audition 2 - Leipzig
My second professional audition was last Wednesday in Leipzig. I didn't realize how far away it was until I found myself crawling out of bed at 5:30 a.m. on the day of my audition to make it to Leipzig for my 2:00 p.m. appointment. After several hours on the train, I arrived at the office and, thanks to a very helpful receptionist when I made my appointment on the phone originally, it was really easy to find. The building is located within 10 minutes of the train station in a strange part of town. Since Leipzig is a part of the former East Germany, it is fairly apparent that there are some old, crumbly buildings that need attention, but there are also some fantastic renovations going on to make the city more modern.
The ZBF office was really fantastic. They had changing rooms, warm-up rooms (about the size of a very small walk-in closet), lots of bathrooms for you to also sing in, and a large waiting room with tables and chairs so you could sit and fill out the application form.
I was the first person to arrive for the 2:00 hour, so I got to sing first. It seems as though the agencies who want to hear several singers in one day will block them off in groups. So, when I signed in, there were about 8 singers slotted to sing during that hour.
Anyway, when I went into the audition room, I was greeted by three agents and an accompanist. There was a very new baby grand piano and even a small stage with stage lights. I sang my two arias on the stage and under the stage lights. It was a warm day and there was sun shining in through the big windows. That combined with the stage lights made me very warm and my throat a little dry. But, they asked to hear two arias, so I thought that was a good sign.
After I sang my two arias ('Voi, che sapete' and the Mother scene from Hänsel und Gretel) they thanked me and asked me to come and have a seat with them. The agent who did all the talking asked me a few general questions about my studies and where I lived, etc. and then he got down to business. He told me that there was nothing they could offer me at this point. He said that my vibrato was too big for someone my age and that my breath support needed a lot of work. He looked like he felt sorry for me when he suggested I go home, fix my problems, and then come back and sing for them again after all the kinks are worked out. It was astounding how he could tell me so many things that he didn't like about my voice and performing all with a very personable smile pasted on his face.
My voice teacher warned me that agents tended to say things that can be disturbing, but you just have to ignore them, stay true to who you are and what your true voice wants to do, and keep pushing ahead. It was difficult to hear the agent say things that I didn't think were true (he went into more detail, but I won't bore you with the rest of what he said).
I think this audition brings up another big point for someone wanting to be a professional opera singer. Self-confidence and self-esteem are extremely important factors in being a singer. Rejection and criticism are definitley not new things for me, especially in an audition situation. Therefore the sting of their words only lasted for a few minutes, and then I was able to shake it off and see some of the sights in Leipzig before I took my train back home. But a double scoop of ice cream did help soften the blows a bit, too. :)
Audition 1 - Munich
Yesterday I had my first audition for an agent in Germany. There were about 12 singers who came in the morning to try for a shot at management. When I arrived at the agency I was told to fill out a form, which was basically like any job application. After filling it out and paying my accompanist fee, I was left to sit in the waiting room until they asked for me. Singers were heard in the order in which they arrived, so I was number 7. That meant that I had to wait for over an hour before it was my turn to sing.
The actual audition took place in a room right off the waiting room. It was anything but soundproof, so all of us in the lobby could hear the singers as they presented their arias. Most of the singers who went before me sang one aria, then there must have been a little talking, and then they came back out. There were two bass-baritones in the group and the agent heard two arias from one guy, and three from another. And then, finally it was my turn.
When the agent came out and asked for me, I went in and gave my music to the accompanist. He asked me if I could speak German and I told him that I could. The agent looked over my application and then asked to hear 'Voi, che sapete' which I had put first on my sheet.
I thought the aria went fairly well. I could tell that the agent was reading my application while I was singing, but he did look up twice to watch me. The piano was an upright, was very out of tune and the way they had it set up there was no chance that the accompanist could see the singer. Not a great logistical situation, but that aria is really straightforward.
After I got done singing the agent asked me if it was my intention to move to Germany to sing. I told him that I would love to have the chance to move to Germany and live here if I get a contract. He told me that I have a pretty voice, no doubt about it. But since I have little to no experience as a professional singer, it would be hard to find work for me. He said that there are very few beginner positions at opera houses anymore because as ensembles in opera compaines get smaller, there are fewer opportunities for young singers to gain experience. He said that because of this, it would be hard for him to find anything for me to do. He then told me that if he heard of anything that came up involving a beginner's position, he would give me a call.
