(Originally posted on 3 October 2012)

02 October 2012

The adventure has already started off at full swing and what an adventure it has been. Let me take you back to the start so you see what I have been up to!

I arrived last Wednesday into Berlin and one of my best friends, Georg, met me in the city so that he could help keep me going and alive! It was the plan to beat Jet Lag before it had any chance of coming after me really! (It worked!) Some people might land in the morning in Berlin and then fall asleep and get caught in the nasty spell of JL, but I had better things to do. It was time to head out to Wolfsburg (home of VW) to visit a cousin of mine who has lived here for 40 years. It was her birthday and she invited us out to celebrate and spend the next day with her. Couldn't pass that up!

Thursday afternoon we headed back to Berlin and spent the next couple of days being tourists and just playing around. Wearing ourselves out so as to continue to keep me on the straight and narrow of Central European Time. Believe me this is something that I had thought a lot about... seeing as my first audition would be less than a week after my initial arrival.

Here a bit of good advice from my Dad before I left:

"When the plane door closes, always set your watch to the time zone of the country you will arrive in. Sleep as much as you can through the flight and when you land, get to your apartment/hotel, brush your teeth, shower as you would any normal day... then you just go out and enjoy your day as if you had woken up on any normal day."

I told him I would put that bit of advice in there! It really does help! I didn't get the chance to shower, but I did brush those teeth and enjoyed my day as I would normally do. Can't say that by the end of the first few days I wasn't dead tired, but heck, I went to sleep at a normal hour and woke up at my normal time. I'm currently 100% back on my normal sleep schedule (well... as singers we know that normal for us is different than everyone else, but still)!

So this brings me up to Sunday. I departed Berlin for Munich where I would meet up with one of my best pals from the Ryan Center, Jen, as she is living here again (she is a German Citizen - lucky duck). Yes, we did go to Wiesn to check out the mass of crazy at Oktoberfest, but didn't stay long. With Auditions looming we couldn't very well drink or play too hard. It was fun to watch though, and sometime I'll come back with the intention of having a really entertaining and "Free" day there! Or two... who knows :-)

Aha! We have arrived to Monday, October 1, 2012 and I was off to Karlsruhe with Jen for an audition with Herwald Management. Now when I say Karlsruhe what I actually mean in Bergwald, which is really about 20 minutes by bus from the Hauptbahnhof in Karlsruhe up a windy road and into the bergwald... literally! Then... oh it's not over yet... you have to cross the street and find this path through the woods with steps, go down the steps then find more steps in front of you (not the ones to the right, but straight in front of you) and go down those steps. Then at the bottom turn left and follow the road farther down until you reach a white house with a garden surrounding it. Guess what... they are all houses with gardens around them and they are all white! Well we did find it finally and so were happy about that. Notice the posting for the Audition (Vorsingen) below:

Yes that is indeed a dolly with a piece of paper taped to it! What an adventure! Oh it isn't over... nope... you go around the house to the lower level where there is a living room with piano and that is where the audition is to be held! When reading all the literature for this trip I came across the comments that many are done like this, but I didn't really realize they would be in the middle of nowhere in someones living... and not the Manager, oh no, he rents the space from people that live there, it's all very interesting!

Anyway, the audition went really well, and I was very pleased and he seemed pleased, and all is well and now we continue on! I'm actually catching up on my way to Braunschweig right now for a house audition with the Staatstheater Braunschweig. Then back to Wolfsburg to meet up with my family again. Wednesday is a German National Holiday (Bank Holiday = everything is closed) so I'm not in any rush to go back to Berlin and sit in my room.

Jennifer Jakob and me on the train from Stuttgart to Munich after the audition…

(We had a nice little bottle of wine on the ride home! It was fun)

To sum up the past week I would have to say that this has gone so well so far I really can't be happier! I'm in the midst of a couple of really intense two weeks, but heck, might as well get it all underway and get my name out there from day one...

Until next time.... Happy Travels!

03. 10. 2012 Deutsche Tag der Einheit

Happy Day of Re-unification in Germany! I'm sitting on my cousins Balcony in Wolfsburg. Don't have WLAN here so you are going to be getting these two entries all in one, once I get back to Berlin later tonight and put them online. But I think you will deal just fine! One thing to know about Europe, if you have never been here, is that when there is a Bank Holiday you just enjoy the day and relax. Things are closed, just closed, that's all you need to know so make sure you get your groceries the day before! I love it actually as it is an excuse to enjoy a day without really have many commitments! What could be better than that?

Anyway... I said I would talk about Braunschweig and this is what I am going to do... it is such a beautiful city. Small, but exactly what you expect to see if you think Germany looks like the old postcards! The Altstadt is so lovely there aren't even words. The Staatstheater was lovely as well (It sits Am Theaterplatz - what could be better than the street being blocked by a massive Opera House?). I didn't get to sing on stage, rather in a very large and very dry Orchestra Probezimmer (rehearsal room) which was interesting, but hey, it works! I think the audition went well, although I had a brain mishap during Si, ritrovarla, and made up a quarter phrase with italian that wasn't supposed to be there, but heck... this is LIVE theater folks, and if you can't laugh about it and know that you recovered just fine, then you put way too much pressure on yourself. We do strive for perfection, yes... I do too, and those who really know me, know that I don't kid about that. But on the other hand, I know how to be honest about how things go and know that "sh*t" happens... so we just deal with it and know that it ain't the end of the world! It puts a smile on my face, so that isn't bad! HAHA!

The tally of sung arias thus far is:

Herwald:

Ô blonde Cérès

Tanzmeister

Staatstheater Braunschweig:

Ô blonde Cérès

Si, ritrovarla

I'm keeping a running tally of what people want to hear most. It's a bit difficult as I am offering both Light Lyric pieces (nothing bigger than Tamino) and also Spieltenor for the larger houses. I'm really leaving it up to the houses to decide what they want to hear. If they don't want to hear Lyric, they won't ask... same goes the other way around!

I'm taking in this nice relaxing day as I head back to Berlin tonight (just about an hours journey east) and need to repack and get a good nights sleep for Deutsche Oper Berlin tomorrow afternoon then on to Vienna! I decided to go a few days early seeing as most of my European friends are there and it's my favorite place on Earth! That way I will be well rested for Monday's audition with the Wiener Staatsoper! I can't wait! Can't even explain how pumped I am for this one! AHHHH!!!!! The dream job of dream jobs... if you live in my mind that is!

Well, I suppose that about sums up the first few days of auditions and how I am feeling. The adventure is just that... an Adventure and I'm so glad that I am in the midst of it!

Enjoy your journey and until next time...

Tschüß!!

The First two are complete...