10 Best Things About Being an Opera Singer

In looking back on my experience in opera I have begun to see things that were really cool about being a tenor that I didn’t really realize during that time, after all you are so busy learning music, rehearsing, auditioning and performing most of what you are doing is just getting prepared for the next rehearsal or performance. (This list is not necessarily in the order of importance.)

1. Singing the Greatest Music ever written for the voice. It is all about the music folks. You are given an opportunity to crawl into the minds of some of history’s greatest minds and sing with orchestras, choruses and other soloists music that unites all of your skills into the creation of something beautiful. Singing into a large hall or across open spaces is one of the greatest things a human being can do. It is an incredible experience.
2. Working with fabulously talented, intelligent, witty and sexy people. Being in the world of opera brings you into contact with some truly amazing people. I am not sure the ”real” world gets what an incredible talent base the opera ‘business’ is. It is impossible to list here all of the different skills and qualities that people in this genre possess, it is such a long one. Often opera gets the rap that it is done only by fat people, this is soooooooooo untrue. While some are a bit chunky, really, most are very attractive, sexy and engaging people and when you see people transform from being ‘the way they are’ to a stage presence with incredible power, it is almost like being a super hero. On and off stage, you will find artists at work and people in the offices whose passion for music and theater is rare to find in any other profession.
3. Traveling and living in foreign environments. Obviously being an opera singer is something you don’t do in one place. You have to go where the work is, and the work is in places that are of such variety that it is difficult to pull it all together here. I have not traveled as much as some opera singers, but certainly more than most people and certainly the exposure to foreign cultures and customs is one of the treats you get along the way. Singing in beautiful theaters, in beautiful locations and walking the streets to get a feel for a place is one of those perks that are difficult to put a price tag on.
4. Being a multi-lingual actor. For a Kentucky kid like myself, learning all of the languages, or at least how to properly pronounce them, is a huge learning curve. You simply don’t get language training in high school, unless you specifically choose it as an elective, and then you don’t really learn it all that well. Opera singers are in reality multilingual actors. I have sung operas and concert pieces in English, German, French, Italian, Russian, Hungarian, Latin and even a little Swahili. This doesn’t include such languages as Czech, Polish or even Spanish as languages which have huge repertoires of their own. Oddly, even with an American’s limited linguistic ability, it is fully expected that Americans sing all languages very well, and at best without accent, which is an immense undertaking. But, having a multilingual ability to communicate is one of the coolest things a human can do. Saying j’taime, t’amo, ich liebe dich, lubyu tebya and so on is a pretty cool thing to be able to do, not to mention being able to read menu’s all over the world!
5. The Food. A challenge for every opera singer is food. Okay, opera singers have to stay healthy, need a lot of energy and a lot of rest, but most of all they often have to simply shut up. One of the best ways to not talk is to eat and the world of opera is all about food and drink. OMG! First of all, you have the culinary specialties of the locations you sing in. The list is immense, a blog post of its own. When you are not in rehearsals, you are either learning music and text or simply have a lot of time to do something else. Eating is one of those things. Here is the short list of foods that I have learned to love due to my opera career. Bagels, Chicken Wings, Pizza (Chicago, New York, Deep dish and the original woodstove thin and crispy pizzas of Italy.) Italian foods, pasta, sauces, breads, cheeses, dried meats and not to mention wines. French foods, the pastries, the sauces, the bread, the wines, the endless repertoire of dishes. Swiss fondue, raclette, Rösti, cafe creme, Bellevue Bratwurst und hard bread, Käsekuechli, Zwiebelkuechli, Bircher Müsli, Chocalate…o geez. no wonder…Germany, brats, frites, sauerbraten, rotkohl, grünkohl, bratkartoffeln, cheeses, meats, breads and of course beer. Dutch fish, breads, Fritjes and stroopwaffeln…Belgian waffles, fritjes, soups, Trappist Beers…and of course vacation foods like the Mediterranean kitchen of Greece, Turkey Spain, France, the Balkans, stuff lke, gyros, souflaki, pitas, mousaka and these cabbage rolls called Zarma(geez).
6. Poetry and Literature. All of music is set to great poetry and literature with a lot of references to historic events and personalities. It is a combination of the real and the unreal, whether a character which is portrayed who actually did live or a fictional character who becomes almost like a real historical figure because of the significance of their reputation. Roles like Faust, Carmen, Falstaff, Tom Rakewell, Romeo and Juliette, and Papageno are all fictional characters who are so real that it seems like they really existed. This brush with poetry and literature forces you as an opera singer to study and memorize things that most people would never even consider and it gives you a depth of experience which really cannot be experienced anywhere else. It becomes part of your inner workings, your substance. Even years after you have forgotten the texts, it still resides in you and if there is anything I learned from being an opera singer it is that you can easily recall poetry, music and literature that has been etched in your mind’s hard drive so deep that it is truly a part of who you are as a person.
