South Jersey Soprano

And the answer is: practice, practice, practice!

2015-02-10T14:39:00.000-05:00

It may seem like I've dropped off the face of the planet, but I'm still here, and I'm still singing. In fact, I have a few things coming up that I wanted to share. The biggest one is that I will be making my Carnegie Hall debut in June! I'll be the soprano soloist in Mozart's Requiem, performing with the Masterworks Festival Chorus and the New York City Chamber Orchestra conducted by Joe

Otello

2012-09-17T13:25:00.003-04:00

Today is our first day off since I've been in Houston directing Rossini's Otello, or Faux-tello as we've started calling it since it's not very related to the original Shakespeare. The whole opera would be staged right now, but one of the comprimario singers was away at a wedding this weekend, so I have to block him in during our first run-through tomorrow night. Also, one of the chorus women has

Almost in Houston (again)

2012-08-25T21:03:00.002-04:00

I am a week and a half away from my first rehearsal in Houston of Rossini's Otello, and I'm a combination of excited and nervous. I have been working on Otello like crazy the second half of the summer. When I've directed before, staging has always come easily for me. However, full length operas are a lot different than individual scenes and the 45-minute opera I directed at USC. There are so many

Slight change of direction

2012-05-01T15:29:00.000-04:00

Another audition season came and went, and while my agent got great feedback on my singing, no jobs have come my way yet. Apparently, a couple of the European companies I auditioned for are thinking of using me in the future, so I suppose I'll just have to be patient. In the meantime, another opportunity presented itself and I just couldn't say no. As you know, I sang Marie in Daughter of the

The rest of Macau

2011-11-11T19:50:00.001-05:00

My trip in Macau came to an end last Sunday. We had three performances, and they were very well-received. The trip was a great opportunity for me, and getting the chance to travel to a place like Macau was amazing, but I'm definitely happy to be home in my nice, soft bed again. Our soprano, Melanie Diener, arrived on the 24th, and was shocked that we had started rehearsing already. She had no

Fun times in Macau

2011-10-23T09:19:00.000-04:00

It's been a week and a half since I arrived in Macau to sing Ännchen in Der Freischütz. Macau is basically the Las Vegas of the East, without the Vegas-style entertainment. This is a place to gamble, gamble, and gamble some more. I've walked into many of the casinos, and while they're definitely large and gaudy, they're nowhere near as interesting to see as the ones in Vegas. I did, however,

Success!

2011-09-26T14:12:00.003-04:00

Well, it's my birthday today, and what better way to take my mind off turning 31 than writing another post about singing Marie! I should start by saying that I've had two performances so far with two left, and they've gone very well. The audiences are loving the show, and the critics are, too! I've gotten two reviews so far, both from opening night. The first is from the Houston Chronicle (

Goodbye nice weather, hello Houston

2011-09-01T16:58:00.000-04:00

Just when I thought the summer was ending, I flew to Houston. They're rationing water (they're apparently about 40 inches short this year) and have had around 50 days this summer over 100 degrees, including all three days I've been here. Luckily, my host family has A/C, and so does the theater. And speaking of weather, just in case you were wondering, the hurricane put downtown Mt. Holly under

One down, two to go!

2011-06-18T14:45:00.000-04:00

Mitridate has been over for almost a month, and now that I'm no longer still hearing the recitatives in my dreams, I think it's about time to tell you about my experience before I forget it entirely. This was definitely a different experience from any of the other operas I've been in. With a low budget, there just wasn't enough money for certain things that I've gotten used to more recently. One

China, here I come again!

2011-04-15T12:14:00.000-04:00

Great news! In my previous post, I wrote about singing in the NYIOPs. Through that, I was invited to a second audition for the Savonlinna Opera Festival and for the Macau International Music Festival. I am still waiting to hear from Savonlinna, although my agent tells me I have a good chance of getting the lead in a world premiere next summer about the fire of La Fenice. I did, however, get a gig

My last Met competition and other goodies

2011-02-06T17:37:00.000-05:00

A few things have happened since my last blog post. I finally got a cut list for the first half of Mitridate, so I've been practicing the score like crazy. Thankfully, lots of the recitative is cut, and also thankfully, none of my arias are. I still have a ton to sing and learn, and I'm almost memorized on Act I, and getting there on the first half of Act II (that's all we have cuts for so far).

I'm back!

2010-11-04T23:21:00.014-04:00

Just when you thought you'd never hear from me again....Well, it's been a little over a year since my last post, but I guess I was a little busy. You know, getting married, buying a house, going on my honeymoon to St. Lucia, rushing off to spend the summer again in Sante Fe with my new husband, coming back home and sprucing up the house, thinking about what I'm going to make for dinner...that

Better late than never: singing the Queen in Spain, some future gigs, and the best engagement of my life

2009-09-23T17:50:00.006-04:00

It's been three months since my last confession...I mean blog. Guess I've been busy, lazy, forgetful, or all of the above. I kept meaning to write about my experiences in Spain singing Queen of the Night at the Festival Internacional de Música de Almansa, and somehow, I never got around to it. Until now.So here we go, assuming I can remember a majority of the details. Almansa is a tiny little

Last blog from Berlin (well, at least for a while)!

