My thought for you this new year is that it’s never too late to believe in your dreams. The line certainly isn’t new, but it was brought to my mind recently when I watched the movie The Rookie—a true story. I hope that those of you who struggle with discouragement will take the time to watch that movie and think about your own career. Just imagine yourself on the screen and hear yourself making the same excuses for why you are sitting on the sidelines and why you have lost the joy. I love the line where the hero of the story, Jim Morris, finally realizes that his talent is not a job; he really loves what he does! He comes to his next game wildly enthusiastic, thumps another player on the back and says, “Hey! We GET to play baseball tonight!” Once he catches the vision again, the doors begin to open.
I’ve thought a lot about Roberta Peters’ cover story last month and wondered how many singers read that and saw many reasons to become discouraged—she had such wonderful opportunities at such a young age; perfect teachers, perfect figure, perfect age, perfect face, perfect height. “No wonder her career took off like it did! How does that apply to me?”
When you hear a fairy tale story like that, it’s easy to compare yourself and your career and come up lacking (and in a short interview, one rarely hears about the hard times). But it’s just as easy to look at that career and be inspired by it. Here she is at age 71 and still singing! There’s an incredible lesson to be learned from her: if she can still sing beautifully at age 71, why are some of you thinking you are too old for a career at age 35? Or thinking you are not progressing fast enough in school, or whatever thought it is that is keeping you discouraged?
Yes, the field has a lot of discouragement built in. For example, the Met has lowered their age limit on competitions, but they are still hiring people for mainstage who are in their forties. Why allow yourself to be discouraged at whatever age you are? Find a career niche that fits your limitations, but don’t quit! If your looks are getting in your way, what can you do to remedy the problem? If there is a problem—fix it, learn to work with it, or learn to enhance it to your benefit. You are either a singer or you’re not. If you’re not, then quit. If you are, then sing!
And who said you need opera companies at all? Next month, we will be bringing you the story of Alison England who had a wonderful success singing—and making money—marketing her own show.
I just wrote and performed a show myself, and I have to tell you that it had to be the artistic highlight of my life. No stage directors, no librettists, no makeup artists or general directors with their own ideas which—let’s face it—are very often different from an artist’s own. I wore a beautiful costume of my own choosing, wrote the show, sang the arias and songs I wanted to sing, chose my own pianist, and created my own choreography. How’s that for fun? The audience loved it, and so did I.
Success isn’t getting to the major leagues, although that’s what happens to Jim Morris. We’d all love for that to happen to everyone reading this. (We’d all love to sing just ONCE on that Met stage!) Morris made it to the majors even though he was way past the playing age. Success is when you’ve had a chance to really move an audience, and you know you’ve done an incredible job. I’m not so sure that always happens in the opera house, because so many people end up in the mix. You have to work really hard to get to the audience when you have to plow through the ideas of the set designer, stage director, costume designer, makeup designer, conductor and choreographer. You might be singing your duet under one inch of cat makeup, in skintight latex and stiletto heels, dancing and jumping around with another singer imitating cats in love! (Yes, I had to do that. Just TRY moving an audience!)
So that’s my wish for you this new year. In some way and in some form, dreams can still come true. It may take creativity, but you can find the way.
