It’s About Time

Hi all,

I’ve been busy as usual (okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration).  I got in touch with one of the local contacts my buddy Sokrates gave me.  This gentleman’s name is Bob Altizer and he is very nice.  I e-mailed him and he responded back.  He acts and also sings opera in the chorus of Arizona Opera Company and Phoenix Opera Company.  He suggested that I audition for them so I got in touch with the Executive Director of the Phoenix Opera and he gave me an audition!  I auditioned for him yesterday and it was great.  I sang Deh Vieni Non Tardar from The Marriage of Figaro and Plaisir d’Amour.  He was very nice and said that they’d find a place for me so hopefully I’ll get to sing with them.  Both the opera companies pay an actual salary.  Many of the theatres around here only pay a stipend if that.  We both agreed that I’m at the level where I need to get paid.  It was pretty encouraging to know that I’m a pretty good singer.  The only critique he had was that I work on my foreign language pronunciation for my arias.

I just joined Meetup.com and I joined a group called Infuse Open Mic, which hosts a monthly open mic event for poets and musicians at the Phoenix Art Museum.  I decided to go to the one on February 4 and I read a poem and decided to sing Deh Vieni Non Tardar too.  (I actually know three opera arias.)  That was actually the first time I sang an opera piece in public.  The crowd was really impressed because people don’t usually sing opera at an open mic.  The head of the group is a guy who goes by Lalli.  I’m so happy he founded the group because it gives me and others an outlet for our creativity.  He videotapes highlights of the open mics and puts the videos on Youtube.  And I made the video!  So here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oJ9oCblruk   I appear at 2:22 on the video.  You can also click the link in the blogroll to the left.

Oh, and the footage from The Rite… should be available soon, but I don’t know when.

And I attended a general agent meeting and met with the head director and this time I did not get a change-your-haircolor-you-look-35 speech.  He just didn’t like my headshot but was willing to use it until I could get new ones.  So, it looks like they’ll be my agency but things aren’t set in stone yet.  So when that happens, you’ll get the name of the agency.  He told me I have a wide age range, which is great.  I need money now so I hope to get auditions and lucrative bookings soon.

I’ve been begging God for a breakthrough.  I’ve had it with being broke.  I’ve been putting up fliers at community colleges and universities for tutoring services.  And I plan to get certified to teach, which was never the plan.  I’m babbling again; it must be that demon…