aThis is the season when singers have to deal with a certain kind of comment from a lot of well-meaning strangers … and even family and friends. Sometimes it can be frustrating. Some of the Classical Singer Forumites started a thread on this subject, venting some of their least favorite comments and how they deal with them. We thought it might help you get through the season too! Our thanks to the CS Forumites for this light-hearted look at the things non-singers say. We hope you will take it in the spirit in which it is intended. You can join this group of singers by going to our homepage at www.classicalsinger.com and clicking at the top of the page on ‘forums’ and then ‘general interest’. —CJ Williamson
Baby Doe
Annoying comment #1
“Oh, you sing opera? I’ve seen Phantom of the Opera!”
Polite response: “Yes, that is a great musical. Sometimes people confuse it with opera.”
Dream response: Oh, I didn’t know the Phantom road show came to Hick Town, USA.
Annoying comment #2:
“I thought you had to be fat to be an opera singer?”
Polite response: “Yes, that is a common misconception. These days, singers are expected to look ‘realistic’ in their roles, just like a movie actor.”
Dream response: Oh, if you thought that, why didn’t YOU become an opera singer?
Anyone else care to vent???
zerbgirl
How about, “Oh! Do you break glass?”
And I always hear: “Really? You don’t LOOK like an opera singer.”
jfeldm3
This one’s the worst, “That’s cool, you sing opera . . . so what do you do for a living?”
RKBB
I have to agree with jfeldm3. The famous “what’s your real job” is by far the worst one to hear . . . or the dreaded “My uncle’s a singer blah blah . ”
GeorgeSand
The worst response I ever got (and I’m not kidding) was “Oh. So do you have one of those hats with the horns?”
Anonfem
My personal favorite as far as annoying comments go is the following: “You’re an opera singer? That must be so glamorous!”
Please! If spending ALL of your spare money on voice lessons, coachings, and music and not having money for anything else is glamorous, so be it! Most people would call it poverty. That’s not even looking at all of the other trials and tribulations included in this type of life. That’s MHO.
GeorgeSand
Hey, Anonfem, isn’t this the glamorous life?
When I worked in publishing for several years, people always thought that was SO glamorous, too. (“I love to read; I’d be a great editor!” was my favorite comment there). Same deal though, long hours of work for little pay. And it didn’t have the pay-off of getting to perform!
My favorite thing to do when I encounter someone in a profession I know nothing about is to say something like “That sounds interesting . . . it’s a field really I don’t know anything about”, and proceed to ask general questions. I’ve learned a lot and it’s great at cocktail parties and other places where you run into people out of your normal crowds.
Notadiva
When I used to temp, everywhere I worked someone would know an opera singer. Of course, it would always be someone I had never heard of and I would have to make an “oh, I’ve heard of him/her” response. Then one day someone started saying “oh my uncle is an opera singer, maybe you’ve heard of him”. I was preparing my “oh yeah, I’ve heard of him” face when he told me his uncle was Nicolai Gedda.
GeorgeSand
My personal favorite, and this happens to me all the time, is when someone finds out I’m a professional musician and they start in on the confessional, “I took piano lessons when I was a kid. ” It’s usually all downhill from there!
Notadiva I love your Nicolai Gedda story . . . I’ll be chuckling all day! 😉
lisa_molson
My personal favorite is when people say, “Oh, you are a singer? Sing something for us!” I always want to reply, “Oh, you are an accountant? Do my taxes for me!” They also sometimes say, “Sing a high C!” I was once accused by the mother of an ex-boyfriend of being “stingy with my talent”.
Happee
When I was younger, I was decrying to my mom how frustrating it was to be the ONLY musician in the family—she had SO much more in common with my little sporty brother than she had with me. She had a sympathetic look on her face, then uttered these words, immortalized now with me: “Well, I DID play the accordion when I was younger. ”
*smack forehead*
Qgirl
I get that one all the time!!! And then when it comes time to sing Happy Birthday, they all want me to “lead everyone!” My standard reply is “Rent me an orchestra, I’ll sing you a song.”