So, it was very nice of him to be so upfront and friendly with me, and it's also a good sign that he didn't say anything critical about my voice. But, it was also fairly apparent that this was a rejection, so I don't really expect to be hearing back from him.
This audition was one of my more challenging ones because it took place fairly far away and I needed to spend the night in a hotel the night before. Most of my auditions will be a day trip away from my apartment, which is a little easier. I won't have to lug around any baggage, I can get ready and warm up in my own space, and I won't be as travel-weary because the train rides are a little shorter. So, one audition down, six more to go. Tomorrow I head to Leipzig to sing for a ZBF agency.
Mannheim!
Cougardiva and I took the train to Mannheim on Saturday afternoon. We met up with Desiree, a new friend who also knows Cougardiva's voice teacher in the US. She took us around to see some of the sights in the city.
Here is the famous water tower. We're not really sure what it's for, but it's pretty all the same.
Mannheim is a very cool town with a very ugly opera house. We went to see Rigoletto on Saturday night, which was a great experience. The design team set the opera in a modern-day big city and one of the chorus members mixed classical tunes on his two turntables in the first scene! After a start like that, how could I not love the rest of the opera??
During the intermission I got to go backstage and call out some cues. 'Attention, chorus! Entrance stage right in two minutes!' Tee hee hee.
Cougardiva and I stayed in Mannheim on Saturday night with Desiree. On Sunday morning when we all got up she put together the best breakfast ever--including lots of cheese!
Cougardiva apparently doesn't subscribe to the notion that chesse and caffeine are bad for your singing voice. She took a very long time to eat her breakfast and get her fill of the tasty varieties of cheese and wash it all down with coffee. Her favaorite cheese had green peppercorns inside and was delicious!
After doing a little singing at the Theater in Mannheim, Cougardiva and I needed to rush off to Munich in the early afternoon. We will be back to Mannheim soon, though, to hopefully do some shopping and eat some of the world-famous cookies that are made there!
I am obsessed with the grocery store
I gave gumby some time off from his blog so that I could write my own entry. :)
I have to say that in the 10 days or so since I arrived in Germany, I have been to the grocery store almost every single day. I can't seem to get enough of them! There is a particularly good grocery store called Aldi that is kind of a discount grocery store that has rotating merchandise. Yesterday I went there with a list in hand to keep me from going a little crazy, but ended up getting gummy bears, nutella, ritter sport assorted chocolates, and granola. I figured that since I was in Germany and it's fairly hard to get some of those things in the US, I should just buy what I want and exercise a lot to counter-balance the constant sugar-high I will inevitably be on for the next several days.
Actually, it's not that hard to eat healthy here since most of the food contains no preservatives and most junk food is fairly expensive. For instance, I had to wait for a really late bus when I came back from Frankfurt the other night and so I waited for my bus in the McDonalds at the train station because it was the only open, well-lit business in the vicinity of my bus stop where rowdy drunk men did not seem to be congregating. Everything on the menu was way more expensive than in the US, meaning that if I wanted to get a full meal there, it would probably cost just as much as going to some other casual dining restaurant where the food was prepared fresh and grown locally.
Anyway, back to grocery stores. The one downside of grocery shopping in Germany is that the checkout line is fairly stressful. The Germans have no concept of personal space and you should expect to be bumped with carts and nudged by the patrons behind you if you leave the obligatory personal space boundary (most notably explained by Patrick Swayze in Dirty Dancing when he tells Baby about dance space) between you and the customer in front of you. Then, when the checker scans your groceries, there is no 'collection' area or a bag boy to load your groceries into bags. You either have to load your food at warp speed into your bag and simultaneously keep your wallet out to immediately hand the checker cash when she's finished scanning, or haphazardly throw all of your groceries back into your cart and then bag them at the designated bagging stations near the entrance. Oh yeah, and to get a cart you have to pay a 1 Euro deposit, which then unlocks the carts from each other. And finally, if you don't bring your own shopping bags you have to pay for the ones they give you. Normally it's about 10 cents per bag. I got used to this system when I was living in Austria, but I have to say that when I was jet-lagged or when I'm particularly tired, it's not easy to go through the checkout line...
-Cougardiva
Frankfurt!
Cougardiva was nice enough to take me with her to Frankfurt yesterday to visit her friend. They had lots of fun walking around the city, even though it was raining.
This is the old opera house in Frankfurt. It's not the main place for opera, but there are occasional performances there. The real opera house is a few minutes away. It's such an ugly building, though, that I decided not to take a picture of it!
