Operaholic

Hi, My name is Susan and I'm an operaholic. It started simply enough. I thought I could control it. I thought, sure, I can just listen to just one aria. But then I needed to hear another by the same singer, or a different version of the same aria by the same singer, and soon it spiraled out of my control and I needed to hear different singers performing it. This spread to entire operas. What version should I listen to, I wondered? I know, all of them! I just can't stop. I'm reading about operas, reading and listening to interviews with singers, directors, conductors, getting different versions from the library, reading librettos, comparing translations, reading reviews, reading the histories of different opera houses, learning about different composers... I just can't stop. And then there's YouTube. Need I say more?

So my latest particular obsession is a tenor named Juan Diego Florez. (Don't worry Nathan Gunn, you're still at the top of my list.) JDF doesn't have the looks and I have no idea about his physique as directors aren't as inclined to undress him as they are with NG. But that voice... to quote someone else's comment on a YouTube video, there are no words to describe such beauty. Will I ever get tired of listening to this? I would do anything this man asked me to do if he sang it to me. Anything. So Juan Diego, if you're out there, take notice. Yikes does that make me an opera groupie?