The first Ask Erda column appeared in the January 2002 issue of Classical Singer magazine and focused on “times are hard.” I’d been writing for the magazine for five years prior when founder and then-editor CJ Williamson and I came up with the idea for a “Dear Abby for singers” feature. Since the all-knowing goddess of Norse mythology in Der Ring des Nibelungen is one of my roles, we thought singers should Ask Erda.
Flash to 2019, and I could be writing a column focusing on “times are harder.” The classical singing business has undergone significant changes, many for the better—but it certainly hasn’t gotten any easier. One of the positive changes, in my opinion, is that singers no longer must hide the fact that many of our careers involve multiple income streams. “Brand” is a necessary conversation rather than a dirty word. Singers are encouraged, more and more, to embrace authenticity and originality—you do you, baby!
So, as I celebrate 22 years of writing for Classical Singer and 17 years of Ask Erda, and look forward to many more, I’m pleased to announce that Erda is retiring to her subterranean cavern, and just plain Cindy is taking her place. Ask Erda is now Ask Cindy, and you can reach me by emailing support@csmusic.net or direct messaging through the CS Music Facebook page. Or, you can ask questions in real time during our next CS Music Live with Cindy Sadler event, live on Facebook. Check the CS Music Facebook page for information.
What now? Reinvention and the constant swim upstream are on my mind these days, inspired by, among other things, the types of questions I hear most frequently from singers: various versions of “How do I negotiate (fill in challenge of your choice) so I can get hired?” We addressed several such questions in the last CS Music Live with Cindy Sadler live stream.
I often advise emerging artists to seek opportunities that are one or two levels higher than the experience they already have. After the broadcast, Chandra Roxanne had this excellent follow-up: “You were awesome last week. I came away with concrete, logical steps to move forward. Follow-up question: How do we go about determining what roles and opportunities are truly one or two levels above where we currently are?”
On an emerging artist’s résumé, opera companies are looking for growth—bigger and better roles with bigger and better companies over time. Let’s say you currently sing in the chorus of your regional opera house and you get a contract to sing Butterfly’s mother (what’s called a chorus bit, but still a role!). You do a great job and, next season, perhaps you graduate to doing a nun in Dialogues of the Carmelites—all named roles, although mostly they sing in the chorus.
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The next year, you ask to be considered for a role like one of the maids in Elektra, the three spirits or three ladies in The Magic Flute, Giannetta in L’elisir d’amore, or Frasquita or Mercédès in Carmen. You’re steadily moving up through the ranks from a chorus role to a comprimario role. These credits build your résumé and help with being considered for work at other companies. You can then look at a company which is a size or two smaller than the one where you have your best credit and audition for better roles there. Or look at a company a size or two bigger and audition for the same level of role you currently have on your résumé.
For example, if you have done comprimario roles at your C-level regional company, you can audition for a bigger comprimario or even a lead at a D- or E-level company. Look to move from ensemble to small solo opportunities, from small solo opportunities to bigger ones. Look to move from small opportunities to bigger ones with a smaller house, or the same/slightly larger opportunities with a bigger house.
Finally, I’d like to leave you with this.
The music world is cruel. It’s exclusive by nature. Natural ability, specific and highly developed skills and knowledge, money, luck, connections and, increasingly, a relatively narrow spectrum of desired physical appearance all help define an artist’s chances at professional success. And even if you achieve a measure of success, it can all change on a dime. In truth, the music world is not only cruel but fickle. Contracts dry up, colleagues stop returning calls, and you may never know why.
If there’s anything an artist needs to learn, it’s the art of reinvention.
Recently, I came across a quote from the wonderful actor Stephen Fry, who portrayed the playwright Oscar Wilde in the 1998 film Wilde. He said, “Oscar Wilde said that if you know what you want to be, then you inevitably become it—that is your punishment. But if you never know, then you can be anything. There is a truth to that. We are not nouns, we are verbs. I am not a thing—an actor, a writer—I am a person who does things—I write, I act—and I never know what I am going to do next. I think you can be imprisoned if you think of yourself as a noun.”
These are profound and helpful thoughts, but the young singer who posted the quote had a profundity of her own to offer. “I have imprisoned myself many times saying, ‘If I lost my voice tomorrow, would I be worth anything? That’s why I am building other skills as well,’” wrote soprano Charissa Memrick, who is currently portraying General Nacht (aka the Queen of the Night) in Texas State University’s Star Wars-themed production of The Magic Flute. “I’ve seen so many singers go down a destructive path because they believe they are a vessel for one purpose. It makes rejection in the industry way more painful!”
How I wish I had Memrick’s insight when I was her age. How I wish this were something that was imparted to every young singer, every young artist. Reflecting on the standout artists I’ve known throughout my own career, there have been three unifying factors in all of them: a refusal to accept boundaries and limitations imposed by others, an understanding and confidence in their own strengths and weaknesses, and the determination to do the work to get where they wanted to go.
What would our creative world look like if we focused on teaching artists to be free? What would it look like if we ourselves put in the time to learn the rules, without enslaving ourselves to them? Art is, by nature, contrarian. It is intended to make us question, feel, react. As artists, we should never feel afraid to celebrate our uniqueness and explore our own paths.
Grand opera is an art form with exacting standards and specifications. I love singing it and hope never to stop. But it is also expensive and challenging to produce, and its upper echelons are heavily guarded gated communities through which only a relatively small selection of artists may pass. This does not render it unworthy of pursuit, but what about those artists who don’t get there and still have something worthwhile to say?
There are other places to have a fabulous party besides the exclusive country club.
Small companies have sprung up all over the country, many of them fostered by artists who somehow never fit the mold or who chose lifestyles that imposed different requirements than those pursuing the big-time spotlight. They commission and produce more intimate works, create more manageable versions of the grand old dames, or explore lesser-known gems, often in innovative spaces. Examples include the Beth Morrison Projects in Brooklyn, Opera Parallèle in San Francisco, Opera MODO in Detroit, Marble City Opera in Knoxville, Pacific Opera Project in Los Angeles, One Ounce Opera and LOLA in Austin, On Site Opera in New York City, Opera NEO in San Diego, Guerilla Opera and Boston Opera Collaborative in Boston, Opera in Concert in Dallas, and Lawrence Opera Theatre in Kansas, to name just a few.
Now more than ever, opera, art song, and other classical genres are expanding to include different ideas and iterations. You can also sing other genres of music and still be a viable opera singer.
Don’t wait for someone else to recognize your talent and hire you. Hire yourself. Develop your own projects. And if it’s your dream to sing on the big stage, don’t give up on it. Just don’t imprison yourself in the maze of the “one true career or the one true way.”
Invent yourself. Invent your own way.
Repeat as necessary.
