National Opera Center, With Tryout Space, Is to Open No more arpeggios in the bathroom. Goodbye, church basements. Hello, soundproofing. Opera America, a service organization for opera companies, is opening a new National Opera Center in Manhattan filled with rooms for auditions, rehearsals and lessons. Opera company officials say it will be a major boon for singers and for the regional ensembles that troop through New York every year to audition them, often in less than ideal circumstances. The center will also offer a rich library of scores (many donated by the conductor Julius Rudel), books (likewise, by the set designer John Conklin) and video and audio recordings. It will present seminars, public conversations and performances, including concerts of 47 songs commissioned in honor of the center's opening. A recording studio is available for young singers to make audition CDs and DVDs. The center is the latest addition in a mini-surge of new spaces in New York available for performers. They include the nearby DiMenna Center, which began operations last year, and the Original Music Workshop in the Williamsburg neighborhood of Brooklyn, which is scheduled to open late next year. The opera center is expected to play a crucial role in the operatic biosphere, which depends on a steady supply of young singers, many of whom regularly display their wares for regional casting officials in New York. The center, located in a former fur district building at Seventh Avenue and 29th Street, holds its official ribbon cutting on Sept. But even as workers painted walls and moved in furniture, the opera world couldn't wait. Last week the Minnesota Opera was running a workshop for a new piece this season, "Doubt," based on the play by John Patrick Shanley and the subsequent movie, with music by Douglas J. Cuomo. And the Opera Theater of St. Louis was holding auditions for its young-artists program. "I usually warm up in a bathroom," said Ian O'Brien, 24, of New Haven, a tenor trying out for St. Louis. A guaranteed 15 minutes in a room that's dedicated for auditions: I've never had that before. Mr. O'Brien proceeded into the audition room, which will also serve as a recital hall and is the center's showpiece. Deep blue panels, perforated for acoustical purposes, cover the walls under a curved ceiling of narrow wooden slats. Three high-definition remote-controlled cameras will be able to stream auditions and recitals elsewhere. Along with another large space for rehearsals, there are 10 vocal studios of various sizes. Singers can come to practice or work with accompanists and coaches. Down the hall, Adriana Zabala, a soprano, and Matthew Worth, a baritone, rehearsed the second scene from Act I of "Doubt," playing Sister James and Father Flynn. Singing from scores with the rehearsal pianist, José Meléndez, in the back, and the conductor, Christopher Franklin, off to the side, they faced the creators, who were seated at a long table: Mr. Cuomo; Mr. Shanley; the director, Kevin Newbury; and Bill Murray, an artist associate. The singers stopped periodically, and the parties discussed phrasing, interpretation and slight changes to the score. "I just have to do a few cleaning-up things," Mr. Cuomo said. Each studio has a new Yamaha piano. Some rooms have windows to the outside that can be opened for singers who like to avoid air-conditioning or find comfort in urban street sounds. In an advance tour, Marc Scorca, Opera America's president, proudly pointed out a lounge where singers, directors, accompanists and opera executives can schmooze. In truth, the lounge was an eight-foot-wide hallway, but at least it had a bathroom next to it, large enough for singers to change clothes. The center was built on the seventh and eighth floors of the building where Opera America already has offices. The organization put $6 million toward construction and the same amount toward an endowment to run the place, with the funds mostly donated by board members. It decided to rent the space, given the high cost of building from scratch, and holds a 20-year lease with a 5-year renewal option. Mr. Scorca said that running the center would add $1 million to Opera America's $3 million budget, and that it hoped to bring in at least $500,000 annually by charging for the use of the rooms. The rest will come from the endowment and the operating budget. The smallest studio, 10 feet by 9 feet, rents for $19 an hour, the recital hall for $120 an hour. Opera America members receive discounts. The center will operate seven days a week, from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Twelve companies and other groups have already reserved space, a spokeswoman said. Artistic directors and conductors have generally been hearing auditioners in locations like the basement of Riverside Church, studios in Midtown Manhattan, hotel ballrooms and small, out-of-the-way theaters. They say they often encounter ill-tuned pianos, cramped quarters with no warm-up areas and the distraction of sound bleeding in from other rooms. "It's a hostile environment," Mr. Scorca said. During a break in the St. Louis auditions, Paul B. Kilmer, the company's director of artistic administration, marveled at the contrast. "The places we've been!" he said. The things we've done for art! Opera companies usually set up several days of open auditions, filtering singers through management agencies and the recommendations of colleagues. Mostly, the auditions are intended to hear fresh voices or keep tabs on more experienced singers, much the way baseball scouts travel to college games or high school showcases to identify and monitor talent. Jonathan Pell, the artistic director of the Dallas Opera, where he has been casting shows for 27 years, said he generally came to New York twice a year for three days of auditions diced into 10-minute slots. He can hear 150 singers a trip. Mr. Pell keeps a "mental database" on who might be available in the future, he said, but also uses the auditions to cast for specific minor roles. Many more singers want to audition for him than he has time for on his New York trips, Mr. Pell said. "I will listen to anybody who wants to sing for me," he added, "if they are able to come to Dallas."