Life in the slow lane

So it's been more than a week since I posted. What have I been doing? No, not running around to auditions. I've been totally relaxing. What a novel idea. At first I sort of had a freak out session that I have no auditions scheduled until April. Then I realized that Easter is this weekend and people are taking it easy. So I will too.

What have I been up to, you ask?

• Grocery shopping. Yup. I am even cooking. Strange. Everyone has to start somewhere. I also threw an egg in the grocery store by mistake. I found it facinating that there were eggs unrefrigerated in the aisle and so I thought they were maybe fake or empty? So, I picked it up. Only, as you all now know, I'm a klutz. And it started to slip out of my hand and as I tried to get a better grip, I lost control and threw it. Yup, that's right. Tim was looking at me with wide eyes, wondering why the hell I would be juggling eggs in a grocery store. He is still convinced that I was juggling. We then laughed uncontrollably for 5 minutes before finding someone to help clean it up. Another note on grocery stores in Germany and Austria: They make you bring your own bags. At first I HATED this concept, because I always forgot bags, and had to buy them. No big deal, they are not that expensive, but it really is so much smarter than having a closet full of plastic bags that we save for dog shit or friends with dogs. Or if you really shop or have a grocery store in NY like me (C-TOWN, ugh!) who buys cheap bags, and then has to double bag everything, you end up having to throw away bags. Stupid. And baaaaaaad for the environment.

What else have I been up to?

A trip to Cuxhaven and Hamburg. We drove up to the coast of the North Sea and spent the day eating fish and "walking" in the North Sea. Was strange to be standing on the sand where only a few hours later would be full with water of the North Sea.

Like any other seaside town, we passed the gift shops and ice cream parlor's and enjoyed the day. We then drove to Hamburg (with the aid of a ferry) to meet two of Tim's closest friends Soeren and Silke. They are really sweet people with an adorable son who is almost 2. Tim and Soeren went to Uni together. The ferry ride was short and sweet. I'm attaching a picture of little Ruby Red top on the ferry. Isn't she so cute? Also, a picture taken from the ferry of the beautiful sky (at the top of the page).

• CeBit expo in Hannover. Hannover hosted the Worldwide Expo in 2000 so they have a huge area of "fairgrounds" aka huge buildings, for expositions. Every year they have an important technology expo. Since I'm not a computer geek or freak, I didn't know about it, and I didn't enjoy it. I did, however, enjoy the Bavarian beer hall with the Bavarian band that ended our day. There was an added bonus of a drunk techno geek with long hair, hat, and dancing on his table to the Bavarian Band's version of "Twist and Shout". I'm not kidding.
  
• Went to a bathhouse - verryy cool. The Germans like to swim. There are bathhouses everywhere. We walked in and there were different pools and jacuzzi's. All are heated to 34/36 C and 2 of them are outside with massage jets in them and shooting water, etc.. They have a huge salt content to aid in health. It was wild to be swimming outside with rain pouring down on us. But really relaxing to just wander around in the water for 2 hours on a Sunday night. I was so relaxed I could barely walk out of the place!
  
• Coughing. I'm trying to pretend I'm not sick.
  
• Practicing and learning Ariadne auf Naxos. I'm performing it in June with One World Symphony and I have to get my butt in gear and memorize it!
  
• Slowly learning German nouns and their articles. This really sucks. We have only one article "the" before nouns. The Germans have three different articles, based on the noun: der (masculine), die (feminine), das (neutral). It's totally random which of those three is the correct article for every article. This makes learning nouns really suck. You then have to learn two things for each word; example: das Buch (the book) or die Gabel (the fork) or das Messer (the knife). UGh. German is so much fun.
  
• Researching visas and the options we have.
  
• Going to the Opera: Don Carlo. A very modern production, but some good singing for sure. We had NO idea what was going on (uber complicated plot) but we enjoyed having pretzels and beer at the intermission. Where else in the world can you have pretzels and beer at the opera in a tux?
  
• Preparing for my parents and brother to arrive in Hannover on Saturday. We have 8 days and have a LOT planned. Trip itin includes: Hannover, Vienna, Salzburg, Berchtesgaden, Neuschwanstein Castle, and Munich. Have you ever seen National Lampoon's European Adventure? I know, I'm a jerk. But I'm excited for them to come and see Europe for the first time. They will also be meeting Tim's family. OMG.....now I am scared. :)

I realize that I feel a heck of a lot better after making a list. I was sort of feeling shitty about not doing anything. Below is a picture with Soeren and Silke.

