Opera Singing in Germany and other adventures....

Upon arriving in Blacksburg, VA on Tuesday evening of this week, I was excited and astonished at being able to have this wonderful opportunity to spend a few weeks at such a prestigious program, surrounded by highly-lauded Opera professionals, with whom I was able to work on music that I would like to perform or prepare for upcoming performances. And, these first four days here have not fallen short of my elevated anticipations, I can happily say. Thus far, I have gotten to meet everyone in the program who is a fellow singer, and I have met four new coaches in the disciplines of language (4), stage direction/acting/interpretation (1), and conducting/collaborative piano (2), and I am excited to become acquainted with the entire faculty by the conclusion of the program's activities. To give a brief description of what I've been up to since arriving here, my days have basically been comprised of the following elements in different quantities of time each successive day: coachi...

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...