I am happy to be home and have my garden somewhere between 10% to 20% weeded.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure the rest of the weeds in my back yard are still comfortably soaking up the fertilizer I intended\u00a0to feed my flowers, but they should be shaking down to their roots at the prospect that I will get to them in due time.\u00a0 The weather has dropped lots of happy flower making H2O\u00a0for the roots, topped off\u00a0occasionally with a\u00a0magnificent halo of promise for\u00a0the eyes that can\u00a0see and appreciate.<\/p>\n
As I recovered from my Torino trek, I have wanted to write something about it and\u00a0my prayers for inspiration were answered in an Email:<\/p>\n
—–Original Message—–<\/p>\n
From: Michael Papadopoulos<\/p>\n
Sent: Tuesday, June 23, 2015 9:18 AM<\/p>\n
To: rocky@************************.***<\/p>\n
Subject:\u00a0A note from a fan<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Hello, Mr. Blake.<\/p>\n
Just a little note to tell you how much I admire you and your voice. I’m a bel canto fan and I was following your career for years. It’s a pity I never heard you live. I think you retired too early! I have heard you in almost all your roles in private recordings. I have the old Mozart and Rossini recital lps and the Dame Blanche cd, but I think that your live recordings show off your amazing coloratura and breath control to better effect. I can’t find your complete Idomeneo. All we have is just the 2 arias on video… You’re pretty amazing in Meyerbeer too, in Robert le diable and Les Huguenots…The current Rossini tenors are fine, but none has your range of colors and unlimited breath resources.<\/p>\n
Many thanks for the many hours of pleasure you have given us.<\/p>\n
All the best,<\/p>\n
Michael<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
<\/p>\n
Now I\u2019m just as vulnerable to flattery as the next tenor, but I have a larger view of what it\u2019s all about, and responded to my correspondent with the following:<\/p>\n
Dear Michael,<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Thanks for your note.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I hope my work will in time raise up a few singers capable of inspiring you to write to them of your admiration.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I have my sights set on even larger targets, but my bottom line is inspiring people like you when you go to the theatre.\u00a0 It was my hope, back in the day when I was still singing, that I might be one among many singers who could inspire people like you to drag your friends to subsequent performances.\u00a0\u00a0My dream moments, when I was surrounded by singers who inspired, were few, but magic when they happened.\u00a0 Audiences would stop performances in mid-stream for uncomfortable periods of applause, and sometimes kept us singers and conductor parading back and forth through proscenium curtains held open for us by stage hands dreaming of the wine and cheese that some in the orchestra were already enjoying in bars adjacent to the venues.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I have returned home from a Master Class in Torino, Italy where my efforts were dedicated to this proposition, and the work had a draining effect on me.\u00a0 I seemed to empty myself out in service to the singers who showed up seeking to make their way onto any stage that might allow them a chance to inspire an audience.\u00a0\u00a0 They did get a tiny open door at a concert that marked the end of the Master Class.\u00a0 An audience of intrepid Opera lovers showed up to see if they would discover any inspirational youngsters.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
My drained tank of teaching fuel got a big influx of potential energy from the applause of that audience who came out in the rain to attend our little concert.\u00a0 The post event comments directed toward me that day brought my tank to an even higher level of refill. \u00a0Your note has brought me to the overflow point.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Many thanks,<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Rockwell Blake<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I\u2019m going back to Torino in October, and I hope to meet you there if you are on that side of the Atlantic pond or can afford the freight to get there.\u00a0 If you are stuck on the USA side, come to Plattsburgh in August.\u00a0 Don\u2019t worry, our Augusts are cooler than might be thought.\u00a0 We are too far north here to suffer the effects of Global Warming, if you believe in Global Warming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I am happy to be home and have my garden somewhere between 10% to 20% weeded.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure the rest of the weeds in my back yard are still comfortably soaking up the fertilizer I intended\u00a0to feed my flowers, but they should be shaking down to their roots at the prospect that I will get […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3755,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,85,51,50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-opera","category-singing","category-teaching"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/06\/Rainbow.jpg?fit=1920%2C600&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2kj1l-Yv","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3751"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3751\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3759,"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3751\/revisions\/3759"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rockwellblake.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}