> Talk about commitment to your craft !!!
I wonder a lot about how a singer with career ambitions deals with the desire to have a family.
Renee Fleming's 60 Minutes interview was very enlightening on this subject... except that she seemed to be constantly regretful that she didn't have any time to spend with her little daughters. Beverly Sills made a similar comment during that interview (she remembered a moment when her six-year-old waved goodbye as BS was leaving for a production, with the words, "Bye-bye Mommy... no more Mommy...").
For someone who wants the type of career that involves contracts signed years in advance, all over the globe, is it practical to have children? I realize that this question is more pressing for women than for men. Can you afford to take the time out of a career to have children and recover from the physical stress of childbearing and breastfeeding, especially if you have, say, La Scala and Met contracts that you signed before becoming pregnant?
On the other hand, are you a lesser performer if you've never had children? Can you really understand the anguish of an Amelia, the dementia of a Medea, the passion of a Butterfly, if you've never experienced that life-changing, soul-altering thing that (they say) motherhood is?
And do the gods get jealous, after all? Is it better to devote your entire life to your art? I can't believe it's better to have children somebody else raises. And the trade-off of choosing a lesser career isn't attractive, either, although I know there are many fine singers who settle for that.
Isabelle B.
===== Isabelle Bracamonte San Francisco, CA ibracamonte@y...
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