I had three auditions this past weekend. One of the places I auditioned has offered me a small role in Dialogues of the Carmelites. It is a smaller role than the one they originally wanted to hear me sing, but it is a role. This will be my first time ever singing an opera role with an orchestra, and the first time I have been cast in someone else's opera production in 30 years. I will get my picture on their web site. This is a very well-respected outfit, so I am looking forward to it. Maybe this will be the first of many opportunities.
The Handel audition went well, I thought (I mean I sang the aria well and it is not easy to sing). I was rather surprised that the form I was given to fill out asked me for my age. I left it blank and they did not ask me about it. I found that rather shocking. I mean for casting purposes, I am as old as I look, no? This was not a competition where they award prize money and there is an age limit. I doubt if I will get cast in this production but who knows? A well-respected coach that I worked on the material with said "you sing this stuff really well" which was an objective statement. She has played for big competitions and moves in very high level circles. So she was speaking objectively, not just of my personal best singing.
As for the detour mentioned in the title of this post, I am currently taking some courses in adult education, possibly as a way of getting credentialed to be a freelance corporate trainer.
This is not a blog about the ways I have earned money, but as a point of information I spent over 30 years as manager/director in the publishing business, and left my last position with an "early retirement buyout" which allows me to stay on the company's health insurance rolls for life. I don't have a pension, which means I need a full income, but I am hoping never again to have to clock into a large bureaucracy and work someone else's hours. Right now I am primarily doing freelance editorial work, but I thought training would be fun - a way to be paid for being fabulous in front of an audience, which seems to be the aspect of singing that I love best.
Yesterday was our first class and one of our assignments is to start a "Learning Blog" and our first post is supposed to be about some aspect of learning. I don't see any reason why I shouldn't piggyback these assignments onto this blog since in a way this blog is about learning - it's about my returning to serious rigorous vocal study in late middle age, and about my daily practice, overcoming obstacles, sometimes about my lessons, and a way of chronicling whether or not it is possible for me to continue to achieve and excel as an opera singer at an age past when many of the greats have retired.
No comments:
Post a Comment