BEING A SINGER DURING THE PANDEMIC doesn’t always mean being without a job. Canadian soprano Ambur Braid still managed to have a conflict between a freelance gig and her work as a full-time ensemble member at Oper Frankfurt. Called to jump-in on two-weeks notice at Opera National de Lyon as the title character in Ariane et Barbe-bleue by Paul Dukas, Braid accepted, thinking, ‘What could go wrong?’ As far as she knew, her next performance in Frankfurt wasn’t until April when the opera house had pledged to re-open, and she was scheduled to sing Salome in concert.
So, on she went cramming the French work into her voice. “The woman doesn’t shut up for two hours,” Braid said, “so I had my hands full this week with that.” But days before she would begin rehearsals in Lyon, Oper Frankfurt told her she in March. They wouldn’t release her. As a member of Frankfurt’s ensemble of full-time singers, she is somewhat at the company’s mercy when it comes to outside work. But Braid sympathizes with the administrators. “Their job sucks right now,” she says, “and so everybody has to be graceful with one another. Everybody is trying to do their best, but you have to have three backup plans. And these poor people in Lyon. You have a week to find someone for a role no one sings?” A difficult task certainly, but Lyon is lucky they can put up a show at all. Oper Frankfurt hasn’t performed for live audiences since November.
