Post by Lets_Eat_Paste on Nov 3, 2012 1:25:14 GMT -6
Character Name: Olive Degarmo
Age: 40
Occupation: Music teacher
AI: Sarah Brightman
History: Olive Cristelle Degarmo was born to Alice, a special education teacher, and Benoit Degarmo, a worker in a cigarette factory, in Bergerac, France. Olive was their middle child, but always made sure she stood out from her two siblings. For one, she was the only one of their children born with brown hair, which set her apart from their two blonde-cherub looking offspring. But secondly, she had a voice that could soar. At the age of ten, she had a freakish set of fully matured vocal chords which were capable of musical acrobatics and smooth cantabile. Noticing this, they put her in every voice class possible in hopes that they could hone this gift. But Bergerac, with its high pollution from the cigarette factories, was no place to raise a rising opera singer, so Benoit left his job at the factory and uprooted his family to the French country side where the children had plenty of space and—more importantly—clean air. Benoit got a new job as the manager at an inn while Alice stayed back in Bergerac to continue working.
Olive’s older sister, Claudette, went into sports, and her younger sister, Sylvie joined the mathletes, while Olive dedicated herself to music. She practiced endlessly and often scribbled small compositions on her schoolwork (instead of actually answering the questions). Her grades may have slipped consistently, but her voice continued to grow. When she was fourteen, her voice teacher, Denise Cannes, introduced her to Evrard Meuller, the director of the town’s enthusiastic (albeit tiny and low budget) opera company. After an impromptu audition, she landed a chorus role in Aida. Every season she auditioned, working her way up and up until she finally secured the role of Popagena in The Magic Flute. At the age of 21, on closing night, a talent agent from the audience approached her and offered her representation. Without a second thought, Olive accepted and found herself travelling France to attend audition after audition, flitting from city to city for rehearsals. After four years of touring and moonlighting, she landed her first big role. At 25, she sang at the Bastille, playing the coveted, titular role of Carmen. After a successful run, she signed a recording contract and was sent, once again, whizzing around from place to place, this time leaving France and seeing all of Europe on a tour.
In constant contact with her family, her dressing room mirrors filled up with postcards and love letters from home , and she began to miss France, so she returned. Though she was back where she heart belonged, she wasn’t done exploring, this time discovering new kinds of music instead of new faces. She dipped her feet into popular music, shocking the classical community, and by the age of 28, she was a household name.
But a performance at a concert changed her life forever. Midway through a theatrical number, she collapsed and fell off the stage, into the audience. Waking up the hospital, the doctors showed her her lab results: idiopathic Pulmonary Hypertension, a lung disease. And after three weeks in the ICU unit of the hospital, things did not look good. The blood vessels in her lungs had contracted so much that her heart had trouble supplying them (and the rest of her body) with sufficient oxygen and if she were to stand up, she could lose consciousness. The only thing left to do was a lung transplant. She spent six months in her hospital room until they found a match for her. Though glad at the prospect of living a normal life once more, Olive was terrified. She had spent 16 years training her lungs, and now she was about to part with them. How would these new lungs react to opera singing? How would her voice, her career, her livelihood be affected? The idea of dying was barely worse than not singing again. But with the persuasion and support of her family, she decided to take the transplant.
However, things weren’t that easy. Halfway through the operation, Olive’s pain killers wore off and she woke up on the table screaming, her chest open. It was the worst pain she had ever felt in her life as her lungs were ripped out and replaced with new ones. And though they managed to numb and sedate her again, from time to time, she still has lingering phantom pain. For this, she was prescribed a strong narcotic to kill the pain, something she takes to this day.
After her recovery, she worked and trained and battled with her new lungs. But they barely responded to her conditioning. After only 7 years, her career was over.
Not willing to give up music, and not sure what else she could do, she went back to school to get her teaching certificate. Now, she teaches elementary music to children at a school. The children don’t know she was once a world famous opera singer, nor do they know her lungs will never let her sing those soaring notes again. All they know is that they love Ms. Degarmo and that they are excited for their Christmas concert.
