Aging, like taxes, is inevitable, but in the field of classical singing, singers seem to be judged in dog years. Where else but the performing arts is 30 considered “over the hill?” Singers often find themselves caught between being considered too young to handle a role technically and being too old to believably play it. Strict age restrictions for competitions and apprentice programs prohibit older singers from ever getting the chance to be heard. Unjust as this sounds, these are the rules of the game. We can either learn to play by them or work together to try and facilitate change.
Change, incidentally, is in the wind. Recently on the Classical Singer website, the Late Starter Forum has been abuzz with activity. What began as frustration with arbitrary age restrictions has developed, through brainstorming and hard work on the part of several singers, into a wonderful, proactive idea. The forum members are now encouraging you, on behalf of all singers, to take part in a letter-writing campaign to companies who utilize age restrictions.
This isn’t the first time Classical Singer has tackled this topic. In October of 1998, CS Magazine did an entire issue on Age Discrimination. (www.classicalsinger.com/newsletter/Oct-1998/toc.html). We sent all the legal materials to AGMA and asked them to join with us in the effort to educate companies about the law. Six months later, Louise Gilmore, then the National Executive Secretary, responded by writing about the law in AGMAzine, the AGMA newsletter.
This time we want to share some of the salient points brought up by singers on the forum and a few of their ideas for solutions.
Better Late Than Never
For a variety of reasons, some singers get started later than others. Reasons may range from location…
“I started studying voice at age 13, but this was in Yakima, Washington, where there were no opportunities to get any experience in opera, even as a chorister or spear carrier!”
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..to poor instruction or lack of guidance…
“I majored in voice in college, but the place had no opera workshop most of the time, and my voice teacher, who had enticed me to the school with talk of a workshop, but who was mainly interested in adding my voice to his already large choir, was so bad that it took me years to undo the damage he did to my vocal technique! Several years of study with two good voice teachers got me back on the right track, but by then I had lost time.”
Uncontrollable external circumstances or life events, such as, “death of family members (or) spouses, pregnancies…giving birth to handicapped children…accidents, serious illness, etc.,” may postpone or halt singers’ careers in midstream. “When one is dealt a life challenge, all else goes out of the scene until you’re able to ‘pick up your life’ again.”
Whether they have begun their careers later or have simply taken more time to develop their art, many singers find themselves being excluded from competitions because of the numbers on their birth certificates.
Several CS forum members offered their views and concerns, and suggested reasons why older singers should in fact be allowed to compete.
A 37-year-old college senior majoring in voice performance writes, “I started in 1996, already ‘too old’ for almost every competition or program out there. My voice was mature when I started, and has only grown since my college career began. I can sing almost anything, and yet I am not given the opportunity because of my age…The stigma of age is most discouraging when one possesses the talent but not the outlet to use it.”
“I can tell you that after studying since 1990 I have twice the voice I had when I was 18 or 20 years old,” agrees another late starter, “I started studying at 10 years of age, but I stopped when I got married. Older singers have so much to offer in the way of experience and vocal development.”
Another perspective suggests that many of the roles limited to younger singers in fact require more experience than most of them could possibly be capable of at such an early age, and in fact could be quite damaging to a young singer’s voice.
“Age limits put enormous pressure on young singers to sing music they should not be singing,” said an East Coast baritone. “I’ve seen numerous competitions advertised with low age cut-offs and repertoire requirements that absolutely make me shudder. I don’t care if you are the next Caruso, you should not be singing Rodolfo at 20. Probably not even at 25. Why force people to sing roles that are more appropriate for a voice that is 30+? Likewise, all these high school and college sopranos singing Queen of the Night.
“It doesn’t matter whether they can sing it well at 20. You may get a pretty sound, but it’s rarely produced on solid technique. What matters is whether they will still be able to sing it at 40. Starting so young is a recipe for a short career. Only the most technically proficient voices will survive. The result? A veritable trash heap of talented singers who can no longer sing and who end up teaching flawed technique to other youngsters who rush out to the Young Artist Programs and the competitions singing the same inappropriate materials their teachers sang.
“It’s hard to tell young people to slow down when they get out of college or conservatory with lots of debt and no ability to make a living. Add to that the pressures the industry puts on them to perform these roles and it’s easy to see how this cycle revolves.
“I’m not necessarily advocating a return to the old Italian schools where you spend seven or eight years grounding your technique before you ever try it on stage, but it seems that as an industry there should be a better way to ensure that the talented singers we can produce will last.
“Ending age cutoffs would be one way to start. Put a 20-year-old voice against a 40-year-old with good technique singing Puccini and tell me which one you’d want to pay to hear.”
Caught in the Middle
Because of these very issues, some singers, regardless of how early they got started, find themselves in a “Catch 22” situation, where, during the all-important window of their mid-20s they are told to wait until their voices “mature,” yet within a few years, they may be considered ineligible for most roles.
A 25-year-old Canadian singer dealing with this situation expressed her frustration: “My voice is one of a dramatic color and wide range, hence, at 25, I am not even close to its entire potential. Often after auditions or competitions I get, ‘Come again once your voice is set…’ Then I hear about singers in their 30s who can’t get contracts because of their age. So, I juggle two careers; a corporate one by day and then I study voice and languages at night. It is insane. But how else do you pay for lessons, coachings, gowns, audition fees if you don’t work? …I trust that with time and practice my voice will mature in a healthy fashion. Verdi and Wagner didn’t compose for 18-year-old soubrettes.”
