CS has addressed the topic of the work-life balance of singers before. But what about the people on the other side of the table—the managers, agents, general directors, artistic directors, those whose work enables singers the opportunity to practice their craft? What’s life like for them? What pressures do they face? Where’s their give-and-take? What are the crucial concerns for a manager or arts administrator when it comes to negotiating life’s equilibrium? Are they the same issues as for singers? Somewhat the same or vastly different? How do they handle the work and life choices and compromises they have to make? And can singers learn anything from the perspective of those who employ them that will help them deal with this challenge in their own lives?
To answer these questions, I talked with three “other-side” luminaries: Ana De Archuleta, a young, on-the-move singers’ manager; Sheri Greenawald, director of the San Francisco Opera Center; and Irene Dalis, founder and general director of Opera San José. All three of these strong, driven, capable women started their careers as singers, so they know intimately the dilemmas that singers face when trying to forge a career and a life. All three talked about their personal challenges in negotiating a singing career and the necessary trade-offs that can affect one’s personal life. While each dealt with her own individual challenges, two overriding common threads stood out: the necessity—and often resultant strain and enervation—of frequent travel in order to have more than just a part-time singing career, and the uncompromising physical demands of singing.
Of travel and its effect on her eventual decision to move into her current career, De Archuleta said, “I was traveling quite a bit. Singers travel for months at a time. I was one of those singers who was one month here, one month there, or nine months in a Young Artists program. I decided that I wanted roots.”
“There were years when I was on the road 11 months out of the year,” Greenawald shared. “For a working singer, that’s not unusual. Ten or 11 months on the road is usual if you’re going to make a living as a singer.”
“I used to divide my time between Berlin, Hamburg, London, New York, and San Francisco,” Dalis commented. “That was my itinerary, but never as a one-night singer. Whenever I went anywhere I stayed for a while.”
While all three talked of the toll traveling took on them, Greenawald and Dalis openly discussed the complications it posed for them once they had children. “I think probably the most complicated thing,” said Greenawald, “is if you have children, and the separation from them. I was not going to be separated from my daughter until I absolutely had to be. I chose to travel with a nanny that was steady in my daughter’s life, because I figured that there would be enough disruption in her life as it was, with the travel itself. But it’s expensive. You spend a lot more for apartments because you have to have a two-bedroom instead of a one-bedroom apartment. You have to buy lots more plane tickets, pay for extra luggage. It’s exhausting for a woman. Don’t get me wrong. I was exhausted, but you just do what you need to do.”
Having a nanny was crucial for Dalis as well after her daughter was born, and in the years prior to elementary school, Dalis’ daughter and nanny traveled with her. After her daughter started elementary school, Dalis freely admits that it was difficult for her to be away from her family, especially when she traveled to Europe to perform, because she would be gone for at least two months at a time. Though she soon curtailed her European work and stayed much more in the U.S. in order to be home as much as possible, the situation still was challenging. “During that time, I had great difficulty with my daughter because she resented my singing career. It took many years, but now she does understand that I was a professional and the type of work I did required that I have space around me the day of a performance. It wasn’t ideal, but we survived.”
Dalis went on to say that during her heyday as a singer, she always had a cook and a housekeeper. “I don’t see how you can have a major career unless you have someone taking care of your child and your home. A performer isn’t going to have the energy to be a mother all day and go and sing a major role in the evening. I think performing artists have to think very seriously about whether they should have a family. There are many who do, but I don’t see how you can do that until you’re really established and can afford help. I would not have been able to perform. I would not have been able to have the career I had without the help I had.”
In comparing their lives then to their lives now, all three women acknowledged that they work as hard or harder, in some cases, in their current positions as they did when they were singers. “When you’re on the road as a singer, you’re working six days a week, as much as six hours a day. I now basically work nine or 10 hours a day, six days a week. So, it’s just as bad or worse,” Greenawald says with a hearty laugh. Her days, like those of De Archuleta and Dalis, are filled to the brim with e-mails, meetings, budget considerations, more meetings, phone calls, coachings, auditions, and more meetings. All three mentioned that with such packed schedules, being organized and efficient was an absolute necessity for the type of work they do, and that includes planning ahead.
“You want to make sure that everything that’s under your control is taken care of,” shares De Archuleta.
Right now, with the economy in its precarious state, Greenawald and Dalis have to deal with the tension of making often drastic cost-cutting decisions while trying to maintain quality as well as employees’ jobs.
“The pressure is to find the most effective way to do things with the cuts that one has to make,” says Greenawald. “For instance, you don’t want to be responsible for putting someone out of work. Those things are a big pressure.”
Dalis, too, feels this weight as she talks about single-ticket sales, corporate contributions, and city grants all being way down. “It’s coming from every direction. And then when I read in the paper that Opera Pacific folded up and Connecticut Opera has folded, Baltimore has folded, it becomes frightening. It’s frightening times for all of us. It causes sleepless nights. I get up, on average, every day at about 4:00 a.m. because I can’t sleep anymore. I’m trying to think about what I can do next, what I’m missing. It’s a worry.”
De Archuleta finds herself scrambling more for her clients since lately some opera companies are canceling contracts with singers due to monetary considerations that force mid-season repertoire changes. Particularly at times like these she notes, “I have to be a mentor, a mom, sometimes a therapist for my clients, as well as a business-person who looks at the bottom line.”
