On Voice, Aging, & the Prima Donna

Ancestral Wisdom from Opera's Working Class Artists

My Bohemian ancestors want you to know that a woman’s voice is not considered at its fullness until her forties. Not in opera, which they made their living off in their time in Bohemia (now Czech Republic) and later in the States.

The prima donna, the lead female role, were often in their 40s because one’s voice takes decades to develop. Decades of mastering breath techniques, vocal acrobatics, and lung capacity.

Decades of allowing the voice’s (the body’s) natural maturation processes to unfold.

That’s a bit of insight I like to take both literally and metaphorically: Our voices are late bloomers.