Auditions for the general director, Merola Opera Program, June 25 2011

Each summer the Merola Opera Program invites 25 young singers, apprentice coaches, and apprentice stage directors for intense study to improve their craft. One of the first public events for the participants is to sing one or two arias for San Francisco Opera’s general director, David Gockley, sitting in row 14 of the orchestra. Each singer presents an aria of his or her choosing, accompanied on the piano by one of the apprentice coaches. After an intermission, approximately half of the singers are invited to sing an additional aria. Although the additional aria is introduced in the form “My name is Elizabeth Zharoff, and I will sing Sempre libre from La Traviata,” I am told that the additional aria is chosen by David Gockley from a list of several submitted by the singer. It’s very much like the Irene Dalis Vocal Competition, except that in the competition every singer sings one aria of his/her choice and then immediately a second aria selected by the judges, and intermission is taken after half the singers have sung. Since the Merola audition is a working audition, the audience was requested to withhold applause until the very end, after all the singing was over. No evaluations or conclusions were shared with the audience, although after each aria we heard a “Thank you” or “bravo;” I may have heard one “fabulous.”

I had a couple of favorites. Suzanne Rigden impressed me in the first half with her strong, clear tone in Olympia’s aria from The Tales of Hoffman, but she was not called back to sing again. Elizabeth Zharoff was called back, and that is when we heard her dynamic Sempre libre. A friend has spoken highly of bass Adam Lau, but he did not participate in the auditions. NR.