Ever since two coaches told me I was a dramatic mezzo (my teacher is still on the fence about that - he says I can sing dramatic rep because I have a dramatic temperament but not in a big house over an orchestra), and ever since I turned 60, I've had my eye on Azucena.
If you're an old lady, and there's a great role for an old lady, it's like, hey, you should go for it.
Now that, thanks to the new exercises I've been doing, I really can pluck a B flat out of the air (although to date only if I put a "V" in front of it), I can get through the famous "Condotta ellera in ceppi".
I am now doubly motivated because one of the "real" singers I met at my Tuesday night group coachings said she sometimes needs people to sing through whole operas with her at her private coachings, when she's preparing a role for performance. And right now she's working on Trovatore.
So I borrowed the score from my teacher, blithely thinking the highest note I'd have to sing is a B flat, which I really do have, now.
And then OMGOMG, I got to p. 84 of the Schirmer score and found a run, not optional, but actually written in the bloody score, on the word "spremi" that goes up to a High A, down to a "middle" D and then up to a High C and down again. Twenty-one notes and the bloody C is the seventh!! And the interval is a seventh, as well, not easy to hear or to sing under the best of circumstances, let alone trying to reach the highest note I'd ever been able to phonate anything on since I was 14, before my occasional furtive cigarette had become a two pack a day habit (for the record, I haven't smoked a cigarette since 1982).
So does this mean the old gypsy is out of reach, along with Eboli (who has to sing an exposed C flat) and most of the Donizetti ladies? (I feel comfortable telling people I sing Amneris because I can sing everything except the bloody triumphal scene as written, which my teacher assures me it's acceptable to "cheat" in and sing a lot of it an octave lower because who will hear it?)
Not so fast. First I'm going to get a recording and listen to it. I'll look for one with a mezzo with a lowish voice and see if she sings that ornament. And I'll ask my teacher what he thinks. I actually did sing a High C in public in 2005 when The Mentor Who Shall Not Be Discussed bullied me into singing a duet from La Sonnambula of all things with him. It's not even a real mezzo role although he had told me Bartoli had sung that duet. But that C was part of a roulade, and didn't need to be reached from a note much lower.
It's just so depressing. Why I can't get a handle on those last few notes.
I keep thinking I can be happy as a Bach "alto/sop 2", never having to sing above an F and impressing people with my breath control, vocal agility, and style, but I keep wanting more.
Well, at least I can put "Condotta" in my concert rep. Just for now, it will sound like I'm telling Manrico to leave (LOL!).
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