More next week with the Griswald Adventure.

Berlin, Saturday - fun!

On Saturday, Tim and I decided it would be fun to go to Berlin. He lived there for five years during college and I had such a negative experience in Berlin last summer, that I was looking for someone to change that. Berlin is about 2 hours and 45 minutes from Springe by car. We put the top down on "Ruby red top". That's the name I've given to Tim's car, the cutest silver Beetle convertible with a burgandy red top.

We got to Berlin quickly (yeah, I love driving on the Autobahn) and because we were starving, we went straight to the large shopping store in Berlin KDW, similar to Harrod's in London or Bloomingdale's or Macy's in New York. A huge gourmet food floor tops the store, and Tim spent a lot of time at one of the "stations" during his busy University days. I had heard about the most amazing Schnitzel from this place, so we headed there.

After lunch, we went to visit his friend's Daniella and Jens, and their beautiful daughter Antonia. I had a great time meeting them and getting to know them. Antonia is almost one year old and reminded me so much of Jack, my little nephew. It made me miss my nephews and Godchildren at home a lot, but I was grateful to be around such warm and loving people.

Later, we drove around, and saw many of the famous Berlin sites, like the famous Brandenburg Tor (night picture to the left). We stopped in at Dussman - a GREAT shop for music, cd's, dvd's and books. I picked up some cd's and Tim got the "Piano for Dummies' book. He's always wanted to learn, what better time? Now we really need to ship my piano over here.... :)

9:55pm brought us to the infamous Bundestag or "Reichstag" as many of us remember it. This is where Parliment sits and works. They have a wonderful dome open to the public with a great view of Berlin that closes at 10pm. We made the last cut and went to the top. You may remember the fall of the Berlin wall, and the pictures of thousands standing on the lawn of the Bundestag. Maybe pictures will help? I took this picture last summer while in Berlin.

We enjoyed the night amazing views of a huge, massive city. It still blows my mind how much Berliner's went through after WWII and all through the Cold War. Amazing stuff. I'm attaching some pictures from the cool architecture of the dome, with mirrors through the middle of the structure, from there you can see the blue seats of Parliment. Really neat angles and cool design ideas.

After a small meal and drink, we headed back to Springe for a 3am arrival. Tiring but really fun trip. I have a whole different perspective and love for Berlin now. It reminded me so much of New York, home, art, culture and all the things that I was missing (except for family and friends of course!).

Berlin, Wednesday Agentur Vorsingen

Last Wednesday, I had my first Agentur (agent) audition in Berlin. I took the high speed train from Hannover (only 1.5 hour!) and then the S-Bahn to the suggested stop. When I got off the train, I asked a few people if they knew where this street was. No one knew. I thought for sure it had to be close by. I had the address and the "directions" to this "theater". I finally found a nice pharmacist who knew it, and she pointed to it, diagonally across the street. She said, it's that little pedestrian way where no cars are allowed. Ok. So I walk. It is a tiny narrow street alongside a major highway. All seems strange to me, but hey, I've got the address, I'm on the street. It can't be that far. I walk along this way, see a indoor pool house, and assume I must keep walking. I keep walking and walking. Into and through this park, along sports arenas, soccer fields, an outdoor bath. No theater. Hmmm. It's now 2:25. My audition is at 3pm, and they kindly let me know I was the first person. I start panicing. I called the agent to try to get help and better directions. Right. She can't tell me where it is, she tries to describe it, but can't. She keeps telling me to ask someone. No one knows!!! I ask a few more people, try a different route along this "street" and all leads me nowhere.

I then call Tim for emergency Google Earth help. My savior - he figures it all out. He asks if I've seen fields, a sports arena, all the things I had seen at SOME point along this 1 hour Park tour. I was so frustrated, I felt like just going back to the train station, and heading back to Hannover. It frustrates me when nothing is simple and no one can help you. After Tim calmed me down, he virtually walked me back to where I started. And there was the bath house - the indoor pool. Which the road apparently turns 90 degrees and proceeded further and turned again. I never even looked past the bath house to see a street with actual buildings!! AHHHHHHH!