Age: 40
Occupation: Music teacher
AI: Sarah Brightman
History: Olive Cristelle Degarmo was born to Alice, a special education teacher, and Benoit Degarmo, a worker in a cigarette factory, in Bergerac, France. Olive was their middle child, but always made sure she stood out from her two siblings. For one, she was the only one of their children born with brown hair, which set her apart from their two blonde-cherub looking offspring. But secondly, she had a voice that could soar. At the age of ten, she had a freakish set of fully matured vocal chords which were capable of musical acrobatics and smooth cantabile. Noticing this, they put her in every voice class possible in hopes that they could hone this gift. But Bergerac, with its high pollution from the cigarette factories, was no place to raise a rising opera singer, so Benoit left his job at the factory and uprooted his family to the French country side where the children had plenty of space and—more importantly—clean air. Benoit got a new job as the manager at an inn while Alice stayed back in Bergerac to continue working.
Olive’s older sister, Claudette, went into sports, and her younger sister, Sylvie joined the mathletes, while Olive dedicated herself to music. She practiced endlessly and often scribbled small compositions on her schoolwork (instead of actually answering the questions). Her grades may have slipped consistently, but her voice continued to grow. When she was fourteen, her voice teacher, Denise Cannes, introduced her to Evrard Meuller, the director of the town’s enthusiastic (albeit tiny and low budget) opera company. After an impromptu audition, she landed a chorus role in Aida. Every season she auditioned, working her way up and up until she finally secured the role of Popagena in The Magic Flute. At the age of 21, on closing night, a talent agent from the audience approached her and offered her representation. Without a second thought, Olive accepted and found herself travelling France to attend audition after audition, flitting from city to city for rehearsals. After four years of touring and moonlighting, she landed her first big role. At 25, she sang at the Bastille, playing the coveted, titular role of Carmen. After a successful run, she signed a recording contract and was sent, once again, whizzing around from place to place, this time leaving France and seeing all of Europe on a tour.
In constant contact with her family, her dressing room mirrors filled up with postcards and love letters from home , and she began to miss France, so she returned. Though she was back where she heart belonged, she wasn’t done exploring, this time discovering new kinds of music instead of new faces. She dipped her feet into popular music, shocking the classical community, and by the age of 28, she was a household name.
But a performance at a concert changed her life forever. Midway through a theatrical number, she collapsed and fell off the stage, into the audience. Waking up the hospital, the doctors showed her her lab results: idiopathic Pulmonary Hypertension, a lung disease. And after three weeks in the ICU unit of the hospital, things did not look good. The blood vessels in her lungs had contracted so much that her heart had trouble supplying them (and the rest of her body) with sufficient oxygen and if she were to stand up, she could lose consciousness. The only thing left to do was a lung transplant. She spent six months in her hospital room until they found a match for her. Though glad at the prospect of living a normal life once more, Olive was terrified. She had spent 16 years training her lungs, and now she was about to part with them. How would these new lungs react to opera singing? How would her voice, her career, her livelihood be affected? The idea of dying was barely worse than not singing again. But with the persuasion and support of her family, she decided to take the transplant.
However, things weren’t that easy. Halfway through the operation, Olive’s pain killers wore off and she woke up on the table screaming, her chest open. It was the worst pain she had ever felt in her life as her lungs were ripped out and replaced with new ones. And though they managed to numb and sedate her again, from time to time, she still has lingering phantom pain. For this, she was prescribed a strong narcotic to kill the pain, something she takes to this day.
After her recovery, she worked and trained and battled with her new lungs. But they barely responded to her conditioning. After only 7 years, her career was over.
Not willing to give up music, and not sure what else she could do, she went back to school to get her teaching certificate. Now, she teaches elementary music to children at a school. The children don’t know she was once a world famous opera singer, nor do they know her lungs will never let her sing those soaring notes again. All they know is that they love Ms. Degarmo and that they are excited for their Christmas concert.
