Rehearsal 2

This went very well. If I can sing everything as well on Saturday I will be happy.

We sang the program in sequence, and I did not get tired. I found that moving around during the difficult ending to "Condotta" helped and I had no trouble with the B flat at all. I did not have a big adrenaline drain (nailed all the high notes in the duet) but I had a small one and messed up the recit right after "Condotta". Playing the scene in character helps also. I drank a carton of Muscle Milk during the concert. I won't be able to take a chug in the middle of the Trovatore scene but I can certainly have some during the intermission.

Speaking of food and drink, I have been making an effort to abstain from most starchy foods (only exceptions are mocha coffee, a little dark chocolate, whatever sweetener is in Greek yoghurt, whole grain crackers, and whole grain cereal). I find that I feel much less tired and even lost the 2 or 3 extra pounds I'd picked up. I really don't want to focus on my weight, as that was always something that undermined my singing, but I really really like feeling less tired. Just not having rice or potatoes with a hot meal seems to give me more energy. I can eat stuff like that on the weekends when I stay with my partner.

One interesting thing is I did have a huge adrenaline/blood sugar drop after the rehearsal. First I forgot my jacket and had to go back and get it (not surprising as I hadn't worn a jacket for over a month) and then - this was much worse - I almost tripped over something metal on the curb. This is really scary. I stumbled on the pavement and fractured my kneecap in 2004 (which required surgery) and am very frightened of cracks in the pavement.

My partner says she will try to come. If she does, fine, if not, not. I think some people from the church will come and one or two personal friends. If there are 30 people this will pay for itself.

The other singers are very good and very nice.

So tomorrow is stay home and be quiet day. I'm lucky that I do something quiet for a living. So I can get a lot of work for pay done. My teacher said to do vocalizing for about 15 minutes and that's it. I really don't have anyone to talk to. I pray that my partner doesn't have a crisis of some kind. She seems to be recovering from this respiratory "thing" she's had.

Then Saturday is the big day. After that scare of almost falling I will have to decide how to get there. The simplest thing is to walk. It's really only about 7 blocks away. I will just need to look down. At least the place where I almost tripped was north of where I'm going, so I won't have to be at that curb.

Please wish me luck everyone! I have been working on this for six months and I feel I really made a breakthrough with it, and want to do it proud!

Rehearsal 1

Overall, today's rehearsal went well. We are talking about a soprano who can sing anything from Lucia to Brunnhilde who never gets tired and a tenor who has sung several of these Verdi roles in their entirety onstage. So I held my own. I am sounding just about the best I have ever sounded. Things seem to be coming together thanks to - what? My keeping my body in terrific shape, keeping my ribcage inflated, doing the exercises on vvv. The latter really seems to keep my high notes functioning. I had no problem at all with the B flat in "Condotta". The one place I fell flat was in the duet, on that long showy run that some mezzo stick a high C into (actually it's written in the score but most mezzos just sing an A). In any event that has always been a walk in the park for me but this time for some reason I conked out and could barely get up there - to the A obviously. As a C is the highest note I've ever been able to make any sound on I'm not singing one in public any time soon. I recouped myself and finished off the duet with the two high As and it sounded fine, but still, that was a scare. However I need to mention that as the tenor came late (he had told me he would, so it was ok) the soprano and I did the Aida duet first. Then I did the beginning of "Condotta" (not the part with the high notes) and actually I sang that section of the duet "Perigliarti ancor" that had the aforementioned run in it before the tenor got there and it sounded great.

I drank a whole carton of muscle milk during the rehearsal. This whole thing is going to be informal so I can certainly chug some during the performance, and my teacher told me if I sing things in sequence (the Trovatore scene is in the first half and the Aida duet, which is much easier for me, is in the second half) I won't get tired.

Of course there were moments when I felt out of my depth when the two other singers were chatting about all their stage experience, but that is not what I need to focus on. I need to focus on doing my personal best with this.

So let's just pray that I can stay at this new level and that the next rehearsal and the performance go well!

You Can't Keep a Good Mezzo Down

I feel somewhat quilty sharing good news today (I am sad beyond belief over the killing of Troy Davis) but today is a new day, and as our wonderful choir director said at the end of last night's rehearsal "let us thank God for another day of life", so let me say that I am thrilled to announce that

WE HAVE A TENOR

My teacher and his wife found someone who has sung Manrico and Radames, and who knows Otello (and can probably sing the "Libiamo" from Traviata). Also, he has his own business so he can come to afternoon rehearsals.

I am a little nervous because the bars in "Condotta" that include the dreaded high B flat are something I sing together with the tenor, and my teacher, knowing how nervous I was, had a plan all mapped out, but actually, that has been going better, so I should just trust to God and technique and the spirit of the moment.

