What does it take to become an opera star. Only very few make the leap into the worlds best stages. 90 percent of Opera Singers never manage to land a fixed contract at an opera house. The risk of burnout is acute as young as cough man realized early on. 2 2 2 2 says if you look at him as a business why am i saying many roles in the 1st 2 years but it almost cost me my Mental Health and by of course i was overstretched both of all. The pressures are considerable especially on young performers. Are 28 year old elsa devices has a promising career ahead of her. Here at the zurich opera house the french danish soprano is performing her 1st title role model well. Since kid theres a dress rehearsal today. Her costar is one of the worlds top 10 years piotr and. The last thing chevy a degree in june must nace opera 7 years ago at new yorks metropolitan opera alongside on a new truck oh. Well this is a lie its a gift to sing a long time it was in. L. As a device which has been rehearsing for 6 long weeks as a special. This is its been very exhausting. Id say they were her skills are the hardest part runs as you can see her singing almost every day. Dance feel very demanding and i think i hope the performances are easier because shes been in my because right now ive almost run out of energy ive reached my limit left of its. The premiere is in 2 days time. Housemate gregorian knows what its like to reach her limit. I had from them so i mean when i went on stage i was totally not prepared i did and didnt have any single idea how to stick. It to the lithuanian singer finds time between looking after her children doctor visits and rehearsals to meet up with me in her hometown of vilnius. In 2006 she cofounded the private initiative the vilnius city opera. It doesnt have its own venue its productions are hosted by the citys Congress Hall for. The most of this time there are no dressing rooms and the stars do their own makeup but the performances are top notch. The ville new city opera is fostering a new generation of talent. We want and need young people and i think in those 12 years we did kind of big revolution in this country really about the young people. These days the ville new city opera attracts world class performers who also sing at the bolshoi in moscow and the met in new york. On the way home from rehearsals ozma gregorian tells me that she was almost destroyed by work i started with big roles i never signed any tiny roles or something and of course i heard myself when i was 30 i was dead already and i was always doing too much too big roles. The breakthrough she was hoping for never came instead she started all over again and completely rely on her vocal technique she also learned to stop overtaxing her voice. A mistake many Opera Singers make just as so often i was to be told just the fact that it sometimes hurts is a painful realization because you loved doing it you know also hurts your bank balance especially when youre young it does open and thats actually quite an important point youre often forced to do certain things to survive financially youve also been so could. Once they finish their studies which can take as long as 6 years an opera singer with a fixed contract in germany makes around 2000 euros a month before taxes a stage technician arent more. Regular fassbender is an opera legend shes trodden the boards all over the world but these days shes mainly a director. Shes currently staging the fall on a shotton the woman without a shadow by rijkaard strauss cordell. I could never say no youre always afraid youll drop off the map and never be asked again doc is now 80 this grown dom of german opera knows the industry inside and out. Shes been a singer a teacher and a managing director for consumers who also hope youll follow the daily beast. When most of you want to truly and have it your role also as an actor. This is thats always been a priority of mine and you need charisma when you go on stage and everyone should look at you. Thats what you must aim for. In 2 days time the curtain will go up on the opera manon in zurich. They got such a story. Polish tenor piotr a big hes getting ready to go on stage. So i figured out that over. 2 days the dress rehearsal a lot works well but theres also some room for improvement and a lot can still go wrong going to see machine. How well can he judges on performance but is that also. The school supposedly in my. One of the biggest problems for Opera Singers is that we never hear ourselves and if you minus i dont know how my voice actually sounds is big and thats why its so important to have someone you really trust among the audience and such as your wife i always see as if. I know his voice very well and that all his performances so good i listen to his voice and i take note of what his teacher said specifically what he wants and how to find the optimal resonates in his and i hear if hes good to see. His wife gave up her own career as an opera singer to support his. Shes undoubtedly one of the secrets of piotr a big success. That. Was. Still just the rehearsal is over elza devices. Have been on stage for 4 hours or stage so this will be asleep most of us and it s. A good shelf the steps and i just love the concepts of guessing that was the 1st time ive sung the whole part from beginning to end. But as you can see i havent lost my voice and thats the main thing. Leah but i feel completely drained. Being over the next 2 days ill try not to talk too much ill do some cooking some exercise ill try to relax a bit go over my role and work on 3 or 4 parts thats at. The spots i desperately need a break a good book. Elsa device it has been a member of the berlin state operas ensemble since 2017 when it reopened after years of refurbishment. She said. The role of correction and what seems from gurkhas fast the production that kicked off the new season. 