Another thought on separatism

I’ve already talked about the chasm between genres like Jazz and Classical in the music world. But it’s not just across genres, it happens within them too. So often at conservatoire my fellow students were told “You can’t sing that, you’re too young,” or “that role is not meant for a soprano”.

My brilliant friend and operatic singer Mimi gave a fantastic lecture-recital on gender-bending in music, where she argued that certain art song repertoire and lieder cycles shouldn’t be the preserve of one gender. Her argument was that, as a singer, you are already assuming a role by singing someone else’s words, and in that performative space why should you be limited by gender. She’s not scared to sing a bit of Winterreise and neither should you be scared to find a practice room and blast out a bar or two of ‘Una Furtiva’, whether you’re a baritone with secret tenor fantasies or a mezzo who just likes the tune.

Lets put the enjoyment back in to performing. Sing what you want when you want.