Thursday, December 20, 2007

The Womb and the Garden


In the late 1990s, a wealthy and eccentric widow gave me a small scholarship to further my voice training. I took the money and sought out the New York City opera coaches whose auras had the most sheen at the time. I had some interesting experiences, and got lots of advice, all of it different. One Famous Coach told me that if I sang repertoire that was just a little too light for my voice, I'd "work everywhere." Another plied me with martinis and explained his sudden infatuation (of which I was assuredly not the only object) by saying that I was the only soprano he'd ever met (I had not yet made the switch to mezzo-soprano) who could carry on a conversation about something other than her hair and her gowns, and who knew how to pronounce HUAC correctly. When I went to use this Famous Coach's bathroom, I found a Duane Reade bag hastily tossed on the floor with a giant box of Trojans spilling out of it. This same Famous Coach, after my first marriage ended, told me, with perhaps a touch of bitterness, that I had lost my ambition, and that if I didn't get it back, the only thing I'd ever be known for was the guys with whom I'd "hooked up."

But the most interesting of the Famous Coaches was an unusually funny, kind, maternal, self-effacing middle-aged woman. She worked almost exclusively with the breath, trying to tailor the way her clients breathed to the sound, size, and ethos of their voices and musicalities. I wonder what she's doing now; she really was a wonderul person. At that time, she was trying to have a baby, and I hope it happened, as she would have been a wonderful mother.

I worked with her during a terrible time in my life, the year when my first marriage was ending. She knew what was going on, and asked me one day, "Do you want a stack of programs at the end of your life?" "Yes," I said, not really understanding why she thought any singer wouldn't. "Is that ALL you want?" she asked more pointedly. "Ummmm . . . no," I conceded, none too convinced myself. "Then don't f*ck up," was her reply. That was surely the best piece of advice I got during my time of fancy, expensive vocal coaching, and one that I wish I had taken.

She told me something else that has stayed with me: the Hasidim believe that when we are gestating in the womb, we know everything that is going to happen in our lives. But at birth, God lays His hand on our heads, and we forget everything, because if we remembered we couldn't bear it. The mark of this action of God is the soft spot on the newborn's head.

I wonder if, according to the Hasidic legend, the infant in utero is like Adam just after he's eaten the fruit, before being rebuked by God; and if the newborn baby is like Adam after the fall.

9 comments:

Andy said...

I'm pretty sure I can guess the second coach.

Pentimento said...

Perhaps you have friends in whose, um, talent he's taken an interest. Girls who indulged him would in fact get some pretty good gigs.

Anonymous said...

Nice piece. I linked it.

Merry Christmas and God bless you.

http://burketokirk.blogspot.com/2007/12/fall-of-man-and-gods-touch.html

TQ

RA said...

'There's no such thing as original sin.'
- Elvis Costello

Babies in Limbo. Good grief.

And that whole thing of having to register to leave comments, pure shite.
xox

Pentimento said...

RA, this is Hasidic theology, not the theology of limbo, which Pope Benedict XVI is said to be going to do away with anyhow. I can't figure out how to leave comments on your blog either.

RA said...

Yeah but of course Hasidic ideas of limbo are completely derived from Christianity. It's not an Old Testament notion at all.

Maybe Benedict can get rid of hell while he's at the alterations.

Pentimento said...

I think that limbo comes from the Old Testament, actually. Christ's 'harrowing of hell" is usually taken to mean the ransoming from limbo of the righteous Jews who lived before his era, which indicates, I believe, the existence of this theological concept long before the Gospels were written. The Psalms speak of "Sheol" -- perhaps that's it? Can anyone who knows more about Old Testament theology enlighten me?

RA said...

Sorry Charlie
As you will see from this link, traditional Hebrew ideas of an afterlife were pretty anemic. It was only with Greek and then Christian influence, that ideas like 'heaven', 'hell' and 'limbo' gained wider currency (although this article is pretty mediocre on that front).
- The Teacha

Pentimento said...

The link didn't come through in your comment.