First, Holy Week. On Maundy Thursday I sang "Pie Jesu" from the Durufle Requiem, with the choir director on the organ and his wife on the cello. It went really well and I got compliments from people who had never much liked my singing before. I could say it was possibly some of my best singing. Unfortunately, no matter what I do, I can't carry that sound/confidence up above an A flat (the highest note in "Pie Jesu" is an F sharp). Sometimes I wonder why I keep bashing my head against a brick wall over opera, but I just love it, and my voice is definitely the right size and timbre, I just can't seem to keep hoisting it north.
Singing the Mozart Requiem yesterday as part of the Good Friday Passion Play was an unbelievably magical experience. It's because of things like this (and getting to sing sacred solos regularly) that I am spending Sundays at this Lutheran church, whether I agree with their theology or not. I still consider myself a Unitarian but they are such louts when it comes to classical music. They whine that it's "Christian" instead of seeing how glorious it is. If my atheistic Jewish mother could say "the angels always want to hear Mozart" what is these people's bloody problem? (I hear they are singing Beatle songs regularly on Sundays - excuse me while I go stick my head in the loo).
I also sang the alto line in one of the solo quartets. Now that there are two operatically trained coloratura sopranos there it is utterly pointless for me to sing soprano in pieces like that. The alto parts (certainly the one in the Requiem) are not particiularly comfortable, either, (it's rather sad that I get all excited every time I see a D sitting toward the top of the staff) but going forward there will be more opportunities there.
I still want to keep my seat in the soprano section, though, so I can sing second soprano when the occasion arises, which is the most comfortable. I can get to sing a lot of Es and Fs and a few Gs but don't have to struggle with keeping the volume down on an A.
Which reminds me. I have to decide if I am going to torture myself with the soprano part in the "Halleluia Chorus" again tomorrow. I will be in the soprano section for another piece, which does have a second soprano part. I may. I will view it as an exercise. Of course I won't sing it as well as the real sopranos (I probably sang it as well as the untrained ones when that's all there were) but there are things I need to work on. Last year I "squeaked" on the high A. I have to remember not to sing "he". Who sings a word like "he" on a high A?
Getting to the second part of this post title, which in a way is the most important, what happened was I got an invitation on Facebook from a young man who has an opera company, that I auditioned for, and got nothing from, inviting me to a concert of "amazing voices ages 10-42" (where he found a 10-year-old I have no idea). So I posted something saying "too bad it stops at 42" and then updated my status to say something about the fact that I needed to get back to working on planning another concert for older singers. So this man got back to me and told me about the concert venue (which is unbelievably cheap, and near where I live - well, I live in Opera City, which is rather ironic) and said he would help me organize it. I was so touched. He is a good person, even if he never invited me to sing in one of his concerts. So I said I wanted to do something with my teacher in the Fall and he said "why not now?" No, I'll stick to the Fall. Now I have to think about rep. It would be nice to have a few other people. There's a dramatic soprano who sings with my teacher. If we can get her, she and I can do the Aida/Amneris duet and I'd love to take a crack at Manrico/Azucena. I am afraid to sing the Amneris/Radames duet although maybe we should work on it until the last possible minute and see. I need to overcome my phobia about those high notes. I have to find something, some gimmick or technical trick that will enable me to get up there. I can do it but it's so "on the edge" like a skater doing a triple axel. It's not natural. And then there's my partner to deal with. She thinks I should just give up opera entirely, for whatever reason. No one seems to understand that when I work on this stuff I am fighting both my own fear and a significant other who doesn't want me doing it.
Well, now it's almost time to start my day, which means doing some of my work for pay at the laptop (I've got tons) and going to visit my partner and doing chores for her. My luck I only got 6 and a half hours sleep. I just didn't want to stay in bed any later.
While I'm at it, I might as well post an "intention" as they used to say in the women's Moon Circle:
Every day that I can I will work on one piece of Verdi or Verismo until I overcome my fears and build up my stamina.
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