I Think I Am Ready To Move In New Directions
I have been doing quite an amount of thinking lately in my leisure time not allocated to study or pleasure. Here am I, graduated from high school for almost a whole year now, and I have yet to decide whether to go to college or to pursue some other, more practical means of employing the next few years of my life. This decision has been delayed because of certain happenings in my life, but I think it is time that I began to look at alternatives to a singing career. Listening faithfully to the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts, I finally realize that it is highly unlikely that I shall ever become an opera singer. Does this mean that I will cease to explore options to pursue my dream? I am not so easily daunted as that, but I must also be responsible enough to understand the difference between fantasy and reality. My circumstances have been thus: I have not had what one would term formal employment, I do not drive, and there is little chance that I shall ever attend an university. The main point is that I have waited for a year hoping that God would send me some sign that this is the direction He intended for my life, but I have seen little evidence for that. Nevertheless, I remain hopeful because an acquaintance once told me never to be sure that God does not wish for us to do something just because we cannot see the way to do it since the desire to do it may just as well have come from God in the first place. Did I express the sentiment clearly enough? Just read through it two or three times. Basically, I am going to continue singing as an amateur, but I shall abandon any practice of furthering my career, though I shall audition for every musical I can. Unless someone begs me to accept a role in an opera, I get an audition with an opera company, or I receive a full scholarship to an university, I am going to allow time to take its course.
Now, if I can just start driving, find employment and save my amassed capital to buy a residence, I will be satisfied with myself.
Since it is Saturday, I just finished listening to the Met's broadcast of Gaetano Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor. It starred Anna Netrebko, Piotr Beclaza, Mariusz Kweicien, and Ildar Abdrazakov. I quite enjoy this opera; indeed I adore bel canto repertoire. I realized today how much of this opera I actually recognized from last season. Netrebko's Lucia was excellent, but I prefer Natalie Dessay's performance of it last season to this one. I shoud have liked to hear Diana Damrau's interpretation of it last year, but I was occupied when it was streamed over the Met's website. On YouTube as I watched one of Dessay's performances, I noticed a comment from a viewer who said that Diana Damrau is offered every role only after Natalie Dessay gets it. I did not really believe it then, but I have since experienced the veracity of the statement. Last year Dessay starred in Lucia di Lammermoor and La Fille du Regiment and Diana starred as Lucia this season and she is scheduled to perform as Marie in La Fille du Regiment in a couple of seasons at the Met. How strange!
Moving to another topic, since I have some readers who are undoubtedly music majors in their pursuit of higher education, and since these are invariably looking for free resources at every turn, for who does not do so in their attempt to save money, I have found a lovely way to save money on the ever increasing cost of sheet music. IMSLP is an Internet library of public-domain classical music. With a collection of over TWENTY THOUSAND INDIVIDUAL SCORES WITH MORE BEING ADDED DAILY, it offers music in almost every genre and period imaginable, even complete scores of operas! I have availed myself of this marvelous resource, and I hope that it can help some of you with the pieces you want. Generally, it is best to stay conservative with your searches since they feature nothing from the past fifty years since that would be copyright infringement, but search for anything because even I have been surprised at the rarities they have to offer. I would definitely use this far more often than I do if I had a printer and a piano was more accesible to me.
Finally, may God continue to bless all of you.
-Tyler.
Now, if I can just start driving, find employment and save my amassed capital to buy a residence, I will be satisfied with myself.
Since it is Saturday, I just finished listening to the Met's broadcast of Gaetano Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor. It starred Anna Netrebko, Piotr Beclaza, Mariusz Kweicien, and Ildar Abdrazakov. I quite enjoy this opera; indeed I adore bel canto repertoire. I realized today how much of this opera I actually recognized from last season. Netrebko's Lucia was excellent, but I prefer Natalie Dessay's performance of it last season to this one. I shoud have liked to hear Diana Damrau's interpretation of it last year, but I was occupied when it was streamed over the Met's website. On YouTube as I watched one of Dessay's performances, I noticed a comment from a viewer who said that Diana Damrau is offered every role only after Natalie Dessay gets it. I did not really believe it then, but I have since experienced the veracity of the statement. Last year Dessay starred in Lucia di Lammermoor and La Fille du Regiment and Diana starred as Lucia this season and she is scheduled to perform as Marie in La Fille du Regiment in a couple of seasons at the Met. How strange!
Moving to another topic, since I have some readers who are undoubtedly music majors in their pursuit of higher education, and since these are invariably looking for free resources at every turn, for who does not do so in their attempt to save money, I have found a lovely way to save money on the ever increasing cost of sheet music. IMSLP is an Internet library of public-domain classical music. With a collection of over TWENTY THOUSAND INDIVIDUAL SCORES WITH MORE BEING ADDED DAILY, it offers music in almost every genre and period imaginable, even complete scores of operas! I have availed myself of this marvelous resource, and I hope that it can help some of you with the pieces you want. Generally, it is best to stay conservative with your searches since they feature nothing from the past fifty years since that would be copyright infringement, but search for anything because even I have been surprised at the rarities they have to offer. I would definitely use this far more often than I do if I had a printer and a piano was more accesible to me.
Finally, may God continue to bless all of you.
-Tyler.
Comments