The auditions for OCU’s next semester opera will be conducted differently than they have been in previous semesters.
Opera auditions typically are open to everyone on campus and are a requirement for all music school students.
Auditions for this upcoming opera, “Die Fledermaus,” will be based on invitation.
Dr. David Herendeen, director of opera and music theater, along with the rest of the voice faculty in the music school, will compile a list of students that will be invited to audition for the principal roles in the production.
Herendeen said the main reason for this alteration was because of a schedule change due to holiday breaks, a change in the genre of show usually done at this time and ultimately to reduce stress among students.
“We are having a guest director come in, and the guest director for the musical was unable to work in the first semester, so I did a switch in the amount of musicals versus operas in the first and second semester,” Herendeen said.
Herendeen said the final auditions are typically the week after Thanksgiving break, but this year Thanksgiving is the last week of November, causing the schedule to shift.
“Thanksgiving has sort of messed up the schedule. I usually do three auditions in the fall semester, but because of the guest director, I have to have four, and I became very worried about killing our students with a full day of auditions and callbacks,” Herendeen said.
Herendeen said he began to see there would be far too many auditions that would disrupt the students mentally and academically, so he began to make a plan to resolve these concerns.
“The motivation is that we will have great information from the first two auditions, and we will have great information from the auditions for the spotlight musical as well, so we decided to do a principal audition,” Herendeen said.
The voice faculty, the conductor for the opera and Herendeen will all have a say on who is called to the principal audition.
“We are speaking to the voice faculty to make sure that their students have the opportunity and if they feel like they want somebody to try this material pedagogically to see how it fits in their voice or just because they think their student would be good in the role,” Herendeen said.
The audition will not be required, which, Herendeen said, will relieve many students who feel stressed and overloaded with all of the other auditions for the spring semester, as well as their academic requirements.
Herendeen said there will still be three required full auditions for the music school students, as well as this principal audition, which will have a very wide net of advisement from Herendeen and the voice faculty.
Herendeen said it doesn’t exclude anyone who wants to audition, but they do have to be up for the task of singing this material.
“The love of my life is oriented around how to best preserve my students’ vocal, physical and mental health,” Herendeen said.
Jackson Holtkamp, vocal performance senior, said he had heard rumors that the audition was not going to be required.
“They actually just recently sent out an email with all the audition info, including the topic of the principal audition,” Holtkamp said.
Holtkamp said no invites have been sent out yet.
“Some people might be upset when the invites get sent out, but I think if you play your cards correctly, this process could be really good,” Holtkamp said.
Simón Gómez, music theater/composition junior, said he knew the auditions were invitational but didn’t really know what to expect.
“From what I understand, every voice studio will recommend students from their studios to be considered for the roles,” Gómez said.
Gómez said he thinks the process is new and interesting and will really be great for people who have auditioned for operas in the past out of requirement, but didn’t actually want to be considered.
“Boy, I don’t want this job; but it’s a joy. It’s a challenge, and every challenge has a solution, and this is a good solution,” Herendeen said.
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