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SFO's Alek Shrader stars in Met broadcast The Audition one time only, Sunday April 19
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SFO's Alek Shrader goes for a slam dunk in The Audition, broadcast Sunday noon nationally by the Met
SFO’s Alek Shrader stars in the Met’s The Audition on Sunday at 400 movie theaters nationally, a one time only event.
Tenor Alek Shrader currently performs at San Francisco Opera as an Adler Fellow or advanced student but he stars in The Met’s broadcast of The Audition. If you have ever had a dream and wonder what it takes to win, The Audition delivers. Alek resembles the actor Rob Lowe with his clean cut and youthful appearance, his straight brown hair and blue eyes. I got an inside tip to look out for him in The Audition from a fellow super at SFO, Pam Deweerd, who has been in a production with Alek. She remembers the young tenor as a cutie. She emails I am going to that Audition in Mill Valley. One of the tenors was a cover for Elixer of Love this year. He was really talented and a cutie! . . . and in another email, he was very good looking and he will be in that movie about "The Audition". He is a great tenor!
Indeed in The Audition he seems filled with jubilance and exhilaration, he seems giggly even as he chatters away, probably with nervous laughter and energy. The first thing the audience hears him say?
I hate auditions.
He says why though: . . . people judging you . . . it’s much more tense, more stressful than a performance . . . he says in the beginning of the documentary.
The winners of this National Council competition are shown with what host Rene Flemming calls unprecedented access. Each winner gets $15,000 but the executive director says the real prize is being identified as somebody to watch in the future.
Don’t obsess over a note that’s gone by she advises the contestants, pictured below.
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Peter Gelb of the Met says unlike pop singers who have a mic . . . opera singers are naked.
Speight Jenkins, the general director whom I remember from when I supered in Rigoletto in Seattle in 2004, says I wouldn’t sing happy birthday in front of five people.
They are naked, he agrees . . . no instruments . . . it’s what’s in their throats.
It’s the mental preparation more than the vocal says one contestant. She says if you lose focus for just a second you won’t perform well.
Jonathan Friend, a judge, says the judges listen to see what a singer sounds like in this auditorium (the Met) but the judges are looking for somebody who has something to say. They are connected to the music, the words. They use their body, their face, everything to convey what the composer wanted to say.
If they sing well but are boring as bat s**t we don’t care about them. It’s about communication not just singing.
Meanwhile. If you want an example of an international opera star on a soap box, I featured Greer Grimsley in February.
Or take a look at Jeremy Galyon, who was on stage with Greer in SFO's Rigoletto a few years ago as an Adler Fellow. Jeremy started his debut year at the Met with Natalie Dessay this season; He's performing in the Met's live broadcast of La Cenerentola May 9.
SFO’s Alek Shrader first performs Cuesta o Quella from Rigoletto. He seems animated. Ah Rigoletto, the one time I was on stage at SFO myself a few years ago with that raucous Carnival party at the palace of that rake of a duke, the womanizer who sings how hard it is to decide between this woman or that one before targeting the wife of another.
The coaching goes on. The average age of an audience member at the Met is sixty five, the contestants are advised next. They are literally dying off . . . With the audience in mind, the finalists are to choose two or their four arias. Gina Lapinski the drama coach advises they are looking for a package, somebody who can sell a character. You are selling yourself ultimately she says.
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So. One finalist goes for an aria with nine high Cs.
One singer opines about weight issues, arguing opera needs to keep the great voices out there even if others look the part.
Deborah Birnbaum the breath technician advises another who says Caro nome from Rigoletto scares her. She’s a relatively tiny singer.
Another finalist says he has had no young artist programs, no acting classes, just a summer program in Houston when he was younger. He’s thirty. He quit opera for three years when he ran out of money he says. He filed for bankruptcy and took shots to his confidence.
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What’s really scary is the sheriff at the door over a credit card he says.
So he told his parents he would give it two years at 100%. If nothing comes of it, he’ll go back and get a doctorate. That’s the point where I kind of grew up he says. I learned what it took here and here, pointing to his heart and his head.
If I may interject, bankrupt students are facing a scandal in the student loan industry and have no consumer rights like bankruptcy protection. Defaulting students are stalked for life by creditors, cajoled into paying two or three times what they borrowed once fines and interest charges escalate. Old people and the disabled have their social security garnished. Ted Kennedy read the report to the senate, some heads have rolled for lenders being in bed with financial aid offices, and now even the Reverend Jesse Jackson has started his own campaign saying the more education you have, the worse off you are because of predatory lending. www.ReduceTheRate.org; www.StudentLoanJusticeCA.org, www.StudentLoanJustice.org.
I myself have lobbied Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein along with Congressman Pete Stark.
So. The biggest lesson I saw in The Audition is from one winner who passed away in November of 2008. You never know when your number is up, life is short. The audience of The Audition hears him say jovially, end it with a bang. This is the biggest bang I can think of.
The music coach told him, no prissy artsy stuff. And he answers he got validation from the competition.
So we see Sheri Greenawald, director of San Francisco’s Opera Center, who sits at the judges’ table along with Diane Zola of Houston; Brian Dickie, General Director of Chicago Opera Theater.
Stephanie Blythe emcees the actual finalist competition.
If you want the whole package, you will find it in The Audition. To use Alek Shrader’s term for nailing the performance, it’s a slam dunk.
I’ll be attending with Michael Colbruno, who is on the board of Philharmonia Baroque.
Tickets are at www.FathomEvents.com.
For more info: www.FathomEvents.com, www.SFOpera.com, TheMetLive
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In boca del lupo.
Photos: Courtesy of the Met
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