Sorry, but you have skipped The Ugly Question

Can you trust singers? (Told you it was ugly!) Can you hear someone rip up a Russian aria with excellent diction and idiomatic expression and awesome acting and TRUST that they can do the same in Italian? Have you never known someone with awesome Italian who blows in french?

Or look at it backwards. If, in a singer's first (italian) aria, they have undentalized T's and closed vowels where there should be open vowels, etc, will you say to yourself, "well, I should hear a french, though, becuase they might be really good at that," or will you write down, "poor language skills" and move on? Bear in mind, you have 25 singers that day in 10 minute audition slots and are already running late becuase of bad weather/life/late singers, etc.

If, in my very very very uber brief experience on the other side of the table, I heard someone do a good lyric line, it did not mean I could automatically assume they could move their voice. Hell, there were a few times when someone who was seemingly mediocre would suddenly whip out a run that was just AWESOME and shock the hell out of us.

If you have ten minutes to decide on whether you want to work with someone over the next month, and trust that they will do all preparation and be able to withstand 4 hours of opera 3 shows a week, you need to HEAR IT. You can't hear someone who is good in other things and say, "Eh, they are probably good at the other stuff, too." You need to first hear the basics. I feel the best way to do that is in rep where you don't have to pay attention to the rest. I know that Rodolfo's high note in that aria is a C, so when the tenor rocks it, I know he has a kick ass C.

OOH, real life example. A singer performed Musetta's waltz. She had wrong words all over the place. I know that aria backwards (who doesn't?) so we now know that she is not fully prepared or is bad with memorization. Either way, we needed to know that. If she sings Random Aria from Obscure Opera by HWJDNSTEBC Bach, how the hell would I know if she made it up on the spot? You feel me, dawg?

So, my grandma Reynolds was always saying 'when life gives you lemons, make lemonade.' I wish she was still alive, because I'd really like to ask her what she suggests for when life gives you Chlamydia. -Veronica Mars