One good thing about getting older....

I can now sing the repertoire that caused people to say, "Ms. Thomas, why are you singing this aria?" back in my 20s.

I've started working with Connie Haas - I had a couple of lessons with her before she went to teach at Eastman a few years ago but by the time I could afford to have lessons on a regular basis again, she'd started teaching in Rochester. Now she's back, and I want to get back on the "someone listen to me" train again.

It's going well - she speaks in the same kind of language I speak in to my students, and it cracks me up when she'll say "Does that make sense to you?" because I say that all the time, usually after I've made some bizarro request to my student that they then manage to execute with the exact outcome I wanted.

So we've decided to work on some heavier mezzo rep, and for the last two days I've sat down and sung through "O mio Fernando" and "Stride la vampa" (!!!) and man, does that feel good.

Sometimes aging doesn't suck.