Workdays in their individual jobs often don’t finish before 8:00 or 9:00 in the evening, and a seven-day workweek isn’t uncommon. “I have tough weeks and weekends sometimes,” says De Archuleta. “Just this last weekend, to see two clients of mine in Dayton, Ohio, I drove 10 hours each way to and from New York. When I got back, I was exhausted. Another time, I would have visited my sister who lives just an hour away in Cincinnati, but I had a Monday morning meeting that I didn’t want to let go of, because the person I was meeting with was leaving that day.”
Time for recreation is snatched here and there. Dalis mentioned her subscriptions to the San Jose Symphony and San Jose Repertory Theatre, as well as periodically going out to dinner with friends. De Archuleta declared, “When I want to, I have time to socialize. I have a life outside of singers—cooking, or inviting friends over, or going to work out.”
“I love watching NBA basketball,” said Greenawald, revealing what she called her “dirty little secret.” “So, I’ll go home tonight and watch a game, and then watch Jon Stewart and Keith Olbermann.”
But leisure is not a word that seems to be in any of their vocabularies. With a business that’s only four years old, De Archuleta said, “I choose to work a lot because I’m a young business woman and I’m still trying to make my mark in this business. So right now, I need to work as hard as I can for my clients because they trust me, and I want to make sure that their careers are well taken care of.”
Greenawald mentioned having a couple of close friends but then remarked, “The problem is that most of my best friends are unbelievably busy human beings as well. They don’t have time either; none of us has time. Who has time for a private life? We’re all too busy!”
And Dalis passionately offered, “Right now I eat, drink, and sleep Opera San José. My life-work right now is this company and I enjoy it. I honestly feel that I was allowed to have the international singing career so that I would come home and build this company. This is what I was supposed to do. This is what I’m responsible for. And that’s why these next few years I’m going to do all I can to survive.”
So how do these women achieve or even approach balance in their lives? What do they do for themselves that rejuvenates them and gives them the energy to tackle their long, challenge-filled days? The answers that I got were more philosophical than I expected. For these three, at least, the question of balance seems less a matter of hours per day or days per week set aside for relaxation and non-work activity, and more a matter of attitude.
“Balance means reminding myself that this is what we do, not who we are,” De Archuleta said. “That we can drop this tomorrow and still be a complete human being. That we do this because we love it, because we have a drive, because it’s what moves us and makes us get up in the morning—but we also have other things in our lives that can do that. I never want to feel that ‘this is it’—that if I don’t do what I do right now, my life would be over.”
“Having balance in one’s life involves enjoying what you’re doing regardless of what it is,” expressed Greenawald, “figuring out how to enjoy what you’re doing at the time. I don’t mind working, because I’m involved in what I love most. I enjoy working.”
“I love doing this,” Dalis agreed. “I really enjoy this company and watching our singers grow, so I don’t consider it work. I feel blessed, even though right now we have major problems.” She does, though, allow herself the luxury of a vigorous walk every morning, “I walk every day. Monday through Friday, every morning, I walk 3.2 miles per day. On Saturdays and Sundays, I walk 4.8 miles per day, and I find that clears my mind.”
One thing all three agreed on is how glad they are not to travel in the same extensive manner they had to for their singing careers. “If I never saw a suitcase again it would be fine,” quipped Greenawald. “I still have to travel on a fairly regular basis. I have at least one trip per month. For instance, I was just in L.A. to give a masterclass, and I travel to judge competitions. That’s important because I get to know young singers, but if I never had to travel again, it would be fine.”
Dalis flatly declared, “I don’t like to travel,” and there was no mistaking De Archuleta’s delight when she shared, “I have more time to create a home for myself. I love being in my place. If I have to travel, I go for a weekend or for a week, but I love coming back to my place. I love going out on the weekends and buying groceries for the week and knowing that it’s my house and I know where things are. I love the sense of community, the sense of neighborhood.”
None of them misses the stress and rigor of keeping their singing voices in shape either. “I don’t miss the stress of singing at all,” De Archuleta said emphatically.
Greenawald concurred, “I don’t miss having to worry about my voice or about things like being sick. I had laryngitis about a week-and-a-half ago. Before, that would have meant panic. Now, I didn’t even go to the doctor. I could just be normal about it. It wasn’t fun to have laryngitis, but I didn’t have to worry about it—that was fun.”
And the relief in Dalis’ voice was palpable when she confided with a chuckle, “Oh, listen. I can enjoy having a cold. After I retired from singing, my greatest relief was that I could catch a cold and not worry about it.”
So, it seems that part of being able to feel some sense of balance in their lives, despite their hectic schedules and demanding work, is the freedom of choice each of them now has over the normal things that make up a life. It also seems that working on behalf of others offers these women the kind of satisfaction that makes their often frenzied existence worthwhile.
Dalis summed this up best. “My singing career was wonderful, but that’s a very egotistical trip. Everything had to revolve around my schedule. Now I’m in a situation where I’m helping people, and I don’t think anyone could get any more satisfaction out of anything. The only way you can have satisfaction in life is if you feel and know that you are helping others.”
What advice would each of them give to anyone considering a career in management or arts administration, particularly with regard to maintaining some sense of symmetry in one’s life?
“I think it’s all a matter of planning,” said Dalis, “and each person can plan their life the way they want it to be.”
“Tailor your life to what you enjoy and are passionate about,” advised De Archuleta.
“Look for ways to be creative in whatever you’re doing,” added Greenawald, “to live your life creatively. That’s what it comes down to. To me, that’s the secret of life.”
