For me, the creative process builds itself by layers. Interpreting the music that I choose to sing begins with my own understanding of the emotion that music is describing. I must then determine if that emotion is one I know or have in some way experienced or can readily imagine. Rhythm is a crucial factor in this process. The written rhythm of the tones will dictate the rhythm of the breath.
Tone lives because of breath, therefore, the quality of the breath dictates the quality of the tone.
What takes place within the air molecules carrying the tones to the listerner is an intense communication of emotions and images. This produces everything from tears to laughter from the listener which then translates into a form of confirmation of that understanding. An opera tells a whole story full of emotion but singing the words rather than speaking them brings an enhanced and compelling depth of meaning in the moment that we hear the words and music simultaneously. A future community, such as the one that will be designed in The Mars Millennium Project, would be a perfect community to include the preservation and sustaining of the unique and engaging medium of opera as part of its cultural component. In that community, where the elements of food, air and water for the sustaining of the body would be so necessary, the sound of the human voice, singing, would be just as crucial and necessary as food for the soul.