7 a.m. — More coffee. Messages are slow, so I message with the creative team for an opera I'm in/stage directing. We are trying to secure funding for a European production this coming summer as a reprisal from an overseas performance we did this year. This opera has been my biggest paid gig in my career and I've been eternally thankful for their trust in me. I'm including this in my diary because I wanted to note that for most productions I do, I might lose money; I'm not signed to an agent and work with a lot of small, quirky companies. Once you add up practice time, rehearsal time, and gas mileage, you often don't make more than $2/hour, if that. I'm lucky in that I can secure a whole month's salary from this particular show when we do it. People may think that opera is for the elites and the upper-class, but let me tell you, the majority of opera singers make very little money and most of us are far from elite.