This fountain looked very strange, because someone put red dye in the water. It's a pretty fountain, though.
La la la la!!! The fountain and opera house have inspired me!!!
They must have inspired Cougardiva's friend Amy as well! Well, maybe the apple wine that she and Cougardiva drank was more inspirational. Apple wine is the traditional drink of Frankfurt and can really knock you off your feet if you're not careful. A nice older gentleman told Amy and Cougardiva that it tastes a lot like vinegar, but it wasn't so bad. A little more alcoholic than we expected, though, because after one glass...well...you really only need one glass.
Inside the cathedral there were these cool helmets. I think they're pretty old. Look a the one on the lower left, it's funny! The walls really are a red color, but it's a little dark because it's hard to take photos inside a cathedral.
This is ceiling of the cathedral. Isn't it amazing?? Good thing the bombs during the war left this church undisturbed...
Cologne!
Cougardiva took me to Cologne on Monday to visit the big cathedral and some of the sights around the city. Aren't these windows pretty??
The outside of the cathedral is really pretty, but also very dirty. Look to the left and see how the cleaned-up section of the church is a completely different color. Now, if this is what pollution does to an old building, just think what smoking does to your lungs... Just thought I'd throw that in.
I saw these kiddies over a doorway on a street corner. Aren't they cute? Cougardiva wouldn't let me go up and visit them, though, because it was too high off the ground. Hello, can you say GUMbi??
I really liked this statue. All of these men are the same color as me! They are all important people from Cologne's history, but I just like them because they're green.
This was a really fun group of ladies. They were all sitting outside being loud, drinking beer from this interesting container. It appears that when you're ready to park yourself and drink large quantities of beer in one place, they can actually bring your a tank of beer with your own spout! From the songs that these women were singing together, I'd say that this tank was completely full when they started their visit.
Please press your thumbs on the following days...
Botched audition update:
Someone from the Cologne agency called me this morning to get more information about my missed audition on Monday and I told her the whole crazy story. She made me a new appointment in November and had me give her another e-mail address to try because she said the first one went through, so some mystery person received it. Yeah, when the new e-mail arrived in my inbox this afternoon, she cc'd congerdiva, not cougardiva. Oh geez.
So, I thought it would be easiest if I wrote down all of my auditions in one place, so that people can see where I will be on which days. In case your German isn't up to date, 'Drücken die Daumen' means literally 'to press your thumbs' (hence the title of this entry) and means the same as Good Luck in English.
Monday, October 9th 11:00 a.m. in Munich (Agent Karl Erich Haase)
Wednesday, October 11th 2:00 p.m. in Leipzig (Agency ZBF)
Wednesday, October 18th 3:00 p.m. in Düsseldorf (Agent Neill Thornborrow)
Monday, October 23rd 6:00 p.m. in Vienna (Agency Holländer-Calix)
Tuesday, October 31st 2:30 p.m. in Hamburg (Agency ZBF)
Monday, November 6th 2:00 p.m. in Cologne (Agency ZBF)
Monday, November 27th 3:00 p.m. in Munich (Agency ZBF)
Whew, so I have seven auditions at agencies so far. I called another agency in Munich today about getting an audition, but the woman was kind of hedging and told me that she needed to check with her colleagues and re-review my materials before she could offer me an audition. Okay.
For those of you who don't know what ZBF means, it's an acronym for the government-funded agency for actors and singers in Germany. It's a good place for young singers to get their foot in the door because you don't have to send in any materials, you don't have to pay for an accompanist, and it seems fairly easy to get an appointment. But once you're in the door you still have to knock their socks off...
How NOT to be a professional opera singer
This is the cool piece of art that is hanging from the ceiling in the Cologne agency.
So, today was an interesting day. It was supposed to be my first professional audition in Germany, but alas the only real positive highlight was that I tasted my first 'Amadeus Dream' ice cream (kind of a chocolate/marzipan mixture) and it is indeed dreamy. And no, I didn't get a chance to sing for anyone.
Last Thursday I realized that I never received a promised e-mail from the agency in Cologne that contained all the information for my first audition in Frankfurt. (Back story: When I called the agency in Cologne they offered me an audition in Frankfurt for a handful of agents. The woman on the phone took down my e-mail address and promised to send me information about the what/when/where a few days before the audition. Now you're caught up.) So, on Friday I tried calling the Cologne office to get the information, but no-one answered the phone.
