Breakthroughs

Yesterday and today were big breakthrough days.  I just hope whatever it is sticks.

First, thank you Zachary for your helpful and amusing comments on a new approach to support.  I tried it yesterday during my warmup and the two phrases from the Randall Thompson were a walk in the park.  Ironically, the choir director has now moved the piece from this Sunday to the final Sunday of the season (the 19th) because the subject matter of the piece is quite a downer (it's about aging) and this coming Sunday is the ordination of one our seminarians, so we didn't even rehearse it last night.

But we did sing an Alleluia by Pinkham that has 5 or 6 high Gs for the sopranos (and a high A for soprano 1 only that I don't need to sing) and we must have sung the piece about 5 times, so that's about 30 high Gs.  A G is not a difficult note for me but singing 30 of them in an hour and a half is not easy.  So I squeezed my glutes (and tried to think about Zachary's pooping buffalo without laughing), got rid of the tension in my lower abdominals, and of course chugged a small carton of Muscle Milk, and I popped out every one of those notes without tension or fatigue.

Today I had a lesson and my teacher said he had never heard me sing like that -ever.  We sang through the Gioconda duet and then he took me through "Stella del Marinar", an aria I first sang when I was 30 and which he hadn't heard me sing for a year and he said he was so excited by the big Italianate sound I was capable of making that this has now made him really excited about our concert (trying to get him even interested in it before was like pulling teeth).  And he worked with me on the aria more like a coach than a voice teacher, telling me when to use chest voice (I have always used it very sparingly), when to take liberties with the tempo, etc.  In addition to understanding vocal technique he also is a master of Italian verismo style (which I suppose includes Verdi) so I really really look forward to getting past some of the technical work and refining this repertoire.

We agreed that if the Amneris/Radames duet is still making me nervous we should save it for our next concert and at this one do the scene from Gioconda (she sings a high B flat practically at her entrance but I've never had a problem with it) and the one from Trovatore  that begins with "Condotta" (means I need to learn that duet!)

He said he would try to get in touch with a dramatic soprano who's sung with him numerous times (she's amazing and can sing everything from Violetta to Brunnhilde) who is around our age.  They have a repertoire of duets they know and maybe she and I can sing the Aida/Amneris duet which only goes up to an A flat (for me) and which I don't find difficult.

Oh, and I almost forgot!  We did descending scales (an exercise we've done for years) and for the first time in my entire life I was able to begin one of them on a high C!!  I have never been able to sing a high C at all other than in the middle of a run or a very "scoopy" arpeggio.

Some time during the lesson I asked him if he thought I was a dramatic mezzo and he said he was hesitating because I don't have a powerful lower middle register so he thought if I sang a role like Amneris with an orchestra my lower middle voice might not carry over it.  On the other hand he said that that sort of rep seems to suit the shape and timbre of my voice better than anything else and that as I would most likely only be singing it with a piano, I shouldn't worry.

So I hope I can make some of this stick!