Beaver Creek, CO

I made it up to the top of the mountains...after a 4 hour flight, 3 hour drive, with parents and 3 kids. Now we're in this GIANT awesome townhouse, and I am nannying to my little hearts content.

And the family keeps asking me to sing for them! I haven't yet...but it brings up an interesting issue among singers:

Singing for Different Groups of People. I think that audiences can be classified a few ways:

-the audition panel. Anywhere from 1-8 people, with their pencils scribbling away about you and their glances from each other to your resume to their auditor sheets to you. While it is nerve racking, I have developed ways of not paying attention to what they are doing and instead trying to PERFORM my butt off for them. It's what they prefer and it's much better than staring them down.

-"mankind" - the audience is in a darkened theater, retirement home performance space, school gym, etc., with anywhere from 50-5000 seats, and I can't SEE individual faces while I'm onstage. This, to me, is ideal. I LOVE performing for mankind. If it's an outreach situation, I can often feel the love coming from the collective group and that, for me, is why I sing. To share something that may touch others, or at least make them feel something.

and then you have this kind of group situation where I am now...people who meet you, find out you're a singer, and then say "oh great! sing something for me RIGHT NOW!" This is far more nerve racking than a staged performance, when you have others to play off of, not to mention an orchestra, costumes, and other elements to enhance what you're doing. It's also worse than an audition, where the panel is judging you...but at least you might get a job out of it. To be on the same level as a group of people who don't really know you, in close quarters (many people don't realize that an opera voice is much, much louder than a normal speaking voice), trying to give them a taste of what you do without blasting their ears out.

So far I have balked at this request, but I think I might give in. The more you share what opera is, the more educated others become, and that might be what keeps the art alive.

At least it's Christmas time so I can get away with a cheesy holiday song instead of something like Lulu.

O Holy Night it is!