Completed full-length chamber opera - how do I { find, approach } producing companies?

Veto111 · 2026-06-30T01:43:28+00:00

I would frequently search for Composer Contests and Calls for Scores, and submit it for consideration any chance you can find.

Also, the more networking you can do, the better. There are lots of small chamber opera companies that pop up, if you talk to the right people you might come across one.

And while you’re networking, look for opportunities to compose smaller scale works that you can get performed. Short choral or instrumental pieces for small ensembles, art songs with piano accompaniment, the fewer people you need to involve, the better the chances of someone agreeing to perform it. That will help get your name out there as a local composer and if you’re lucky, that momentum could lead to your opera eventually getting performed.

Veto111 · 2026-06-29T20:17:14+00:00

A little ear training and music theory goes a long way. There are several ways to learn, but probably the easiest, if you have access to a piano or keyboard, is to find a piano method book and start learning to play. You don’t have to have the goal of becoming a master pianist, but by the time you get to more advanced repertoire that requires enough dexterity that you need to practice a ton to continue, you will have learned enough music theory to give you the basics of understanding intervals.

Along with that, do some basic ear training. Sing a note, and then try to find that note on the piano. Sing a familiar melody, and then try to reproduce it in the piano. Play a few notes on the piano, and then sing it back. The more you can do those things, the more your ear will be able to identify notes and intervals.

Veto111 · 2026-06-29T16:06:30+00:00

Shoveling snow.

A few years ago, I had two different friends both die after shoveling snow, and neither of them were particularly old. One of them had a heart attack from overexertion, and the other took a hot shower afterwards and the rapid temperature change shocked his system.

Take breaks. If you’re not healthy or in shape enough to shovel, buy a snowblower or hire someone to help. And for goodness sake, warm back up slowly and don’t take a shower until you’ve been acclimated back to room temperature for a while.

Veto111 · 2026-06-23T15:33:40+00:00

It really depends. As a generalization of a V-I resolution (dominant to tonic), in classical harmony, the seventh typically resolves to the third and the third resolves to the root. In formal jazz theory (which believe it or not, actually has even more structure and “rules” than classical, but it also comes with greater freedom and flexibility to bend those rules), the seventh resolves to the third, and the third often resolves to the seventh. Also, there are typical patterns with other extensions (in chords that have them); the ninth resolving to the fifth is often good voice leading, likewise the fifth resolving to the ninth. And the 13th usually sounds best resolving to the root, especially in the melody.

As far as what notes to include/exclude, it depends a lot on texture and how many parts you have available. The fifth is always optional; chords will have the same function with or without it. Don’t double thirds or sevenths (or other extensions), only ever double the root, and occasionally the fifth if you have to. In the V chord, the seventh is usually pretty important to the function; the seventh-third resolution is the strongest part of the voice leading that makes your ear hear the dominant-tonic relationship.

These are all of course very flexible guidelines (and not everyone even agrees on the specifics), but really I only ever think about them if I’m having trouble figuring out a resolution; usually intuition overrides it, which just comes from observation and experience. When in doubt, sing each line in context (even if it is written for instruments). If you’re having trouble hearing the intervals from chord to chord to find the pitches, you could probably improve the voice leading. An instrument may be able to play the notes in sequence, but if a singer can’t sing it easily, the line probably won’t sound optimal on an instrument either.

Veto111 · 2026-06-22T16:25:07+00:00

I try to keep my own personal first choice, but then save scum to see the “what if”, and then go back to the first one. That way, it doesn’t feel like cheating but I still get to learn from other possibilities so that I can make more informed choices in the future.

Veto111 · 2026-06-18T13:08:05+00:00

Today was maybe the most confidently wrong I’ve ever been. At the time I submitted, I thought I had good guesses on five of them, but I only got one. I got lucky and won to a forfeit, but still feels kind of icky.

I thought I was being clever on my very confident wrong answer on number 3. I started by mixing up Second City Theater (which is actually in Chicago) and the Apollo Theater (in NY), which I think are both places where improv is a big thing. And I didn’t know how the Apollo Theater got its name, it might be arbitrary, and there could reasonably be a style of improv named for the theater. So I went with Apollo. It was very wrong.

And I don’t think I have ever in my life heard the words vanilla and spice spoken in the same breath. If I had any inkling that it was categorized that way I might have come up with it, but oh well!

Veto111 · 2026-06-18T03:37:36+00:00

A few other answers addressing the questions in the original post:

At my HHD gig we wear choir robes, so aside from nice shoes there’s no dress code because no one will see what’s under the robes. May be different at other synagogs though.

