The operatic landscape has changed a lot since I began my career, and nowadays image is a bigger part of who makes the cut or who doesn't. It's still important to sing wonderfully, be a great musician and actor, but on TOP of that, those that come across well in photos and film have an advantage.
Keep yourselves in shape, watch the image that you put forward, and this will help put you on equal or better footing than the slobs out there who didn't pay attention to this... You don't have to be drop-dead gorgeous to do well - just identify your best traits and emphasize them. If this means that you need to get your butt to a gym, spend a session with a makeup artist, figure out a great haircut for your face shape, get your teeth whitened or whatever, do it now!
These days, it seems being "hot" and "sexy" are all the rage. It's all well and good to get yourself into great shape, but... It seems to me that the people who are confident, well-put-together and healthy are the ones who have the longest staying power in our business, and the super-sexy people always pushing that sexuality forward quickly become a joke. So take note! It's fine to have a few slightly sultry photos in your arsenal, but do not descend into anything that is crass or overtly sexual in your promotional materials or your audition or work dress! Please! Confident is good, hoochie mama is not.
While you're at the PR department, it doesn't hurt to tell them that you would be willing to do any interviews they might want, and any kind of special "angle" that might help them sell a story. (A personal connection to the community, special language skills, club affiliation, etc...) and find out if any videos or recordings might be available for personal use after the show is finished.
Sometimes theaters make an archival video or recording for posterity or broadcast that you can get a copy of - you can use this as a promotional material to send to opera companies or whatever as long as you are discreet.
You should also be able to go check out the pictures that they make at the piano dress rehearsal or dress rehearsal, and buy a few copies. You can send these out with your publicity stuff to agents, venues, or opera houses so they can see you "in action." As long as you use it only for promotional or personal uses, and not commercial uses, this seems to be ok. Make sure you get the photographer's name so you can give credit next to the pictures. Write it on the back of your originals so you won't forget down the road. Photographers appreciate the credit, and even more appreciate you asking them if you want to use their photos on a website - - PLEASE offer to pay them something for the rights, don't just use the photos because you bought one copy! It is their work and their intellectual property. Ask them if you can have a contact number or address for them, so you can refer work to them from your pictures, as well. I have found that most photographers do not mind you using their work on a website, as long as you ask and have a clear credit to them for their work. I have gladly paid many photographers to be able to use the pictures on my website.
ALSO - Here is one reason to care about your costume, shoes or hair looking "right" for the piano dress - many theaters use this rehearsal to make pictures for the press, so don't let the costumer or hair or makeup person tell you it's "OK for tonight's rehearsal" if it's not. Insist that things look perfect if the rehearsal is being photographed. You do NOT want a lot of stinky photos of you wandering around!
If you have any professional recordings made, make sure the Opera Shop at the theater where you'll be performing knows this at least a few months in advance so they can order some. In the U.S., it's usually the local Opera Guild that handles the opera shop, so get your agent to inform them the titles and the labels. Not all of us have EMI, Sony and BMG backing us up, so if you have recordings on a smaller label, make sure the Opera Shop will stock it while you're in town. Or - gasp - bring your own copies for their shop. You may be able to arrange a cd signing there while you're in town!
I have had people tell me that I have a great press agent. Well, thank you, it's ME! ...with the help of my many generous friends and their friends, my agents, and the wonderful people who do their job exceptionally well! Ask your parents/family and their friends, college/childhood friends, sorority/fraternity sisters, club members, etc... if they have contacts in the press in towns where you will sing. You will be amazed at the connections your friends have. You can contact these people, see if they are interested in you, get them to interview you, and get some press for yourself and in promotion of your upcoming engagement. Everyone is happy - they have an interesting "special interest/arts" story, and you get some press coverage. Think about press for the next gig about two months before it comes up. Start calling/writing people, and set things up. Talk to the PR person at the opera or symphony and see if there is anything you can do to help sell the show.
