Every time I try to respond to the "What it takes to become an opera singer", I end up with this massive long diatribe that goes on forever. Even when I am going out of my way to be kind and talk sense, there's still a crapload to say because everything is wrong. EVERYTHING.
So, here's the thing about singing opera: singing opera requires such an immense and varied skill set that there simply isn't enough time to master everything before you head out to sing on stage. At this point, I am sick to death of hearing people quote that idiotic Outliers book, but let's just assume that it does take 10,000 hours to master a skill. That's a shitload of hours, folks. Think about it this way, if you practiced singing every single day for three hours without taking any days off and making every single minute of those three hours productive and you always practiced technique perfectly, it would still take you almost 10 years to master a technique. Now factor in the need to master acting and stagecraft and languages and multiple musical styles and whatever other stuff gets thrown at you like period dance and stage combat and juggling and now think about how much time you're going to have to devote to this.
And the vast majority of singers are not physically able to practice for three hours in a healthy way.
You could literally devote every single minute of every single day to mastering your craft and you still would not be "ready" or capable of doing everything right.
So what do you do?
You have to break everything down into much smaller bits and eventually, if you keep working at it, you can connect up all those separate bits into a mastery of opera. You don't have time to master French diction but you have time to master the French in Du gai soleil. You don't have time to master a perfect technique, so you focus on what you need most right now in order to have something workable.
The fact is, you're not going to work on this stuff every single day. You're just not. Granted, if you really love what you're doing, you're going to work on it most days. It's what you want to be doing. The only days of the year when I don't do something singing related are the ones when I am too sick to sing... and bear in mind that I am the woman who sang a three-hour run-through rehearsal when I had the flu and a high fever. Given the choice between being in bed and doping myself up enough to function for one rehearsal, there was no contest. I even sang the optional high E that night. I've booked gigs while in line at Disneyland and I practice on Christmas and even so there is still not enough time for me to do everything that needs to be done.
There is no way to tick off a list of skills and then to say "Okay, I've got this." Ultimately, you make a judgement call about what you need most right now, and then you keep finding one more thing that has to improve.
And it's all an ongoing process. If you stop working on any one skill, your ability in that area starts to degrade. Errors creep in. That's just how it is. It isn't because you weren't doing your best. It's just that we have so much stuff to deal with all at once that it isn't possible to focus on every single thing at every single second. Some of it has to be handed over to habit, but relying too much on habit means you're fucked when habit lets you down... and habit always lets you down at the worst possible moment.
We all start singing with a specific idea about what we're going to do, but more often than not that idea is based on a false sense of self. As you move forward, your real strengths and priorities begin to assert themselves and your career morphs to fit around that. If you don't like doing audition trips, then you stop doing them. If your thing is doing circus tricks while singing, your resume begins to fill out around that. You don't need to be thin or sexy and everyone looks hot in their promotional pictures. Yes, if you want to be the pretty princess or the sexy hero, then you will have to deal with the body image, but not everyone has to sign up that and not every attractive character has to be rail thin or sport six pack abs.
So, what do you need for an opera career?
1. You need an audition list of five arias that are well-prepared, show off your strengths and camouflage your weaknesses. Yes, you will have weaknesses but that's okay because we all do and we're working on it. 10,000 hours is a long ass time.
2. You need to be aware of the current trends in the business. This goes for pretty much everything, not just opera. You don't want to be setting up a MySpace page when no one is looking for music on MySpace. In opera, you need to be aware of what kind of shows are being produced, what type of singers are being hired and what they bring to the table and what the prevailing trends are for historical accuracy and style. Now, I'm not saying you have to conform, but you should at least know which way the current is moving before you jump into that stream.
3. You need to know where your boundaries are. I'm not even saying that you have to stick to those boundaries because shit happens, but you should at least know where the line is for you so you can make an informed decision before you cross. There is some real ugly out there and we all have to deal with it sooner or later. Only you can decide how much you are willing to be sexually or emotionally harassed or how long you can stand watch your colleagues being harassed. The performing arts are, in many ways, a geekdom with all the social issues that geekdoms deal with. There is a tacit expectation that people should be allowed to get away with things based on the quality of their art and not all of them are famous directors who rape and/or murder underage women. Are you okay with watching your colleague hit on a 16-year-old extra who is starstruck and has no idea what they're getting into? Are you cool with the alcoholic director? Or the conductor who screams abuse? Or that manager who stalks your personal Facebook because they're just that devoted to you? Sometimes, the answer is "I can deal with it" or "it isn't any of my business" but there are times when the answer is "No fucking way." Whatever choices you make, they will shape your career.
