Career crescendo coming for singer from Cape

As a voice student 10 years ago at Southeast Missouri State University, Donna Smith was chosen to go to Italy to perform in the Operafestival di Roma along with fellow student Laura Pierce of Poplar Bluff, Mo., and their professor, Louisa Panou-Takahashi. Smith sang the role of Pamina in Mozart's "The Magic Flute."

Last weekend, the familiar aria "Ach ich fuhl's" from "The Magic Flute" was one of five pieces Smith sang to place first in the Metropolitan Opera National Council Midwest Regional Auditions in Tulsa, Okla. Smith's win in Tulsa earned her $1,300, but, more importantly, she qualified to be one of 16 semifinalists from across the United States who will compete at the Met in New York City on March 30. Getting to the semifinals was the soprano's goal because of the directors, agents and general managers of opera companies who will be in the audience.

"They are all interested in coming to hear the young singers who have made it," she said from her home in New York City. "There are a lot of possibilities that could come about. These are people you would not ordinarily have the opportunity to sing for if you just sent in a resume."

The semifinal competition will be closed to the public. The 10 finalists chosen will each receive $5,000. On April 6, those singers will compete in the National Grand Finals with the Met's orchestra. Up to five singers chosen as winners in the finals will each receive $15,000.

The auditions don't necessarily lead to a position with the Met. The goal of the auditions is to discover new talent and to encourage young singers.

All good

Ronald R. Glass, the auditions director at Tulsa, said the audience of 250 responded to Smith's singing enthusiastically. But, he added, "at this level they're all good."

Reaching the semifinal round in the auditions is important to aspiring opera singers, Glass said. "It means a lot in terms of exposure to a lot of people that can really help them. In New York they get a lot of coaching from people at the Met. Between the coaching and connections, it's very valuable for them."

The daughter of Alice and Larry Smith of Cape Girardeau, Smith grew up in Cape Girardeau and graduated from Central High School. There she appeared in the musicals "My Fair Lady" and "The King and I."

She said she always knew she wanted to be a singer. Being exposed to Panou-Takahashi, a former Southeast professor who had her own opera career, and singing in Rome convinced Smith she wanted to sing opera. "As soon as I started singing it, I knew that was it," she said. "It just fit." Going to Rome, she said, "was kind of my test to myself to see if it was what I wanted to do." Singing in Rome thrilled her.

While at Southeast, Smith also performed in a production of "HMS Pinafore" and Puccini's "Gianni Schicchi," and in 1994 won a first prize in the National Association of Teachers of Singing auditions state contest. She transferred briefly to the New England Conservatory of Music and in 1999 received a bachelor's degree in music from the Manhattan School of Music.

Taking calls

She has been working as a receptionist at the Reebok Sports Club in New York while preparing for the opera career she wants. "It's finally starting to happen this year," she said. She also is in the young artists program at the Opera Theater of St. Louis, where she will sing a role in "Thais" this year, serve as an understudy in "The Abduction from the Seraglio" and sing in the chorus for "Tosca." She also has a future engagement playing Pamina for the Lyric Opera of New York.

Last November, Smith was one of three winners of the Met district auditions in St. Louis, earning the right to sing with eight other district winners at the Tulsa regionals. The other competitors came from the St. Louis, Kansas City and Tulsa districts. Singers can sing in any district they want.

Smith competed at St. Louis because she was born in Cape Girardeau and because it fell on her mother's birthday.

Only her parents' support, from sending her to Rome through to these Met auditions, has enabled her to pursue a difficult objective, Smith said.

"It's such a foreign idea to most of Southeast Missouri: I want to become an opera singer."

Second try

This was her second attempt at the Met auditions. In 1995 she finished third in the Midwest regionals. There is a reason she did not try again until this year. "I felt I needed to wait until I felt ready and totally polished," she said. "Because of the opportunities that can come for a young singer, you need to be able to take someone up on their offer... Vocally, technically and mentally you need to be ready to start a career."

Physiologically, the human voice doesn't stop growing and developing until age 32 to 35, Smith said.

"It's constantly going to be changing until then. That's really when most singers are starting to bloom. I'm looking forward to it."

Her pursuit of an opera career has been single-minded. She applied to the Manhattan School of Music because a man named Ted Puffer teaches there. She chose him as a teacher after reading many articles on teachers and their techniques and philosophies and their approaches to young singers.His style is for her."I really left myself no options. I only auditioned for that school and for his studio," she said.

She also knew that every opera singer ends up New York City eventually.

Smith usually is nervous before a performance but wasn't in Tulsa -- a first. She credits a long conversation with her acting coach a few days before the competition. He told her, "You have to remember why you are doing this, that you have been given this wonderful gift, and that standing on stage is you presenting this gift to the audience and hoping they will come away with something wonderful."

Singing at the Met is every aspiring opera singer's dream. Even though her vocal coach is Steven Crawford, a coach and assistant conductor at the Met, and though she goes to see an opera performance there every two weeks, there's a bit of awe in her voice. Pavarotti sings there. There are 3,800 seats.

"It's a huge house," she said.

sblackwell@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182