April 23, 2025 • 25 mins
On this episode of The Downtown, we talk to Eliza Escalante with Opera Arlington. We talk to her about the Royals performance, how you can audition, and so much more. WE also hear a little of Opera Arlington right now.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:22):
Welcome to downtown.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
I brought you by Arlington, says to me.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
I am Brody John.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
And on this episode we talked to Eliza Escalante with
Opera Arlington. We talked to her about the Royals performance,
how you can audition to be part of the Opera
Arlington and so much more. Plus we will hear a
little of Opera Arlington right now. It's fine.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Six s z A s.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
Z six school.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
I like to welcome the show Eliza Escalante with Opera Arlington.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
How are you doing today?
Speaker 5 (03:04):
I'm doing great, John, Thanks for asking.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
So the last time I looked, I hadn't spoke to
any of y'all since I talked to doctor Bree Nichols,
the founder and artistic director, back in November of twenty
twenty two.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
What have y'all been up to in a year and
a half.
Speaker 5 (03:22):
Since we've been up to quite a lot. We have
produced three full operas since then. We're going into production
for our fourth opera in a week. Yeah, we have
hired over one hundred local emerging artists. Over our past
two seasons. We have done I think seven or eight concerts,
(03:47):
and yeah, we've really been We've been working hard to
make a lot of music and bring a lot of
joy to the community.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
I love that so much.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Yeah, I know because when I talked to Brie, it
was right before the first concert that was going to happen.
It was just right after I'm not sure which one,
but there was, you know, it was still so blossoming,
and we were very curious how the community was going
to receive it. And from what I've seen, they've been
receiving it very well, and they absolutely loved that there's
(04:18):
actually an opera here in the city of Arlington.
Speaker 5 (04:21):
Absolutely we have gotten I think probably a dream audience
here in Arlington. I have never felt so invigorated and
seen so much joy in an audience before, and I
feel very privileged to be able to be able to
create music for these wonderful people.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Well, so, how did you get associated with the opera?
Speaker 5 (04:46):
Sure? I have been in North Texas since twenty fifteen
when I moved here to get my masters at University
of North Texas, and since then I've worked in and
around the final art classical music world. I was in
the early music scene for quite a while, working behind
the scenes and then just gigging as musicians do, and
(05:10):
it just so happened that around the time that Brie
had announced their first show for the season, which was
Cozy Fontute. I was at a point in my life
where I was trying to figure out what I wanted
to do. I had been teaching quite a bit, which
is very common for classical artists to do as their
(05:33):
quote unquote day job, and I had just left teaching
because I wasn't feeling fulfilled artistically. And I saw the
announcement on Facebook of the season and that had been cast,
and I just did a cold email and I emailed
(05:55):
Brie and I said, I would love to be involved
in this production in any way. I have lots of
time right now, and yeah, I would love to help.
And she was like immediately, it's like I would love
all the help you can give.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
And so it was.
Speaker 5 (06:11):
It was kind of just the right time, right time,
right place, right people. And we both co directed Cozy
Funktute and had a great time working together and really
enjoyed doing the production, and so she said, well, you
should obviously keep working with us while when we do Rasolka,
(06:33):
and so we went on and did Risolka and here I.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Am, that's amazing. I love that so much.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
I mean, that's the thing people don't know. Just send
that one question out there with that one DM or email,
and you never know what's going to come back for you.
Speaker 5 (06:48):
You never know, you know. I work in an industry
where careers are determined by a yes or no and
other people's opinions, and that can be very, very scary.
It can be very scary to put yourself out there
and potentially be rejected. But what I realized at that
point in my life was I hadn't I hadn't put
(07:11):
myself out there enough for someone to then say yes, right,
And so I tried to encourage all singers and artists
based obviously on my personal experience, but I think many
people would agree with me that you never know unless
you put it out there.
Speaker 6 (07:30):
And so so what if someone says no, that's okay.
You can ask someone else and they might say yes exactly.
No is not a judgment call on you as an
artist or you as a person. It's just simply not
the right place in the right time yet.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
So.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
You're one hundred percent correct. And I tell people that
all the time too, just you know, because people are
always like.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Oh, how do you know start a podcast? Or how
do you blah blah blah.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
I'm like, do you just start? You literally just start
doing it. The first you probably know are going to
be that great, but you will get there eventually. And
the same thing with the doing interviews. Just ask somebody again.
