A new year! I wish you all a happy and healthy 2013 (2013!! Still sounds like something out of a sci-fi novel. I suspect I am showing my age with that comment...); and thank you so much for keeping up with me here.
So have I anything world-shaking to import now? Nope. The recession is biting HARD into the whole of Europe - indeed as far as I can see, the world - and singing jobs are few and far between. So far this season, despite the good will of agents, I haven't had a single audition. Anyone in work is hanging on with tooth and claw, and the theatres are, as described previously, trying to cast everything without using guests.
Well of course that could be damned depressing. However I was reminded as I walked through St Pancras station in London a few days ago that it is really all a matter of perspective. The last time I'd walked along those particular paths, I'd been temping and HATING it. I might be living slightly hand-to-mouth at the moment, but at least I am earning whatever I make as a professional opera singer. I have a cover role followed by a secondary role, at the Staatstheater Mainz this season. I am not starving. I am living in a wonderful place, with a great network of friends, and with family and great friends a click of a mouse away (ah technological advances are SUCH a great help to the expat!).
And who knows what's to come? May we all have a year of interesting surprises...
So have I anything world-shaking to import now? Nope. The recession is biting HARD into the whole of Europe - indeed as far as I can see, the world - and singing jobs are few and far between. So far this season, despite the good will of agents, I haven't had a single audition. Anyone in work is hanging on with tooth and claw, and the theatres are, as described previously, trying to cast everything without using guests.
Well of course that could be damned depressing. However I was reminded as I walked through St Pancras station in London a few days ago that it is really all a matter of perspective. The last time I'd walked along those particular paths, I'd been temping and HATING it. I might be living slightly hand-to-mouth at the moment, but at least I am earning whatever I make as a professional opera singer. I have a cover role followed by a secondary role, at the Staatstheater Mainz this season. I am not starving. I am living in a wonderful place, with a great network of friends, and with family and great friends a click of a mouse away (ah technological advances are SUCH a great help to the expat!).
And who knows what's to come? May we all have a year of interesting surprises...
The photos seemed to chime in with the theme of perspective. A step nearer, a different camera angle, and... all change. This was Whitby Abbey, with in the foreground a copy of the Borghese gladiator, a beautiful classical sculpture. I prefer the second photo, with (as it were) mankind triumphing over all obstacles...
Happy New Year!!!
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