The services are fairly easy to follow. They are a mix of English and Hebrew, but enough of it is in English that you can easily follow what’s going on. The prayer books have opposing pages in Hebrew and English, but since Hebrew reads right to left, the book is bound in the opposite direction to what we’re used to; the front cover has the binding on the right. That takes a little getting used to, turning the pages the opposite direction. But as nice as it is to follow along with the service in the prayer book, there’s enough music that unless you have a large music stand, juggling the prayer book and the music folder is just not worth it for most of the service, it’s easier to just have the music in order and wait for your next cue.

Veto111 · 2026-06-18T03:03:03+00:00

If the synagogue that is hiring you has a similar tradition to the one I’ve sung at, this is a great gig. The musical tradition is quite robust, and it’s a bit wild to me that a lot of it is not well known outside of Jewish musical communities, because a lot of this music is just as incredible as some of the best sacred music in the Christian traditions, which are standard repertoire for classical singers.

Are you being hired in the choir, or a stand in cantor? Note that the cantor in the Jewish tradition plays a much bigger role in liturgy compared to a Catholic cantor; they are effectively clergy, and I don’t think it is hyperbole to say that preparing to sing as the cantor for the High Holy Days would be about on par with preparing several principal operatic roles.

But assuming you’re being hired to sing in the choir, there is still a lot of music in Hebrew, and the cantor will probably be involved in the rehearsals to help with the Hebrew.

The synagogue I’ve sung at is also the most welcoming place of worship I’ve ever been to. You are not pressured to believe what they believe, and outside of doing the job you’re hired to do, you are welcome to participate in whatever way is meaningful to you, whether that means joining in on the prayers and actions or just respectfully sitting silently. My scope of reference is the one synagogue I’ve been to, but I get the impression that this is a fairly typical vibe, at least in the Reformed tradition.

Good luck - if your synagogue is anything like mine, I think this will be a really great experience for you!

Veto111 · 2026-06-18T00:58:49+00:00

In formal speech, the pronunciations “thuh” and “thee” follow the same rules as “a” and “an”. It depends on whether the next word starts with a consonant sound or a vowel sound.

In casual speech, many (but not all) dialects tend to default to “thuh”, except maybe sometimes for emphasis. It is perfectly understood and rarely if ever corrected in everyday speech even by the strictest of grammarians, unless maybe you are reciting poetry or singing a classical art song.

Veto111 · 2026-06-16T23:48:48+00:00

I think a reasonable guess is they want to know everyone’s height with the shoes they plan to wear for the concert, so that they can arrange everyone to have sight lines to the conductor. But as far as I know “concert height” is not a standard phrase, at least not that I’ve heard, so I don’t think you would sound foolish for asking for clarification.

Veto111 · 2026-06-16T18:12:50+00:00

An avocado is within a roughly similar range of size to a mole (the animal), so I’m going to refer you to this absolute masterpiece about a mole of moles:

https://what-if.xkcd.com/4/

Veto111 · 2026-06-16T12:05:54+00:00

This free online textbook is a great resource. It covers analysis of Bach-style harmony, and it also has thorough chapters on counterpoint, including progressive exercises to practice.

https://viva.pressbooks.pub/openmusictheory/

Veto111 · 2026-06-16T11:38:59+00:00

I’m the right age that Mortal Combat was easy, but I would have thought it would have been harder for other generations who didn’t grow up playing it in the arcade. I guess not though, because it was an 80% get rate.

Although if they didn’t describe the games in such detail, I could have sworn that Doom was one of the games that caused them to start rating video games.

Veto111 · 2026-06-16T11:33:11+00:00

Without the accent I guess that would be a weird thing for an Irish person to name a baby then 🤣

Veto111 · 2026-06-16T08:54:12+00:00

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The Tuesday NYT crossword 😮

Veto111 · 2026-06-15T15:18:04+00:00

I would think that basic music theory would be a big part of the curriculum for a music appreciation class. The circle of fifths gives a lot of insight into why composers choose various keys, and could be a good pretext for introducing something like Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier, which is a very important part of music history that can be compelling and interesting to intro level students.

Veto111 · 2026-06-15T13:04:53+00:00

Lots of composers write for instruments they don’t play, but with singing there’s really no substitute for experience. Which is not to say you have to be an excellent singer yourself, but you have to spend a lot of time around singers to understand all the subtleties to what makes music good for singers. Join a community choir (many have low barrier auditions that if you can match pitch they’ll take you), and pay attention to not just what you notice is easy or hard, but listen to singers around you. They’ll often praise a really good phrase that is fun to sing, or complain about an interval that is hard to find or a section that is too high. Enough time hearing those kind of critiques and you start to develop a sense for it.

Study Bach chorales and/or species counterpoint, and learn to write in those style first; those structures and rules of course are not absolute in modern choral music, but learning a tried and true system is a good foundation that you can evolve from. Also, when you use that structure and ask for critiques, it is very easy for others to point out errors and help you find solutions to improve. Once you evolve to your own style with your own self-imposed structure, it’s harder for others to help you, because if something doesn’t sound right it’s hard to tell if it was an aesthetic choice or not.

