hopitus wrote:
I have always wondered if you were Cho-Cho-San or Suzuki.....or if you
were even a coloratura.

Suzuki. (Also Amneris in "Aida", San Tuzza in "Cavalleria Rusticana",
Azucena in "Trovatore", Martha in "Faust", and various minor mezzo roles
in any number of opera workshop productions.) Mostly unpaid, of course.
My only consistent income from singing was alto soloist/section-leader
in various church choirs (a wide variety of denominations) as well as
soloist for a few Bahai services, and member of the auxiliary choir for
the High Holy Days in a couple of Jewish temples.

In retrospect, my major mistakes:

1) Attending a liberal arts college, instead of a professional music school.

2) Heading for Los Angeles rather than New York when I finished school.

3) Getting married, when many of my fellow singers were heading for Europe.

(In the years after WW2, a great many American singers built respectable
careers in Europe, singing in regional opera houses - none of those I
knew became superstars, but they succeeded in doing what they wanted
with their lives.) Alas, we grow too soon old and too late smart!