The worst thing they could.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Say is no, like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
And I do think you know, as much as I
love musicians and I love art, a lot of artists
are very introverts and so the begetting themselves even to
the point of asking, you know, being like an extrot
there you have to be like, Okay, I got to
work up to it. Maybe maybe he's like nope, you
literally just have to jump and you just got to
do it. Now we're a couple of weeks removed from
(08:34):
the Royals performance.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
How do you think that that went? And you tell
us about that?
Speaker 5 (08:39):
Yeah, I thought it went exceptionally well. It's been kind
of a wild year for Opera Arlington, a lot of
new and exciting relationships and transitions, and this is my
first year as kind of being in the director of
the Organization chair, and so I was very pleased with
(09:02):
Royals because it led to a great partnership with Create
Texas and Wellspring, which are two wonderful organizations a business
and a nonprofit here in Arlington that our art centered.
It led to that, and also just I mean mechanically,
all of the singers sang really beautifully in a beautiful space,
(09:23):
So I was I was very pleased with the outcome.
It was a little bit of a last minute organizational run,
but even with that, I feel even the audience turn
out and the whole product was something that was enjoyable.
Everyone left feeling feeling energized and appreciating the beauty of
(09:46):
the music. So that was a great joy.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
That's amazing.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
So as the director, what does for those that don't
know kind of what is your role and how do
you how do you play it when it comes to
Opera Arlington?
Speaker 5 (09:59):
Sure? Sure So currently Opera Arlington we are starting our
third season this coming fall, or wrapping up our second
season this year, and we are really quite a small
organization right now. I am the probably one, I think
I'm the only person who's really working what you would
(10:21):
consider full time hours, working four to five hours every
day on administration and networking and creative vision. But not
by myself because I do have a handful of other
people who are absolutely instrumental in making it happen. For
me as a director, what it looks like for this
(10:46):
past season and this upcoming season is I'm responsible for
stage directing, which is understanding the shows we're putting on
and how I'm going to direct singers in it, and
how I'm going to help foster the most beneficial environment
I can for singers to be empowered to sing their
(11:07):
best and act their best, and for audiences to have
their best opera experience they can. That's one that's probably
the upfront of what people see, and then the other
half is being a producer and what that means for
us at this stage is producing funding to pay for
(11:28):
things as basic as costumes and set pieces, all the
way to securing funding for outreach outreach productions, for hiring artists,
for education initiatives, and for onboarding employees as we grow,
(11:49):
being able to confidently pay them for their their work
as we as we grow to bigger and hopefully better things.
So that's kind of a snapshot of how I view
the directorship at this time. And also something that I
think is really important is spending a lot of time
(12:11):
investing in relationships. My relationship with doctor Nichols with three
as our artistic director, making sure I'm not just investing
work time, but investing care and love and nourishment into
that so that we can be operating at our artistic
(12:33):
max and that she feels seen and our community partners,
establishing relationships with local business owners as a trustworthy organization
and establishing a reputation in the artists community as being
a fair and equitable and uplifting singers experience as well.
(12:59):
Our rehearsal space is having reputation of being a safe space,
of being a happy space, and of being an artistically
fulfilling space that pushes artists levels, pushes them to be better,
but also somewhere where they can create without being worried
about anything else.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Right, And that's really, at the end of the day,
what it's all about is making sure that everyone is
feeling safe and actually creatively fulfilled as well.
Speaker 5 (13:28):
Yes, yes, especially with our mission which our main mission
is to provide valuable art or opera experiences to emerging artists.
And valuable means not only are they getting a role
to put on their resumes when the audition at other companies,
they can show they have job experience basically, but also
(13:49):
fostering in an environment that has high expectations and high
standards and a level of professionalism so that they're prepared
as they go into other environments. They know what it's
like to be prepared, they know what they need to
do to be prepared. But also recognizing that we're working
with emerging artists and maybe you thought you knew your
(14:11):
role really well and then you get to rehearsal and
you didn't holding a place for them to be like, Okay,
that's all right, We'll help you get to that level
so that you know for next time exactly. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Well, So, speaking of which, y'all are hosting auditions this
weekend for the twenty twenty five and twenty twenty six seasons.
