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To: "VOCALIST" <vocalist>
Subject: RE: Opera
Date sent: Thu, 16 Dec 1999 18:28:28 -0800
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

> Hi everyone! I'm new to this list. I had a question
> about opera. I am 18 and female and have taken
> private voice training before but briefly, less than a
> year. Now I have started up again and am wondering if
> it is too late to get into opera.


I didn't start taking lessons until I was 22, and now, several years later,
my voice has developed into quite a nice operatic sound (IMO :o). I had a
couple of jurors tell me after a year of lessons that no matter how hard I
practiced, my voice would never develop enough since it was still so
undeveloped at the ripe old age of 23 (okay, "ripe old age" is from me - but
a sarcastic tone of voice doesn't come across over e-mail). I'm glad I
didn't listen!

My opinion is that it's never too late, and if you really want to do it, and
are prepared to work, then go for it! And you're so young - you've got years
to develop your voice. Most people's vocal apparatus don't fully mature
until they're 30-something - a long way off for you!

Jennifer, who wonders what the world is coming to when teenagers start
thinking they're too old for anything

A man should hear a little music, read a little poetry, and see a fine
picture every day of his life, in order that worldly cares may not
obliterate the sense of the beautiful which God has implanted in the human
soul. -Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German writer and scientist (1749-1832)