Sad day

Today we morn the loss of a wonderful talent, a very special person with whom I got to know over the last 2 years while in the Opera Chorus.

Last night, Archie Drake (click here to read about him) passed away at the age of 81.  He had sung regularly with Seattle Opera for more than 38 seasons, over two thousand performances and reprising over 100 roles.

After Saturday nights performance (closing night of MacBeth in which he had a small role) he had a heart attack.  While in ICU of Harborview Medical Center, he passed away last night after never waking up from the attack. 

I heard about it this morning.  I wasn’t even aware he had gone into the hospital.  I feel kind of weird.  I’m saddened by the fact of his death and that I won’t get to work with him this summer, or next year for that matter.  But I’m also glad that he was able to sing until the very end.  He didn’t have to go through a couple years of watching others.  No, he was up there with us, and even finished this last role.

I love this quote I just found:

"For me, opera is basically an exploration of the human spirit, and it can take you further into emotions and feelings and concepts and understandings and divining than any other way. I talk to children about this, in schools.  They’d say, ‘why sing?’ and I’d say, ‘Did you ever get so mad at somebody that you couldn’t even talk?’ and they all said, ‘Yeah, I did.’ I said, ‘All right, next time, sing to ’em!’ Because you can get more expression into singing than all the talking in the world."

Archie, you are loved, and will be missed greatly.  Farewell.