I remember being a kid and listening to the symphony in Severence Hall. Thinking that those musicians must live a great life and have amazing attention span when certain sections were not needed in a work. When I was older and I sang behind the orchestra with a choir, I saw that the brass section, when not playing had their "field and stream" or whatever magazine handy to bide their time. You could have blown me over with a feather. Working as a chorus member in an opera is exhilerating and zany. If someone ever told me that the hottest thing to do in a green room was to play euchre and connect four. I would have laughed you off as a buffoon. Alas, that it what we did for all of the performances. I love it to distraction! Nothing is as funny as a room of confident singers, nor as frustrating. Hopefully, I will have many years of this fun.
