Loud Wins?

LOUD WINS?!

Should the loudest singer be judged to be the best singer?

Obviously not.

But if my two days in NYC auditioning singers for the TriCities Opera was any proof, one would think that it’s mostly loud singers out there auditioning.

Let me be clear, we heard EXCELLENT singers during our November auditions. Super talented voices in wonderful packages of professional footwear. We saw evidence of crafty acting, overacting, organic gestures, planned stagings, evolved presentations put together with precision and subtlety. We saw practically everyone moving - quite a lot - around the room. Only a few looked like they could only stand and sing. So many clearly knew what their texts meant, and many sang sentences. 

Overall, the quality of the auditions was superb. Certainly better than the crop of singers I heard sing for professional YAP auditions two decades ago while casting for Florida Grand Opera and Glimmerglass. The repertoire was also massively - hugely - evolved from the traditional “five” that one always heard. No where was there a “Steal Me, Sweet Thief” or a “Bella siccome un angelo” or “Must the Winter Come So Soon?” (I miss that one…)

In their places we had arias - starting arias - by Heggie, Puts, Cipullo, Mazzoli, Dove, Little, Geter, Higdon, Catán, Previn, Spears, Rorem, and even had a few offer excerpts from the fresh-off-the-press The Amazing Adventures of Cavalier & Clay by Mason Bates.

So cool! I think us progressives in academia and the biz may have truly had an influence helping the repertoire diversify and normalizing living composers’ music being presented alongside Mozart, Donizetti, Gounod, Strauss, and Britten. The overwhelming majority had something very contemporary on their listings, and many started with them; with the exception of a few types: 1) tenors (only a handful even had a living composers’ aria on their rep lists), 2) older singers (about 5-10 years outside of their last degree), and 3) singers who are studying in the US on student visas from Canada, Europe, or Asia. (Hey Canadians: Y’all need to get with the program and present works by living composers.)

Not to generalize, but there were singers from specific schools of music who were just not presenting contemporary opera. I think if I were a singer, especially an older singer, I’d do some research into contemporary arias. It might put one into a bit more contention with companies that produce new works. For instance, a quick google of my name would show that new operas are a big part of my life up at McGill. As well, the company I artistically direct is presenting Laura Kaminsky’s Lucidity in early 2026. Yes, it’s true our mainstage operas focus on works by Rossini, Verdi, Mozart, and Puccini, but not exclusively. I hate to write this, but it might make one appear more “with it”, as if you’re aware of the trend/shift in the repertoire to living composers and musical theatre that’s happened recently.

Musical theatre? My goodness there was a lot offered. Sadly, way too much R&H and not enough interesting contemporary stuff, but still a lot of rep lists (about 30%) offered musical theatre. We asked for it rarely, as we only had ten minutes and we were wanting to hear German works, Mozart, Verdi, and Puccini as our upcoming season may focus on those kinds of shows. Another reason we didn’t ask for the MT all that often was because so many singers started with their contemporary operatic piece so we didn’t need to hear another song in English, i.e. musical theatre repertoire. And, my final word on the subject, a lot of contemporary opera sounds just like contemporary musical theatre where the music is concerned. Obviously there’s a different style needed for MT songs, vocally speaking, but I’ll blog about Heggie and Guettel another day.

Back to LOUD…

So a colleague from another company who had been in NYC hearing auditions said to me, “Is it me, or is everyone just singing loudly nowadays?”

We commiserated. What was causing the problem? What exactly did we mean by “loud”? Was it all loud back pre-Covid? Were we just old fogies? 

Here are some specific thoughts about the loudness itself: 

a) Phrases seemed to start loud, stay loud, and end loud. Normally, in music, a phrase is built. And multiple phrases add up to something. When the first syllable is forte and the whole sentence is forte, then there’s nowhere else to go but loudER. Therefore climaxes and high notes seemed literally anti-climatic. 

b) The mono-dynamic choice of loud forces the listener into a defensive posture, as if we’re being assaulted by notes and vowels.

c) Singing loudly diminishes acting choices. It’s hard to see the acting when the ears are overrun listening to texts sung like THIS IS IMPORTANT. AND SO IS THIS. AND THIS IS TOO!! All one can do is gesticulate loudly to keep up. And wild gesticulations mean nothing and convey no information, no stakes, no tactics, no objectives, no environment. 

d) Just singing loudly is the equivalent of texting in ALL CAPS. And the young ones hate the boomers who text in ALL CAPS, yet so many sang in ALL CAPS.

e) I think singers are desperate to a) be heard, b) be taken seriously, and c) afraid someone will think they’ll be inaudible with an orchestra. SO THEY SING LOUD TO MAKE SURE WE’RE HEARING THEM!

f) The singers who came in with subtlety, sang phrases that were musical, made specific and articulate gestures, who were connected to their texts, who created an environment that made sense in their eyes, and who - god bless them - sang with dynamics, were the standouts. Even the singers with the huge voices who stood out did so because they weren’t in vociferating mode all of the time.

Back 25 years ago when I was sitting Glimmerglass YAP auditions, we remarked upon the Canadian singers from McGill who seemed to be singing at 80% tops. I remember writing in my notes that they were singing “cool” and “restrained” (this was way before I was working at McGill.) Singers like Josh Hopkins and Joe Kaiser. They sang lyrically, presented sentences sung with impeccable diction (something Canadians truly excel at still), and we leaned in to listen to them. It wasn’t that we were worried about hearing them, it was that they were just more interesting. When a singer isn’t blasting at 115%, there are more colours to hear, literally more overtones to capture in one’s ears. You can build longer phrases and take the listener on a journey.

