Last updated: 19 January 2009
For the performers, capitalising on a win at Cardiff is a fraught process in which agents and managers can play a crucial role. Graeme Kay takes you through it.
Prestigious competitions such as 91Èȱ¬ Cardiff Singer, with all its attendant media publicity, bring together artists, judges, and an audience which comprises a large number of opinion-formers and talent-spotters in the profession, such as journalists, agents, promoters, TV, radio and record producers.
All are gathered under one roof in a shared experience, and all in their own individual ways can have a major effect on a developing career.
While opera companies can and do engage unmanaged artists, it can be difficult for a singer without representation to get noticed. Cardiff Singer comes highly recommended as a way to put that right! And it doesn't matter, of course, if you don't win first prize: has anyone forgotten that in the so-called 'Battle of the Baritones', Bryn Terfel won the Lieder Prize (often perceived quite erroneously as the 'second' prize) on the occasion that Dimitri Hvorostovsky won the title?
Though a small number of the performers we've seen over the years have been genuine 'discoveries' - singers with little or no profile in their own countries, who perhaps have bypassed the conservatoire route and come to audition at the behest of an individual teacher - most of the artists who are not already contracted to an opera company will arrive in Cardiff at least with a notion of the management implications of a singing career, if not an actual manager.
Stories abound of artist-agent relationships being formed at the big party after the finals - even, in one case, of a singer being engaged by an agent over the canapés and poached by another agent by the time the coffee came along.
So, a singer arriving in Cardiff without an agent or manager is unlikely to remain in this condition for long. You only have to look at the competition history to see that many very fine careers have begun, or been significantly boosted by, an appearance at Cardiff Singer.
Having said all that - it would be a mistake for any singer to come to Cardiff with the plan: Win competition. Get agent. Sit back and enjoy fabulous career. As the soprano Stephanie Sundine, now a stage director and coach, remarks:
"Managers are drawn to singers who are unique, expressive and exciting. It helps if a singer is also disciplined, focused and easy to work with. There are many more singers than managers, and managers cannot afford to take on bland, safe apologetic performers.
"Singers must want their careers to happen more than anyone else does. The ambition and drive that fuels the progress of a career must come from the singer - it is not the responsibility of the manager."
An artist on the look-out for representation would be wise to not get carried away by the blandishments of any agent or manager in the heady atmosphere of mid-competition St David's Hall. Managers come in all shapes and sizes, with sales techniques ranging from 'Rottweiler' to 'Teflon-smooth'. Self-evidently, singers should look for an agent with an understanding of singers and track-record of success with them. Agents must have:
- an interest in the long term
- to be able to advise on repertoire choices appropriate to each stage in the career, matching suitable roles with suitable venues
- to know when to say no to an offer
- to balance the diary and manage offers to allow time for learning new repertoire
- to manage the 'personality' by matching conditions with capabilities - ie not putting an artist who works best in ensemble conditions into a fly in/rehearsal/performance/fly out engagement.
- And of course, to help their artists manage the increasingly important work-life balance.
Do such saintly managers exist? After all, they have to make a living in a commission-only environment. The advice from Felicity Jackson, an artistic administrator of many years standing, is this:
"The manager/artist relationship is not simply a business relationship - your relationship with your agent may last longer than your marriage, and since managers vary greatly in their personal style, you should be sure that your manager's style suits you."
And in a world where the place of opera can no longer be taken for granted, and only the very select few will secure long-term recording contracts to go with the performing career, Jackson wisely concludes:
"Wait for an agent who believes in you enough to carry you through the unproductive periods at the outset of your career."