4. You will need a lot of money, unless you don't. There are people out there who manage to work the angles and find a patron (and how that relationship will play out goes back to #3) or they happen to be those rare folks who can hack the frugal life. Hey, if you're the type who are willing to do your voice teacher's gardening and don't mind crashing on a near stranger's floor during audition season, then you're good to go. If you're not, you'll need money. A lot of money. More than likely, you will need so much money that you will have to beg your family and friends for cash or start a Kickstarter or busk in the subway or whatever. Shit is going to happen and the singing life is not structured to provide you with extra cash when you need it and there are things that you just can't work out no matter how well you budget for them. It happens. Everything happens.
5. You need to be flexible. You're going to thrown all different ways and the people who emerge on top are the ones who can swim with a changing current. If you find yourself more marketable in comedy, then you give up on your dream to play Norma and you go with what works. Or you switch to mezzo because that's where the work is. Or you move to a new city or a new country because that's where the work is. Whatever it is, you just go with it. Or at least bear in mind that if you are more devoted to singing Lucia (or living in France or not working over the holidays or whatever) than you are to working in opera, that it will affect the way your career progresses.
6. You need to enjoy it. All of it. If you love singing, then nothing really feels like a sacrifice. You spend your time singing because that's what you want to do. Sure, there are times when singing is a job, but when push comes to shove, it's a job that you want to do. If you aren't happy, then there's a problem because here's one of those ugly secrets: if you aren't happy with singing right now, you never ever will be. If you're thinking that "it will all be worth it when..." then stop right now. That day is never going to come. Think about that when you sit down to snark at someone else for daring to feel good about themselves and their career. If you were really doing that well, would you really need to put others down? If you aren't happy then it is time to make some changes because if you don't, there is nowhere to go but down and it is not a pleasant trip. I'm not even saying that you have to stop singing, but you do have to reassess your relationship with your singing and what you really want from it. And if what you want is money and fame? Well, there's a big ass internet out there and you can have that. Anyone can have that. The doors are wide open and the gatekeepers were rounded up and executed by youtube.
7. You have to accept that you cannot have it all. Everything comes with a tradeoff. Don't worry, it's not like some horrific cautionary tale where success ruins your life forever. Success won't ruin your life but it will change it. There are some areas where you're going to work harder than the average person. If you haven't figured out from above, there will a lot of draws on your time. You won't have the option of giving quantity time, so quality time is what it has to be. Nor do dream careers always come with the same monetary rewards as non-dream careers. Those that do come with money have other drawbacks. When you're at your lowest point, you'll have an audience for every miserable minute and that's not easy to deal with. Should you do what you want to do? Absolutely. Just be prepared to deal with a life that is different from what everyone else is doing and different from what everyone else expects. In terms of social fitting in, upstream is the only option and it can be tiring.
8. You will need training. This stuff isn't paying your dues, it is learning through doing or through watching at close range. That chorus gig will teach you stage technique in a situation where not being perfect is okay. The same goes for community theatre and training programs and so on. If you're not a star yet and there's something to be learned then go for it. If you've already been there and done that, then you move on... but not unless you actually have been there and really did do that. It's nice to walk in and be the star right off the bat, but that probably won't happen right away... and I'll tell you a secret, you're better off if it doesn't. Being the star means that all your weaknesses are right out there in the open for everyone to see. It's a lot easier to hide those training wheels in the middle of a nice big ensemble for a show or two before you step out on your own... only to discover that the bicycle you learned to ride is really a unicycle and also you have to juggle chainsaws and the chainsaws are on fire. Check the ego and learn your craft. You'll be glad you did.
9. You have to understand that you're amazing. Half the battle is convincing other people that you're awesome. Once they're invested in you, whether with money or just emotionally, they will forgive an endless number of foibles and mistakes. You have to be absolutely convinced that you have something worth saying and that someone out there will listen. It will keep you going through the endless rejections, that deep down absolute and total certainty that if one person doesn't appreciate you, someone else will. You just have to find that person. No matter how much rejection there is, your head is held high because you know that you're going to get there. You're the best thing they will ever hear and they don't recognize that, well, too bad for them.
10. You have to understand that you're never good enough and never will be. You have a great talent and something to say, but it could always be better. Besides, you know deep down that there's someone out there who is just a smidge better than you in every way and the only thing you can do is to work harder. You have to be the best. You sing a brilliant audition and then you go back and work through that one bit of recit that could be just a smidge better. You nail the dance call, then go home and stretch because you could have had a better extension on that kick and better make that time step a tiny bit cleaner. You go back over your Italian because there was that one word and you're pretty sure it was something negative-ish probably but you're not sure if it meant harsh or scorn or cruel and you really should have known that. You're awesome and yet you could have been better, and you know it and you will get there because even if you never meet someone who can best you, you expect more from yourself.
That's what you need to sing. The rest is all details that change from day to day depending on who takes over a big company and who emerges as a star and which agent just retired and what the Met is showing at the movie theatre these days.