For an interview, have a goal in mind. What is the main point you want to get across? How do you want the article to read? Try and write down what you want to say in an interview, so you have a concrete guide you can study before doing the interview. Stay in control YOURSELF of the interview, so you don't get caught up in some stupid, insipid tangent that then makes you look like an airhead. Guide the conversation to your subjects with or despite the questions the interviewer asks you. Be careful of putting out glib or incendiary comments, as those will become the crux of the article, I assure you. The glib or ironic ditty you said off-the-cuff at some point will become that cutesy "clincher" line at the very end of the article, to which they tailor the REST of the article before it to lead. If you say something like this that you think could be taken out of context, say "well, of course, that's off the record. I was just joking." I have lived this - - they asked me about my private life once, at which I wryly tossed off, "Well, I'm not going to let singing get in the way of my dating!" This became the breathless, airy ending line of the article, to which the rest of the article pointed - she's so cute, she's just a young little stupid blonde under that red hair.... I wanted to kill them! So be careful, as they are not going to keep things in their context. They are looking for snappy comebacks to splice into their background blather about you. Unfortunately, I usually oblige them without knowing it. As much as I warn you against it, I fall into the trap often. Maybe I am blonde, or maybe I'm just too accomodating.
In your preparation, come up with your own snappy quotable quotes that you think they might jump on - - they can then form the big quote they use at the end or the quote they put in the caption box around the story... Give them what they need, and don't just leave it to your off-the-cuff remarks.
Know your audience for the article. Most writers for the arts are NOT that specialized in music or opera, or even the arts sometimes. I have had the sports writer interview me before... I always ask an interviewer about him/herself and how he/she got to do this job (basically asking in a nice way what the hell kind of background he or she has.) Ask them what the scope of the article will be, how long, and in what section. This helps you know on what level you can talk about music, and also how in-depth or general an article is going to be. I have come up with some glib, short explanations of things which a general interviewer may not know about opera singers. Otherwise, the article becomes about these stupid elementary parts of an opera singer's life, and not about ME personally! Sorry, but I'm not wasting more breath on "the life of an opera singer" for one more article. They can go read my website for that. Actually, I usually do refer them to my website before an interview, in any case.
Explanations that might help in interviews:
All of this is news to many interviewers, so make it as dry and concise as possible, otherwise the article becomes all about this lifestyle. ugh.
About that slant - sometimes it just takes creativity. You know the Cinderella story about Anna Netrebko, that she was washing the floors at the Opera house, and then she ended up on the stage there? Bah, humbug! I'm sure there was plenty of study both before and after her picking up a mop, if a mop ever was picked up... My sister brought to my attention that right before my big break in Geneva, I was trying to make some money as a pedi-cab driver (you know, those bicycles that have two seats behind them to carry around tourists?) I only did it a week, because the hills in San Francisco nearly killed me, but still the same, it would make a great story. I'd nearly forgotten about it. Poor little Cinderella Laura was lugging tourists up the hills of San Francisco, when she got that call to go to Geneva! Hmmm. And it's TRUE! I think I will mention this in my next interview. Nobody really wants to hear about the hard work and the practice that goes into this career. They want to hear the stupid fantastic, miraculous "discovery" stories. "I was a brick-layer and then someone discovered me!" etc. etc... They always forget to mention the conservatory that went in there, or private study. I find it annoying, but the public seems to love it. If you have a great "discovery story," by all means mention it in articles. If you have some other specialty, such as "I studied English literature before moving into singing" (i.e. Ian Bostridge), or "I was a policeman for a while" - then by all means, tell people about it. It brings human depth to a story about artists. They eat it up. But for my sake, please mention the hard work that went into your musical studies. There's nothing that pisses me off more than articles which act like anyone can just roll out of bed and become an international opera star because they have a couple of good high notes.
Show up to donor parties, do those extra giglets for patrons that you can while you're at an opera companies - the free mini-concerts, the meet-the-guild parties, the talks for the patrons... Bring photos to give to patrons (in Europe). Send thank-you notes to people who throw parties for you and who sponsor your operas. Your audience of operaphiles wants to feel that they know you, not just onstage, but off - - indulge them a bit, and they will be invested in you and in hearing you in the future. I did all that I could while I was in Houston, and guess who was the TOP requested singer in their audience survey a few years back? It pays to be nice, after all. I was the only one without a press agent and a major record label pushing me on the list.
You should have at least two head shots, one in black and white and one in color. You can also have a more "casual" photo (preferably color) for interviews or other publicity. You could have a sultry pose be the third of your three photos (your "casual" photo) but please don't make it your main photo!
For the U.S., you need 8x10's. For Europe, you should give them smaller photos, like 5x7 or so.
