We thought that this obsolete mania for hiding one's age had been reserved for Hollywood stars and other celebrities with Peter Pan syndrome for whom Wikipedia, that digital file of biographies, is making it more difficult every day. We could not imagine that grandmothers with delusions of maternity would appear, emulating gay couples in renting their wombs to a fertile woman so that she could bake them a new life, which, with the approval of the governments, they will say belongs to them. New wishes are orders, if it depends on the wallet. On the other hand, if you are an employee and your job depends on not continuing to have a birthday, things are no longer flirtatious.
The conductor Olivia Lee-Gundermann, who can now be seen on the podium of the Royal Theater conducting Nixon in China , John Adams's opera about the famous visit of the American president to Mao's republic, is a young South Korean who has shown true poise in his Spanish debut. How old must she be? Curiosity is legitimate, there aren't that many women on the podiums... so we openly asked him in the post-premiere euphoria. “How old would you make me?” she says. 30? 35? "More more...". She finally she does not specify. Perhaps because it is her youth that makes her more extraordinary.
A few meters away, the mezzo Gemma Coma-Alabert, who plays one of the secretaries of the Nixon-Mao meeting, explains how ageism affects opera singers. In Germany, for example, a country that has a repertoire opera house in each city and its own company of singers, there is a contracting regime that forces the artist to stay until his retirement once he reaches 40. That's it. or kick him out
Curiously, those who get shorn of this measure are the sopranos. Her vocal register goes with the sexiest roles: las traviatas, las lucias, las manons…. When they are at their zenith at 40, the theater to which they have dedicated their lives will prefer to renew the establishment, with which they will find themselves on the streets and without the connections of an international career. Who could blame them for wanting to take years off.
