Please Pray for Christine

Dear friends, a situation that I posted about here a year and a half ago has taken a turn for the worse.  Christine's cancer went into remission after her surgery, but has now returned in metastatic form and, according to her neurologist, there are no known survivors of this type of cancer.  Her husband, G., a close friend of mine, has told me that he's had the "what if" conversation with their daughters.

In the meantime, G., a lyric tenor who has sung all over the world, including at the Metropolitan and San Francisco Operas, can't get a gig.  The reality of the business now is such that thirteen or so American opera companies have shut up shop in the past two years.  What usually happens in this kind of climate is that the A-level singers get gigs in the B-level opera houses, and the B singers go to the C houses, but there are no more C houses, which leaves many very fine singers, who have devoted their lives to perfecting their craft, unemployed -- and, since the time spent perfecting it has precluded other pursuits, essentially unemployable.  I've been asking my contacts about teaching work for G., and keep hearing the same question:  "Does he have a D.M.A. [Doctorate of Musical Arts, the degree I earned in 2009]?"  Um, well, no, he doesn't, since, instead of retreating to academe, as I and many of my colleagues did, he kept laboring in the trenches of opera performance, spending ten months out of the year on the road away from his family, and he achieved a high degree of success.  What's more, it's not as if there are enough teaching jobs for people with D.M.A.s.

There are all kinds of efforts, including a well-funded foundation, to help ballet dancers transition into other careers.  Why not opera singers?

I've been praying to my usual friends in heaven for Christine and G., especially to St. Joseph and St. Jude, but I'm going to make a special daily devotion to Blessed Pope John XXIII on the behalf of this couple and their children, because of G.'s great love for Italian culture, and because John XXIII is so the man.  Please, if you can spare the time, say a prayer for them, too.