Which aria do rising sopranos sing most at auditions?

Which aria do rising sopranos sing most at auditions?

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norman lebrecht

August 28, 2016

A fascinating list from Wolf Trap opera…. and we won’t give the top tunes away.

Click here for the league of arias.

Zauberflöte-MET-Pamina-Ken-Howard

Comments

  • Oded Zehavi says:

    A great list. Love the Truelove’s high ranking!!! Good job Igor!!!

  • cabbagejuice says:

    Mozart’s music is the most difficult to sing, so it is not a surprise to see Pamina’s “Ach, ich fühl¹s” at the top of the list.

    • Una says:

      Pamina has to be if you audition in Germany where most of possible work still is and with its overlapping fach system that is not a sad strict as it used to be in my day but still Pamina us the aria!!

  • Bella says:

    So as an auditionee, would it be better to sing one of the more popular ones or the not so popular arias?

    • Theodore McGuiver says:

      Stick with the better-known ones. Some theatre directors feel uncomfortable with lesser-known repertoire and prefer to cast from within their comfort zone.

    • Bruce says:

      Agree with McGuiver. Not that they will hire you only to sing in the opera that your aria is from, but they usually feel like they can judge someone’s abilities better in something they’ve heard a million times.

    • jaxon says:

      Alternate advice: do you want to be one of the sixteen people at your next big audition who sing the Embroidery Aria? Do you want to compete with memories of the nineteen people who sang it last year? If you can really knock it out of the park go ahead. But all of my most memorable experiences listening to auditions have involved little-heard arias. If you’re auditioning for a company where the director can’t figure out what to do with you unless he hears you sing Ach ich fühl’s, you are not going to be working with the top tier.

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