7. Mentors. It takes a lot of work to get an singer to the point where they can actually perform opera for real. A huge part of the equation is the close relationships you develop with your teachers, coaches, directors, conductors, intendants, company managers, agents, artisans and other singers. You spend a lot of time and money with people who are ultimately a mentor to you, people who give you their experiences and techniques so that you can perform at the highest level possible. When I take stock of the people who have believed in me and gave me their best to help me succeed I am filled with a gratitude that is impossible to express. My hope is that I can somehow mentor people with the things that I have learned in my experience.
8. The Audience and Fans. A performer without an audience is a closet performer. I am a pretty good audience member and am a fan of quite a few performers, but the reason I am went into opera was not for the applause or because I necessarily loved opera from listening to it or watching it, but because I am a performance addict. I love to perform, opera is my medium. So, when the curtain goes up and I see hundreds to thousands of people in the audience it never ceases to amaze me. The support, encouragement and bewunderung that you get from people as an opera singer is one of the most underrated things that is greatest about being one. I am generally a shy person, and was always taught to be humble, so I had this sort of built in..”oh, they are just being nice to me.” thing in my head. I must admit, that I have under-appreciated my audience and fans because I couldn’t actually believe that they actually really did admire me. Looking back on it, being a graceful receiver of praise and genuinely appreciating people’s support is a quality that is not to be forgotten.
9. Intimacy and Contact. Opera and music is a contact sport. In opera you get close to people in a way that honestly is reserved only for those on stage with you. It is an environment of contact, confrontation and community. It is teamwork, it is throwing the ball around, it is challenging each other to be their best, it is your wanting to be the best for others and the physical closeness that is part of being an actor on stage requires a deep respect for the other person’s private world. Because you are dealing with deep emotions, relationships of every kind, and make love, romance, fight, scream and kill people that you have just been introduced to that day. In opera you often jump into productions for other singers, so you do what other people practiced with that person for weeks and this can result in basically every imaginable physical type of contact. This level of intimacy in such a short time period requires a high level of professionalism and for sure, an actor can’t be squeamish about who they are going to have to kiss on a given night. It is often difficult for real world relationship partners to deal with, which is why it is so difficult to maintain them in this business, especially if both are in the business. You have to remember, that these are not ordinary people you are working with, these are highly talented, emotionally driven, exceptionally skilled and mostly physically attractive people you are working with, it is a jungle and just about everyone is a Tiger…so you can imagine how it can sometimes get…intense.
10. Big dreams and great memories. Opera singers always think big. You dream of singing on the great stages of the world, singing with the biggest orchestras, the biggest and most important roles of the repertoire. If you don’t think big as a singer, you are going to have a limited experience…I deem it a natural quality. But, for all of the big dreaming and the looking to the future that you do as a singer, what you have to look back on is probably one of the greatest gifts that being an opera singer can give you. All of the people, the places, the singing on small studio stages, in circus tents, outdoors singing across lakes and in tiny cafe’s, for weddings and funerals, for fun,  for money and for free. The ensembles like choruses and chamber groups you make music with, the studios and apprenticeships you do and the tours, the rehearsals and the audition trips you take…my goodness, what a life. The partners in arms with you onstage and the thousands of laughs with relatively few heartbreaks all make up the fabric of a very colorful quilt of memories sewn into your soul. From great performances to some really bad performances you remember it all with a film-like epic which gives you a treasure unparalleled by any other measure you could ever wish to receive. Life unfolds in slow motion, but the replay button is instant, making the past seem like a flash back, but when you sit and consider all you have done and those reams of memories inside, you realize without question or hesitation that there is nothing you would have rather done.

Well, that is longer than I had intended it to be. I probably forgot some things, but I’m happy with the list. I’m grateful to be able to blog about it!