When in Doubt, Cheat

"Chi ti salva" is coming along, I think. No squawks this afternoon. And I sang some big ringing high B flats that surprised me (big, dark, larynx down, but with a lot of top spin).

Picking the piece apart, I decided the problem was that it keeps going and there's no place to take a decent breath. I mean the whole way the phrase is traditionally sung is a "cheat". The phrase is really supposed to begin on "Or dal ciel" with the word "ciel" continuing for the rest of the bloody progression. I mean who knows where you were really supposed to breathe? The standard "cheat" is to sing "Or dal ciel", take a breath after the E natural, and then go from the F to the G to the B flat down to the A flat and then take another breath. I think gulping for air was what caused my throat to close up. So I tried just not singing the bloody F, using that moment to take a good breath, and then singing the G, the B flat, and the A flat, made a world of difference. I sang the phrase here there and elsewhere and the worst I got was once it went "straight" but "straight" is better than a squawk. I've heard Borodina and others come out with a straight screamy B flat or B natural and live to see the next day.

So it's a work in progress.

I was supposed to have a lesson today but my teacher canceled because the plumber was there and as he put it "the plumber was banging and the dogs were barking, hardly conducive to giving singing lessons" and he thought this might be going on for several days. So we rescheduled for Friday.

Now I'm going to take a serious look at the duet with Aida, which should be fun since the highest note I have to sing is an A flat. There the challenge will be staying on the bottom part while a large voiced soprano is wailing up in the stratosphere. Some singers are natural harmonizers. I am not.

Then later I think I'll crack the Italian dictionary and do some translating. I think I know what she's singing most of the time but I need to understand every word.

Lastly, I ordered myself a score of La Gioconda. Since I'm now working on the entire role more or less, I am tired of singing from xeroxes. Needless to say when I stopped singing at 30 I gave away or sold all my scores.