An Old Friend

As promised, I am now back "in training" to work on Amneris and Azucena. Yesterday I was pleasantly surprised by how well the dreaded page in the Amneris/Radames duet with the two high B flats went. I sang from "Chi ti Salva" several times and it sounded great. Not so great when I started at the beginning, but passable and after a small recoup it sounded good, meaning that there's a 99 percent chance that if I had to sing it in public now I would not totally disgrace myself. Possibly an off-night Borodina type scream on the first one, but a great spine-tingling note on the reprise, as I would have had time to rest. And I think I finally have an inkling of what I'm doing, which I never had before. I just drop my bloody larynx and let it rip! The way I have known how to do on an A for several years. This is what my teacher calls an "animal note".

I read an interview with Jane Eaglen in Classical Singer in which she talks about the need to rehearse difficult passages sometimes for as much as 30 minutes a day. I don't think I've quite done that - mostly out of fear that I would wreck my voice singing those notes over and over - but I've certainly given that page a good 15 minutes over and over. Maybe I'm starting to see a payoff? In any event, I am simply not going to give up. If one thing doesn't work I will try another. And this isn't the first time I've come back to something that gave me trouble. I used to not have the stamina to consistently nail the ending to "Acerba Volutta" and now it's my top aria. True, we were only talking about an A there, but nonetheless...

I called this piece "an old friend" not "an old foe" because the role of Amneris was written for a voice just like mine, albeit for someone with more stamina and a tiny bit more stretch in the upper register than I have now but I can see that I am getting there and that this is the rep I am meant to be singing.

On the other hand, the soprano line in the "Halleluia Chorus" is "an old foe" because that is not something I am meant to be singing. The alto part really isn't either but at least it won't squeeze my voice into the wrong place and have repercussions.

Anyhow, I can hardly wait to see my teacher and start planning our concert. I know he really really wants to sing this. So I just have to keep drilling and drilling it.

Tonight I almost didn't practice because it was 7 pm and I was feeling blah and had paying work to do. Boy am I glad I did!!

So now it's back to paying the rent.