Turned A Corner?

I'm about to start my workday and thought I would post something first.

I think I am beginning to move in the direction of coming out of the funk I've been in since the Carmelites incident. It wasn't enough to stop me from singing or from singing well, but it was enough to stop me from taking myself seriously as a singer - aka making plans.

That and feeling totally overshadowed by the young woman in the choir with the very high, well trained voice, not to mention a conservatory degree. (On the other hand, mezzos are always overshadowed by high sopranos. It goes with the territory.)

I was starting to feel a little better when I began collecting some Bach pieces to sing with the violinist (who definitely takes me seriously) but then my spirits tanked again when I started working on Azucena and saw that there was a bloody high C actually written in the score!

Well, it turns out that Mignon Dunn, at least, doesn't sing it.

When I bought a score at the Juilliard Store, I also bought a cheap recording with Dunn as Azucena. She goes up to an A and back in that run, that's it.

The Condotta is going well if I don't panic. I've scrapped the idea of singing "Va" on the B flat and instead will try to use my teacher's trusty portamento technique. Singing "bruciaaaaato" on an A is easy. Then the tenor sings an A (OK - I probably won't have a tenor most times I'm singing this but I can hear it in my ear). So when I go for the scream, the trick is to start to sing an A (easy) and then just sort of slide up. There's one other B flat at the very end of the opera, which I won't be singing unless I actually sing the entire role, but that's in the middle of a phrase, which I've never had trouble with.

On another note, I got an email out of the blue from one of the other soloists about singing at a special service at the Lutheran church on May 22 when they will be rededicating their magnificent Tiffany windows (which had been repaired). Several years ago they had a concert series to raise money for this effort, which is how I got to put on my concert version of Samson et Dalila. The woman who emailed me had coordinated the concert series and thought it would be nice for me to sing at the rededication, as I had been a major player in the campaign. I would really love to do that. The choir will be singing the anthem, so I volunteered to sing Mozart's "Laudate Dominum" at Communion, which would fit in with the theme.

I really hope this lights a fire under me. (OOPS! If I'm thinking about Azucena that's not funny.)

Anyhow, I need to get motivated again.