Topic
An opera singer has moved into our building.
That right there should be enough for a weblog post. I don’t really have to even write anything else.
If you are keeping score, in our building (musically) we now have:
- Opera singer
- Wanna be mid-1990’s grunge guitar player
- The singing folkie couple
- Our friend Richard who practices his smooth guitar hits
- The screaming Yemenis (no actual music, just screaming)
First, I don’t want to be hating on art. Who doesn’t love art? My friggin, worthless college degree was in art. I heart art.
I like music. I buy music. I listen to music.
Musicians. Fine people.
Opera
OK. Straight up: I don’t like opera. It makes my body ache. If I am listening to the radio and suddenly there is opera on, I will turn it off (often in a dramatic, over-the-top frantic grab at the radio).
Also, I am not that crazy about the Opera browser, but that is a different post.
The issues
1. The singing of the opera is loud.
2. The opera singer in our building opens their window so that you can hear them a half block away.
3. You may like opera, but I can guarantee that you don’t like “people practicing opera”.
4. Because the crap-ass thin walls in our building muffle some of the sound, in our apartment where only get the high end notes.
Location
Now, let me add that I am just being a wiener here because we are actually on the other side of the building and on a different floor from the opera yeller. Technically, I shouldn’t even be complaining – except that I can hear it when I am in the kitchen.
(Mrs. Robot thinks I am crazy)
I don’t get it.
Forgetting that this is opera singing for a minute, I don’t really “get” how someone would think that producing this much noise on a regular basis would be OK in a tightly packed apartment building. Noise happens. I am fine with that. I make noise myself.
But, when I make noise, 99% of the time my neighbors can still easily watch TV or talk on the phone. I have no idea how the neighbors of this person deal with it. Apart that they may all be crazy.
Question for the opera singers
Do you rent practice space normally for this type of thing? Or do you do it in your apartment?
If you practice in your apartment, do you realize how loud it is?
Do you realize that even if your neighbor is a fan of opera that they may have problems… thinking. Talking. Listening to something else?
Is all of this due to the fact that our opera singer is some sort of poor and struggling opera singer who can’t afford a practice space? And when they become famous, they will thank the residents of Building De La Loco in Brooklyn for their tolerance and patience making me feel like an old Scrooge?
Ironically
The opera neighbor is next door to the screaming Yemenis.