For those that actually do want to audition, kind of
what is the process, how do they actually apply and
then what do what does the audition process actually look like?
Speaker 5 (14:40):
For absolutely so, our application process is pretty straightforward. To
go to our website, offer Arlington dot com and navigate
to the auditions tab. It's it's right on our front page.
It's you don't even have to scroll to see it.
When you click on auditions, it's going to open a
form that you would fill out if you're interested in auditioning.
(15:04):
On that form, they are the dates and location of
auditions all of the roles were casting for the season.
A field for recordings, which I really encourage singers to submit,
even if it's not a perfect recording, even if it's
a recording of you in a lesson, an audio audio
visual recording, your resume, basic things like that, and then
(15:29):
there is a link to sign up for a time
slot to audition.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Now.
Speaker 5 (15:33):
I was just looking at the time slots today and
we are currently completely booked for auditions for this coming weekend.
But it is it's very exciting. I am so pumped
for this weekend. But that doesn't mean that you are
too late. I am considering and brit and I are
(15:56):
both considering what it would look like to have a
second or a three day of auditions at some point,
because we've been getting a lot of requests, and you
can always submit an audition form, and there's a field
for notes where you can say I was unable to
secure a time I would still like to be considered
if there are auditions or a virtual audition opportunity because
(16:20):
we do go look at every audition form and we
read all of those notes and we will make a
list of those singers. So that's the audition process. And
auditions are free. We don't charge you an audition fee. However,
we do provide a pianist for auditions if you don't
(16:40):
have someone playing for you regularly or someone that you
want to bring and you there is a twenty dollars
pianist fee that's paid directly to the pianist. So Oprah Arlington,
we're not collecting anything on the audition, but our pianists
are paid.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
So are you're gonna pay your musicians?
Speaker 5 (16:59):
It makes sense, We've got to play our musicians.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Well, so what is the actual for people that haven't
seen you all live? What is the actual season kind
of time frame that people can start looking forward to.
Speaker 5 (17:13):
Yeah, absolutely, well, we have our final show of this season.
It opens the first weekend in June, June sixth and seven.
It's a Friday and Saturday at Trinity United Methodist Church
and we are doing a fully staged production of Mozart's
Don Giovanni with chamber orchestra, and that orchestra will be
(17:33):
conducted by Jason Limb from McKinney Philharmonic and Tao Jong
will be our continual player. Fabulous, fabulous continual player. And
then for our upcoming season after Don Giovanni will go
dark for most of the summer because we've been we've
been hustling all year. Summer is our off season. But
(17:58):
we'll start right back at the top of our season
with rehearsals for Mozart's Magic Flute, which we will be
doing with sung German and English dialogue, and it'll be
a reduced version with no courtes. And that's going to
open the first weekend in October, the Friday and Saturday,
(18:21):
and that will also be at Trinity United Methodist Church.
Our third show of this season is going to be
hansol Or. Our second show of the season is going
to be Hansel and Gretel. Yeah, the Humperdank Pencil and Gretel.
That will be sung in English, and that is going
to be Thanksgiving week. Actually, we're going to open black Friday.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Oh awesome, yeah, yeah, and.
Speaker 5 (18:50):
So we'll be doing our show that for the holiday season.
It'll be a very magical Christmasy gingerbread house theme. Very
excited about that. And then our third show we're going
to do in the spring again first weekend of June,
and that is going to be Buzez's Carmen and we
are going to be doing that with orchestra. So that
(19:13):
is our Yeah, that's our main stage lineup. I did
the tally the other day. There are twenty seven main
stage roles that are up for casting for our upcoming
season and we do double cast everything, so that means
we're going to have over fifty artist slots for our
main stage productions open for casting on our next season.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
That's amazing that y'all have.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Or, like you said, you're really helping the local community
of musicians and the talent that is around here, because
you know, people think that there's not big music scene
here in the metroplex, and they are completely wrong. There
are so many absolutely talented musicians from all walks that
I think a lot of people just haven't heard of yet.
