How I Prepare an Opera Role in 2024

A self-portrait during a pre-screen recording session, 2023

    I hesitate to  write this blog post. Not because it wouldn't be useful to young singers or those who may want to try new techniques, but because even I'm not sure what my process is. You see, the majority of the roles I've been cast for have been in an academic setting, where my only goal was to rush about trying to balance my work, my classes, and my after-class rehearsal schedule. 

   The role I've been recently preparing is my first professional principle role, so I believe I'm not being as efficient about this preparation as I could be. That's ultimately why I've decided to go ahead and list my methods, to serve as a sort of public starting point that I can reflect on and update as I advance throughout my career as an opera singer.  With all of this being said, I can't claim my methods are efficient or the best, and if you have any suggestions for refining my process, I'd be grateful to hear from you. 
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The Pre-Prep: Sheet Music

What sheet music you use matters. 
   It's important to reach out to whoever your contact is, and verify what publisher & what edition score has been agreed upon! This means you may need to purchase a new score if you don't already own the one your company wants. 

Marking Music
   Break out those highlighters, it's Personally, I have an incredibly difficult time reading sheet music. You'd think that 6 years of music school would make me fluent, but the only thing it's done has made me realize just how confusing it can be. So, when tackling new and/or difficult music, my sheet music ends up looking like a rainbow. For an idea of what that looks like, check out below:

A page from the role I'm currently learning, Queen Sophine in Becoming Santa Claus.

Pink-
   This is used for any time signature changes. In this particular score, there are many quick time signature changes, so it's helpful for me to have a visual color to remind me that a change is coming. 

Blue-
   Blue is the color I use for key changes and note help. For example, if there's a key change I'll highlight that in my score. If I'm having trouble finding a pitch before a phrase, I can mark where my pitch appears in other parts before I sing so I have something to listen for during my practice. 
  
Green-
   This is what I use to find all of my dynamic markings. Because black and white sheet music can be so confusing for me personally, I often miss dynamic markings, since they aren't within the lines (if that makes sense). Using a green highlighter helps me pick up on the dynamics much easier. 

Orange- 
   Orange is what I use to highlight any tempo markings. It's a nice contrast from green, so I won't get confused if I see them next to each other. 

Purple-
   Because my example is in English, you won't see any purple. This is because I write my translations in this color! It's dark enough to be seen easily, but it's different enough from black that I won't mistakenly read the language my music is translated from when I'm doing acting work, etc. 

Red-
   I use red not only for mistakes that I want to focus on, but also for marking beats when my sheet music uses complex tempos and I need to keep track of beats.

Yellow-
   I use this to highlight my part! It's the most universal highlighter color, so it's easily seen. 

Translations
   I can't stress how important your language training is. After your college years, it gets significantly harder to learn a language. I'm sure that your teachers will stress that the best resource for translating your music will be to learn the language, so you can accurately translate your music in a way that resonates with you. Please, please, please continue your language practice after you graduate.

  You can also translate using a dictionary, word by word. This is tedious, and can miss slang and idioms. 

   I personally use a mixture of my language studies, a dictionary, and Nico Castell texts. Castell (if you don't know yet) was a tenor and prolific translator of librettos. His texts are pricey, but very accurate, and very in-depth. They are definitely worth the purchase! If you're looking for a more cost-effective way to find Castel's books, you can find them here.

The Prep: Physical practice

.I bet you didn't think I'd be talking about how important daily movement would be, hm? 
​   It's true: cultivating a strong core, practicing your breathwork, and doing cardio are all indispensable to us as singers. We are vocal athletes, and we all know that our instrument is our body. This has NOTHING to do with your size or shape. That is for you and yourself alone to decide if you'd like to change. What doesn't change is that if you're committed to daily movement, you'll notice you can sing better for longer, and you'll have the physical ability to do whatever the staging requires. 

   Personally, I do Pilates, yoga, hike, and roller skate to move my body. Finding ways to move that you enjoy make consistency much easier. Also, please don't beat yourself up if you miss a day or you're too busy to work out every single day. Life is life, and we shouldn't be hard on ourselves if we don't have a perfectly consistent routine. 


Rhythm
   Before jumping over to the piano, it's important that you sit with your music and learn your rhythms. I admit I am not as good at stopping myself from singing through immediately as I'd like, but please do as I say, and NOT as I do in regards to this. ESPECIALLY if your music is difficult. Intentionally taking the time to go through and get your rhythms and words in your body will really help with the memorization process. 

Listening
   If you're so lucky to be learning music with multiple recordings, it's important to listen to more than one recording. If you listen to one recording only, you can begin to embody the mistakes the performers make during the recording, and it can be difficult to fix them once they're in your body. 

There's a website that has instrumental tracks available for you to listen to & download ranging from around £8-£40, and are an incredible resource if you have the financial means to use them. This website is called Opera Learning Tracks. 

Piano Time
   Finally, it's time to sit at the piano. I am hopeless at piano, but I was able to retain enough to be able to play through my vocal line, and add in notes from other lines here and there. As an opera singer, you don't need to be a concert pianist, but it will certainly help if you can play your accompaniment.

   Once you've familiarized yourself with your notes and rhythms, it's time to sing through with either your instrumental track and/or a coach. Please please don't go to your coach without trying your best to learn the music, they can certainly help you but you'd be wasting your money to go to a coach without first learning your music. If you have very difficult music that doesn't have many recordings, try your best to familiarize yourself with your vocal line before going and asking for in-person help. The same goes with your voice teachers (although, I hope I don't have to say this).

   Appcompanist ​is a very popular resource for piano instrumental tracks, but please be careful as not all of their repertoire is accurate. 

The Memorization

I'll be honest, there are a lot of memorization methods out there.
   Flash cards, writing your lines over and over, working through your music backwards, constant repetition. Whatever your cup of tea, memorization is the most stressful part of learning a role.  I personally use a variety of these methods, as I'm always terribly anxious about whether or not I'll be prepared.  What I will say is that if you're taking your time and doing your pre-prep correctly, the memorization process will be significantly easier, as you've formed an accurate foundation and have allowed yourself to really sit with your music. 

Consistency will always be key. Don't wait until 2 weeks before your music rehearsals to begin looking over your music (I made that mistake, once). I was given roughly 2 months to learn the role I'm currently working on, and I've used any spare moment I could...and I'm still not exactly comfortable with where I currently am on my journey. It will take time for you to get comfortable with the music, and learn where your role will live in your body. 
~

I hope that this overview of my role-learning methods will give you some insight into your own cultivation of a process for learning a role. It's far from perfect, but I'm happy to share both triumphs and mistakes with you, dear reader. After all, life is never perfect. Mistakes are beautiful, and are what make us human.