Final Thoughts on Tour

I sang my last OFY performance this past Saturday. It was great. I performed Mabel a total of 70 times this season...the most I've ever sung a role. It's ironic: one of the reasons I decided to go into opera versus musical theater was "I don't want to perform the same thing night after night." Now I realize 3 things: 1) if you are LUCKY, you get to perform the same role night after night!, 2)Opera companies do the same shows over and over again sometimes, so you often perform the same role with different casts, and 3)each time you perform a role, you learn more about the character and yourself as an artist, and it becomes incredibly rewarding.

Every OFY alum I spoke with before beginning tour said "oh, god, I learned SO MUCH about performing while I worked with them." It's true. I learned how to perform in varying venues, to varying crowds, age- and interest-wise, to teach children, to perform under very distracting circumstances, to perform without being able to hear the accompaniment, to pick up costume pieces when they fall off onstage, to fix set pieces when they fall down during a show, to decide in a split second whether or not the high e-flat is going to come out and change cadenza accordingly....the list goes on.

Most importantly, I learned that I want to be Involved in Music for my Career. I would love that to mean singing on the Met stage, but I am learning that a career combining teaching, soloing, concert work, auditions, writing about music, and performing in shows onstage all adds up to a very satisfying prospective career for me. As a musician, I feel that I am in a better place financially, spiritually, and intellectually than I've ever been before. I can't wait to keep going and see how far I can get as an artist.