So, I decided that surely someone would answer the phone in the Cologne office on Monday morning, so I warmed up, packed a lunch, and headed to the train station. I tried calling the Cologne office several times and it kept saying that the number was busy. I was worried that I wrote down the wrong number, so I called the Bonn office, which is affiliated with Cologne, to double check. The woman gave me the number (it was the right one).
I had to go first to Cologne on the train and then switch trains to go to Frankfurt. After trying the Cologne number all during the train ride to Cologne, I decided to just continue on my second train to Frankfurt and hope that someone would answer the phone before I arrived. But when they didn't answer the phone, I decided the best plan of action would be to turn around in Frankfurt and head back to Cologne (thank goodness for a Eurail pass!).
Once I arrived back in Cologne I went to the information office and got directions to the agency and took the subway out to the suburbs, where the agency is located. My appointment in Frankfurt was supposed to start at 3 p.m. and by the time I got to the Cologne office, I was sure that I wouldn't make it to the audition because it was already 2:40. Well, the woman at the front desk seemed really confused. First of all, she appeared to be filling in for someone who normally mans the front, and told me that I had indeed been dialing the wrong number all day, EVEN THOUGH there was this huge poster right behind her that had that exact number written on it. When I asked her about the poster, she said that it wasn't the number for the Cologne office. Am I not understanding German? I mean, these are numbers, not words, for heaven's sake!
So THEN the woman at the front desk told me she had no idea what was up with the Frankfurt audition, who would have spoken to me on the phone, or how in the heck I could find out. I told her about the mystery e-mail that never arrived in my inbox and my wild train ride that morning and she looked really sorry for me. So, she called upstairs to the ONE opera agent that was in the office that day (the others were out, probably in Frankfurt.) She said that she couldn't give me an audition right then because the one room where I could sing had actors in it who were doing readings all day. Oy veh.
The woman at the front desk then wrote down the name of the agent and told me to call back on Wednesday (not Tuesday, because it's a holiday, of course.) and then that one opera agent would be able to make me an appointment.
Are you kidding me? Gumby gives the Cologne office a big thumbs down.
So, since I had a completely free afternoon, I gave myself a tour of downtown Cologne, the main shopping areas, and, of course, the ice cream. Now I'm back in Hagen and after a short trip to the grocery store for wine, cheese and pringles, I'm ready to go home and sit in front of German television and try to forget how dumb I am.
So, here's what you should do if you really want to be a professional opera singer:
1. Triple check the phone number you called when you made an appointment*.
2. Write down the name of the person you spoke with.
3. Don't let them off the phone until you have the specific time, date, and ADDRESS of your audition.
4. If it all goes to crap, find a way to make the best of it. It's still a vacation, after all... :)
*If at all possible, don't call from the united states because then you'll have to do all of this in the middle of the night when your brain is a little muddy in the first place...
The end. So, I'm not a professional opera singer yet, but hopefully my audition in Munich next Monday will go better. Or, should I say, hopefully I'll at least get the chance to sing!!
It's the little things that add up to culture shock...
Cougardiva has already lived in Europe before, so she has so far managed to avoid the culture shock she experienced several years ago when she first visited a foreign country. I asked her to share some of the things that she remembers as being different since arriving that make being in Germany such an adventure, even though we haven't traveled around a lot yet! - Gumby
1. All the kiddies here seem to be dressed up for a party. Maybe Seattle is really just super-relaxed when it comes to style, but I have never seen so many girls and boys wearing the latest fashions with all the accessories, hair that must have taken at least 30 minutes to style, etc.
2. The power outlets have twice as many watts as in the US, so when you make tea it takes about 35 seconds for the water to boil in the electric kettle. Freaky.
3. Some toilets have a lovely porcelain shelf in the bowl so that when you want to drop your kids off at the pool, you get to examine them one last time in all their glory before flushing. Then after you flush, a big wave picks them up and sweeps them off the shelf and into the drain.
4. When you go shopping, no one wants to help you. When you go to a restaurant, no one wants to tell you their name or the day's specials. It is pure heaven.
5. No ice cubes.
6. Cigarettes are sold in machines on the streets EVERYWHERE. No wonder so many people smoke. Heck, if I liked those automatic machines a little more, I'd buy cigarettes just to use it!
7. You can buy all the liquor you want at any grocery store, and it's not expensive.
- Cougardiva
