i have friend who is a grad student at the Boston Conservatory. he is studying opera. as in, he is a real life opera singer. (we have the privilege of knowing some crazy talented people here in boston). i was asking him about grad school and his program and he was telling me how long it takes to hone this particular craft.
then he said this: "i hope to be able to make it as a singer, but a lot depends on how my voice ages."
"what does that mean?" i asked.
and he went on to explain that the voice changes as we age and this can have a dramatic impact on the career of opera singers and the types of roles they can perform. he told me that for most tenors they can only take on the most prestigious and dramatic roles as they get older because as the voice ages it becomes more heroic!
how about that. a 25 year old opera stud can have all the talent in the world, work harder than anyone else, train like crazy, and still be years away from being able to fully embody certain roles in the opera canon.
fascinating.
a lot of these friday reflections have focused on aging. i guess turning 30 does that to you? anyway, i'm sure there are many facets of this idea that i could play out, i mean there's a sermon in this metaphor is there not? i'm sure a true opera aficionado* would take issue with how i am interpreting this information, but the idea of the heroic voice gives me hope and offers a challenge.
is my "voice" becoming more heroic as i age?
*according to dan there are two general types of tenor voices: lyric and dramatic (neither is considered to be better than the other). the dramatic tenor can age in to the heroic roles. here are a couple of great examples of a heroic/dramatic tenor (schicoff and domingo). for comparison here's an example of a lyric tenor.
1 comment:
All I can say is, it looks like you are going in the right direction!
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