Once again, I am an only child. Well, not really. I have a younger sister who just graduated from high school this past spring. She is five years younger than me, but we get along pretty well. This morning, she left on a plane and will be back sometime in December. Unlike the typical high school graduate, she is not traveling to some college campus to start her freshman year. She opted to be a part of a gap year program, where she will spend fall semester in the Dominican Republic and then spring semester in Spain. Two days before I was informed of this decision, I was told that she was deciding between two schools: Luther College and then University of Denver. Both were fine with me. Fast forward two days and my parents tell me that they are sending her on what most would consider a year-long VACATION. NOT FAIR.
After I got all the details, it was more clear that her time would be spent immersing herself in the culture, doing volunteer work and living a localized life with her host family. To me, this experience sounds absolutely horrific and by the end of the first week, I would most certainly be a hot mess in the line at Sun Country Airlines, buying the first ticket back to the states. My sister, on the other hand, lives for adventure and was totally pumped for her adventure to start. I think I may have just gotten an ulcer just thinking about all the things she will experience in the next few months. Its not that I am a homebody who only travels far enough to get home before dark - I have traveled all over the country with shows and with college groups and things....but I have discovered that the only place that I really care to travel to is New York. Call me narrow-minded, but that is how I feel.
Anyway, she is gone and I am taking her room. Just kidding. She would shoot me. But it will be a totally different dynamic here at home. She is like my built-in playmate and sometimes we stay up until the middle of the night just talking about nothing. I am really excited to hear about all the things she did when she gets back, but I will miss her until then. Boo hoo.
This next week is sizing up to be a tiring one. My fall term of voice lessons starts on Sunday and I have a bunch of new students that are going to rely on me to actually know what I am talking about. Good grief. So I spent the last four years getting a degree in opera performance, only to find out that I actually hate opera. Sure, I had to follow the requirements set forth by the vocal department, but I rebelled as much as I was able to, without getting kicked out. I was never quite sure why I was so turned off by opera. Perhaps it was the preconceived notion of vocal beauty and that it was not only required, but was not up for interpretation of any kind. Sure, opera folks will say that there is plenty of leeway in the art form, but I never found it. I only felt restricted and suffocated by what was supposed to be a beautiful form of expression.
This is why I turned to musical theater. I am so enamored with the concept that anything that is said or sung onstage is governed by dramatic elements. That gives the storyteller so much freedom to make choices that are based on clarity as opposed to right and wrong. So because of this relationship that I have with opera, right after graduation, I went buck wild and swore off classical singing altogether.....until tonight. Because my teaching philosophy is based on classical principles, I figured I needed to make sure I could actually still sing the stuff. And I was SHOCKED because it actually sounded better than it ever did during school! I have no idea how that happened, but I actually enjoyed going through my German pieces and my Faure and Bizet sets and then finally, my arias. I have always had a bit of a need to push my limits a bit, and that has DEFINITELY applied to my aria choices as well. The last one I sang tonight was Si puo, which is the prologue from the opera Pagliacci. If any of my voice teachers are reading this, they are probably going to load their shotguns. Dont worry. I AGREE. This piece is too big for me and I will probably never sing it outside of my house or a barricaded practice room. I vividly remember singing this aria at school really late one night, and after nailing, NAILING the last few pages, glancing out of the window of my practice room and seeing one of the faculty members giving me a look that made me feel like my eyelashes were going to be singed off. Welcome to my life. That was nothing compared to when they heard me belting. Oh well. In the end, if I can sing opera and also sing musical theater, that only makes me versatile, and that seems like more of an advantage than something that needs to be snuffed out. Just saying.
Maybe I wont wait another three months before I sing this stuff again. Eh. On second thought....ha!
Ciao!
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