Dear Vocalist:
This thread reminded me of a recent conversation with one of my colleagues whose hair has gone prematurely white. Lately, she's been noticing that cars just zoom around her in traffic, and she's also noticed that the zooming cars are typically young girls (and some young guys). She's convinced that the other drivers see her white hair and assume "senior citizen!" So, as she said to me this weekend, "once you pass the age of 35, you start becoming a detriment to society." Since I'm approaching 37, my heart sank! Better break out the Miss Clairol quick!
As for the Met Auditions, I believe (correct me if I'm wrong) that these age limits have been extended at least once, but perhaps not recently. Now that we know more about laryngeal maturation, they could probably stand to be extended once again. Once again, the mythology of singing wins out against voice science!
Someone asked about specific singers who matured late--Renée Fleming always seems to be mentioned as a "late-blooming" singer.
Cheers!
Jana -- Jana Holzmeier Dept. of Music Nebraska Wesleyan University 5000 Saint Paul Ave. Lincoln, NE 68504 jjh@n... 402-465-2284 Visit the Music Department website at http://music.nebrwesleyan.edu/
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