Speaker 5 (19:56):
Absolutely, you make a very good point. One of the
reasons free I wanted to start off Arlington is that
there are some truly excellent music programs and voice studios
in the DFW Metroplex. I mean there's there's U N
T S m U dB, U U T a ut
D all of these schools with really wonderful voices coming
(20:21):
out of there who deserve experience. And then on top
of that, the DFW Metroplex is uh, you know, bustling metropolis.
There's a lot of older singers who maybe transitioned to
other careers but are still singing in their free time,
who are really now hitting their peak vocal maturity and
(20:42):
should be able to share their music with the world.
And so we have a really unique position geographically even
to have access to all these wonderful, this really diverse,
wonderful array of artists and voices.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Right and the Metroplex is not getting any smaller by
any means, so that we're getting so many more people
moving to the Metriples that you know, we'll get all
these amazing voices and talents.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
From other parts of the world or even the country.
Speaker 5 (21:08):
Even Yeah, absolutely no.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
I love it so much.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
So we have a segment on the show. It's called
the Tournament of Toppings. We're trying to find the best
pizza place in Arlington. What is your favorite pizza place
in Arlington?
Speaker 5 (21:20):
Favorite pizza place in Arlington? You know, to be honest,
I haven't oh in Arlington yet, so I would like
to turn that question around.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Okay, well, I'd like to.
Speaker 5 (21:31):
Know what your favorite or what the top recommended pizza
place is.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Old Schools always it's always at top. So that's right
there on Uta Campus on Abram and then Mama's Pizza
on Fielder and Randall Mill has always been either it's
like one A, one B there and then I mean
Becksny's a pizza of was it Lamar in thirty? That
(21:57):
one's fantastic. So I'm you know again, we have no
shortage of fantastic pizza or yauzine in general around the
world here in the city of Arlington.
Speaker 5 (22:07):
Yes, absolutely. I have been enjoying trying out all the
different places in Arlington very much. So I I'm always
really excited to hear what I would recommend. I have
to check out those pizza places. I'm a personally New
York style thin crust pizza person.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Okay, then Bex is definitely going to be your spot.
And then I know there's multiple other New York places,
but I think Bex might be the best.
Speaker 5 (22:33):
Okay, Okay, great, I'm gonna have to check them out.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
Please do thank you now, If people wanted to find
out more about y'all. Obviously audition like you said, or
follow you guys online see what your schedule is going
to be.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
How can they do all the things?
Speaker 5 (22:46):
Yeah, if you are someone who uses social media regularly,
we do have an active social media presence on Facebook
and Instagram. We post all our updates through there, but
we do also keep our website updated. Our website is
www dot Opera Arlington dot com and there will be
(23:06):
two a's next to each other. O P E R
A A R L I N G T O N
dot com you can see all of our events. Tickets
for Don Giovanni will go on sale sometime this week,
so we'll have all the casting information and the vocation
information for that. And if if you absolutely can't find
(23:30):
the update that you need, you can always just email
me at Eliza at Opera Arlington dot com and I
will do my best.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
I love it, Eliza, thank you so much for your time.
And yes, if people have not gone out and seen
OPRAH Arlington yet, they need to. With that a doubt,
So definitely first weekend in June you are not going
to want to miss it. And yeah, definitely don't miss
the next coming season as well, absolutely, thank you so
much to Eliza for being on the show again. If
you want to be part of Opera Arlington, definitely makes
(23:59):
sure were to go on their website and put in
your submission because they will definitely check it out and
YouTube could be part of Opera Arlington. Now why you're
doing all those fun things, make sure to go out
and eat local, drink local, and go rediscover your city.
Speaker 4 (24:12):
Tag us and send those pictures over to us on
Facebook Arlington Citizen Media, Twitter at x Citizen Media. Tag
us on Instagram Arlington Citizen Media and send send those
pictures the old fashioned way email Arlington Citizen Media at
gmail dot com. Also go to our website www dot
Arlington Citizenmedia dot com. Don't forget to subscribe and give
(24:35):
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Speaker 3 (25:00):
A NPL at bable of the Boy at an Uncle
of the Bobo as Bundy at Parting the album art
(25:23):
Uple of Doble at bott
Welcome to downtown.
Speaker 2 (00:23):
I brought you by Arlington, says to me.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
I am Brody John.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
And on this episode we talked to Eliza Escalante with
Opera Arlington. We talked to her about the Royals performance,
how you can audition to be part of the Opera
Arlington and so much more. Plus we will hear a
little of Opera Arlington right now. It's fine.
