Oh, outreach! You fickle, fickle friend. For whatever reason, outreach has become one of the only ways for opera companies to get money from, well, anyone. And thusly, it has also become one of the principal ways for young opera singers to make money from singing opera. Now don't get me wrong! I have had some very, very positive outreach experiences. But some shows are better than others, and some kids are just not going to be entertained by you and your colleagues prancing around, acting like goats/pigs/wolves/dolls. But never fear! Classical Stinker is here to help.
Where did all the stagehands go? Oh wait. We are the stagehands. Merde.
When you are called on to perform manual labor at 7 o'clock in the morning and then sing for 45 minutes, coffee, a healthy sense of humor, and a pair of cheap gardening gloves are your best friends. Ladies especially: whatever gloves your company gives you will likely be enormous-man-hand-sized. But gardening gloves come in wee-lady-hand sizes, (because ladies like flowers!) and will make unloading your set much less painful, especially on those lovely 20-degree, snowy days, when you're loading the set into an auditorium up three flights of stairs, on a mountain, facing into the wind.
It's just so punny! The kids are gonna LOVE it!
Or not. "Are you kidding me?!?!?!," "Boooo-riiinnggg," and the all-purpose "UUuuuggggghhhhhhhh," are all phrases that you are likely to hear emanating from some of your more jaded audiences. Now, difficult though it may be to execute, the only thing that is likely to keep an all-encompassing wave of ennui from sweeping through your cast and killing what little suspension of disbelief that may still be lurking in the audience, is to get even more into the show. You must deliver your most hated, most horribly punny line with the conviction of Richard III putting his request in for a horse. Of course, there are some audiences that are lost the minute they walk in. These are known as teenagers. If your company has booked a children's show at a high school...I am sorry. Bring body armor and sing everything in cut time.
Outreach at 8, back by 5, lesson at 6! Awesome!
Now we come to one of my biggest pet peeves about outreach shows. Although there are a few notable exceptions, most outreach opera is not written with operatic voice types in mind. Unless you are a contralto-y mezzo, or a mezzo-y soprano, or a bass-y tenor, (baritones always seem to get by fine but please enlighten me if you think otherwise!), you are not going to be singing in your most comfortable range on outreach tours. Threshold of artistry though it may be, audibility is not always possible. For example: You are in a gym full of pre-lunch-time children. There is a low hum emanating from the assembled crowd. Your opening song's highest note is a C. C 5. Audibility ain't gonna happen, and it's not your problem when it doesn't. In some cases, you MUST look out for number one. Which is, obviously, La Voce. The kids will get caught up in the rest of the show: the sets, the costumes, the schtick. Mostly the schtick.
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