“Often times, voices and ‘the full package,’ do not come together until singers are older, especially for those of us who have bigger voices,” agrees one singer. Frankly, voices are like fine wine – they take time! Judging officials should be sensitive to this fact.”
“So many bemoan the fact that there are no big voices around anymore to sing the Verdi, Puccini, Wagner, verismo repertoire,” another adds. “Well, we do exist! We’re in our late 30s or 40s and deemed too old to be heard by important industry people who usually judge or observe certain important competitions where one can jumpstart a career. These competitions include the Met auditions, the Liederkranz, the George London Foundation, the Puccini Foundation, and countless European competitions where the age limit for women is actually lower than for men! (30 for women and 32 for men). It took many of us years to develop into spintos and dramatics to be able to sing the heavier repertoire the way it should be sung! We all deserve a chance to be heard in competitions and be judged on merit. Right now many of us are in frustrated limbo and we do not have the luxury of time to waste. What can we do to abolish age limits once and for all?”
Understanding the Company Line
One singer pointed out that to solve the problem, “we need to think about issues on both sides of the divide.” Many companies with limited resources are already bombarded with hopeful singers. Removing age limits could overwhelm their resources. Also, anyone who has judged competitions knows that there are many, many singers who are barely out of the category of monotones — but keep auditioning and auditioning without improving. Age restrictions keep them out after a certain age, but so would simply remembering who they are and telling them “No.” And there are those “career competition winners” who never intend on having a career and live off their winnings for years (hard to believe, but that is what a few competitions have complained about).
“It is clear that age limits are used at least in some programs and competitions to exclude people who have already had exposure and don’t need the boost or training that is at stake.
“The literal defining of age limits is now excluding a big group of people who are not the group that was intended to be excluded.”
One suggestion was made that companies should hold “blind” auditions similar to the process of selection for instrumentalists, where the singer would be judged solely on voice quality and technique.
“Opera is not just about the voice,” challenged another singer. “It is drama and theatre as well. I don’t understand the view that the voice should be considered in isolation. That may hold true if you were performing behind a screen for an audience, or if you were just going to be a recording artist, but since we are singer-actors performing dramas, appearance is still important and must be considered along with the voice. If you are just about your voice, why get into drama?”
This led to a revision in the original idea, the proposal of a two-part blind audition. “What if a company heard the first of two arias behind a screen, and then the second out front so they could “judge” your acting abilities?”
“My belief,” reads one post, “is that if the singer looks young enough for the part, is energetic, acts and sings excellently, there is no reason that they shouldn’t be considered equally with their younger counterparts for casting and competitions.”
Creative Paperwork…
One of the few singers on the forum to use his full name, Darren K. Woods, tenor and General Director of Shreveport Opera wrote,
“Get the dates off of your resumés. List the things you have done but leave off dates that will lead to questions about your age. Your resumé should steer the discussion of you in the direction that YOU want. Be creative on your resumé but always tell the truth. If someone asks you, ‘When did you do Carmen in Omaha?’ you can say, ‘A few years back’ or ‘Some time ago.’ You will find that most won’t ask. Very few (companies) will ask for proof of age because it gets into the dicey stage of legality. YAP’s (Young Artist Programs) can limit age and ask for proof because they’re considered education programs and not “jobs”. However, most don’t ask anymore.”
One singer responded, “I have no problem avoiding the age issue altogether on my resumé and materials, but I refuse to lie if I am asked or the info is asked on an application. Even if I didn’t have a problem with lying, I feel like we older singers are only FEEDING this idea that you have to be young to be a desirable/hirable singer. In other words, if I fudge my age, I’m only buying into the concept that I so vehemently disagree with ….that I have to be young to be hired.”
“You can’t lie when they ask for proof and they DO ask; eventually they find out,” added another. “We’ve all heard the stories of musicians (this applies not just to us singers, by the way) who lied, won a competition, then had the win revoked because they lied. I remember hearing about a pianist who sued when this happened to her; the basis was that winning meant she met all the substantial criteria they imposed, making her age irrelevant. She was subsequently blacklisted.”
What, then, of singers those who don’t look 22? In this month’s cover story, the conductor Carlo Rizzi stated that in casting, he would always choose voice over cosmetic looks. But he may be one of the rare few to hold this opinion.
Getting Yourself Heard
“If only we could reform some of these audition practices and make it consistant across the board, could lawyers and lobbyists help us to pass a law against unfair age discrimination in singing auditions?”
There already is legislation on the books, but legal action can take years and is generally thought to be bad for a career. The forum members have suggested a more practical solution in which singers of all ages can participate.
“Imagine the power if someone suddenly gets [hundreds of] well-articulated letters asking for a change that can only be seen as fair…”
The moderator of the Late Starter forum, with the help of a lawyer and several fellow singers, has composed a letter template which can be used to bring attention to this issue. We’ve included it here (see www.classicalsinger.com/2001/03/letter.html) along with contact information for several programs (see pg 30 of the March issue of Classical Singer). Write your own or tailor this to the specifications of the competitions to whom you wish to appeal. We recommend keeping it short and to the point, and always remember that honey attracts more flies than vinegar.
