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To: "VOCALIST" <vocalist>
Subject: Re: The Five Big Arias (also LONG!)
Date sent: Fri, 28 Jan 2000 00:36:31 -0500
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

Dear Zerbinetta, thanks for your good thoughts about the famous "Five
Arias" -- I know you're quoting Kim Witman, but you're the one who
remembered the ideas and shared 'em with us online!

Just my 2 cents to add: Suppose there actually IS a technical hurdle you
haven't yet gotten over, but you do everything else well and need to be
working/being taken seriously as a professional NOW? Let's take for example
the hypothetical soprano, who can't yet spin a long legato line but who DOES
have agility, musical wit, charisma and style. Maybe this gal should have 2
sets of 5 arias, one for "now", with Adele, Queen of the Night, Dinorah and
the Doll Song and, say, maybe a florid G&S or operetta aria -- then for
later, she can be working on a long-spun bel canto aria like "Ah, non
credea". In this way, our soprano can present a professionally polished
list of 5 arias and be taken seriously/get hired for more character-y
coloratura parts RIGHT NOW; then, when she is ready to audition as a prima
donna lyric-coloratura, she can start using the other 5 arias.

I think many singers whose teachers (truthfully) tell them they "aren't
ready" get discouraged because they confuse the pure artistic aspiration of
the studio with the real world of performing. Just because you're not yet
ready for the most wonderful and demanding operatic roles in your fach
doesn't mean you can't be working, learning, getting stage experience and
GETTING PAID right now -- if you focus on your strengths and put together a
"comprimario/crossover" audition list. Mezzos who aren't yet Carmen-able
can get stage experience doing comic mezzo comprimario roles; big tenors who
are still working out their tops can make bucks and feel better about their
careers by doing bari-tenor parts in musical theatre; after all, everybody
knows that many a Marschallin started out singing Annina, and -- was it Jon
Vickers or James McCracken whose first PAID operatic role was Parpignol in
Boheme (A one-liner!)?