<p>seriously, people will take point off for open toed shoes....?</p>
<p>There is a difference between sleeveless and bare shoulders. I personally prefer sleeves but when I hear bare shoulders, I think of strapless and I don't think a strapless dress is appropriate for an undergrad audition. Part of it is the time of day too. You would dress differently for a daytime audition than you would for an evening performance.</p>
<p>Yes, for some reason there is a deal with open toed shoes, it is not recomended at all. Maybe too many people have bad toes!</p>
<p>Yeah, as I said in my previous post, closed-toe shoes are definitely the way to go. It's just more professional. </p>
<p>re: cartera45-- totally agree with you about this. A tube top dress would be inappropriate. However, when I hear "sleeveless" I just think "no sleeve." E.G., tinysinger's dress in the picture. That's sleeveless. And totally appropriate (especially since, as you said, TS, that it's a nice heavy material).</p>
<p>I am simply NOT comfortable with a professor, department head or anyone in a position of authority telling young girls to "Show their....assets". The people on the audition committees are not stupid- they can tell what kind of a body one has without any of it falling out or being on public view. Would they tell a young man playing Romeo that he should "pad his cup because it looks better in tights"? Sorry if I'm grossing anyone out, but singers are judged on their voice and their stage presence and prurient interest has no place in these situations.
Indeed, opera today seems to be heading away from the time of the "hefty" soprano, and we have all seen Renee Fleming wearing a low-cut dress as Violetta or a negligee as Thais, but she is in a different league from the kids we are discussing in this thread. Besides, Stephanie Blythe doesn't seem to be wanting for work...</p>
<p>If your daughter sounds like Stephanie Blythe, then yup, she can wear whatever she wants. </p>
<p>For the rest of us, it's beneficial to look good in an audition. And perhaps there's been a misunderstanding-- it isn't just professors, directors, and voice teachers telling us to flaunt what we got-- it's also living, breathing, actual opera singers who regularly promote this. </p>
<p>Naturally, there's a great deal of nuance that goes into picking out an audition outfit. Your voice type, your body type, and your age all come into play. It's obvious that adjudicators for undergrad auditions don't want to see 17-year-old girls with serious cleavage. They also don't want to see most 17-year-old girls in a dramatic black evening dress, only to hear them sing "In uomini." Both choices (cleavage; overly dramatic dress in comparison to the repertoire) just don't jive with their "type." </p>
<p>Fast forward six years-- the same girl is 23 and becoming a light lyric. She's well over the age of consent and a college graduate, auditioning for master's programs. She's singing Donde Lieta. At this point, it's totally appropriate, and advantageous, to show a tiny bit of cleavage. </p>
<p>So when you say that you don't want authority figures telling "young girls" how to dress, I'm just not sure just how young these "young girls" are. I would consider anyone in college or above a "young woman," not a "young girl." And besides, if you can't trust your voice teacher, your professors, and even real live opera singers to give good advice about audition wear, then who CAN you trust?</p>
<p>I have to say even though, I have a VP son, not a daughter doing auditions...I've seen plenty of girls at these auditions. The ones that seemed to stand out to me, were ones who looked professional, no cleavage, no strapless or skinny straps. Low heels...and for me, most importantly...dresses that fit!! There is nothing worse then someone trying to fit into a dress that is too small, thinking that it looks seductive..which at an audition is imho, just inappropriate. I think good common sense should prevail.</p>
<p>I'm glad I have a boy, lol.....much easier to figure out what to wear.</p>
<p>For my auditions (Male, Tenor) I wore a well cut black suit, cleaned and shined dress shoes and a shirt and tie. Simple and it keeps the attention on your performance.</p>
<p>As a rule - if you can't button the jacket and breathe with 'full expansion' or such, without the jacket bunching, don't button it.</p>