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Showing posts from February, 2011

How Expensive IS Opera Singing?

Dear Friends, Colleagues, Family and Opera Lovers, I felt especially compelled to write an article today about the expenses of opera singing, and the cost of having a career in this art form.  The reason being, I am currently nearly broke, and I am contemplating what I have gotten out of the investment that I have made into my singing studies.  Besides, I feel it is an interesting insight into the life of a singer, for those who don't know the details, of all the costs that we singers are responsible for, which don't necessarily come to mind when one thinks of the 'glamorous life' of being a singer and traveling all around the world. (To which, I also say, we normally don't get to see the places we travel to, because we are too busy working 10 hour days in rehearsals and coachings and costume-fittings, etc!) To give everyone an idea of what a pretty light month looks like in terms of necessary costs, just in the past month I have had the following expenses:  Fo

Offenbach's Ritter Blaubart at Oper Dortmund (Click this title for link!)

Hi Everyone! I am back writing about an Opera that I saw recently: no surprise, I am sure!  However, this particular opera was actually an 'Operetta' and, it was by one of my favorite composers, Offenbach.  I guess it's kind of uncommon for Offenbach to be categorized as 'favorite', but I really enjoy his compositional style.  It is never boring because there's always a catchy tune being sung or played, and there are undoubtedly tons of laughs with a witty and satirical libretto.  Offenbach was almost like the 'Educated' Musical Theater of yesteryear. Anyway, back to the news about the show and how wonderful and funny it was.  I guess I just gave away my general opinion on whether or not I liked it, but I really do feel that it deserves more merit than just a couple of positive adjectives strung together.  First off, the sets were amazing.  I have to preface this with the fact the the Oper Dortmund has a very unique stage- it's actually a huge la