"How does it feel to make that much....NOISE!"  at which the room arupted in laughter and I understood how funny that we must seem to them.... for they don't think about it, but they too are all relying on the "voice" to be heard... they all rely on two little pieces of cartilage. That is the sum truth.  I sing  with my body....I consider it as precious and unique as the great violin made by a master maker, Stradivrius, who, said a gift in music is so hard without a distnct message...your very own soul on display....we are a living Strad, and we cultivate and sacrifice and live a wonderful life but a lot of the sacrifice to this art an our desire to serve it.  All to learn how to support a tone coming out of a human being, a body with the most direct message known to man. The human voice, over the chorus of over 100 VERY good singers, almost 100 orchestral players, in front of an audience ranging between 16,000 in Verona and 4,000 like at the Met or the Colon di Buenos Aires, and we are heard in a victory over today's need to shush everyone. Even the audienced are told to be quiet!  It is the greatest success story in the world, for we are heard, one heart, one soul, two chords, the alchemy of the mix that is your human body, all heard LIVE, where it is best heard, by an audience without a microphone.  As I have said, and some colleagues must agree because they quote me ver batim, it is the last bastion of human communication without a plug.... just as it has been for over three hundred years.  I think that demands a real contemplation from our arts counsels and our schools, as they must see how important it is to have a rounded soul... classical music, especially opera is magical.... nothing like it in the world.....I give thanks and am proud to be an opera singer.....