Colleagues*

(*This one’s for you, Joe!)

If we’re lucky, we singers leave a gig planning and scheming and dreaming of doing shows together in the future. Many of us Wolf Trapper’s are already working together this coming season, since lots of the group are in the Houston Opera program and several of us are at the Met or NYCO. KL will be “my” Cherubino, Barbarina’s major crush, in the November performances of Figaro, and she and I are very excited to work together.

But for those of us who don’t have gigs together on the books, we daydream. A Figaro with LB as Count? JL as my Romeo or Edgardo? BG as Tamino or the Duke? FS as Octavian? A Vanessa (??) with SC as Erika? The list goes on and on, and doesn’t even begin to include the hopes of working with the pianists, conductors, and directors that we’ve met here, too.

It gets a bit harder with the sopranos, but, yes, there are sopranos who like each other enough to hope to work together again! RC and I are currently walking in the same Fach, so we’ll often be considered for the same roles. The only way we’ll likely work together again in the near future is if we’re double cast or one is covering the other, or if we’re both doing shows within a repertory company. But we can dream! Maybe we’ll both be here again next summer…

Regardless, we have all forged some strong friendships, and I’m learning more on every gig that it is these friendships that get us through the tough parts of this business. Imagine if you had to change your work environment completely every six weeks. New co-workers, new location, new everything. But, the longer you work, the more often you get cast with folks you’ve worked with before, and if those people are true friends? A new job can feel like a homecoming.

But not only that. A true friendship between singers shows in their work onstage. I was amazed by the level of tenderness that was evident between LB’s Papageno and RC’s Pamina. The two of them are fast friends in “real life,” and their care and love for each other was evident in the way their characters treated one another. There was nothing false about the friendship on stage, nothing forced or “acted.” It was a real treat to watch.

Thank you, friends! It has been a wonderful summer, full of special times. I’m honored to know you, and I can’t wait to walk the boards with you again – soon!