I made it to the "theater" which happened to be a brand new senior living center. Theater, mmm hmm. That's why no one knew what the heck I was talking about! I made it there with 10 minutes to spare. A quick change in the bathroom, a very brief warm up and voila, I am on the stage singing with yet another shitty pianist. I realize now it's just a part of this whole "tour" I'm on. It has made me rethink what aria to begin with, and what arias to even offer.

I sang "Es gibt ein Reich" and then "Ch'il bel sogno di Doretta". I got some feedback from this shady agent which I am still pondering. Some of it was helpful, the other just plain confusing. Ten minutes later I was done and on my way back to the large Hauptbahnhof in Berlin.

Luckily, the day was beautiful and sunny. Otherwise, I might have jumped onto that highway and said forget the audition!

Learnings: Bring a DETAILED map, look on Google earth before you go (so you can see if you'll be in a park, a bath, a sports arena, or a senior living center for an audition), and be thankful for an amazing guy in my life.

:)

Kiel - first "House" audition

Well, it's official. My first house audition is done. Woo hoo! On Monday I traveled up to Kiel (Northern Germany on the Baltic Sea) for a house audition. It was arranged through a friend of my teacher in New York. Go networking! I decided that instead of traveling the night before, I would just do a train ride the morning of. After so many days away last week in Munich and London, I was happy to just be home and take a 2.5 hour train ride.

After a terrible night of sleep (aka I could not sleep) I arrived in Kiel at 11:30am - the auditions were set to start at 1pm. They said the doors would open for us at noon to warm-up, meet the pianist and get ready. A beautiful, sunny, cold March morning - what could be better than a nice walk to the opera house? I looked at a map and saw it was not far at all. As I walked through the main part of Kiel, the sky started to look less "cheery" and much more gray. Oh, please Lord, give me a break. I'm carrying a backpack with a dress and heels, all my music, and I'm on a pedestrian street with no cabs. Just get me to the house before it starts to rain. Apparently the Lord had other things going on.

I walked faster and faster, trying to make it. It's starts to Rain. HARD. Then, sideways. THEN, HAIL. That's right. HAIL. Only ten minutes earlier, it looked like a picture perfect Easter morning. Ten mintues later, I'm huddled under the arch of the Rathaus (City Hall), looking at the opera house, wondering when I might be able to dart across the piazza without having to first go to the hospital with cuts from the golf balls that might be flown at me. It's now 12 noon. I know that all the other nerdy singers probably got there at 11:15 just to be safe. Jerks. Anyway - I decide I might as well start laughing because this is again, the perfect entry for a blog. After about 10 minutes, the hail stops and I run through the rain to the stage door of the opera house.

I get directions from the door man on how to get to the KBB. I think he must be laughing, as I have my scarf wrapped around my head to "save" my hair from the rain. This is, after all, an audition and appearances matter (see earlier post on Hungarian bus driver). I find my way to the office, check in with Herr Neumann, fill out some paperwork, and am taken to a dressing room. There I meet an extremely unfriendly soprano who is not happy about sharing a dressing room, and furthermore, about giving it up for me to warm up. The Asst to the opera director tells her to shove it and get out. YEAH. I like Herr Neumann. He tells me he'll come back to get me in 20 minutes to take me to the pianist for a short probe (rehearsal).

After a long and winding way through the basement of the opera house, we knock on the pianists door (I can hear a soprano singing). When we open it, there is commotion and a soprano failing her arms, telling Herr Neumann that she hasn't had enough time with the pianist, that he doesn't know the notes, and she is teaching him. Oy. Opera singers. She asks for a minute. I say of course, I'll wait outside. After five minutes, I open the door and say sorry, I have to rehearse. She comes to me, and says the pianist is absolute shit and that she hopes he can play my stuff better than hers. Lovely! *I'm waiting for the hail to start in the rehearsal hall too*.

The rehearsal with Paolo, the Italian pianist who knows no opera music but works in an opera house, was fine. A little difficult, but ok. I gave him all my tempi and when he slowed things down so much that I thought I might die, I gave him some motions to move through the phrase and get on with it. If there's one thing I'm normally comfortable with, it's working with pianists, as I used to be one, so I feel like I can drive the tempo forward if need be. Paolo - not so much. A mixture of Italian, German, and English, I'm not sure what we said or discussed. But, alas, Herr Neumann showed up with the next singer and I had to go. Paolo wanted more time with me, but I think he was just scared shitless for the whole day.

