Today, January 6, is a normal business day in Berlin and Saarbrücken, so I called my health insurer with a question. They gave me a direct number to call in München. Seems straightforward enough, right? BUT NO! You’re in Germany and holidays pop up like mushrooms after the rain. In Bayern (Bavaria), where München is, …
Today is the shortest day of the year: in Berlin the sun rose at 8.14 am and set at 3.54pm. Dusk starts about 2.30pm! It can be pretty brutal, especially considering the often overcast and rainy weather. In contrast in New York City the sun rose at 7.16am and set at 4.32pm. My daughter used …
That’s the second Sunday before Christmas. It’s old fashioned but real in Germany. People are generally nicer, so enjoy it! It won’t last forever and the Christmas markets make up for the ridiculously early sunsets. Plus there’s always Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel and lots of festival performances and concerts, so singers can sock away some …
So here I am, a retired old opera singer living near my grandchildren in Berlin and I have to get a notarized form saying I’m still alive so I can keep getting monthly retirement benefits. After a little back and forth with the nice person at the Pension Fund for former theater employees (imagine that!) …
Studio – Training or Cheap Labor? From my conversations with agents I gather that studio programs can be tremendously variable, from cheap labor or inexpensive cover and rehearsal drudge work to a legitimate part of an ensemble, singing small parts with big people, gaining high level knowledge at a good address and maybe growing into …
I just had a lovely chat with a top notch agent in Berlin and he told me a lot about how they hear auditions. Understanding this can clarify and enrich the choice of audition repertoire. It’s in the nature of singing to think narrowly and short term – the next high note or the effect …
Young singers have a super wide horizon but no depth. They know lots about what’s going on today, but nothing about who did what 50 years ago. For lots of things it doesn’t matter, but for opera it does, and agents complain about it. Not knowing who Hans Hotter or Renate Tebaldi were means there’s …
It’s a big deal and will affect you more than people already in the system, so PAY ATTENTION! It’s complicated and very German but it may affect everything from how long you have to rehearse and what roles you might sing to your retirement. It’s called the NV Solo, (Normalvertrag/Solist-the Standard Contract for Soloists) and …
For those of you looking for a Fest engagement this is a good time to start with a private agent or directly with theaters. Theaters must notify singers whose contracts will not renew by mid October, and singers must notify the theater by October 31 if they do not wish to renew their contract. There …
One of the highlights of our latest interview is that singers already have the skill set to learn to speak German. Not from books and word lists, but by real world experience, listening and figuring things out. This is how singer and certified Goethe Institute teacher Lorna Price and many European language teachers approach language …