Why do I love opera?
It's humanity onstage, telling its stories through the power of the human voice.
It's collaborating on a massive scale:
Sets, lights, costumes, wigs, makeup, special effects, stage crews, props creation, stage management, house staff, ushers, orchestra musicians, singers, actors, dancers, conductors, directors, producers, audience members, patrons, communities, composers, librettists, unions, accountants, marketing and public relations, box office staff, development teams, pianists, piano tuners, assistants for all the above...
It's extraordinary music written by extraordinary composers.
It's imagination brought to life, LIVE and onstage.
It's fragile and unforgiving sometimes, strong as the Earth and immensely generous the rest of the time.
It's encompasses the struggles and victories of gods, humanity, magical creatures, and animals.
It connects the listener directly into the mind of the composer who created it, even when that composer might have been dead hundreds of years. At that moment of connection, the composer lives yet again.
It is ethereal, ephemeral, eloquent, enigmatic, and epic; all at the same time.
It's f^#+ing hard to learn to do; it's a blast to rehearse; and it's incredibly gratifying to perform.
It defies definition and descriptions never seem to encompass What Opera Is.
It's loud and intimate, it's high and low, it's fast and slow, it's short and long; Yin and Yang baby!
As some wise man once said: Life is Short, Opera is Long!
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