In 2010, I wrote an article for Classical Singer on ageism in opera [“The Shame Old Story,” March, 2010], which I learned was pervasive. Since that time, the prospects for opera singers of any age have narrowed, to a large extent because of the economic recession. The high-profile closure of New York City Opera in 2013, the pay cuts at the Met in 2014, and the near closing of San Diego Opera that same year are among the latest indications of a distressed industry. Given this backdrop, it is hard to imagine that anyone would choose to begin singing opera or pursuing a career seriously at age 40 or 50. In recent months, however, I have encountered many singers who have done exactly that. Here is what they had to say about their reasoning and experiences as “delayed debutants.”
Vocal Discoveries
For some singers, it was only later in life that they discovered that they had viable instruments. In a few cases, these discoveries took place during church services. A church choir director heard soprano Deborah Whelan, then 48, singing in the congregation and urged her to join the choir. The director encouraged her to “do something with that voice,” Whelan recalls. Soon Whelan started taking voice lessons, sang solos during masses, and eventually started landing gigs to sing at weddings and funerals.
Mezzo Rebecca MacLean was also “discovered” when singing at a church. Although she had done some amateur opera singing in her 20s, she stopped in her 30s. When a “Svengali-like figure” heard her singing in a back pew when she was 54, he coaxed her to sing solos, including “Mon cœur s’ouvre à ta voix.” That was a peak experience for her, from which she has never looked back.
When soprano Dorothy Hatton started singing in church more frequently in her early 40s, she found that she greatly enjoyed this experience. Until then, she says, she didn’t realize that she had any singing ability.
Bass Richard Wiegold had a very different sort of path. After working as a professional cellist, he decided to study voice at a conservatory at the age of 32. Today, he enjoys a thriving international career, which he launched at the age of 40.
Long Breaks
Other singers I spoke to once had early aspirations for singing careers, but put them on hold because of competing priorities. Child rearing is one such priority. Mezzo Heather Roberts chose to stop performing between the ages of 30 and 34 so that she could spend more time with her daughters, who were two and a half and six. “Sometimes I wonder where I’d be now in the profession had I not made the choice I had,” she muses. “That said, I do not for one second regret staying with my girls.”
Mezzo Frances Marsh also recognizes the effect that raising children has had on her singing trajectory. “People out there who have been working hard and acquiring gigs and experiences while I’ve been home raising children have gotten ahead in their skills and abilities,” she observes. Closing the gap, she finds, “requires a lot of hard work and a positive attitude.”
For bass Milo Morris, who sang professionally in his 20s, it was a career in corporate America that led him to take a long break from performing. At the age of 35, he began exploring the professional opera world at the suggestion of a coach and started taking lessons again. Eventually, he earned enough money singing that he could stop working full-time in nonmusical jobs.
Fach Changes
Some singers face delays because of Fach changes. This is especially true for dramatic voices which, as soprano Anita Lyons notes, take longer to develop. Lyons, who started out a soubrette, turned into a full lyric soprano in her mid-20s, and then a dramatic soprano at 35. This meant that she had to rebuild her voice yet again. “That was tough—throwing out all the roles I’d learned and starting over again, technically and artistically,” she remembers.
Natasha Novitskaia, who discovered that she was a dramatic mezzo while in her late 30s, agrees with Lyons about the additional time it takes to cultivate large voices. “The competitions for people with age limits of 30–34 are a joke for big, dramatic voices,” she points out.
Age Discrimination
According to Lyons and Novitskaia, age discrimination is especially problematic for dramatic voices. “The industry bemoans the loss of the large voices, but there is a reason they are not out there in the numbers they once were,” says Lyons. “Once I finally grew into my voice, all Young Artist Program doors were closed to me due to my age.”
“I see a big problem here,” says Novitskaia. “It takes time to develop a big, dramatic voice. We spend so much time, money, and effort—and in the end, it looks like the opera world doesn’t need us.”
How do other delayed debutants feel about age discrimination? For Wiegold, who has sung at Covent Garden and the Salzburg Festival and who is preparing for a debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, it clearly has not been a problem. He admits, however, that this may be an advantage of his voice type—a deep bass. “I mostly play older characters,” he explains. “Looking 21 has never been a priority! I might feel differently if I had a lighter, higher voice.” Baritone Chris Sirois, 46, has also enjoyed freedom from expectations to look youthful.
