Buying the one-day pass to the Admiral's Club was an unnecessary indulgence. I'll admit it. But I refuse to regret it.
Here I sit, at LAX, completely isolated with my fresh coffee in a giant, empty room that is softly lit by lamplight as the sun has just begun to rise and peeks its light through the giant windows that overlook the tarmac... in the midst of the second busiest airport in America, I can't imagine there's a single place that's more peaceful. Which is what I need right now. It's been a crazy couple of weeks. It has, however, been the best imaginable type of crazy that there is.
I've just finished a two week program for emerging young opera singers in Los Angeles called OperaWorks (www.operaworks.com). I am about to make a very important statement, and before I do that I must put a few things in context. That context is as follows:
I have spent much of my life traveling. I love to travel, and I have experienced many unique and wonderful things in my life; I hold these memories dearly. From a week in London to eight weeks in Costa Rica to many, many trips to Disney World growing up, I sincerely believe that I have had one of the best lives anyone who is my age could possibly ask for. I am incredibly happy with how my life has been up to this point and I have no regrets worth mentioning or significant turmoil that would cause me to be an unhappy person in general. Taking that into account, I make the following statement:
This was the best two weeks of my life.
If you are involved in opera, you need to be involved with OperaWorks.
At this moment, I am singing better than I ever have in my life, and I didn't take a single voice lesson. I took acting lessons. I did coachings for interpretation and diction. I took yoga. I was coached on my posture by one of the producers of Aladdin. I waved my hands around in the air like an idiot and produced sounds I didn't know I could make while improvising a seven-part ensemble piece about a turkey sandwich. I danced... very, very badly, in front of many, many people. And nowhere in any of that did anyone mention anything about vocal technique or passagio or soft palettes or anything like that. And yet here we are, two weeks later, and I am one thousand percent stronger as a performer.
There's so much more to say, but the fact is it's just going to be more of me gushing. I am so thoroughly exhausted right now, but I'm equally exhilarated by the prospects I have in front of me. I have a direction for my career, I have a plan for my future, and I know what steps I need to take from here to make this life happen for myself. I can't wait.
Thanks for reading everybody. I'm so glad you decided to stop by. Next stop: Germany for Lyric Opera Weimar (www.lyricoperastudioweimar.com)!
-John
PS
The friends I made are what made it so over-the-top special. My colleagues are all beautiful, and I can't wait to see them again. Until then, I will miss them dearly.
