Hello everybody. My name is Arturo, I am an Operatic Tenor traveling the world and singing in some of the most exciting venues.
I also perform Mexican music. This music has been a part of me my whole life and I hope I can also share some of that with you.
I have been singing Opera for over 15 years professionally and I am looking forward to sharing with my friends and readers some insights of my job, my life and my thoughts.
While writing this blog, I want to reach out to singers of all ages, music lovers and above all, to prospective AUDIENCES!
MOVING in the right direction
I’ve appointed myself with a very difficult task:
To rescue and protect the wonderful music that changed my life. I am not talking only of Opera. I am talking about all good music. Music that makes you feel something and better your life.
I find it sometimes overwhelming to listen to the radio. More and more, the music that’s being produced now a days, is meant to distract you or make you tap your foot in a steady pattern.
What’s the big deal? Music is just music, right? Well, I don’t think so. When I say music can change your life, I am not being poetic or unrealistic. Imagine yourself going in a straight line, that is your life. We are constantly being shifted one way or another by our family, friends, everyday problems, joys, our jobs, so we are steering endlessly towards the horizon.
Music can change the direction you’re going.
I’ve had the chance to talk to people from the audience after many of my shows, and to see the joy or sadness that our work inspired is such a reward. Most of us don’t have an outlet for our feelings, and live music like Opera, Symphony Orchestras, instrumental or vocal performances can definitely get you started on letting some of those feelings out!
INSPIRED by accident
There are some days when it just hits me. Inspiration coming from the most unusual places.
I never considered that music could trigger buried or repressed memories. I had experienced this effect before with photographs, or scents bringing a vivid image of my childhood or an important moment of my life.
We’ve all become resistant to feelings. Our society wants one behavior for all of us, and we need to hide our feelings most of the time.
Fortunately, we cannot keep our feelings bottled up forever. We have a valve that when it’s triggered, there is no point in trying to keep the pressure in anymore.
I was out on a errand and a nice older gentleman engaged me in conversation so we talked for a few minutes. The conversation turned from weather and traffic to music and my beef with the mind numbing new music out there. I played him an audio file from my phone of a very beautiful Mexican song played by an orchestra.
My intention was to say “Why listen to that music, when we could listen to this!”
But before I could say anything, I looked up at him and he was gently crying and he said to me “This song reminds me of my mother”… He looked somewhat less laden, if a bit frazzled by the fact that a perfect stranger saw him cry.
He gave me a hug and asked me more about my upcoming performances because he definitely wanted to bring his whole family to experience it.
I will never forget this moment. This gentle reminder of the beauty that music can hold in our minds.