2009-06-29T12:25:00.006-04:00

My time here at the Deutsche Oper is rapidly coming to a close. My last performance is this Friday, I'm singing Frasquita in Carmen for a third time. I also have two Turandots, singing what is clearly marked in the score as Altra sola. As opposed to Una sola, which is the girl I'm singing with offstage for 20 seconds. Bad news is, I have to actually show up for this, good news is, one of the two

Tannhäuser and Wonderland (with pictures!)

2009-05-14T16:14:00.012-04:00

As per the Deutsche Oper's general feeling on rehearsing, I of course only had about 10 minutes of rehearsal for my bit part in Tannhäuser. I sing the part of the Shepherdess, who comes on, sings a song cappella, listens to a beautiful male chorus, and then sings another line before leaving. Usually the shepherdess also plays a shalmei (well, fake plays a shalmei while an English horn plays

Broken sets, costume malfunctions, me dancing - all the good stuff

2009-05-07T05:13:00.007-04:00

Things I’ve learned from Alice im Wunderland:1) I can dance!2) If the set looks like it’s going to break but you’re told to do what you’re supposed to do anyway, it’s not entirely your fault when you break the set.3) I am really good at German dialogue.4) The German word for splinter is Splitter. Ouch!5) It’s a lot harder to get out of the big boxes on the set than it looks on the DVD.We open

A good reason to write a new blog entry

2009-03-16T09:19:00.006-04:00

Something is wrong with my permanent forwarding email account (not so permanent now, are we). Not sure what happened, but as of four days ago, any mail sent to eamiller (at) alumni.usc.edu is missing somewhere in the world wide web. So, if you sent me something, please resend if it was important. I'm hoping to get this problem solved, but just in case that doesn't happen, please send me emails at

Helena premiere and a couple of divas

2009-01-27T17:42:00.016-05:00

I just sang in the premiere of Helena on January 18, and according to some of the other singers, it was the most well-received premiere here in years. The singers were all incredible. Laura Aikin, the coloratura, was such an inspiration. She's sung everywhere, is the sweetest woman, has two adorable kids, and has a voice that doesn't have any hint of age in it and is just spectacular. The Helena,

Happy Holidays! (And time to get to work!)

2008-12-28T09:43:00.005-05:00

To begin with, Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah! And soon to be, Happy New Year. December has been super busy and also a bit frustrating. Good stuff first: the Christmas Markets are fantastic, full of great food and arts and crafts, and I've seen just about all of the ones anyone's heard of. I've eaten all sorts of delicious sausages, crepes, melted cheese, perogies, salamis, soups, quarkballs

A month later, still alive!

2008-11-29T15:51:00.010-05:00

I just realized it's been a long time since I've written a post! Over a month, actually. I think I figured you needed a bit of a break after the small novels I kept writing about China. I sure needed a break after all that wall-climbing and dumpling-eating, and I got my wish. Most of the operas I'm in start in December, so I've had lots of free time in the last month to learn music, sing another

End of China and beginning of Königin der Nacht

2008-10-25T14:00:00.009-04:00

Temple of HeavenScary looking Buddha on displayI only burned a little film.Beats me.And I did.Panda!Look closely, it's another baby butt!We decided not to take the pleasure boat.Well, I'm back in Berlin. The last couple of days in China went well. I didn't have to perform so I basically had the days free. The highlights were the Temple of Heaven, the Beijing Zoo where I got to see the pandas, a

Mind the Hilly Road

2008-10-08T09:52:00.009-04:00

Yeah, so rather than another long post you probably don't have time to read, I figured I'd keep it shorter and write about just a few days. Lots of exciting stuff to see! And lots of exciting menus to read. And the pictures are:Sign seen in many places at the Summer Palace, it's very hilly thereTower of Buddhist Incense at the Summer PalaceOne of the many decorated ceilings at the Summer

Welcome to Beijing, would you like a side of smog with that?

2008-10-04T09:07:00.008-04:00

I have been in Beijing about one week now, and I have to say, things have been getting more exciting and delicious each day! I was thinking about just posting after I get back to Berlin, but that would be one really long blog post, and no one would actually get through it. So I'll break it up into two posts, and hopefully you'll get through this first one. I'm going to go by

My first Queen!

2008-09-12T11:54:00.006-04:00

Had the premiere of Das Märchen von der Zauberflöte yesterday morning, and it went wonderfully! I mean, you really can't go wrong with cutting Die Zauberflöte down to 70 minutes, but what a terrific production this is. From the costumes to the sets to the singers, everything is just top notch. After we finished the show, there was champagne for us outside the dressing rooms, followed by more

One down, 36 to go.

2008-09-09T11:20:00.005-04:00

Saturday night was our first performance, the Eröffnungsgala. It was an evening of opera scenes, arias, and some solo orchestra stuff. My part was singing Frasquita in the Carmen Card Trio and in the Toreador Song. We also ended the evening with Vaughn Williams’ Serenade to Music, which is apparently a tradition here. For those of you that know the piece, I had the first and