Above is a photograph of an artist who perhaps some younger singers are not aware of. Which is a pity as COMMANDOpera fully appreciates you can not know your crown until you know your roots. The artist in question is the famed Swedish soprano, Miss Birgit Nilsson who enjoyed international recognition as the definitive Wagnerian soprano of her day. To some operaphiles, her work within this repertoire has never been rivalled. Regardless, this is not the point to this article. Within professional and intimate opera circles, Miss Nilsson was known to be perhaps the shrewdest woman in the business. Miss Nilsson took great pleasure in negotiating her own contracts directly with the houses. There is the notorious comment she made to then General Director of The Metropolitan Sir Rudolph Bing when she felt he was not paying her enough to appear: ’When the birds are not happy they do not sing’. Although that was yesterdays world, it is significant to appreciate that it remains at the artists discretion as to how he or she determines to proceed with the management of their career.

COMMANDOpera has watched the operation and dynamics between artists, management companies, theatres, publicists, and whoever else is looking to make a dime. Fortunately this industry still runs on basic good manners which is the correct underpinning of how business gets done. The realities are stark and basic; everyone is on friendly terms regardless of whether they like each other or not. Such trivialities as ‘personality’ are not paramount, nor should they get in the way of doing business. Professionalism is key. No one but NO ONE demeans a house publicly in the media, as to do so is professional suicide. Seriously, why would a house re engage someone who has spoken ill of them….. in public? What a management company or an artist or a publicist may think of a house in private is another matter. The theatres are distinctly at the top of this particular food chain, so behave accordingly: with respectful silence always.

The relationship an artist has with their management is simply another business arrangement and nothing more. When considering management, remember it is you who are making money for them and not the other way around. It is your vocal talent which at the end of the day is the product for sale. What an agency is selling to an artist is their connections to the theatres. Too often COMMANDOpera has seen exceptional voices on the roster of the wrong management. Simply because a management agency exists does not mean you are one lucky artist because they determine to look at you. There is one small New York agency run by a Latin woman who has around 30 artists on her roster; some with the most extraordinary voices yet none who you would know. Her agency makes a big to do about engaging artists twice a year, but wary to those in the opinion of COMMANDOpera who move in such direction. Aspiring artists should do their homework. Look to see who is on the roster of a management company they are considering, and what those artists have accomplished. What engagements has the agency lined up for their artists as a whole? Are they internationally connected in scope or national, or are they even connected largely with opera? All agencies will take the time to hear you, don’t be fooled into thinking otherwise. Only rarely will a young artist be engaged by one of the short list of top management companies, and then only if they own the correct pedigree. Contracts usually run for three years at which point an artist can either stay with the company or move elsewhere, or the agency may not find you a good fit. To move vertically to a top tier agency takes time, and some years of excellent reviews in your back pocket before you are considered. And this fact alone establishes the critical nature of making the correct choice for your first agency. Relationships matter to a minor degree, but this is business so don’t listen to what they can tell you what they can do; LOOK at their track record. COMMANDOpera warrants you this, if your initial agency does little for you and you find yourself going no where it is because you did not do your research and have only yourself to blame. It is better to wait to get signed by the correct agency (stay on their case) then to go where your nothing more than expendable cattle.

COMMANDOpera will further note to an artist not to have high expectations on an agency to look after your publicity: that’s not their job. What has been outlined above for management applies directly to public relations. COMMANDOpera as a venue whose specific raison d’etre is to write on opera consequently has dealt with numerous of them, and has directly found the differences can be night and day. ALL artists require publicity, end of story. If your name remains in the public domain, your cache is that much higher, and this alone is what you pay a publicist to do. From the perspective of COMMANDOpera this necessitates more than availing the media to an artist. Once again it requires the underpinning of the way business is done: correct manners. If a publicist does not make the effort to interact with the media properly (if at all), then not only is the publicist not doing the job an artist is paying them to do, the media itself will stop doing business with the publicist in question. Choosing a publicist is as difficult yet as important as selecting your management. If you are not getting interview requests, or your name is not in any of the media, your with the wrong publicist.

Finally COMMANDOpera advises you get your work up on YouTube. This is a vocal art form you have determined to take part in, so it naturally follows that your voice must be noted within the public domain at every turn imaginable. A pretty face while an asset only opens the door of interest to the real object: your voice. COMMANDOpera marvels not a little each day at vocal artists who long for exposure yet do not offer the one thing the public wants from them. Let COMMANDOpera be the first to assure any vocal artist, the challenge the new media faces to bring them visibility to the public without it. Many elite artists find numerous ways of getting their work in the public domain on YouTube, which in turn is found by a venue such as COMMANDOpera who then may generate the global publicity so sought after. It doesn’t happen otherwise. An international career can virtually be assured via the savvy use of the new media. There are those who want it and are determined to go after it with full artillery, and COMMANDOpera is there next to them. For those artists who are too lazy (read: other commitments, kids, etc) to go for the jugular required to ascend the golden throne, find another career.