Thank you so much! Fingers crossed.

Honestly, at the moment I have a hard time advising people to go for competitions unless they are really young. There are some young singers who are getting some contacts from the competitions. The big competitions are good if one can get to the finals. I am unfortunately too old for those ones. Starting pretty late cuts off a lot of opportunities.

I did manage to get the opportunity to participate in Gianni Schicchi through a competition once, but it still involved covering my travel and living in a different country for almost a month. Financially it is very straining.

Have been doing them pretty regularly for the last two years. So far, not a lot of results despite getting to the finals. It is financially extremely taxing, and I can't keep up the expense of travelling and living without any financial return.

Have you had any positive experiences with competitions? Other singers I have been talking to, also have had almost non existent results from competitions.

I am a soprano from Europe and currently I have been told that getting auditions with an opera theatre if one doesn't have an agent are almost non existent.

As a representative of an opera company, does that seem accurate at least in your theatre?

I am 35 years old, have finished my masters and currently trying to decide on the best direction to proceed. Would it be the better option to focus more on contacting agencies rather than theatres? Normally I would look at YAPs, but age is a very restrictive factor here.

I would love to hear your input on this. Thank you so much!