For other singers, age discrimination is a major obstacle. Whelan has never auditioned for an opera role because she is a light lyric soprano and she recognizes that the Mozart and Rossini ingénue and maid roles suited to her voice type “are very young characters who are sung by young women, as a rule.”
MacLean understands the reasoning behind this sort of discrimination. “Now, more and more, directors look at opera as theater,” she explains, “and particularly in a small venue where the audience is close to the singers, they want singers to look like the characters they are playing, and that is fine.”
A different sort of age discrimination is less acceptable in her opinion. “What I consider unconscionable is people thinking that singers over a certain age are not worth ‘bothering with’ because, in their eyes, we have no future,” MacLean says. “OK, so I’m too old to be believable as Charlotte in Werther. But I am outraged that someone would rather cast a 30-year-old as the Old Prioress in Carmelites because of a desire to cast people at the ‘beginning’ of their careers.”
Increased Competition
Age discrimination is compounded by financial difficulties faced by opera companies today, which can cut costs by using Young Artists. Roberts notes that most of the A, B, and C+ houses coming to New York City to audition singers are looking only for Young Artists. “YAs are a cheaper hire, and many companies are hiring YAs to cover and even perform principal roles,” she says.
This is unfortunate not only for Roberts but also, in some cases, for the Young Artists. “The sad thing about it all is that when younger singers are hired to sing the type of roles I sing, their bodies are not seasoned enough to handle the entire role for an entire rehearsal period and run of a show,” she says. “They are being given rep that is too much, too soon. . . . Often, they will end their singing careers early due to vocal fatigue and injury.”
Some opera companies cut costs by decreasing the frequency of productions or choosing operas that require fewer personnel. Consequently, there are fewer roles available and competition is fiercer than ever. MacLean was bitterly disappointed to find that today, professional singers are flooding the stages of amateur companies. “The bar for those types of companies has risen astronomically,” she observes. “The people who sing there are polished professionals who can’t get work at the moment, or who aren’t being paid to sing roles that they want to sing, or who want to test drive a role they are going to perform somewhere else. So there are no venues left for someone like me.”
Coping with Challenges
How do singers cope with the challenges of competing with younger singers? Their strategies vary. Some work extra hard on their technique and follow intense fitness regimens. Some secure contracts with agents who can open doors that might otherwise be closed to them. Others simply perform as much as possible, even if there is no pay involved. Lyons, for instance, has had positive experiences with the New York Opera Forum, a pay-to-sing that enables her to try out new roles in “safe environments.”
Another strategy is to focus on areas where age is less of an issue. Marsh, for example, is focusing on oratorio. Hatton plans to incorporate her singing into a career as a music therapist for Alzheimer’s patients. She follows the advice of a friend, who
told her, “You are never too old to be able to use your abilities and do something that you love and that feels right in your heart.”
Morris advises older singers to set realistic goals. “Treat this like a business,” he suggests. “Know your specific product and do your best to understand how it fits into the market.”
This sort of practical perspective makes sense to Marsh. “There are fewer people willing and eager to mentor an older singer,” she states. “An older singer might have to just accept this reality. Part of being a grown-up is not being cared for but learning how to take care of oneself. Therefore, the grown-up must create his/her own support system.”
Whatever their goals, Sirois believes older singers should keep an open mind about the opportunities available to them. “Produce your own projects, collaborate with other artists of different genres, look at the Internet and new media as channels for creativity, and never give up on your passion and dreams—even if your path is not always linear,” he urges.
Their paths differ significantly, but giving up is off the agenda for the foreseeable future in the plans of the singers I interviewed. “Singing, whether for pay or not, has added a dimension to my life that brings me joy and self-actualization in a way that nothing else has,” says Whelan.
Hatton takes a similar view. “I absolutely love singing and had no idea that I could do something I love this much and make a career out of it and help people all at the same time,” she comments. “It’s amazing to me!”
It is clear that from the perspective of the interviewees, age may be an obstacle but it does not define them. Roberts’ approach is a case in point. Whenever she is asked how old she is in an audition, she responds, “I am however old you’d like me to be.”