Speaker 3 (01:42):
Six s z A s.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
Z six school.
Speaker 2 (02:59):
I like to welcome the show Eliza Escalante with Opera Arlington.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
How are you doing today?
Speaker 5 (03:04):
I'm doing great, John, Thanks for asking.
Speaker 2 (03:07):
So the last time I looked, I hadn't spoke to
any of y'all since I talked to doctor Bree Nichols,
the founder and artistic director, back in November of twenty
twenty two.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
What have y'all been up to in a year and
a half.
Speaker 5 (03:22):
Since we've been up to quite a lot. We have
produced three full operas since then. We're going into production
for our fourth opera in a week. Yeah, we have
hired over one hundred local emerging artists. Over our past
two seasons. We have done I think seven or eight concerts,
(03:47):
and yeah, we've really been We've been working hard to
make a lot of music and bring a lot of
joy to the community.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
I love that so much.
Speaker 2 (03:56):
Yeah, I know because when I talked to Brie, it
was right before the first concert that was going to happen.
It was just right after I'm not sure which one,
but there was, you know, it was still so blossoming,
and we were very curious how the community was going
to receive it. And from what I've seen, they've been
receiving it very well, and they absolutely loved that there's
(04:18):
actually an opera here in the city of Arlington.
Speaker 5 (04:21):
Absolutely we have gotten I think probably a dream audience
here in Arlington. I have never felt so invigorated and
seen so much joy in an audience before, and I
feel very privileged to be able to be able to
create music for these wonderful people.
Speaker 1 (04:42):
Well, so, how did you get associated with the opera?
Speaker 5 (04:46):
Sure? I have been in North Texas since twenty fifteen
when I moved here to get my masters at University
of North Texas, and since then I've worked in and
around the final art classical music world. I was in
the early music scene for quite a while, working behind
the scenes and then just gigging as musicians do, and
(05:10):
it just so happened that around the time that Brie
had announced their first show for the season, which was
Cozy Fontute. I was at a point in my life
where I was trying to figure out what I wanted
to do. I had been teaching quite a bit, which
is very common for classical artists to do as their
(05:33):
quote unquote day job, and I had just left teaching
because I wasn't feeling fulfilled artistically. And I saw the
announcement on Facebook of the season and that had been cast,
and I just did a cold email and I emailed
(05:55):
Brie and I said, I would love to be involved
in this production in any way. I have lots of
time right now, and yeah, I would love to help.
And she was like immediately, it's like I would love
all the help you can give.
Speaker 2 (06:10):
And so it was.
Speaker 5 (06:11):
It was kind of just the right time, right time,
right place, right people. And we both co directed Cozy
Funktute and had a great time working together and really
enjoyed doing the production, and so she said, well, you
should obviously keep working with us while when we do Rasolka,
(06:33):
and so we went on and did Risolka and here I.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
Am, that's amazing. I love that so much.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
I mean, that's the thing people don't know. Just send
that one question out there with that one DM or email,
and you never know what's going to come back for you.
Speaker 5 (06:48):
You never know, you know. I work in an industry
where careers are determined by a yes or no and
other people's opinions, and that can be very, very scary.
It can be very scary to put yourself out there
and potentially be rejected. But what I realized at that
point in my life was I hadn't I hadn't put
(07:11):
myself out there enough for someone to then say yes, right,
And so I tried to encourage all singers and artists
based obviously on my personal experience, but I think many
people would agree with me that you never know unless
you put it out there.
Speaker 6 (07:30):
And so so what if someone says no, that's okay.
You can ask someone else and they might say yes exactly.
No is not a judgment call on you as an
artist or you as a person. It's just simply not
the right place in the right time yet.
Speaker 3 (07:46):
So.
Speaker 2 (07:48):
You're one hundred percent correct. And I tell people that
all the time too, just you know, because people are
always like.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
Oh, how do you know start a podcast? Or how
do you blah blah blah.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
I'm like, do you just start? You literally just start
doing it. The first you probably know are going to
be that great, but you will get there eventually. And
the same thing with the doing interviews. Just ask somebody again.
The worst thing they could.
