59259

something_i_learned_from_opera (friday_reflections)

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.

58659

older (friday_reflections)

i'm 30 and i still quote from dumb and dumber quite often. but i work with a population that was not even in grade school when this movie was in theaters! 

they say you are most effective, in ministry, with those ten year older and younger than you. i think about that from time to time, especially when kids are talking about some youtube video, or a new gadget that i have never heard of and for sure will not know how to use.

i also grow weary with some of the drama that comes with the territory. whether you take bio 102a or 103b, or whether or not so and so dropped you as a facebook friend, is not always the most interesting conversation for me. however, at one point, i was that student, consumed by what i was supposed to be doing with my life and all emo-ed out with girl problems and the weight of the world.

i find myself wanting to tell students all the time: "it's ok, this is the easy part, enjoy it, everything is going to be fine." that's me at 30: mr. cliche. 

but i don't want to be mr. cliche. for the second reflection in a row, i find myself circling back to the wise words of henri nouwen. in his excellent book, In the Name of Jesus, nouwen tackles some of the common temptations of leaders. one of them is the temptation to be relevant. 

consider this: "The leaders of the future will be those who dare to claim their irrelevance in the contemporary world as a divine vocation that allows them to enter into a deep solidarity with the anguish underlying all the glitter of success, and to bring the light of Jesus there."

i love the line "the anguish underlying all the glitter of success," because that describes the condition of the modern college student so well. nouwen prescribes contemplative prayer as the antidote to the temptation of relevance. it is in listening to "the voice of love" again and again and that we find the answers to the issues of the day, to the underlying anguish, to the pain.

the coolest thing about getting old, at least so far, is that you realize that what you have offer the next generation is not coolness (you will never out cool them), is not stuff, is not even life lessons, but hopefully love. nothing that i do or create or think up will be as cool as what they can find on tv but who will love them well?

as i get older that's the question that keeps me up at night.