Some people think opera and therefore opera singers is/are kind of wierd.
Is it, are they?
Funny you should ask. Actually, we're no more weird than anybody else, or, if you want to look at it another way, I guess you could say we're about as weird as the next guy.....kind of just like the general population.... and actually, it's quite a lot of fun and very gratifying work to stand up on a stage in a say 2,000 seat house and "yell" in a very cultured and technically demanding way in a bunch of foreign languages at the other people on the stage with you....you watch the spit fly out of your mouth, you become another person for an evening, you're workin' the the set, wearin' the costumes, you can see the public watchin' you while you're moving around, shooting this really amazing energy out to them and they're sending it back and you can really feel it; you keep this connection and collaboration going all the time between you and your audience and your colleagues and the conductor who's down in the pit flailing away with the orchestra, you can hear the sound wafting up to you, there in your "wonderland" world on the stage.....it's kind of like being an Olympic athlete of the voice..... takes you all over the world, and you meet the most amazing people. You usually end up picking up another language or two along the way, and get to try life on for size in many different cities and countries. To be highly recommend as a life experience, and great preparation for just about anything else....gives you discipline, courage and the value of perseverance, builds self esteem, it feels good to do it, challenges you on every possible front, mastery of the self as it were, makes you flexible, exercises your brain, keeps you in a place where you can always better your best.

Are opera singers temperamental divas or divos?
Just the ones who have made it a point of being difficult, and thus have become famous for being so.

How long does it take an opera singer to cook a decent bowl of pasta after a performance?
Depends on how well the stove works at the rental apartment....sometimes you have to send out for pizza or Chinese, and you certainly get very good at improvising.....singers have the tendency to be friendly and generous by nature, so a cast usually gets pretty close and we tend to hang out a lot together, so after rehearsal and after performances we go out to eat together, or somebody offers to cook. And after a performance there's a lot of serious appetites. All those high notes, you know.

Appropos of high notes----why are they so INFAMOUS?
Well I guess that's because when they's good, they's great, and when they's bad, they's AWFUL, and everybody knows it, and you is out there all alone and nobody gonna save you if you blow it, and you has to do it again, and again, and again......

How do you get to Carnegie Hall?
Practice, practice, practice.

Do opera singers use microphones?
Only rarely, like in outdoor performances in 20,000 seat amphitheatres and the like, in theatres that have faulty acoustics, or if a recording is being made at the time of performance---in which case the microphone has nothing to do with amplification of the voice. We don't need those things because we can blast through a 100 piece orchestra and about the same number of the chorus members with just the natural power of our bodies...pretty amazing when you think about it. All done with the power of our diaphragms and the resonance we have in our voices. 100% completely natural, pure physical force. Body building for the voice. We all have within us some astonishing possibilities if we care to use them. Wanna learn how?

What kind of voice types are there?
About as many as there are shoe types and sizes or flavors of ice cream. We end up specializing depending upon what kind of instrument we have been given at birth----like there are marathon runners and sprinters, and they are two totally different body types, adapted to two totally different styles of running.

We have lighter voices and heavier voices, and four general categories of soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, and bass (from highest to lowest), then a whole bunch of sub-categories within that. Then, some of us are more adapted for dramatic work, some comedy, some do really well in the recital area....you get the picture. Singing is an art: so it's a long term process, and you start from the beginning, and you build some technique. Kind of like body building for the voice. It's not realistic to expect to be able to tackle the demands of the repertoire in just a few months like you would never expect to have a set of abs like Schwarzenegger in 6 months-----be real! So you have DISCIPLINE, and you work methodically and get your technique in the bag, and that's a several year equation, then you keep it up and continue working on it for the rest of your singing life. Your voice is your body, so it changes along with you. You take care of it, you take care of your health, care of your voice, or GUAI! You learn to sing even when you're sick (unless of course, the cords are so swollen you just can't phonate---some people resort to drugs, which we prefer not to ever do), and you deal with that. You reach a certain level of consistency in your art, so that on those less than perfect days, you still get out there and rip up the floor boards.

How did you end up being a singer?
You'll never believe it. Used to sing jazz and pop music, then on a lark, did an audition and got hired to do a tour of school matinees in the LA, singing the title role of Rossini's "La Cenerentola" (Cinderella) for $50 a performance. Changed my whole life. Wish I knew where that guy is today, my classmate Terry, who talked me into making that audition. I'd really like to thank him.

How many opera singers does it take to change a light bulb on a set?
Well, let's see.....you need one to cover the soprano line, get the high notes, someone to hit the low notes, then there are the middle voices, a director, set designer, the sets, the rigging, technicians, chorus, orchestra, rehearsal pianists, assistants, photographers, costume and makeup people, the wig guy, props, someone to write the ornaments, a conductor, about two and a half months of production time and rehearsals for the performance. Could end up being a whole bunch of people.......

So what do you have to do to learn to sing?
Well, you start out learning how to breathe and you do scales, scales, scales, and all those things kind of lumped into a group called vocalises. You can write on one piece of paper about ten different exercises that might take you five years to master, and the breathing thing and developing the muscles and the power to properly support the voice don't look like much on paper, but they are everything, and you have to learn to keep the throat relaxed and open so the air can flow up through it and into the resonance----there is no black and white way to explain how the heck you finally figure all this out, so that's why it's so tricky and complicated, like if a pianist's fingers are too flat on the keyboard, you can see it and life the hand into the proper position, and say, "look, see, it has to be like this", but the voice is wildly different, because there's some stuff you can see, but then there's most of the stuff which you can't see, and you have to figure it out with images, or feelings, or changing the sound......you get to know your own voice, make such friends with it, that you can ask it to do whatever it needs to do and it responds, but that can take years, and sometimes it gets a little frustrating along the way......

What are some of the roles you are most known for?
In the course of the career so far, there have been a lot of Carmens, a fair chunk of Verdi (the Requiem, Aida, Otello, Rigoletto, and Forza, for example), Butterflys (Suzuki, the maid), and a nice spattering of Rossini and Bel canto, with a little Händel thrown in too.. A pretty good mix. There has also been a lot of symphonic work and a few recitals. Now we're making time for more recordings, and more concerts, which is fun.

So what is this thing about singing these things called "trouser roles" or "travestiti"?
Ah yes, well, you see, in opera, there is this ancient tradition when women were not allowed to appear on the stage, (it was the same way in theatre too), so in those days, men (or boys) played all the roles, even the female ones, and for a time they even used castrati----pretty horrible stuff which they finally did away with----and that's how they sorted it all out.

Now there is a cross-over, and also this other type of voice known as a counter-tenor, which is a male singer who has trained himself to sing exceedingly well in his "falsetto" register, so when he sings that way, he sounds like a woman, but now instead of taking on female roles, he still sings the part of a male but sings it in the female range, and then there are the women (mezzos mostly) who are called upon to sing the parts of males in opera, often times of boys or younger men, so they of course sing with their female voices, but they are dressed up like men, and the whole thing can get kind of confusing! This is very common in baroque opera, and carries over into some of the more modern repertoire, like Riccard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos or Der Rosenkavalier, for instance. It's how you can end up with a situation like Händel's Julius Caesar, in which the title role can be taken on by a bass, a counter-tenor, or by a woman with a contralto or mezzo soprano voice, dressed up like a man. Depends on the production, and what kind of voice they want for the show. Are you confused?