In my last post I wrote about how much easier it is to sing that bloody B flat in "Condotta" in the context of the duet. So at my lesson yesterday my teacher decided what we will do is: I will sing the measure with the high A. Then he has a measure with a high A. He will hold it an extra count, at which point I will come in securely on an A (something I certainly know how to do) and will portamento up to the B flat. The trick is to take a breath while he's singing. A good one, not a gasp that causes me to freeze because I'm scared.
In the context of the scene, the whole thing actually goes by very fast. You think it in "2", so the B flat is only two counts and then we are right into the next thing. In fact I realized I was so panicked over the B flat that I have no idea where my next entrance is so I need to work on those next few measures. It's actually in strict time - it just sounds hysterical.
Then my teacher and I were talking about the character of Azucena. I keep thinking of her as an "old lady" but really, she can't be more than 40 or 42. On the other hand biologically she is much older than I am. She sleeps outdoors and probably has post-traumatic stress syndrome if she's seen her mother and a baby burned to death. The beginning of "Condotta" is very monotonous (unlike in pieces where the problem is getting tired, the problem here is getting lazy because it's so monotonous) which my teacher explained is because this is a story that she's told over and over and over and over and even Manrico is bored, but then she starts getting into stuff he's never heard before and by the time it ends, no one is sure which baby was which.
Which reminds me. I cut my singing teeth on Gilbert and Sullivan. When I was in my early 20s I sang all the contralto roles with a repertoire company. I was smoking like a chimney and had the perfect low smoky sound. I remember playing Dame Hannah in Ruddigore and even at the time was pretty sure her opening song "Sir Rupert Murgatroyd his leisure and his riches" was a parody of "Condotta". In fact the whole operetta and also the baby mixup business in Pinafore are probably meant to parody Il Trovatore, which is the opera that the scene I am working on comes from (I just assumed all readers knew that but maybe not).
Toward the end of the lesson we talked about the program for the concert and decided we will make it all Verdi. We will start with the trio from Aida, the maybe the soprano will do an aria from Aida, then he and I will do the Trovatore scene which actually is quite long, then there will be an intermission, and afterwards he and the soprano will do a scene from Otello, then she and I will do the Aida duet, and then we'll end with the "Drinking Song" from Traviata which is how he and the soprano have often ended concerts. (I can sing Flora, which is really the chorus part).
So except for that bloody B flat, the rest of the program will be fun.
I probably won't do any singing today (I am going to the hairdresser and then my partner and I have free tickets to see the Broadway show Memphis.
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