Speaker 1 (08:07):
Say is no, like yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
And I do think you know, as much as I
love musicians and I love art, a lot of artists
are very introverts and so the begetting themselves even to
the point of asking, you know, being like an extrot
there you have to be like, Okay, I got to
work up to it. Maybe maybe he's like nope, you
literally just have to jump and you just got to
do it. Now we're a couple of weeks removed from
(08:34):
the Royals performance.
Speaker 1 (08:35):
How do you think that that went? And you tell
us about that?
Speaker 5 (08:39):
Yeah, I thought it went exceptionally well. It's been kind
of a wild year for Opera Arlington, a lot of
new and exciting relationships and transitions, and this is my
first year as kind of being in the director of
the Organization chair, and so I was very pleased with
(09:02):
Royals because it led to a great partnership with Create
Texas and Wellspring, which are two wonderful organizations a business
and a nonprofit here in Arlington that our art centered.
It led to that, and also just I mean mechanically,
all of the singers sang really beautifully in a beautiful space,
(09:23):
So I was I was very pleased with the outcome.
It was a little bit of a last minute organizational run,
but even with that, I feel even the audience turn
out and the whole product was something that was enjoyable.
Everyone left feeling feeling energized and appreciating the beauty of
(09:46):
the music. So that was a great joy.
Speaker 1 (09:49):
That's amazing.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
So as the director, what does for those that don't
know kind of what is your role and how do
you how do you play it when it comes to
Opera Arlington?
Speaker 5 (09:59):
Sure? Sure So currently Opera Arlington we are starting our
third season this coming fall, or wrapping up our second
season this year, and we are really quite a small
organization right now. I am the probably one, I think
I'm the only person who's really working what you would
(10:21):
consider full time hours, working four to five hours every
day on administration and networking and creative vision. But not
by myself because I do have a handful of other
people who are absolutely instrumental in making it happen. For
me as a director, what it looks like for this
(10:46):
past season and this upcoming season is I'm responsible for
stage directing, which is understanding the shows we're putting on
and how I'm going to direct singers in it, and
how I'm going to help foster the most beneficial environment
I can for singers to be empowered to sing their
(11:07):
best and act their best, and for audiences to have
their best opera experience they can. That's one that's probably
the upfront of what people see, and then the other
half is being a producer and what that means for
us at this stage is producing funding to pay for
(11:28):
things as basic as costumes and set pieces, all the
way to securing funding for outreach outreach productions, for hiring artists,
for education initiatives, and for onboarding employees as we grow,
(11:49):
being able to confidently pay them for their their work
as we as we grow to bigger and hopefully better things.
So that's kind of a snapshot of how I view
the directorship at this time. And also something that I
think is really important is spending a lot of time
(12:11):
investing in relationships. My relationship with doctor Nichols with three
as our artistic director, making sure I'm not just investing
work time, but investing care and love and nourishment into
that so that we can be operating at our artistic
(12:33):
max and that she feels seen and our community partners,
establishing relationships with local business owners as a trustworthy organization
and establishing a reputation in the artists community as being
a fair and equitable and uplifting singers experience as well.
(12:59):
Our rehearsal space is having reputation of being a safe space,
of being a happy space, and of being an artistically
fulfilling space that pushes artists levels, pushes them to be better,
but also somewhere where they can create without being worried
about anything else.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Right, And that's really, at the end of the day,
what it's all about is making sure that everyone is
feeling safe and actually creatively fulfilled as well.
Speaker 5 (13:28):
Yes, yes, especially with our mission which our main mission
is to provide valuable art or opera experiences to emerging artists.
And valuable means not only are they getting a role
to put on their resumes when the audition at other companies,
they can show they have job experience basically, but also
(13:49):
fostering in an environment that has high expectations and high
standards and a level of professionalism so that they're prepared
as they go into other environments. They know what it's
like to be prepared, they know what they need to
do to be prepared. But also recognizing that we're working
with emerging artists and maybe you thought you knew your
(14:11):
role really well and then you get to rehearsal and
you didn't holding a place for them to be like, Okay,
that's all right, We'll help you get to that level
so that you know for next time exactly. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Well, So, speaking of which, y'all are hosting auditions this
weekend for the twenty twenty five and twenty twenty six seasons.
