Singing for my supper

People outside the singing world often wonder exactly how one goes about preparing an operatic role. Many think that it all happens in rehearsals, yet nothing could be further from the truth! The preparation process may sometimes have begun YEARS before a role is even performed - most of us have "core repertoire" that we learn and work on even without any kind of offer in sight, the idea being to have them learned and ready to go in case somebody wants to hear them, or an oppportunity to "jump in" to a gig at the last minute emerges. A lot of time and energy goes into deciding repertoire both for auditions and "roles in preparation"; most singers have one list of "wishlist roles" (the roles they really want to sing and feel are best suited for their voices and temperament, usually the leads in operas from where their audition repertoire is drawn), and another comprised of roles they "should" know (usually easily-marketable repertoire t...

I've had several monster posts on all sorts of subjects kicking around my head recently, but somehow real life seems to keep the thoughts in my head instead of flowing out my fingers onto the screen. Soon, I promise. In the meantime, greetings from H1N1 central. I admit it: last spring, I pooh-poohed the hyperbolic alarm over swine flu as the usual media irresponsibility, but after 5 days of living with it - my daughter, not me (yet) - I have to say that it really is a whopper. She is currently heading into the worst phase of the illness, which starts out as "ordinary" flu. But after a day or so of seeming recovery, it turns into a brutal pneumonia. We're not quite at that stage yet, but she's certainly having the relapse today, frighteningly going into a near-hypothermic state tonight (apparently one of the body's defenses is to LOWER temperature as well as to cook the infection out with a HIGH fever). So, back to the vigil tonight - my husband and I are w...