first performance. and it was something so thrilling that i came home and said, "this is what i want to do." sings kaufmann trained as an opera singer at the academy of music, in munich. over the years, i learned how to sing, but i learned it in a way that the voice was...not harmed, maybe, but stressed so much that it was not a reliable instrument. and this is one of the absolute fundamental basics, if you want to have a long and successful career, that this instrument is reliable. and, fortunately, i found another teacher who turned the whole process upside down. how difficult was it to get to where you are, to train your voice to be as versatile and incredible as it is? i mean, of course, it was a lot of training. it was a lot of waiting and hoping and suffering, maybe, too. but the moment it