Reach out and touch someone! (Part I)

Oh, outreach!  You fickle, fickle friend.  For whatever reason, outreach has become one of the only ways for opera companies to get money from, well, anyone.  And thusly, it has also become one of the principal ways for young opera singers to make money from singing opera.  Now don't get me wrong!  I have had some very, very positive outreach experiences.  But some shows are better than others, and some kids are just not going to be entertained by you and your colleagues prancing around, acting like goats/pigs/wolves/dolls.  But never fear!  Classical Stinker is here to help.

Useless but entertaining. Happy Friday from Baby Mozart!

The 75% - Health Insurance!

H'okay so we are going to start with the useful, or at least semi-useful, part of Classical Stinker.  Health insurance is on my mind these days because I just got married (yay!) to a tenor (am I nuts?!) who is wonderful (love o' mah life!) and who doesn't have health insurance (crap!).  Being the paranoid lady that I am, I have always had health insurance, even when it meant wrangling complex state bureaucracies for months in order to get it.  My man, however, is...a dude.  Not worried.  So, we have waded back into the health insurance fray, and I'm here to report to all you stinkers.  Singers.  All you singers.

Gettin' Stinky

The idea for this blog started last year, when Classical Singer magazine released their "Health" issue.  I opened it, expecting to find articles about how to get affordable health care in various states, or tips on how to build up vocal (and mental!) stamina before you go into rehearsals for a show; I thought there might be a discussion of marking, with advice from seasoned pros about this elusive and necessary tool.

Alas, there was nothing of the kind.  The ten awesomest yoga poses for super-extra-awesome auditions was about it.  So, here I am!  I hope to make the information on here 75% useful and 25% useless but entertaining.