You Can't Yell at the Sky : Lessons from the Farm

I wrote these blogs for a school assignment.  We were tasked with developing a social media plan for an organization, celebrity or public figure.  I stretched the boundary, and drafted a social media plan for my friend Chris. We were to write 2 blogs as part of our assignment.  I chose to write the blogs in Chris's voice.   Chris is a tenor in the Canadian Opera Company Ensemble Studio in Toronto. His star is rising.

When I left my hometown in Southern Manitoba, I thought I was leaving behind a lot.  I thought I was leaving behind a way of life.  What I have discovered is that trying to sing for a living in Toronto is oddly similar to farming in Manitoba.

Right away, I noticed the same kind of “farming camaraderie”and team-work is also essential to life intheatre or opera.  I started learning about the rich operatic traditions and conventions and immediately my mind went to the farm, and my Mennonite upbringing.  

I first noticed that I could continue to live in“seasons.” In opera, the Fall is the planting season, the time when you apply to programs and audition for jobs.  The Winter is the nurturing time, if the conditions are right, nourishing the career seems easy.  In the Spring you begin to get a sense of your “crop yield.”  By Summer, you hope to be harvesting your bounty in a Summer Festival or by preparing a role for the Fall.  

Both start with sweet ignorance. Performing on the stage or nurturing a seed to stalk: it sounds like a beautiful way to live.  But, very quickly you learn that hard-work is essential to survival.  That's right, survival, not necessarily success.  

Farming and opera are what I would call “High-Risk”vocations.  I don't mean you are going to get physically hurt in opera, but, it will crush you if you are not careful. You can pour all of your time, financial and emotional resources into both fields, but end up with a pile of rejections or a weak crop. So much is out of your control in farming and singing.  You can't control the weather or the pests; you can't control the competition or the nepotism; you can't yell at the sky.