Back to my dressing room. Mean singer back. She asks me to leave for 5 minutes while she finishes warming up. Of course, diva. And I'll send you hot cocoa and biscuits while I'm gone. When I return, she is much nicer and says that she didn't mean to be unfriendly, but everyone has different needs/rituals before singing/auditioning. Um hm. I sit down, and review my music. She proceeds to do some interesting looking neck massaging, yoga moves, jumping and stretching. Again, oy. Singers.

Then the waiting begins. I find out I'm number seven, and I wait until 2:30pm to sing. The crazy soprano (Eva) that I first met before Paolo is before me. I get her life story in about the 20 minutes we waited together to sing. People just want me to know their story I think. She ended up being very nice, and I liked her. She was dramatic and crazy, but at least not mean. She gave me the story on some agents and her experience in general.

I watched her audition from the wings to get a sense of the stage and the house. Nice sound, glad I could see and hear it. Then, I hear my name to be called to the stage. GOD help me. Is there a fire alarm I can pull?

I walk out onto the stage, and see about 10 people in the audience (conductors, stage directors, and general admin people). The house holds 900 seats, but looks small, although it was taller than it was long, so I guess the 3 rings hold more people than the ground floor. I see little Paolo sitting behind the upright on the stage, probably saying the rosary. I actually wasn't nervous, but just intrigued by the whole experience. I've never done an audition on the actual stage.

I announce my name and that I'd like to sing "Es Gibt ein Reich" from Ariadne auf Naxos. This is what Paolo and I rehearsed, and had gone semi-well. Dear Paolo. He took it so slow. Damn him. I refused to be a prisoner to his funeral procession, so I just kept moving forward and figuring he'd have to catch up with me when he could figure it out. Strauss is so difficult, I understand. But come on! Standard rep! Even one of the guys in the audience was trying to conduct a little to move the tempo, but Paolo was turned so that he couldn't see. It was like he maybe was trying to pop one of my lungs. Somehow - I don't know - somehow, I got through, and sang it well. I was really pleased with myself considering the situation. They asked for "Je dis" from Carmen, but then asked what else I had. I think they, like me, were considering Mr. Twinkle Fingers at the piano. I announced the rest of my arias and thought at the last minute, hey I can offer this really easy "Porgi, amor" from Figaro. It's easy to play, and the most standard rep, and I can sing it. So, I offered it. They jumped on it. I sang it well, and was done.

Now the waiting game begins. No idea when to follow up. Everyone else there had agents that do that for them. In fact, the sopranos were so surprised I was there, without an agent. Go me. Eva has already let me know that she didn't get any work out of it. I have yet to hear. Cross your fingers!!!

Train ride back from Kiel was uneventful. Other than the Deutsche Bahn (one of the best train systems worldwide) had "technical" problems and we sat on the track for 40 minutes twidling our thumbs. I just wanted to get home. Finally, I did.

More on my Wednesday Berlin agent audition later! For now, some pictures I took at the Kiel harbor!!!

Cheerio London!

Saturday AM flight to London – we arrive (repacked, semi-charged) for a great Air Berlin flight to Stansted airport. We make our way to our “3” star hotel. I booked it on London Town and it had great reviews. Oh so wrong. Should have gone with the nice hotel, but come on, the British pound is maliciously abusing the Dollar at this point 2:1. So, we decide to deal with it and stay. The room was actually fine, although they wouldn’t let us in for hours (we got there super early and were super tired from the flight – just wanted a short rest!!). No can do, so we put our luggage in the locker room (aka cleaning ladies storage room) and ventured out. 2 coffees later, we ended up at Westminster Abby and Parliament (Big Ben). Great fun, the Thames river and actually nice weather.

Saturday night, we were invited to dinner at my dear friend Pei’s apartment – with his partner Daniel. They cooked us a beautiful lamb dinner, in the poshest apartment ever. What’s ironic is that I stayed in a hotel next to their apartment (in a quiet corner of London away from all tourists) about two years ago. Small world! After 2 and a half bottles of wine, we decided we should get back since the tube shuts down at 12:30am. Wow! NYers are lucky.

