This is a picture of the Theater in Rudolstadt. My first job!


I arrived in Rudolstadt, Thuringia in early December 1991 for an audition. I stayed at a hotel the night before that had floors of thick gray linoleum and the smell of brown coal smoke left a lasting impression on me to this day.

The theater was tiny and I sang several arias from the stage. The conductor and stage director talked to me after the audition and asked me if I would like to sing a role in their new production scheduled to premier at the end of January 1992.

I went up to the Theater Director's office and he talked in English to me explaining about the performances and the fee which was 5000 DM for around 10 performances. I had never reckoned in Deutschmarks before and it sounded pretty good. The problem was there was no provision for rehearsals and being a beginner in this system, I never even thought about it. That was to come back and haunt me till the summer of 1991. The theater also did not register me right away when the rehearsals began which was illegal but also left no record of work for December and I lost compensation for work later.

I had been offered a contract in Hof at the end of November which I decided to take and the season would begin in summer of 1992. This was one of the last auditions before I was to fly back to the States on the 15th of December. Here was a chance to stay in Germany without having to go back and find some temp work to keep me financially alive till the summer when I would have a full time two year contract with a German theater. I said yes immediately and did a coaching of the opera the next day and then left to complete the rest of my scheduled auditions. I returned shortly before Christmas and plunged into the new opera which was in German and had not only singing but dialogue as well.