Have Fun!

Today I had a voice lesson. When I got there, my teacher said he had made up binders for our concert, with the music in order.

We will be singing:

Aida trio (all three of us)
"O Patria Mia" (soprano)
Trovatore scene beginning after the "Anvil Chorus" and going through to the end of the scene (me and my teacher)

Intermission

Otello duet (my teacher and soprano)
Aida/Amneris duet (me and soprano)
Aida final trio (all three of us)

Possibly "Libiamo" from Traviata as an encore (I would sing Flora/the chorus part)

So anyhow, this means it's serious. No wimping out now!

At today's lesson I told my teacher I felt better about the section with the B flat if I didn't come down like a ton of bricks on the A. So he had me sing from "la mano convulsa stenda" to the end of the scene. The B flat sounded OK except I came in early because I was nervous. Everything else sounded great and I remembered all my notes and words (I was looking at the score, but nonetheless, it's still easy to get some words mixed up, particularly pronouns!)

Then we did the Aida/Amneris duet (I mean I sang my part!) and he said I sounded like a real dramatic mezzo, not being afraid to sing with power, and that that is how I should sing all the time. He said I should have fun!!! with the whole thing. He said if I sing "Condotta" with that level of energy, with a big dark sound, whether I sing the B flat well or not, I will give a good performance. He said I would have fewer vocal problems if I didn't try to "save" my voice by pussyfooting around. If I do that things are out of balance and then I don't have the energy I need.

So in addition to my affirmations, I need to tell myself "have fun!" before I start singing, instead of having this nervous nellie feeling which I don't think does my singing any good.

Then we had some laughs when I said Amneris is a young girl (well, yes, if she's not married she can't be more than about 15) and he said "well, think of some of these young girls you see nowadays with loud voices and big boobs!"

Anyhow, so I hope I can carry that spirit (I mean the "having fun" spirit) forward and stop being nervous.

I will see what tomorrow's practice brings and Thursday, Trovatore is going to be on tv. I told my partner that I was singing a scene from that in the concert (she is beginning to give me less of a hard time over that - I think it's borne in on her that I'm not playing any seduction scenes this time so she's less angry).