We're Back

I can't believe the last post was published last September. Seven months! Seven months of trials and tribulations, just to end up back at the original parting point: we want to sing.

Hi, I'm Laura Virella. I'm 28, I'm a mezzo, and I envisioned and co-founded coópera almost 4 years ago. Back then, there was no other opera company with the words "opera" and "manhattan" or "opera" and "project" in the title, so I named our little venture "Project Opera of Manhattan." It seemed like a good name. It gave it kind of a warehouse, experimental feel. I liked it. And because I decided to put up a show for me and my friends to be able to produce our art, I also thought it fit to steal from democracy's tag line and define our effort as "founded by young artists for young artists."

Four years have passed and countless small companies with even more innumerable variations on the words and line referenced above have sprouted not only in Manhattan, but all along the East Coast (as far as I know), and it seems like everyone is living my vision but me.

What am I doing? I am a copywriter for a high-profile advertising firm. I took a job as a linguist in order to support my art, and then moved to the creative department when my life did not involve enough creation—this due to the fact that I had a full-time job. How does this help me with my art? It doesn't. coópera has not had a show since last fall, I have not performed since last fall, no new plans have been outlined, no new funds have been raised. In the meantime, I keep getting news from all these Manhattan projects of opera founded by artists for artists who are gaining ground, producing, having fun, living the idea.

And I have just one thing to say to all of them: Well done. This is exactly what artists should do, and I am ready to get this show on the road once more. I want to sing. WE want to sing. So let's get off our somewhat comfortable finances, which provide a fake, music-less comfort, and let's sing—even if it is financially less comfortable—because ultimately, comfort doesn't keep us alive: happiness does.