Being an opera singer in training can be really tough sometimes. Due to the nature of the business and the physical development aspect, it is a career that involves extreme amounts of patience. We are taught from a very young age to have patience. Listen, but not listen too much. Enjoy the music, but focus on your technique. Have patience, have patience, have patience.
As someone who has a low level of patience (I've gotten MUCH better!!), this is very difficult. The older you get and the more you listen and study, the more you know what your body SHOULD be doing, vocally. You hear tenors or sopranos in their 30's and 40's, in their prime years, and you want your high notes to sound JUST LIKE THEIRS. But they don't. And they shouldn't; they have years of patience and vocal development ahead of you. Again, it is the nature of the business.....it is a given. You can't expect perfection at the age of 25; it really just is not possible.
As you approach your upper 20's though, things do start really coming together. For men, their voices are starting to settle (womens voices, as we all know, mature much sooner than their male counterparts). We all feel like we are coming into our own as artists and starting to really feel what a solid technique is...something you can count on to be there (or get you out of a tough passage!). You start getting glimpses of what the business is like. You start seriously coaching, going on auditions, continuing lessons, meeting conductors, doing masterclasses, getting cast in some productions; you start to feel like a "real" opera singer (we can address that title at another time). You meet other singers your age, maybe through the business, maybe not. You start talking to them about who they study with, who they coach with, what they're doing next summer....and you start to doubt what you're doing. "Am I putting myself out there enough? Should I have auditioned for that?? Are they BETTER than me???"
This is something that has always bothered me, and has always affected me. At this age, you start seeing other singers "succeed" and it makes you doubt yourself. It makes you feel like you are behind everyone else and that you need to play catch-up.
As mentioned in a previous post, I am a firm believer in the words that my dad lived his life by: "Stay Focused." Why would you let the path that someone else is taking derail you and your success? We are all different. We are different people with different voice types, different up-bringings, different vocal cords, different educations. We are different in every way. Even people in the same fach are all different, and that's what makes us unique individuals.
As artists, we all have something different and special to say; that's why we're in this business, isn't it? We're obviously not in it for the money...or the stable paychecks. We are in it because we, as individuals, want to put our stamp on whatever it is we are doing at the time (whether it be a concert of arias, a particular role, or even directing a show).
If we spend too much time focused on others, how is that serving our ultimate purpose and path? I'm not referring to listening to other singers....there is an EXTREME amount you can learn from listening to other singers (both your colleagues and professionals). I am talking about focusing on what everyone else is DOING. Are they going to Aspen or Santa Fe next summer? Are they singing this role with this little start-up company?? Obsessing over what everyone else is doing, in my opinion, makes you lose track of yourself.
I had a moment of realization a few years ago during a "ringer" gig at a church in DC over Easter weekend. The paid quartet was talking after rehearsal about our backgrounds, who we studied with.....the same old, same old. It turned out the mezzo and the soprano had actually gone to the same undergrad together years prior. They got to talking about various other singers they knew from school and what they were doing now. The mezzo made a few comments about another soprano who appeared to be this soprano's "main competition" at the time. She asked the question about competing for a certain role, or why she had not. This soprano looked at her and said, "If I spent all of my time thinking about what she was singing or auditioning for, when would I have had time to practice for MYSELF?"
This really hit home for me, and at that time I realized that we do, to a certain extent, have to be in this for ourselves. Of course we are all supportive of one another (even through all the auditions and competing for roles). At the end of the day, even when you sing the same rep as someone else, you have different things to say in the same arias. We are all different artists.
This brings to mind a story I heard from a friend about a year ago. Apparently my friend had a very close friend who happened to be invited to a party on the Upper West Side in, I believe, one of the Trump buildings. The host of this party had purchased two apartments in this building in order to build a small concert hall. For this private party, the host wanted an "aria-off" where the two singers would sing arias, back to back, several of them exactly the same. The two singers were......Renee Fleming and Anna Netrebko. Some people were SHOCKED to hear this. Arguably opera's two most loved sopranos on the same stage in the same night singing the same or similar rep!! Quel surprise!!! After initially being REALLY jealous that I was not there, it made me appreciate them both as artists even more. They both very easily could have said they would not do that. However, they were able to probably laugh about it; they, I'm sure, knew that their interpretations would be totally different, that they each had their own statement to make on any given aria.
What I guess I'm trying to say is, we are all different. Everyone has their own path! Some people may achieve international success before they are 30, and some people may not until they are 50. It should not matter when you achieve that success, and you can't let what feel as a late start get you down. Everyone has their own path and their own time. It may not be when you want it to be, but if you really stay focused on your own progress and path, I firmly believe that it will happen for you. You may not be the next Netrebko or Pavarotti, but then again, you probably wouldn't want to be. You should want to be YOU, and no one else. Be true to yourself as a person, as an artist, as a singer. Be open and vulnerable on stage, but fiercely focused off. You can't always expect perfection from yourself (I believe even Fleming says she aims for about 92% perfection on stage at any given time). Be happy for your friends and enjoy success together with one another, but don't let anyone else distract you from achieving what you want.
After all, would you rather be upset that someone is going to Santa Fe, or have a fierce high C for the next audition? The choice is yours.
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