Sunday was a mixture of gooorgeous weather. We walked along the river to the London Eye (the wheel was supposed to be just for the Millenium, but they decided to keep it). We hit all the normal sites: Buckingham Palace, the Horse Guards, Piccadilly Circus, Oxford Circus and a surprisingly great meal at an Italian restaurant.

Monday was a bit of practicing at Pei’s, then over to St. Paul's Cathedral, a proper British lunch (fish and chips) and a lot of transportation problems. We got stuck on the tube on the way back to the hotel as there were signaling problems. After I dropped Tim off at the bus to Stansted, he got caught for 2 hours in traffic and barely made his flight home!! Tuesday was my Zürich audition. I arrived at 4pm for a 5:30 audition as I had to warm up and change. It was outside of London, so finding it was not as easy as one would hope. But when I did arrive at the National Opera Studio (Zürich was renting a room out from them), they said no one was there and that Zürich didn’t have a room rented until 5:30pm. Great! So I can sit and wait around unfriendly Brits who don’t want me sitting in their office for 90 minutes. Super!
After about 20 minutes, other singers started arriving, asking all the same questions I did. They decided to try and warm up in the bathrooms as there were no other places. Finally, at 5:15pm the two Zürich panelists arrive with smiles. We then understand that there is a room to warm up in when the auditions start at 5:30pm (and there are 6-8 of us in that time slot). Interesting. So two girls go before me, and I decide that I’ve waiting long enough – I tell the monitor that I’ll go next. So the time I have to warm up is basically as long as the girl’s audition before me. I get 8-10 minutes max. After deciding not to be pissed off about that, I just do it. I decide I’ll sing Arabella.

I walk into the room and sing Das war sehr gut, Mandryka {Arabella}. It actually went well. I haven’t sung this in an audition for about a year, but it felt great and while there were some moments of stress, overall the piece worked well. I continued to struggle with trying to lighten up some of the singing, and not to color the tone it but let it be what it is. After I finish, I offer them 4 others, and they ask for the short Mozart, “Porgi, amor” {Le nozze di Figaro}.

Overall, it was a good experience. It was a nice way to recover from the Munich audition, and do another less important audition. These auditions are all huge moments of learnings. I’m grateful for them. After the audition, I ventured back to London and met up with Pei and a dear friend named Leandos whom I met in Vienna last summer at the Belvedere competition. Met his lovely partner Julia and had 2 beers before heading to Stansted airport. Because this airport is so damn far away from the city, and I had a 7:30am flight the next morning, I thought the smartest thing to do was to get to Stansted the night before and sleep at a hotel there.

Well, I turned out to be the only passenger on this bus going out to Stansted. A 9pm bus, and a Hungarian bus driver named Attivo. He became a little too happy that passenger was interested in speaking to him. Great. So I ask him about 4 times how long the bus will take – and he says it can be 90 minutes to 2 hours. OMG. Kill me now. So I get the life story on him – and it is again, a typical Lauren experience. One where I was just nice and polite getting on the bus, and the rest of the ride was painful. His passion was photography and so he proceeded to tell me all about his life in Budapest as a photographer. We had discussions about fashion (pronounced FAYshion) by him), cancer, vitamin C being the cure of cancer proved by a Hungarian scientist, pharmaceutical companies, hair, specifically long hair (he thought I should grow mine longer for a more successful singing career), his British girlfriend, driving, religion, and his change from Catholicism to Baptist to something now that I couldn’t quite get. Not sure if that was the accent or just me being so tired of listening to him that I couldn’t see straight. He wanted me to email him so he could be aware of my career, and be in touch about this Vitamin C stuff. Ok, sure.

10:50pm we show up to Stansted. That’s right. He asks if he can take my picture before I leave (remember he’s a photographer). I sort of looked him, laughed, and said, “nooooo thank you, but I’ll email you!” Right. Cheerio. CANNOT WAIT TO GET HOME TO TIM IN GERMANY!!!

Sleep for five hours, and back on a plane. Hallelujah.

Germany never looked so good.

Tomorrow (Monday, 3/3) I’m off to Kiel for a House Audition. Think good thoughts!