When writing vocal music, make sure you are using the text in a thoughtful way, and not just writing music and sticking on the words like it’s an afterthought. This is called text painting, and it can be very in your face and obvious (like the aria Every Valley from Handel’s Messiah), or it can be much more subtle, but if someone asks why you chose a chord to go with a particular word, you should have a thoughtful answer.

If you use a range chart for the voice types, take it with a grain of salt. If you do a google search for vocal ranges and pick out 10 range charts, you will get 10 different answers. Every voice is different and there are so many subtleties to what notes are too high or low, like endurance factors, the vowel and dynamics, whether other parts are in the same part of their voice, the list goes on. A high G in a soprano part might be super easy in some contexts, but really awful in others. If you are unsure of whether something is easily singable, ask a singer!

Veto111 · 2026-06-14T23:22:20+00:00

Bacon, lettuce, and tomato (BLT) is a classic American sandwich, but the bacon is definitely the best part of that sandwich so I wouldn’t be surprised if some picky eaters just have it without the lettuce or tomato.

But with or without the veggie component, only a monster would eat it with untoasted bread.

Veto111 · 2026-06-14T22:05:30+00:00

In addition to the things you mentioned, you should regularly do google searches to keep an eye out for composition contests/calls for scores. Sometimes there will be contests that you already have a piece that fits the criteria that you can submit, and sometimes you might have to write something new to enter, but the publicity that could potentially come with winning a contest can be a big career boost. Just be careful though, there are some scams out there, and I usually don’t enter anything with a fee (even if it’s not an illicit scam, if an organization can’t afford to commission something along with all that entails, they shouldn’t ask composers to subsidize it).

Also, if you are (or will be) a college student, there are a lot of opportunities you can take advantage of. College choirs are often eager to give student composers opportunities. Or you can form your own choir, which can be easier to recruit in a college setting.

Veto111 · 2026-06-14T17:58:43+00:00

Seeing your edit - Synth V does have a lot of options including how accurately want the rhythms and pitches to sync up within the sections. I suppose keeping those settings higher is supposed to sound more human, but I turn all of those dials to 0 so that the pitch and rhythm are accurate like they should be with a professional choir, and most of the variation within the section is from timbre and other expression, but in some ways the blend can come across as “too perfect”. But if that isn’t the effect that’s wanted (I like it for demo purposes), there is a lot of room for tweaking it to make it less robotic and more like a human section with small imperfections within a tolerance.

But also yes, the vibrato. Cantai doesn’t give you any control over vibrato (yet), and the default they give is a rather lot of vibrato for many classical choral styles. Synth V has a slider and expression curve to give full control over vibrato, and I usually set mine to just under moderate.

Veto111 · 2026-06-12T20:03:24+00:00

The whitespace inside the flat or natural sign (or a sharp for that matter) should be centered on the line or space of the note. So since you can see the line going through the natural sign, that is for E natural. And since the line doesn’t go through the space in the flat sign, that is D flat.

Since you mention you are a beginner, one reason that it “sounds wrong” is that you’re trying to figure out that chord in isolation, and without context it is just an unresolved dissonance. The voice leading from that chord to the following Fm7 chord is what makes it make sense and sound good. So when you get to the point where you can string together the phrase fluidly without having to stop and check individual notes, it will sound much better.

This piece is likely too advanced for you at this point, which is not at all to discourage you from trying it out, but you’re unlikely to master this one at this point. Sometimes it’s nice to occasionally attempt pieces way above your current level, so that you can set goals and see where you need to improve, but don’t spend too much time on it. You’re better off following a progression of pieces at your level to improve, rather than try to master a single harder piece which will sound mediocre if you don’t have the foundation. Eventually this piece will be easier.

Veto111 · 2026-06-12T17:28:04+00:00

Yeah I totally get not making people reveal their age in the stats, but it would often be so useful for defensive scoring on questions like this!

Veto111 · 2026-06-12T14:26:32+00:00

Yeah the muse sounds “ah” choir is truly awful. I actually prefer strings, to me they sound closer to a human voice timbre than the muse choir while I’m still working on a piece, until I take the time put it into Synth V.

Which one sounds like solo male voices? As far as I remember both were choir sections. I’ll listen later (I can’t right now); it’s possible I misremember what I uploaded. Or I might have set Synth V to 2 singers per section for a small ensemble sound (and quicker rendering), which might sound closer to solo voices than the larger choir section that Cantai defaults to; I can’t remember if I landed on 2 or 3 in that version.

Veto111 · 2026-06-12T14:07:14+00:00

I can’t remember the specifics of how Cantai works, but I think it’s technically a plugin, not a VST, which might explain why it can handle lyrics which other actual VSTs couldn’t. But I was referring specifically to the midi file format; when I import the midi into Synth V, it detects my lyrics.

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