Jerry, she sounds like the kind of voice teacher that it's best to avoid. Dogmatic. If you ever run into her or her ilk again, you might point out that Violetta in La Traviata sings her final act aria while laying in bed and coughing up a lung from "consumption." In Tosca, Mario Cavaradossi sings the impassioned e lucevan le stelle while seated at a writing table. Edgardo in Lucia de Lammermoor sings his final aria slumped over on the stage with a dagger in his chest. Werther, in the opera of the same name, sings the whole final act while lying on the floor with a bullet in his head. There are hundreds of examples where a singer can't stand there at attention and sing with his or her hands clasped daintily. As long as you can get a good lungful of air, you can sing.

You also might point out that she can hardly give a decent singing lesson if she has her head up her— well . . . no. That's not nice.

Don Firth