This is Exactly What I Have Been Talking About

I haven't posted anything for a while, because I haven't been doing much singing since the concert (it went well, but was not well attended because of the rain).

Now I have nothing definite on my calendar.  Judas Maccabeus does not have a mezzo aria other than the one pertaining to Chanukah, and there is nothing else on my calendar other than tentative plans to do the sung and read excerpts from Carmen, and possibly singing "Nun Wandre Maria" during Advent (I need to look at it).

But once again, I was really shocked by all the snark on Facebook (from the same cast of characters) about this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GojUwW6voyA

So OK, this woman chose the wrong aria, and needs a bit of polish.  But one of these snark queens referred to being "personally insulted".  That's arrogance, as much as this woman singing less than perfectly.

What I don't get, is on the one hand they laugh at this woman in high dudgeon, and on the other hand, they recycle this video and laugh at it.  I, for one, would never have even known about it, otherwise, as I didn't watch the Miss America pageant and am not interested.  I don't find this that different from people circulating insulting pictures of fat people or old people, or anything else, to generate shared ridicule at someone else's expense.

First of all, however many imperfections this performance has, to say this woman has never studied or practiced is outrageous!   I mean if she had had a good teacher or coach, the person probably would have suggested that she sing something else, but when the day is done is this really worth all that hatred and venom?

The people reposting this and laughing at it are saying as much (that's questionable) about themselves and their dissatisfaction with their lives as they are about her.

Really happy successful people don't circulate things to ridicule.

What We Do for Free versus What We Do for Love

I rarely post twice in one day, and this is now my practice time (so I hope I can make this snappy), but I am still mulling over the extent to which singers get offended to be asked to sing for free.  I am not talking about real professional singers, the ones who when they're not singing in - at the very least - B and C houses are teaching voice.  I'm talking about people in the gray area who do a little bit of professional singing, probably have a church gig for pay, but then think it's ok to crowd the amateurs out of all the no-pay community opera groups to get to do roles they aren't currently getting paid for and even sometimes do pay-to-sings!  Hey!  If you don't want me to ask you to sing for free, stay off the amateur turf, thank you!

Then I was thinking, well, would I be offended if someone asked me to edit something for free?  I gave this some serious thought and decided that I would be offended only if that person (or company) 1) had paid other people to do editing; 2) had paid people to do things of comparable worth; or 3) had a huge budget and could jolly well afford to pay someone.  But would I be offended if someone producing a charity event asked me to edit something?  No.  And if it was one or two pages I would do it.  If it was 10 or more pages I would probably say I didn't have time.  And I don't have time to edit anything like that for free because I am not madly in love with editing, which is why I for the most part will only do it if I get paid.

So the question is, why are people so threatened by amateur singers?  It sounds a lot like people who think if gay people get married it will somehow "spoil" things for heterosexuals who want to get married.  Now I grew up in an ultra-left wing household and take a dim view of scabs.  But scabs are people who will do a kind of work for a pay scale below what is considered "kosher" at a workplace that is supposed to be paying a proper wage scale.  No one is considered a "scab" if they want to make fancy wedding dresses for free and give them to their friends, because they love designing clothes and sewing, for example.

It's not like I'm calling up the Met and saying "Hey, I'll come here and sing Amneris for free".

I am producing the Verdi Requiem at a church as a charity event because it's the only chance I will ever get to be the mezzo soloist in the Verdi Requiem.  If I don't sing that part in that production it's not as if they will pay someone else.  The Requiem would never even be heard there if I weren't doing this.  And the ticket money is going to the church's food programs, not into my bloody pocket!  And any "fee" is going to the pianist.

This bass who couldn't even have the courtesy to tell me he wasn't interested in the project was paying a coach to learn the Requiem, so I really don't see how this is different, except that for 25% of the fee he can rehearse with a coach and the three other singers, and get to perform the piece (he could have just considered it one big bloody rehearsal for his glorious future career if he wanted to) in a beautiful sacred space.

So my practical problem is: when you're dealing with these inbetweenykins, how do you know who is "professional" and who isn't?  They seem to pick and choose when to pay to sing and when to take umbrage, which makes it a little hard to tell who is who and which is which (again, I am not speaking of full-time professional singers here).

So I need to find a bass.  And I am not looking for one on the bloody Forum. Well, there are plenty of other people to ask and network with, and I am a resourceful girl. So now it's time to practice. And to give my inner Maureen Dowd a little fun: maybe all those professional singers who are threatened by "amateurs" are not that different from the straight people who are threatened by gay marriage. They lack self-confidence in who they are.

Finding the Smile in It

Actually, the title of this post refers to two things: one happy and upbeat, the other rather snarky.

First the happy and upbeat.  When I was struggling with "Acerba Volutta" the other day one of the things I tried was singing the ending section "lightly" the way I sing Bach.  I mean that top note is only an A!!! I can sing arpeggios up to a high C and comfortably up to a B.

Now years ago, when I first began singing with the choir, I had problems with singing too lightly.  I was singing with a "white" (although not a "straight") sound that was "spread" and it choked off my upper register and made it shrill.  I think that is what prompted my teacher to talk to me about singing "dark vowels".  To get rid of that sound and make my sound more mellow.  But I am past that now, and actually have a comfortable buoyant sound that I can carry up to an A (I was remembering how much easier the Randall Thomson "Alleluia" was last year compared to several years earlier) without my voice sounding shrill or spread.  Even the choir director has mentioned it.

And I only recently was coached to sing "Et Exsultavit" with a lighter sound.

So today I sang the ending to "Acerba Volutta" and pretended I was singing "Et Exsultavit".  I didn't sing the whole aria, but I sang from "Verra?  M'Obblio", which might as well be singing the whole thing because there's a huge break before that where I can recoup.  And it worked!!!  I mean she (the Principessa) is all happy and excited because she is waiting for Maurizio and is imagining him arriving soon.  So why not be happy?  I don't have to drive a mack truck through it!

As for the snark, this is "telling tales out of school", but I am disillusioned enough now that I don't care.

About five or six years ago, when I was involved with the pseudonymous blog and other Internet fora, a young man who happened to be an opera director hit on me.  He was probably about 20 years younger than I was.  I knew his father ran an opera company so I played footsie with him and said I wanted him to arrange an audition.  I wrote about this in my pseudonymous blog and got a slap on the wrist saying that I should "be careful" blah blah blah.  So I "locked" the entry (you can't do that with Blogger).  Now I don't care.  I don't need to worry about my "reputation in the business" because - let's get real! - I'm not in the "business",  I'm just a superannuated wannabe with a good voice who has the management skills to produce my own concerts. For example, when I sent a packet of materials to the father (without the blessing of the son) he (the father) called me up and insulted me saying how dare someone with so little experience have the chutzpah to apply to  him for an audition!!  And if you add to that the fact that the company where the son is a director is the one where I was rejected out of hand for being too old (because I was not a "future investment" not because of how I looked), I really have nothing to lose and might as well have a good laugh, because...

I see this young man just got married.  His wife better keep an eye on him.  He may run off with her mother HAHAHAHAHAHA!