Word: gutman
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...week, 19 young men and women nervously shuffled their feet and cleared their throats. A piano plunked to the final inquiries of a piano tuner. Solicitous friends and parents were hustled off to a far part of the theater, and the Metropolitan Opera's brisk, soft-spoken John Gutman turned reassuringly to the tense group. "Please be easy," Gutman said. "Be a bit nervous if you like -you are supposed to be. You've probably heard of one of our singers, Miss Pons, who is sick all day before a performance. But I'm not suggesting...
...Newcomer. At Gutman's signal the 19 singers performed one by one-a traditionally ample soprano, a baritone who is a sheet metal worker, a petite mezzo-soprano with long blonde hair, no fewer than six tenors (more tenors than Gutman had encountered in all his auditions in Seattle, Tulsa, the Twin Cities and Chicago put together). Almost every singer had got some of his or her basic experience singing in churches; some have sung with Denver's energetic young Greater Denver Opera Association. A few studied at Manhattan's Juilliard school...
...exceptional young fellow announced himself as a baritone, and proceeded to sing Verdi's Celeste Aïda, one of the most famed arias for high tenor. Said Gutman with mild sarcasm: "Since you are a baritone, perhaps you would like to offer something from the baritone repertoire." "I have nothing from the baritone repertoire," the singer said. "I only started singing two weeks...
When each had sung two numbers, Gutman retired to study cryptic marks on his score papers, then came back with his decision. It had been a "very good audition," he said. He found some language weakness: most of the German and Italian was "atrocious," but to his surprise he found the French excellent...
...Most Demanding. He noted one failing that is so common he has an abbreviation for it. "Ltc" in Gutman's shorthand stands for "Liebestod complex," and refers to a tendency among contestants, particularly women, to choose the most demanding music. "They seem to think they haven't got a chance unless they sing something loud and dramatic," said Gutman. "These youngsters try to do things that shouldn't even be in their repertoire for another five or ten years...