The Audition

The Audition

To be present at the yearly National Council Auditions of the Metropolitan Opera is truly one of the greatest joys of being an opera fan. From 45 regions within the country, young hopefuls compete for a chance to move on to 15 regionals, which lead to semifinals in New York, from which about 10 become national finalists. Of those, roughly five are named Grand Winners after performing arias with the Met’s full orchestra. “I sang on the Met stage with their orchestra!” says finalist Ryan Smith. “That’s enough!”

“The Audition” is an offstage and onstage documentary following this process two years ago. This is a good idea; an even better one by the Met is to bypass indie distribution’s rocky road and simulcast it HD-to-2 p.m.-Sundaying worldwide onto 400 screens. The sound quality and screen size will be much more operatic than at home, and it’s amazing to see up close how some singers create characters within a single aria.

A sad note: Ryan Smith, who had a sunny presence and sang like a god, died at age 31 after this film was completed. Selected for Lyric’s Ryan Opera Center ensemble, he was diagnosed with lymphoma soon after. He talks a little about himself; older than the other finalists (“I thought I was going to sing here when I was 22”), he actually stopped singing for three years before telling his parents he was “going to give it two years of my best effort.” That did it. You can’t top winning on this level.

I’m not qualified as a music critic; I’m just another guy who loves opera we’ve been season-ticket holders at Lyric for 20 years now, and my love of opera started when I drove my rented Vespa over to Caracalla in Rome when I was around 20 or so (the movie house nearest our hotel), where I was thrilled to see elephants and camels under the stars and that the Italians sold glances during the show.

Needless to say, any singer who makes it to the Met for national auditions is good. The film focuses on their performances as we follow them up the final steps of their ascent. The Met has produced the film, so we see backstage, rehearsals, costume fittings etc., and (most interesting) hear some of the jury’s deliberations; judges include Brian Dickie, general director of our own Chicago Opera Theater.

But big but what we overhear is almost all plaudits. A gingerly led discussion about singers’ weights barely gets followed up on. In visiting dressing rooms and rehearsals, we see only pleasant, smiling, sometimes nervous faces. I guess you can’t expect fiascos or breakdowns or temper tantrums at this level; maybe there were none. The American opera stars I’ve met (Sam Ramey et al.) are absolutely down-to-earth regular guys. Maria Callas? I doubt she would have been a delight at National Council time.

Susan Froemke, the director of this movie, seems to have had a leg up on the rest of us. When the awards are handed out, she keeps her camera fixed on one person as if she were aware of something none of us knew yet. And speaking of that camera why did she opt for a wide lens when it seems like she pans so much? The stretching at the sides of shots becomes hard to ignore.

This isn’t an earth-shattering documentary. But as a chance to hear some new American opera stars sing and get to know them a bit, “The Audition” is delightful.

Watch The Audition For Free On Gomovies.