1 competitions are one way that singers can make a name for themselves as mick grigori and admits that shes never taken part in one in her life. I just could not do that because i always had this huge fear of stage and i was just so afraid and i could not show even 20 percent of really years ago i really thought that i can come on stage and because it was like it was so big and its really physical its not just of here you know you stop to feel your arms or you know your face is decking and of course you know it here you know theyre hard to be with the stories youre reading and everything. Even now backstage in frankfurt shes palpably nervous. Shes performing the title role and try koskie lyric one act opera elantra. I. Bet and to learn about general director of the frankfurt opera discovered her 5 years ago she. Was never joking the 1st time was. I always loved. It so. Yeah. Those. Are very serious. If so which you want to thank you very much thank you michele in the 1st scene yet shes always captivated me with not only her singing but also her simplicity in the adult through on the way she can command attention by holding back and but some quite at sea i know maria callas from a similar english. But in the little footage that exists of. What you see is a woman who singing commands attention because she has presence even when doing very little good long. The president comes on easts to. Heat. That its just not something that arsenic picks up on and. Might wish more thing aside the sophistication and intelligence in key moments to do less rather than more on stage and media gets to feel. Less is more. Its a phrase i hear often more making this film along with talk of pacing oneself and being in the moment. Music director of the Royal Opera House in london and tonio pano works with stars like Eunice Kaufman and on a truck oh i ask why so many Opera Singers end up ruining their voices. I know the truth is the ding a zinger is that those 01 of the Biggest Challenges for Opera Singers is knowing how to calibrate their intensity and emotion and also their volume. Is get seen far too many singers are too loud. Oh and the atmospheric singing piano and creates a more interesting fs terrorising and if i see that if you sing too loudly youre going to get tired but. Get schnell moved by in him a loud in the loud word most warriors who were restored as well why dont know much rather than let me. Quote suburbans her 1st law of the. Law was. The week. The. Her. But these days an extraordinary voice will only get you so far. Up her singers cant afford to ignore social media posting is now part of the job even the stars are doing it often sharing glimpses of their private lives. Such as on a trip here shes posted a rehearsal with no one would even notice was the beautiful kid. To keep going to. See. Much opens it does in theme movie stars you can feel this is this if i see some Opera Singers who are almost like movie stars by thats ok its just thats most but their job demands a certain respect and concentration and consent at sea on the most important thing that they may be a comedian cant make a career about and when you have to get up on stage and prove yourself a new every time seiden either lost money east is. Think im ansel you havent and this in. The magic i feel that the job is losing some of its magic. Because people can see that were just normal. And all this is so i see it in myself. As a tool when i go to the opera and theres a singer. I go straight to instagram or facebook to find out who they are for you tube its. About a stink but i think you can lose yourself and social media men can see. It is a medium. That you can end up thinking youre a good singer. Just because you have 30000 followers. These days the industry is teeming with people who are talented singers but more importantly look good. Now a days you have to look like a model at least on your records covers sometimes when you see someone on stage you wonder how they managed to look the way they do on their record cover. Just so you cant blame the singers its the fault of the people who know nothing about singing and base everything on looks. They only cast certain types was it how do. You feel so much. Ok im going to finish my knows what shes talking about she sang an opera houses all over the world obviously. You know it wasnt us who plays were talking about this this guy. Oh yes the role is to go to a certain types you have to be thin young you have to be affordable the situation is getting worse and worse emotionally much. Come to. I hear my voice is getting deeper i never felt comfortable singing soprano theyd say to me anyone who says good morning the way you do cant be a soprano and it can surprise. I was prospering though trial fassbender always said youre not really a soprano you dont enjoy your upper register and i would say yes im always glad when im allowed to go deep enough to spot this one side that was a clue and now finally i found the fact that feels right to me. She isnt the only opera singer who spent years singing in the wrong. In germany in particular operatic training could be improved the country is home to one 3rd of the worlds opera houses. But germany is failing to properly train young talent. The soloists performing in germanys many opera houses tend to come from the u. S. Russia and increasingly also from south korea and china. Here in cio in got fields maya is something of an exception. I salute the singers from overseas are much better than us and so this is why is that for us and them to understand to training up. There are 24 state conservatories in germany. But their graduates dont always amount to