tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-195882642011-04-21T17:37:47.594-07:00crapiscommonnoreply@blogger.comBlogger21100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19588264.post-1161534203328857302006-10-22T09:21:00.000-07:002006-10-22T09:23:23.340-07:00<p>The winner of ABC program Operatunity Oz says he doesn't deserve the triumph.</p><p>Unlike many of his competitors fiercely vying for victory, David Parkin says he didn't take the competition seriously and had not studied or thought of pursuing opera as a career.</p><p>"I was very casual about the whole thing," the 26-year-old said from his home in Leichhardt in Sydney's inner west.</p><p> "I know there was disappointment among the other finalists because this has been their life's ambition and for me to come along, this person who had a very good career path and then to give this a go, I know there was disappointment."</p><p>More than 2,000 aspiring singers sent in video auditions for the program.</p><p>Parkin, a computer engineer for one of Sydney's top law firms, was chosen by a panel of five judges for the top 20.</p><p>Four days of intense operatic workshops followed and the final six were chosen - three females, all with tertiary level singing training, bachelors or diplomas in music, and three males - a plumber, a builder and Parkin.</p><p>With just a few singing lessons and a couple of school musicals under his belt, Parkin believed his luck would run out in the final round.</p><p>"I was totally shocked," Parkin said of being told he had won.</p><p>"I honestly thought the judges would go for the three girls, I thought us guys were the human interest stories and when it came to crunch time they would go with one of the girls as a safer bet. I was totally blown away."</p><p>As winner Parkin will sing in Opera Australia's Rigoletto at the Sydney Opera House from October 24 and has also secured an international recording deal with ABC classics.</p><p>Parkin says he won't give up his engineering career for opera, but hopes to continue perfecting his newfound passion.</p><p>"It's been reinforced with Operatunity that an opera singer is not made in a day," he said.</p><p>"I will return to work, because there is no way I am going to get enough work out of this to ditch my day job. But, I will keep training, work on the languages and invest some serious time and effort into it now. Hopefully down the track it might be something I pursue as a full-time career, but not for now."</p><div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/19588264-116153420332885730?l=herwryness.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>crapiscommonnoreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19588264.post-1133770542089420722005-12-05T00:15:00.000-08:002005-12-05T00:15:47.263-08:00post<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/19588264-113377054208942072?l=herwryness.blogspot.com' alt='' /></div>crapiscommonnoreply@blogger.com1