Aria da Capo?

A few days ago, I ran into a man who used to sing in the choir at my old UU church.  The minister with whom I had so much discord has been gone for some time  I had run into this man before, and he had invited me to come back and "see what was going on" but I declined.  Theologically I still consider myself a Unitarian, but they don't know how to "do" theater the way the high church Protestants do.  That's it in a nutshell.  And when it comes to social justice organizing, the Lutheran church does as much, if not more, than my old UU church, so all bases are covered.  So, OK, I hear things I know are not "true", but hey! myths and fairy tales are lovely, and I am careful what I say and do.  I will sing anything, I will wear anything.  I don't take communion and don't speak prayers that begin with the words "I believe" because hey!  that's not "generic mezzo-soprano church soloist" singing, that's me Babydramatic with her Jewish maternal relatives behind her saying, "I believe".  So I pass on that.  But all in all, the Lutheran church offers a better package.

This time, however, when I ran into my friend, he said that the church had gotten rid of the choir (who was singing Beatle songs when last heard from) and used "paid guest soloists".  He said they even had classical music from time to time.  So, well, yes!!! I would love to sing there as a guest if I got paid.  I certainly sound as good as a lot of paid soloists, I just have given up trying to become a paid section leader somewhere because I don't sightread and can't seem to be bothered learning.

So I sent in a resume.

We will see.

I have no idea if The Mentor is still going there.  I think he spends most of his time traveling teaching dance, now mostly to (female) burlesque dancers. I have totally gotten over my lust for him and my fear of him.  I am grateful that he got me to sing.  If I hadn't been spellbound by singing Dalila leaning against his powerful wiry body, staring into his eyes as if we were about to float off somewhere for a tryst, I wouldn't be doing all the things I am doing today.  So every single tear, even the afternoon he frightened and humiliated me so much that I wanted to jump out his window, was worth it.

I know I won't be thrown if he is there.  The last time our paths crossed was in 2010 when I sang an aria from Gounod's Sappho and we had a nice "workmanlike" conversation about vocal technique.

I still would love to figure him out, though.  He is not like any gay (or straight) man I have ever met.  He is obsessed with women (all his gigs seem to involve him in a gaggle of them and all the pictures he posts show him with one or more females ranging in age from 4 to 94, but never show him with a man) but does not sleep with them.  He just gets his jollies from making us think he wants to.  Here's his latest Facebook "wall" page.  I in fact did post some full length pictures of him a while back (he's enough of a public figure that I don't feel I owe him anonymity) but here's the latest one.  I can see that it was cropped from something full length, that shows people's faces.  But what can one make of the fact that at the very center of the cropped wall picture is - his crotch!!

In other news, when I was tutoring one of the little girls on Monday, she said she wanted me to sing "Silent Night" (she has heard me sing at the Spanish service), so I sang it a capella without warming up, and she recorded it on her phone!!  She said she wants to "copy" my voice.  I told her if she likes to sing she should join the Spanish choir, that they are always looking for people.  So that's nice.

Next up is "O Magnum Mysterium".