It was a dark and stormy night... (actually it wasn't)
Hi! I'm Bryce and I am a professional opera singer. A couple of years ago I was the opera writer for a website called suite101.com. During my brief time there I wrote a few articles about opera. More specifically, I was writing opera plot summaries/synopsis of several operas. I thought this was a really cool gig for my spare time, since the small commission that I made from the website helped pay for me to stream music on Napster for study. Eventually, the nice folk at suite101 wanted me to write reviews of opera albums and productions. I didn't feel comfortable "reviewing" potential colleagues and employers so I decided to stop writing for the website. Every month I still collect a small residual check from the articles that I wrote.
With the recent downturn in the economy and with the closing of several opera companies, I thought it might be good to spend some of my free time (between gigs) educating the general public about opera. Originally I thought it would be fun to set up a website of opera plots. I could then expand on it and talk about specific recordings and singers and maybe have a blog about opera plots. This seemed like a lot of work, but I was creating a resource site for people to learn about my art and I would maintain control over the site.
Fast-forward to about a two months ago...
I was having an evening out with my friend Jenna. We were having a discussion about her business and my career. We were talking about marketing ideas (the sort of thing that self-employed folk talk about since they have to do it all themselves) that she had for her new business and blog. She told me about a friend of hers who had a blog with a stuffed bear mascot. He included the bear in all his blog posts. The blog wasn't written from the "bear's perspective," but the bear was omni-present. After telling me this story, Jenna asked me to accompany her to Build-a-Bear Workshop to help her pick out a bear for her blog...(What else does an opera singer have to do on a Friday night without a gig? Sure, I can tag along to help her pick out a bear for her blog)...so off to the mall we went!
As we arrived at the International Plaza Build-a-Bear in Tampa, my wheels started to turn. There were bears of every color and shape as well as other animals. There was a rabbit, a frog, an elephant, a cat, and a gator. Ignoring the real reason we were there (to pick out a bear for Jenna) my mind began to wander. What does a bear, a rabbit, a frog, an elephant, a cat, or a gator have to do with opera?
An opera-gator? I personally have a slight distaste for gators since I did my undergraduate degree in music at the University of Georgia...and Dawgs hate Gators!
An opera-rabbit, perhaps? Hippity, hoppity, Easter's on its way....no, no, no, no good at all!
An opera-pachyderm? It ain't over 'till the fat elephant sings! Nope...that wasn't going to work either!
Just as I thought this was a silly idea for my opera plots and would never work...
...there it was,staring me in my face, in all of its brown, red, yellow and orange splendor. It was as if the skies had opened and the light had been let in. "This is too easy," I thought. I had found my bird!
To be continued...
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