When you start to perform in Europe, you need to get some small envelope-sized pictures made of your head shot. When you perform in Europe and Japan, you should bring some of these to the shows. Otherwise, (especially in Germany), you will get pre-addressed envelopes or worse yet, cards from people waiting at the backstage door that want you to send them an autographed picture. Always ask their name and how it's spelled, and ask if they want you to dedicate it to them. "Best wishes" and "thank you" in every language are good phrases to know how to spell, I might add. I'm not going to share what I dedicate on my pictures, as that's my state secret! Don't write all over your face, and if your name's not typed under the picture, I'd print the role, place and date of the show (because you don't want to have to print out your name as well as sign it, but you want them to remember who the heck you were!) This is a great way for people to connect with you, and I know there are people that just collect signatures of artists. I think they trade them like baseball cards.
Some opera houses have services which will also print the name of the theater, role and our name at the bottom, which is ideal! Remember to come up with some kind of flamboyant variation of your signature (QUICK!) for your fans, as you don't want to use your same signature that you actually use on bank accounts, checks, official documents. (Just a thought...)Some singers wonder if they should have a website. If you have something that you can present that is professional-quality (photos, resumé, biography, soundbites), then I would by all means start a website. Then you can control the first thing people see about you when they google you. And google you they will, if you have piqued their interest. Otherwise, you leave it up to the luck of the draw what they find out about you.
There are all sorts of free or at least cheap plans that allow you to have a simple website. I would recommend webs.com for free websites and Godaddy.com for hosting and website development. I sincerely think that you need to have SOUND on your website. We are opera singers, so how we sound is the most important issue for people wanting to engage us. If you want to use your website as a professional tool, make sure that it is complete before you put it online. I find nothing more annoying than "coming soon" on a webpage. It should have an updated bio (lots of times venues will take your bio from your website, despite an agent sending them one), a few pictures, and sound and/or video of you singing. For working singers, it's good to have reviews up there, hopefully some pictures of you in costume in productions,as well as a schedule of upcoming events. Make sure you have permission to use the pictures you have for your website.
If you're a beginner, just starting out, it's wise to have a repertoire list of roles learned and concert repertoire you know and a resumé on your website. It is just an online version of a publicity package you would send out. Contact information is important, as well. It is always a good idea to use a specifically created email address as the contact for your website, as you will inevitably get spam through it. Check out other singers' websites to see what format you like, and find a web designer to help you create your own, or use programs like HotDog or other WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) programs to create your own webpages. It's not that hard.
Videos and cd's can be great tools to promote your singing, but only if they are the best quality. Be careful of what you put up (or allow to be put up) on Youtube, and what you send out to agents and venues. Many people think it's "good enough" to just "give an idea" of what you can do. But if your performance is not impressive in it, there is no reason to have something mediocre out there! Better to have nothing than something mediocre. Also, make sure you have the right to post something in public before doing so. Most of the time, it's not just you alone who is performing. Youtube now shows up in searches, so don't think, "Well, who'll ever watch this, anyway?"
With the advent of cd-burners, it is now feasible for you or your agent to make tailored demo cd's for each venue. Make sure your agent has a high-quality copy of your originals, with only your arias on it, and TRACKED. That way, your agent can pick and choose which aria on your cd to put onto a demo to send out. You don't want to ask your agent to do any editing (if you give them a cd with just one big track on it of the whole opera!) nor do you want him to have to figure out which track on multitudinous cd's of entire operas are YOUR arias. The easier you make it for your agent, the more likely you are to get things done in a timely manner, if at all. They do have other things to do.
We have also gotten interest to hear me audition as a result of the cd, or where it opened the door for me to have a working session with a conductor. Venues who THOUGHT they knew me all of a sudden perked up after hearing me recently on the demo cd.
Some venues where my cd was instrumental in my hiring: Cleveland Orchestra debut in Carmina Burana; Ophelie in Hamlet in Trieste, Italy; and concerts with Roger Norrington, among others. Not bad, huh?
For recital venues, send them a cd of you singing recital repertoire, as well as at least three sample programs written out. I would try and include one "lighter" recital, since in the U.S., at least, recitals are a hard sell in the first place. I try to include a "themed" recital and a more serious recital. This way, they have a smattering of different ways you can program , and can see you are interested in doing more than the standard Dichterliebe.
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