The MET Presents The Documentary Film THE AUDITION

This spring, the Metropolitan Opera will present The Audition, a documentary film about the intense challenges and pressures young opera singers face as they try to become opera stars. Directed by award-winning filmmaker Susan Froemke, The Audition will be shown on 400 screens across the country on April 19 at 3pm EST (and in Canada on June 6 at 1pm EST) as part of the Metropolitan Opera's series of high definition presentations in movie theaters and performing arts centers.

The Audition is a suspenseful competition narrative that provides a revealing behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to make it as an opera star. The feature-length film documents the 2007 Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, where each year thousands of hopefuls compete for a cash prize, the chance to sing on the storied Met stage-and the opportunity to launch a major operatic career.

The film focuses on the final week of the competition, as judges narrow the field down from 22 semi-finalists to11 finalists while the stakes get higher and the pressure grows more intense. The documentary crew was given unprecedented access to the singers, judges, and events backstage at the Met.

The film concentrates on the finalists, including three very different tenor contestants: Michael Fabiano, a fiery 22-year-old grappling with his inner demons; Alek Schrader, a 25-year-old with movie-star looks who attempts to sing nine high C's in the same fiendishly difficult aria that helped make Pavarotti a star; and Ryan Smith, who at the age of 30, and with little formal training, is taking his last shot at an opera career. (Months after the film was completed, in November 2008, Smith died of lymphoma.)

As an additional feature, the transmission of the documentary includes a panel discussion hosted by soprano Renée Fleming and with fellow National Council winners Susan Graham and Thomas Hampson. The panelists reminisce about their own past participation in the competition and provide expert analysis.

The film is produced by Froemke and Douglas Graves.

 

About the National Council Auditions

The Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions is a program designed to discover promising young opera singers and assist in the development of their careers. The auditions are held annually in fifteen regions of the United States and Canada. There are 45 districts within these regions, each providing an opportunity for talented singers to enter the Auditions Program at the local level. The Auditions are administered by National Council members and volunteers in each region. Gayletha Nichols is the Executive Director of the Auditions.

Winners of the district auditions advance to their regional finals where they compete to win a trip to New York to participate in the national semi-finals, a competition held on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera. Approximately ten of the semi-finalists are selected as national finalists, and compete the following Sunday in the Grand Finals Concert, accompanied by the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. The jury awards five or six Grand Winner awards of $15,000 each. This year's concert takes place on February 22.

Every Met season brings to the stage a new crop of singers who were recognized by the Auditions early in their careers. This season's roster includes more than 100 singers who participated in the Auditions program, including such stars as Stephanie Blythe, Renée Fleming, Elizabeth Futral, Susan Graham, Nathan Gunn, Thomas Hampson, Ben Heppner, Patricia Racette, Samuel Ramey, Deborah Voigt, and Dolora Zajick.

The Metropolitan Opera has sponsored audition programs for young singers since 1935, when "The Auditions of the Air" provided a chance for up-and-coming artists to compete on the radio for a Met contract. When Rudolf Bing took over as general manager in the early fifties, he hoped to attract young, gifted singers from all over the country, The newly formed National Council, founded in 1952, seemed like the right group to spearhead the project.

 

About Susan Froemke, Director/Producer

One of the most respected non-fiction filmmakers at work today, Susan Froemke has over twenty-nine non-fiction films to her credit, from the classic Grey Gardens to Lalee's Kin, an HBO film nominated for an Academy Award and honored at the Sundance Film Festival. A four-time Emmy Award winner, Froemke won a Grammy for her work as director and producer (with Sony Classical) on Recording The Producers: A Musical Romp with Mel Brooks, a film about the cast album of the Broadway smash hit "The Producers", and an instant hit when it aired on PBS's "Great Performances."

The Audition is Froemke's second project for the Metropolitan Opera. Previously, in 2006, Froemke was given extraordinary access to the Met's stage and singers and produced In Rehearsal: A New Butterfly for the Met. This documentary is an original, behind-the-scenes look at the making of Anthony Minghella's acclaimed production of Madama Butterfly.

In March 2007, Addiction, an unprecedented 14-part documentary series produced by Froemke for Home Box Office, was aired after three years in production. The series focused on bringing an understanding of drug and alcohol addiction as a treatable disease to families struggling with the illness. Reaching over 13 million viewers, the film won the 2007 Emmy's Governor's Award for Special Programming.

In addition, Froemke directed Ozawa, Vladimir Horowitz: The Last Romantic,which won two Emmys, Horowitz Plays Mozart, Soldiers of Music: Rostopovich Returns to Russia, which won her a third Emmy, and Baroque Duet, featuring Kathleen Battle and Wynton Marsalis. All of these films premiered on PBS and have aired internationally.

She produced and co-directed Christo In Paris, which won the Amsterdam Film Festival's Grand Prize, the Chicago Film Festival's Golden Hugo and the Cinematography Prize at Sundance, and has aired internationally. For HBO's American Undercover, Froemke earned an Emmy, a Peabody Award and a DuPont-Columbia Award for Abortion: Desperate Choices. Lalee's Kin: The Legacy of Cotton was nominated for a 2001 Academy Award for Best Documentary and for an Independent Feature Project Spirit Award, and was named one of the five Best Documentaries of the Year by Newsweek Magazine.

Under the leadership of General Manager Peter Gelb and Music Director James Levine, the Met has a series of bold initiatives underway that are designed to broaden its audience and revitalize the company's repertory. The Met has made a commitment to presenting modern masterpieces alongside the classic repertory, with highly theatrical productions featuring the greatest opera stars in the world.

The Metropolitan Opera's 2008-09 season pays tribute to the company's extraordinary history on the occasion of its 125th anniversary, while also emphasizing the Met's renewed commitment to advancing the art form. The season features six new productions, 18 revivals, the final performances of Otto Schenk's production of Wagner's Ring cycle conducted by Levine, and two gala celebrations; the galas include the season-opening performance featuring Renée Fleming as well as a 125th anniversary celebration on March 15. New productions include the company premiere of John Adams's Doctor Atomic as well as the Met's first staged production of Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust since 1906, Massenet's Thaïs, Puccini's La Rondine, Verdi's Il Trovatore, and Bellini's La Sonnambula.

Building on its 77-year-old international radio broadcast history - heard over the Toll Brothers-Metropolitan Opera International Radio Network - the Met now uses advanced media distribution platforms and state-of-the-art technology to attract new audiences and reach millions of opera fans around the world. The Met: Live in HD, the company's Emmy-winning series of live performance transmissions, shown in high definition in movie theaters around the world, expands from eight to eleven transmissions in 2008-09 and includes distribution in New York City public schools and a number of pilot programs in schools around the country. Global distribution of the series this season reaches over 850 participating venues in 31 countries. These performances began airing on PBS in March 2008, and nine of these performances are now available on DVD. Metropolitan Opera Radio on SIRIUS XM Radio is a subscription-based audio service broadcasting both live and rare historical performances. The Met recently introduced Met Player, a new subscription service that makes its extensive video and audio catalog of full-length performances available to the public for the first time online, and in exceptional, state-of-the-art quality. In addition to providing audio recordings through the Met on Rhapsody on-demand service, the company also presents free live audio streaming of performances on its website once every week during the opera season with support from RealNetworks®.

The Met has recently launched several audience development initiatives, including Open House dress rehearsals, the Arnold and Marie Schwartz Gallery Met, reduced ticket prices-including an immensely popular new rush ticket program, and an annual Holiday Series presentation for families. For more information, please visit: www.metopera.org.

 

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