It occurs to me that there are very few things in this life more satisfying than having colleages unable to resist the urge to poke their noses around the practice room door to see who's singing :-)

Because I need to prepare properly for any auditions that may come up for next season, I have been nipping into one of the practice rooms every day since my recovery from the operation (well, pretty much every day.  Certainly enough to have the porters grinning and reaching for the practice room keys as soon as they catch sight of me), and practising my audition arias.  Now it has to be said that apart from the Herodias, I haven't really been required to use my full voice when singing here.  So it's hardly surprising that people don't know what I can actually do.

Hence the sneaky peeks around the door.  Best excuse so far was the (lovely) soprano who sent her son "looking for his mother".  The fact that I'd heard her give a lesson for the previous hour was conveniently overlooked...  And the one which pleased me the most was the conductor who opened the door, saw me, grinned widely and said "Haha, should have known!".

Yes of course practising singing has really nothing to do with what other people hear.  But communication is really the thing overall.  And if I am communicating enough to make other musicians unable to resist the temptation to open the door and see who's damn well singing, well, I'm happy with that!