the first

This weekend I'll be paying a visit to my very first voice teacher.
I was 15 and begging my parents for voice lessons so that I could be the next Christine in "Phantom of the Opera" or Narrator in "Joseph", and a friend of a friend recommended a voice teacher.
Until that year, all of my singing was in choir, musical theater, and popular music of the mid-90s.

But at my first lesson, armed with my broadway hits book and the vocal/piano score to Phantom, Joseph, and myriad other musicals, this teacher heard me warm up, and said to me--have you ever sung opera?

Uhhhh-NO! That's for fat old ladies who wear horns, have braids twisted up on their heads, and metal breastplates. And besides, ..it's not "cool".

Ok then. She had me sight read a few pieces from the "24 hits", and then sent me home with a 'deal'.
She made me a deal--I could work on "Think of me" and "Wishing you were somehow here again" IF I also took a look at three pieces of photocopied pages of an "Aria" called "O mio babbino caro" and did homework on it.
Not singing...
figuring out the story, translating it, learning how to speak the italian correctly, and learning the melody on vowels.

(fine..whatever.I'll do it if I can learn Musical theater and be a STARRRR!)

So--I did.
And let's just say, that the next week--I didn't go back with my broadway books.

I was hooked and only she heard that voice inside me...the one that was suited to this genre...the one that I continued to pursue from that age, through college, grad school, and today.

And so--this weekend I will get to see her again, sing for her again (it's been close to over 2 years now because of my travels and lack of normal schedule), and see what the 'first teacher' "thinks of me" now.