To Cheat or Not to Cheat

As I have mentioned before, my dream is being able to sing this aria. I have never dared, because it has an exposed high C flat. By "exposed" I mean you have to hit it off the cuff, with no note preceding. I find that the most difficult thing to do. The highest note I ever really would want to do that in public on is an A. When I sang Dalila, there is a B flat like that at the end of Act 2 (after she sings for 45 minutes in a low-ish tessitura) on the word "Lache" with the syllable "La" square on the B flat. Well, after several months of trying to do this it was touch and go so I decided to sing or hum the note an octave lower first, and then slide up (which, actually is what Elena Obraztsova does on the recording).

Likewise with "Condotta". I now have a way of singing that high B flat, by singing the A with the tenor first, then sliding up. This makes it much easier.

I had often thought I might take a crack at "O Don Fatale", but thought I would only have a prayer of reaching that C flat if I attached it to the previous note, singing "O mio belta-a" "ti maledico" instead of "O mio belta." "A ti maledico". But then I thought, no, that was cheating.

Well, lo and behold, here is a mezzo (new to me - her name is Biserka Cvejic) singing the aria gloriously and doing that very same "cheat".

In other news, the Trovatore scene is going like a house afire. I haven't had any more disasters with the B flat and sometimes it sounds quite good.

I think the lifted ribcage really seems to help. Also sometimes I exhale between phrases as I'm approaching that measure, if I find myself getting nervous. That keeps my breath from doing what Deborah Voigt called "stacking".

And I'm having a ball with the Aida/Amneris duet. I will sing that on the second half of the program (I know, we're doing the trio first, then an aria for the soprano, then the Trovatore, which seems a bit out of sequence)so I can relax. I just have to be careful not to scream and bellow my way through it.