It’s now only a matter of days until rehearsals start for Opera Holland Park’s production of Verdi’s un ballo in maschera, in which I will be performing the role of Madame Arvidson as a Young Artist for the Schools’ matinee, a dedicated young Artist performance towards the end of the run, and as cover for the magnificent Rosalind Plowright.
I feel it’s important to say that opportunities like this don’t come around every day for a young singer. To perform a full Verdi role, on a (sizeable) London stage with a fantastic orchestra is both thrilling and terrifying. The complexities of preparing a role like is both time consuming and expensive. For the latter, I am extremely grateful for the support of Audition Oracle’s bursary award which allowed me to have sessions with Matteo dalle Fratte at Melofonetica, Dominic Wheeler and my wonderful teacher Marcus van den Akker.
For any student at music college these kind of sessions are a part of a normal week, and I’m so grateful for the connections and relationships I made at Guildhall (and Trinity Laban prior to that). However, I’m sure all singers will agree with me when I say the journey doesn’t stop when you leave Conservatoire and this invaluable support from Audition Oracle has allowed me to continue developing whilst finding my way through my first year in the freelance world!
Georgia Mae Bishop 