For those that actually do want to audition, kind of
what is the process, how do they actually apply and
then what do what does the audition process actually look like?
Speaker 5 (14:40):
For absolutely so, our application process is pretty straightforward. To
go to our website, offer Arlington dot com and navigate
to the auditions tab. It's it's right on our front page.
It's you don't even have to scroll to see it.
When you click on auditions, it's going to open a
form that you would fill out if you're interested in auditioning.
(15:04):
On that form, they are the dates and location of
auditions all of the roles were casting for the season.
A field for recordings, which I really encourage singers to submit,
even if it's not a perfect recording, even if it's
a recording of you in a lesson, an audio audio
visual recording, your resume, basic things like that, and then
(15:29):
there is a link to sign up for a time
slot to audition.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
Now.
Speaker 5 (15:33):
I was just looking at the time slots today and
we are currently completely booked for auditions for this coming weekend.
But it is it's very exciting. I am so pumped
for this weekend. But that doesn't mean that you are
too late. I am considering and brit and I are
(15:56):
both considering what it would look like to have a
second or a three day of auditions at some point,
because we've been getting a lot of requests, and you
can always submit an audition form, and there's a field
for notes where you can say I was unable to
secure a time I would still like to be considered
if there are auditions or a virtual audition opportunity because
(16:20):
we do go look at every audition form and we
read all of those notes and we will make a
list of those singers. So that's the audition process. And
auditions are free. We don't charge you an audition fee. However,
we do provide a pianist for auditions if you don't
(16:40):
have someone playing for you regularly or someone that you
want to bring and you there is a twenty dollars
pianist fee that's paid directly to the pianist. So Oprah Arlington,
we're not collecting anything on the audition, but our pianists
are paid.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
So are you're gonna pay your musicians?
Speaker 5 (16:59):
It makes sense, We've got to play our musicians.
Speaker 2 (17:03):
Well, so what is the actual for people that haven't
seen you all live? What is the actual season kind
of time frame that people can start looking forward to.
Speaker 5 (17:13):
Yeah, absolutely, well, we have our final show of this season.
It opens the first weekend in June, June sixth and seven.
It's a Friday and Saturday at Trinity United Methodist Church
and we are doing a fully staged production of Mozart's
Don Giovanni with chamber orchestra, and that orchestra will be
(17:33):
conducted by Jason Limb from McKinney Philharmonic and Tao Jong
will be our continual player. Fabulous, fabulous continual player. And
then for our upcoming season after Don Giovanni will go
dark for most of the summer because we've been we've
been hustling all year. Summer is our off season. But
(17:58):
we'll start right back at the top of our season
with rehearsals for Mozart's Magic Flute, which we will be
doing with sung German and English dialogue, and it'll be
a reduced version with no courtes. And that's going to
open the first weekend in October, the Friday and Saturday,
(18:21):
and that will also be at Trinity United Methodist Church.
Our third show of this season is going to be
hansol Or. Our second show of the season is going
to be Hansel and Gretel. Yeah, the Humperdank Pencil and Gretel.
That will be sung in English, and that is going
to be Thanksgiving week. Actually, we're going to open black Friday.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Oh awesome, yeah, yeah, and.
Speaker 5 (18:50):
So we'll be doing our show that for the holiday season.
It'll be a very magical Christmasy gingerbread house theme. Very
excited about that. And then our third show we're going
to do in the spring again first weekend of June,
and that is going to be Buzez's Carmen and we
are going to be doing that with orchestra. So that
(19:13):
is our Yeah, that's our main stage lineup. I did
the tally the other day. There are twenty seven main
stage roles that are up for casting for our upcoming
season and we do double cast everything, so that means
we're going to have over fifty artist slots for our
main stage productions open for casting on our next season.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
That's amazing that y'all have.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
Or, like you said, you're really helping the local community
of musicians and the talent that is around here, because
you know, people think that there's not big music scene
here in the metroplex, and they are completely wrong. There
are so many absolutely talented musicians from all walks that
I think a lot of people just haven't heard of yet.
Speaker 5 (19:56):
Absolutely, you make a very good point. One of the
reasons free I wanted to start off Arlington is that
there are some truly excellent music programs and voice studios
in the DFW Metroplex. I mean there's there's U N
T S m U dB, U U T a ut
D all of these schools with really wonderful voices coming
(20:21):
out of there who deserve experience. And then on top
of that, the DFW Metroplex is uh, you know, bustling metropolis.
