Boot Camp Review

Reading this post I was reminded that I haven't posted anything since getting through my first week without my beloved big macho tabby cat, and surviving the brouhaha surrounding the hurricane.

Despite grieving over my cat, and being furious beyond words with my partner (one of the social workers involved with her case, who happens to be a big tall gay man, offered to help her around the house to get ready for the hurricane and she said no thank you because I was there and could help her instead), I actually did better than I had the week before and would give myself a grade of "B".

I finally figured out something to do that might help me with that bloody B flat (and I have also decided if it sounds horrible and everything else in the scene sounds good, I can be proud of myself - although I will do everything in my power not to let that happen) and got a lot of ideas from listening to the greatest singer in my fach, Dolora Zajick sing the role of Azucena on a tv broacast. Her voice is different from mine in that it gets lighter as she goes higher, but, for example, I noticed that she does not take a breath before the word "brucciato" and saves her energy for the B flat, although my teacher said, if he had any criticism of her, it would be the note sounded too "pretty", which isn't how it's supposed to sound.

I still sound better if I start the aria in the middle, so I need to trick myself into thinking I'm starting from scratch when I get to "La mano convulsa". I have about four measures to recoup, so the choice is mine: I can either use that time to panic or to calm down and regroup.

Of course because of helping my partner prepare for the hurricane (I had nothing to do at my end, really) I didn't sing for about three days in the past week, so that meant I had 3-4 solid practice hours, and then yesterday I had a lesson.

I will give myself points for the fact that on one of the days I didn't sing I went through the score of Trovatore and spoke through the words in the scene and I also reviewed the scene silently when I was on public transport going back and forth to my lesson. I can get a fair amount done then.

Thursday is September 1, so the countdown to this little concert begins and I have administrative work to do.

Sunday was the day I was scheduled to sing the alto solo from Bach cantata 83 "Erfreute Zeit" at the church service but I haven't heard from the choir director. I hope he's not stranded somewhere. Needless to say we missed the planned rehearsal last Sunday.

And looking toward the long term, unless this concert is a complete disaster (can't imagine it would be - other than the dreaded high note I sing the material I'm doing very well) I will start seeing what I can do about this Verdi Requiem I've been talking about.