Not really, not for the reason most people think. Age itself isn't the big issue — your overall health is. Years of strain from yelling at concerts, unfavorable speech placement, even perimenopause can affect the voice. None of that is a wall. It's just terrain. The real determining factor at any age is how humble and teachable you are, and how willing you are to get it wrong for a good while.

The students I have watched make the most profound transformations are not the ones who showed up with the most natural talent. They are the ones who stayed when it felt like nothing was happening.

This one is different. If L'elisir d'amore is a warm hug, La Traviata is the opposite — not bad, just harder, the way the best novels are the opposite of a laugh. It asks more of you as a listener, and gives more back. Based on a real woman, Marie Duplessis, dead of tuberculosis at 23, Verdi set it in contemporary dress when opera was supposed to stay safe. The more you understand going in, the harder this one will hit.