Opera is an Olympic Sport: ft. Charlotte Gagnon

My dear, dear followers of the Singing Nerdess. Over the last few months I have shared with you excerpts of my journey toward becoming an opera singer and you have supported me more than I could have hoped for! While I have been expressing my view of things on this blog, my good friend (and fellow opera singer)

Charlotte Gagnon, who has been a great pillar of strength and inspiration for me this year, has written a wonderful article expressing her views about athletes vs. opera singers. Her article was published today in one of Montreal's French newspapers La Presse. You can read the original article in French here or you can read my translation for the Anglos:

Opera: An Olympic Sport
by Charlotte Gagnon

The Olympic games are coming to an end which, for me, also means the end of a long period of frustration. I have an enormous amount of admiration for our Canadian athletes and yet I can't help but notice a certain injustice. 

I am an opera singer and, believe me, I definitely know all about devotion and discipline! It has been eight years now since I chose singing as a way of life and the years that preceded that choice of career definitely weren't particularly relaxing. It was a decathlon of perfection in all different performance arts: ballet, theatre, improvisation, modern dance, jazz ballet, private lessons for piano, voice, flute, violin--you name it!

For all these art forms I put in hours of practice and acquired all equipment each one necessitated; I did expansive research on how to properly interpret my repertoire; I also did sports training so as to keep my body--that is, my instrument--in peek form.

My aforementioned frustration was certainly not brought on by the performance of those Olympic athletes, but rather by a social structure that exists which allows many of them to feel validated and blessed by the support of an entire country. After seeing many of these Olympians admit to having worked with psychologists to help improve their performance or to having had financial aid which relieves a heavy burden of stress, and after seeing them next to their trainers who guide them and encourage them even to the last second of their performance--you better believe that I'm jealous! And it frustrates me to notice the enormous gap between the place society gives to sports and the one given to the arts.

Devotion and stress

When talking about athletes, one doesn't hesitate to point out how many hours they have devoted to practicing their sport, at what young age they began to train, and the numerous sacrifices they must have made and the passion which drives them to pursue such a difficult and risky career. When I tell someone that I'm an opera singer, they inevitably say, "How lucky you are to have been born with such talent!". I can assure you that I did not come out of the womb singing "Que fais-tu blanche tourterelle"! It took eight years of blood, sweat and tears before I was able to hit my high C without cracking.

The financial side of things equally a great source of stress for singers: Gowns for concerts, weekly lessons, coaching with pianists (where we learn diction and interpretation of various texts), inscription fees for competitions, demo recordings, casting photos, auditions (oh yes, we have to pay for those!), travel and lodging, etc. are only some of the costs one runs into when one is passionate about singing. 

The lifestyle of a singer and that of an athlete seem to me to be very similar. And yet how is there so great a gap between the quality of maintenance (psychological, social, financial etc.) afforded to athletes and that afforded to artists? As far as I'm concerned, singing opera is an Olympic sport, and I believe that an artist merits as much consideration as an athlete.