Diagnostic Auditions

Admission to all Opera Department activities is by means of the Diagnostic Auditions, which are generally held in the afternoons and evenings of the Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday following Labor Day. Together with individual interviews with the Chair of the department which start in the previous week, these enable to faculty to begin to get to know the individual students, their accomplishments, and their needs. Freshmen will be heard together at one or more of these times, since it is not so usual that they will be cast in productions. All other singers will be assigned times in a block which includes other members of their studio, so that the voice teachers can also hear their students, and help advise the opera faculty.

For the diagnostic auditions, singers should be prepared to offer two arias. One of these must be in English. One or both of the arias should be simply staged, so that we can see how the performer creates a character in a dramatic context; do not use any but the simplest of props. [These requirements will be interpreted liberally for underclassmen, who may audition with one or more songs rather than arias if they wish, and/or perform a musical-theater excerpt, whether staged or not.] Graduate students who wish to be considered for the Dramatic Text class are also asked to prepare a one-minute spoken monologue.

Callbacks for both Opera Theatre productions will be held in the afternoon and evening of the Friday before classes begin. Some of the Chamber Opera productions may also be cast from these callbacks; others may have separate auditions within the next week or so. [See Production Organizations for more information on these categories.] Roles in the first-semester productions of the Opera Workshop and Opera Outreach will be assigned from the diagnostic auditions without further callback. Since most roles for the year will thus be cast at this time, singers who do not make themselves available for the auditions and callbacks may not get cast unless they have obtained a special dispensation in advance. Also note that singers may not sign a binding contract with a professional chorus affecting their second-semester availability until the casting has been completed.