Less is More, anyone?

So what’s causing this problem? Did we just screen out the singers who made music and only offer auditions to the loud ones? (No and No)

I’m not sure what is causing this “loud wins” thing to happen down in the states. Certainly at McGill we encourage dynamics (I’m sure many other places do as well) and, frankly because there’s so much focus on Art Song here, we have to encourage louder dynamics in some of our students when they sing opera because they see a pp marking and think that means they should sing inaudibly soft like it’s a Debussy song when in fact they’re singing against an orchestra of 45 that are all playing pp which is much louder than a piano playing forte. Operatic dynamics are, it must be said, difficult to understand, teach, and know how to wield without experience singing with an orchestra. Same for young pianists who play opera rehearsals with their left foot on the soft pedal (there’s no such thing as soft pedal in opera rehearsals unless it’s a harp solo marked pp…)

Singing loudly does cover up tuning problems in those small audition spaces. There’s so much ringing happening, with overtones flying about and squillo needling its way into a listener’s brain, that it is harder to discern when the core of the voice is a bit flat. I listen to auditions with my ears, but also with rock musician ear plugs that I push into my ears after a few minutes of hearing the singers au naturel. This gives me many advantages. I hear the core of the voice clearer without the decibels that mask vocal foibles. I hear their vibrato MUCH clearer. You can really hear a vibrato beating with the earplugs in, something that’s also easy to hear in a large theatre space but difficult in an audition space. I coach with these plugs in too, so I’m very used to translating what I’m hearing into the non-plugged acoustic. The earplugs also level the playing field of singers who are making a big noise in a small space and those who actually have a big voice that would sing and sound better in a real theatre with an orchestra. More teachers and coaches should try them out.

Singly loudly creates a need for loud acting. Big arms gesturing in indirect ways while singing text about specific things. Small, specific gestures happening while singing about bigger, more indirect things. Lots of engaged faces and eyes, yes, but quite a lot of pushed and pressed character/emotional choices. My colleague calls it overacting, which it is but I found this coincided with oversinging nine times out of ten. 

But if I had to pick one part of our auditions as better than the other - the singing or acting - then I would definitely pick the acting. I’m a stage director now more than a conductor and so was really pleased at many of the very evolved presentations for the contemporary selections (especially out of context, which is hard). Those who started with more traditional pieces often acted less and sang more, understandably so. But did they know the artistic director of the company was a stage director? Perhaps one shouldn’t stand and sing something with little to no attention to the text - emotionally or physically - when one of the two people at the table is a stage director.

What did I learn? Ten things stand out:

1) What a relief to learn that I still loved sitting listening to and watching young professionals audition with arias from Handel to Heggie. 

2) It’s clear I know way more than I did back 25 years when I was auditioning Glimmerglass YAs - so much more about acting, vocal technique, and the myriad of professional career issues affecting all of these talented and earnest singers.

3) Mozart is not for any singer who still has technical issues, as those problems get a spotlight shined on them when one sings Mozart. Teachers and coaches: working on Mozart is fine, but don’t let your students take those arias to NYC for professional auditions unless they are flawless. Handel is better at hiding technical issues. More often than not, the tuning is the issue in Mozart.

4) Many singers’ CVs had misspellings or titles of arias capitalized incorrectly. Please have someone proof your resume and rep sheet!

5) Dressing up for the audition is unnecessary. Some of the best auditions were sopranos in pants and baritones in plain slacks and a nice shirt. For a Resident Artist program, auditioning in psuedo-formalwear sends the wrong message. We need to see a person, not a Victorian opera singer.

6) There’s always a bigger voice. I’ve said this for years. Try to find the lightest rep possible and sing that. A full-voiced Susanna is much more viable for US theatres than a soprano singing Countessa who thinks her voice is big, but in reality isn’t as big as ten other sopranos singing that day. There’s always a bigger voice…

7) Concerning Mozart, we heard two types of singers: 

Those who sang with appoggiature in Mozart recits and arias (they also usually embellished their arias.) 

Those who seem to have not gotten the info that’s been around for decades that singing without appoggiature and embellishments in Mozart is like singing Handel da capo arias without ornamenting. 

Be the first type of singer…

8) Making music - really singing musically - was a rare event. Singing romantic music romantically was even rarer. Singing bel canto repertoire like it’s Handel or Mozart (i.e. with no portamento or rubato) really pisses me off. Is style not taught anymore? 

9) I love singers who present as people. Casual openings, fun interactions, sending greetings from someone we mutually knew, or just simply being humans.

10) I love - love - hearing phrases with emotional content that move me to either feel something or think about something. 

And a bonus: There are seriously amazing singers out there! (My colleague took his pen and wrote on one singer’s rep sheet: 

This

Is

SO

Fucking

Good !!!!

So I’ve returned back to teaching my students at McGill the same things I’ve been trying to teach for awhile now: Singers need to hold onto what is unique about them and not conform to academic, cookie cutter, safe vocal or dramatic choices ‘cause you’ll fade into the background when competing on a day with singers who are really trying to make art in a small room looking out into a NYC dingy alley after trudging into the city on a bus, train, car, or plane. 

It was nice to see that what we’re doing at McGill is viable and competitive with other big places out there (CCM, Eastman, Bard, IU, MSM, Oberlin, Rice). Shoutout to the Bard singers - each of you gave something special and artistic. Thank you for that.