much. From sponsorship on the 20 Young Americans auditioned for me i could hire 19 of them and me and i but if i auditioned students in german conservatories before 19 of them on employable. Maybe one kind of noise in the flies type so obviously theres something wrong with our system. About if we could learn from those other systems that are doing something right flushed which means its done my last option this i always thought that germanys conservatories were world class but it seems that the standard of teaching lets students down. Flush the nasty possible the best voice teachers on here or overseas because they were unhappy with the conditions here. And just skipped i think there are very few teachers actually experience the stage 1st. Spoon and. They know the theory but they dont know the practice. A lot of rules praktica into all spin dont. Even. Belong to it since leuchter teachers are people who failed to make it in the music world using good frustrated singers who are no good. But who study technique is woman of the 15 of us from the go. To gear to me its are was the opposite of this this theme training is done by people who arent passing on technique but rather their own complexes and problems i get a complex and probably met. Moreover singers from russia the us china and south korea are more disciplined than their german colleagues thats the conclusion reached by a recent study commissioned by the bettles month foundation. But regardless of where they come from all Opera Singers have to learn to resist the opera worlds many temptations as well as agents promising big bucks. Agents have always been dangerous complex because obviously they make their money from singers so there are more respectable agents who really help singers nurture their voices because they have a vested interest. But if a singer goes and ruins their voice never mind theres always another one waiting in the wings im pretty negative in this respect. But voice needs time to develop. A singer needs to learn their limitations as a device tells me these are the prerequisites of a lasting career. But some agents expect the impossible from singers this might feed of him by the edge of the design. Lots of managers say look there are 365 days in the year lets do as much as possible movies this. Good cop the smug this is for me its got to be stiff but at my age you tend to think come on. I can do it im young its been you wish i can do everything. That in this off must but if thats what youre always thinking thats what you do. Its the way it is with soap its the more you use it the less of it there is thats how it is if you dont give your voice a break it gets less and less and suddenly youve got nothing left to work with. The gregorian also thought she could do everything when she was young but then she had a vocal crisis in her late twentys she was faced with the choice of carrying on knowing she was ruining her voice or starting all over again from scratch and learning a whole new technique. She opted to make a new start. Then in 2016 she sang the role of tatyana in eugene at the coma in berlin. Her potential was obvious but she was unable to demonstrate the full extent of her talent. This time. For election really hard for me because 1st i was pregnant my father was dying and he was next to me it was some of the moment special interview when i thought oh my comanche. She divided her time between rehearsals and the hospital her father himself a famous tenor eventually died but she had to keep going. You cant cry extreme than was before the performance after performance but in the performance and kind of i noticed me and then all the make. In the summer of 2019 gregorian captivated the opera world with a stunning performance as a zalmay. Voice was powerful her acting mesmerizing. After her star turn at the prestigious insults go 1st of all shes now in demand all over the world plus carla the met emma while opera house in london are all eager to engage her. First of all you must to have it we can call that the cards or whatever i mean but its really interesting. You know we must have this big big emotions always you know we cant share with with people and with the years you must to learn how to control those emotions without stopping them. But cosmic gorgon is hardly an overnight star. She has spent years owning her craft. And she takes nothing for granted. Its a bit of a plot to chance thought i always say that if you do everything right at the start of your career and success will come to you as a young singer you dont always have to be striving for success but when youre young you have to learn that serenity thats your message got shipped off to now you get socked by ive often turned down major opportunities and when i felt that im not in a position to do something as well as id like to my home does this mean of all my question good luck or. Might mean that the wheel of your career turns slower. But thats good because you can use the time to build up your career step by step. Just fundamental. Opera is a tough Business Training as an opera singer and going on to earn a living as a performer takes not only talent but stamina to. For those who persevered its a great privilege. In germany they usually end up in museums. Other countries play their real workers. Classic cars from drivers. His friends in the struggle to take you out for a drive. Put down for eternity or serious old timers around the world just to see the total. This is deja vu news live from berlin the world brings in a new year and a new decade the berlin welcoming the 20 twentieths the fireworks display dalla the Brandenburg Gate celebration stronger away from new york city to aucklander also on the show. All this year brings snow and insights to australias