What is the most emotional female opera singer?

I want to be an opera teacher and a opera singer, what majors should i take?

• i have no idea what majors to take! it would be awesome if i could teach (preferably high school kids or college kids) how to sing classical and opera, and be a part time opera singer on stage, or maybe the other way around. i'm a sophomore in high school, and i have about a 3.0, and would like to go to a university in pa. please help me, i have no idea what to do!

• Answer:

  In order to be an opera singer, you must have an extraordinary beautiful voice that is strong enough to fill a 3,000 seat auditorium without amplification. Apart from having the right type of voice to sing opera, you should have an excellent music background and a working knowledge of French, Italian and German, languages in which many operas are sung. Many of today's singers have master's degree in voice, or an artist's diploma from a music conservatory. Colleges that offer music degrees (or teaching credentials) to voice students require students to take vocal pedagogy, vocal literature, diction class, music history and music theory, which includes melodic dictation, composition, sight-singing, sight-reading, etc. Voice students usually have two 30-minute private voice lessons with a faculty member each week. Colleges also require that all students demonstrate a specific level of proficiency at piano. Most operas are performed in French, Italian or German. It would be ideal to have fluency in all three of these languages. Launching a career in opera is very, very difficult, and it will take a lot of very hard work. Singers start by auditioning for an opera company's apprentice program. The apprentice program coaches singers in singing, diction, interpretation, stage acting, etc. Graduates of the apprentice program may be offered an opportunity to sing small roles on stage for the experience. Depending on the opera company some of the graduates may eventually be given the opportunity to understudy major roles. That is, the graduate will learn a specific singer's role and be ready to go onstage if the singer is ill or otherwise indisposed. Graduates of an opera company's apprentice program who are not offered roles with the sponsoring company may elect to enter voice competitions, which are attended by music critics, current and retired singers and opera company administrators. Winning a voice competition is very prestigious and will look good on a singer's resume, but there is no guarantee that the winner will be offered a contract with an opera company. However, singers in the voice competition receive media exposure and an opera company adminstrator may offer a contract to any of the singers in the competition. There are also graduates who opt-out of having a career and seek steady employment by singing in the chorus of an opera company which, apart from stable employment, also offers a steady source of income and medical and dental benefits. One baritone, who has sung major roles on the stages of most of the world's opera companies, is now singing in the chorus of the Metropolitan Opera Company because of steady employment and medical benefits.