Our guest this week was Amanda Hick and she has been one my favorite guests so far. I loved that we were given a mini lesson on the history of opera and she made the technical terms very easy to understand. I never realized how much opera has evolved throughout history and how the time an opera was created in greatly affects how it is performed. Hearing songs from the different styles of opera was very eye opening and made me want to listen to more opera songs. It was also interesting to hear about how Amanda became interested in opera. She hadn’t really done that much in the genre until late high school and from that point on she knew that she wanted to become an opera singer. She would then go to both undergraduate and graduate school for degrees in music. Her talent and passion for the art were very clear, and hearing how passionate she was about the art form made me more interested. It was also very cool to me that she started her own opera production company because it not only gave her the chance to showcase her and her friends talent, but it gave her more control over her work schedule. Working in the arts can be very tricky but Amanda has found ways to balance her creative and financial needs through working at Macaulay and doing performances at the same time. All in all, Amanda’s drive was very inspiring and her excitement about the class brightened the atmosphere and made many of us want to take a deeper look into opera. I’m even thinking about watching an opera the next time I have free time.