There's a lot of older singers who maybe transitioned to
other careers but are still singing in their free time,
who are really now hitting their peak vocal maturity and
(20:42):
should be able to share their music with the world.
And so we have a really unique position geographically even
to have access to all these wonderful, this really diverse,
wonderful array of artists and voices.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Right and the Metroplex is not getting any smaller by
any means, so that we're getting so many more people
moving to the Metriples that you know, we'll get all
these amazing voices and talents.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
From other parts of the world or even the country.
Speaker 5 (21:08):
Even Yeah, absolutely no.
Speaker 1 (21:11):
I love it so much.
Speaker 2 (21:13):
So we have a segment on the show. It's called
the Tournament of Toppings. We're trying to find the best
pizza place in Arlington. What is your favorite pizza place
in Arlington?
Speaker 5 (21:20):
Favorite pizza place in Arlington? You know, to be honest,
I haven't oh in Arlington yet, so I would like
to turn that question around.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Okay, well, I'd like to.
Speaker 5 (21:31):
Know what your favorite or what the top recommended pizza
place is.
Speaker 2 (21:35):
Old Schools always it's always at top. So that's right
there on Uta Campus on Abram and then Mama's Pizza
on Fielder and Randall Mill has always been either it's
like one A, one B there and then I mean
Becksny's a pizza of was it Lamar in thirty? That
(21:57):
one's fantastic. So I'm you know again, we have no
shortage of fantastic pizza or yauzine in general around the
world here in the city of Arlington.
Speaker 5 (22:07):
Yes, absolutely. I have been enjoying trying out all the
different places in Arlington very much. So I I'm always
really excited to hear what I would recommend. I have
to check out those pizza places. I'm a personally New
York style thin crust pizza person.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
Okay, then Bex is definitely going to be your spot.
And then I know there's multiple other New York places,
but I think Bex might be the best.
Speaker 5 (22:33):
Okay, Okay, great, I'm gonna have to check them out.
Speaker 2 (22:35):
Please do thank you now, If people wanted to find
out more about y'all. Obviously audition like you said, or
follow you guys online see what your schedule is going
to be.
Speaker 1 (22:44):
How can they do all the things?
Speaker 5 (22:46):
Yeah, if you are someone who uses social media regularly,
we do have an active social media presence on Facebook
and Instagram. We post all our updates through there, but
we do also keep our website updated. Our website is
www dot Opera Arlington dot com and there will be
(23:06):
two a's next to each other. O P E R
A A R L I N G T O N
dot com you can see all of our events. Tickets
for Don Giovanni will go on sale sometime this week,
so we'll have all the casting information and the vocation
information for that. And if if you absolutely can't find
(23:30):
the update that you need, you can always just email
me at Eliza at Opera Arlington dot com and I
will do my best.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
I love it, Eliza, thank you so much for your time.
And yes, if people have not gone out and seen
OPRAH Arlington yet, they need to. With that a doubt,
So definitely first weekend in June you are not going
to want to miss it. And yeah, definitely don't miss
the next coming season as well, absolutely, thank you so
much to Eliza for being on the show again. If
you want to be part of Opera Arlington, definitely makes
(23:59):
sure were to go on their website and put in
your submission because they will definitely check it out and
YouTube could be part of Opera Arlington. Now why you're
doing all those fun things, make sure to go out
and eat local, drink local, and go rediscover your city.
Speaker 4 (24:12):
Tag us and send those pictures over to us on
Facebook Arlington Citizen Media, Twitter at x Citizen Media. Tag
us on Instagram Arlington Citizen Media and send send those
pictures the old fashioned way email Arlington Citizen Media at
gmail dot com. Also go to our website www dot
Arlington Citizenmedia dot com. Don't forget to subscribe and give
(24:35):
those five star reviews of the Downtown at Apple Music, Spotify,
Google Podcasts, and also hit us on SoundCloud, iHeartRadio and YouTube.
Speaker 3 (25:00):
A NPL at bable of the Boy at an Uncle
of the Bobo as Bundy at Parting the album art
(25:23):
Uple of Doble at bott
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