Our eldest daughter is 15. Last year, she told us she was going to a gig with some teenage friends and assumed it was a local band who were appearing in the town. When she came home, she said it was amazing, and she told me that she had bought a CD of the performance while there. I thought no more of it. A while later, I asked her if I could listen to the CD, as I might like this band, too, but she said she couldn't find it - and I could tell she ws lying by her face.
While she was at school, I searched her room and found the CD. At first, I couldn't work out what it was - then I saw the name was Italian. It was called "Don Giovanni" and the artist was Mozart. I was quite shocked at first, but I put the CD on and listened to all this screechy singing. I really couldn't work out what she was playing at because we never listen to that old stuffin our house. I said nothing about it to her but I decided to wait for the right moment to see if she cared to explain.
Last weekend, I closed my shop early and we had a barbecue. We had loads of food and so she invited a few friends over. About 8pm, my daughter disappeared for a while with another girl and a boy. I took my dog out for a walk when I heard some singing in Italian. I had an idea what that was and I saw my daughter with the other girl and the boy singing together. When they saw me, they went dead quiet and I asked her what he heck was going on. She showed me some sheet music with lyrics in Italian and it was Mozart again. My daughter admitted they had been singing a "trio" from some opera called "Cosy Van".
We had a long chat about this on Sunday and she admitted to me that she has been mixing with some teenagers who are into this kind of stuff and she has gone along with them. She now states she loves it and wants to listen to more, and wants to learn to be a soprano. I don't know what to make of this or exactly what is going on in her head because she has never been brought up to listen to this boring old stuff. She is a teenager and she should be listening to more modern music like Justin Bieber, not singing what she walls "arias" written by long dead posh people.
I am not going to stop her. Teenagers these days get into far worse stuff than opera, but I admit that I do find it a bit disturbing. You are only young once, after all.