I often find February to be a rather difficult month. The fun and excitement of the holidays are long past. The beautiful snow that added to my Christmas spirit and excitement for the new year has turned brown and dingy, and lingers on thanks to the still frigid temperatures. My insides reflect my surroundings, dull and just generally blasé. I’m longing for a ray of real sunlight to spark some sense of excitement. Thoughts of New Year’s resolutions already broken add to my listlessness.
The New York Times began the first few days of the new year with articles about resolutions, making them and breaking them. It included an article called “The New Year’s Cocktail: Regret With a Dash of Bitters,” which propounded that life, for everyone, is full of regrets. It briefly mentioned singers who give up on their career path and then live in a series of “what ifs.”
The part I found most heartening, however, was the contention that those who cope best with the inevitable regrets of life are those who learn from their “what ifs.” These people use their regrets to mature and grow, rather than allowing those regrets to become a perpetual stumbling block.
People do best emotionally if they can learn to view their regrets in the context of things gained and lost from the experience.
This issue is full of inspirational examples of making the most of less than favorable circumstances, of thriving in adversity, and leaving regrets in the past. Kathy Kuczka brings us the story of one such singer who is defying the odds. Confined to a wheelchair since contracting polio as an infant, Elke Riedel is doing what many told her she could not do: sing.
Sometimes it takes others to right the wrongs of the past. Maestro James Conlon is doing that for composers whose music was suppressed under the Nazi Party’s Third Reich. Read about Conlon’s “Recovered Voices” series, which continues at Los Angeles Opera this month and features Mary Dunleavy, the subject of our cover story.
On a matter that hits a little closer to home, Lisa Houston discusses a recent adversity in her own life: laryngitis during a busy singing season. Lisa was forced to make a decision that is difficult for every singer with both a job and a vocal health problem coming on: to sing or not to sing, to cancel or not to cancel. Lisa shares her own battle with possible feelings of regret over her ultimate decision, and also offers two other singers’ perspectives on the controversial subject of canceling.
Adversity, regrets, and “what ifs” are harsh realities in this business. Learning to cope with them can be a struggle, as one singer/therapist shares in her article “Voices from Within: Singers and Depression.” Determining when the ordinary ups and downs of a singer’s life have surpassed normal is both challenging and critical. Carol Meyer Willingham gives us some guidelines for doing just that, and offers insight into things in the singer’s psyche that can lead any of us down the path of depression. This article is a must read for every singer, regardless of whether you suffer from depression.
As you look back at the start of 2008—and perhaps see resolutions and resolves that have already turned to regret—take inspiration from the many who have learned and are learning from adversity. The warmth and newness of spring is just around the corner.