So now I'm off to get my hair done.

Update on Voice Teacher

I spoke to my teacher on the phone about an hour ago and he sounded like himself. If I hadn't known he had had surgery last night I wouldn't have known anything was wrong.

He said they told him he would have to "take it easy" for several months (which I guess means no heavy singing) but he can go back to teaching next week. He says he plans to come to the concert.

He and his wife are chasing down a tenor who knows the entire rep. He is not a "professional" and therefore would not expect to get paid. He is a high level avocational singer who has sung Manrico and Radames. If he hasn't sung Otello he and the soprano can substitute something else. (I think they know each other.)

If that doesn't work I will call the woman who rents out the concert venue to see if she knows a tenor. I mean the city is crawling with people who are dying to get up in front of an audience and sing opera.

I really hope we can find a tenor because then I can do the Trovatore scene that I've worked so hard on for so many months. If not, maybe the soprano and I can sing the Gioconda duet and I can sing another aria, and I can bring the bass in to sing the "Judgment Scene" with me (and he can sing something).

I just really don't want this concert to go belly up.

Another piece of good news is that Yahoo was true to its word and after 11 this morning I was able to access my account by answering the security question, which apparently was "what city was my mother born in"? But I think I want to keep Gmail as my primary account as it is much more user friendly.

I am now totally drained emotionally and didn't get enough sleep -for me. I need 8 hours. I did get a lot of work done, though, and plan to work for another 3 hours before I have to get ready to go to choir practice. Fortunately I don't think I have to sing anything with high notes tonight.

A Spanner in the Works

Yesterday was a day from Hell.

Somehow my Yahoo email became corrupted. (Long story short, as a result of all the problems with the mail site, I asked for a new password, which got sent to my old office email which doesn't exist any more, and now am locked out. There's still hope that I can get back in after 11 if I can answer a security question but as I made that up 7 years ago who knows? I should have stuck with my mother's maiden name, although the correct terms these days is "birth name". Still, it's something I'm not likely to forget.)

So I had to scramble around looking for printouts that had email addresses of my business contacts so that I could alert them not to write to me at that email address (I now have a new gmail address and I still have the Yahoo address I used for my pseudonymous blog) but there was one I couldn't find, for a new client, who used to be a former (and formidable) boss, so I will need to suss that out and get back to her. Fortunately, I am an old fashioned girl and I had most of the email addresses of personal friends in my little pink 3 x 4 address book that I carry in my purse, so I could write to them.

In a way, starting fresh with a new email account is nice in that it means I won't be getting endless emails from Land's End and Victoria's Secret and various web sites I signed up for when I was job hunting, but I still want to see who wrote to me over the past few days so that I can give them my new address.

Just when I thought things couldn't get any worse, I got a call from my teacher's wife saying that the "food poisoning" he thought he had, that had led him to cancel my lesson yesterday, was an attack of appendicitis and that even as we were speaking he was having surgery.

First and foremost, I want everyone to send prayers for his speedy recovery. One usually thinks of appendicitis as something that young people get. I have rarely heard of a 60-year-old having appendicitis. Now I have no idea if this concert will go forward. His wife knows two tenors whom she is going to call and I will try contacting the woman who runs the studio where the concert is supposed to be.

I don't know if I would have to pay for the studio rental if the concert is postponed.

I just feel so bad, all around. I am trying to keep the focus on the most important thing being that my teacher recovers (what would I do without him? I have studied with him for two extended periods over a span of three decades and he is also a friend). My selfish need to sing this concert is secondary.

Rather ironically, yesterday evening I did my best runthrough of "Condotta" to date, high B flat and all.

I still have the recording to make, but that's not the same as getting dressed up and singing in front of people live.

Well, it's all just one day at a time. After 11 I will check my email and then I will see what's happening on the tenor front.

Needless to say I didn't sleep well last night.

An Angel

I've always felt that one thing I lacked was frequent, high level, recordings of my singing.

As with photos, the issue is, of course, the cost. And as I only work part-time, and singing is "only" a hobby an obsession, I feel guilty about every penny I spend and feel that those I do spend have to go to lessons, coachings, music, CDs, and so forth.

The last Christmas my mother was alive, she paid a friend of hers who is a sound engineer to record four arias for me. He came to my coach's studio and set up his equipment. I recorded "O Mio Fernando" from La Favorita, Laura's aria from La Gioconda (that's the best one, and it's what I have here as my profile sound clip), Dalila's "Amour Viens Aider" which I do not like at all now, and "Liber Scriptus" from the Verdi Requiem, which I used to like, but which now sounds harsh and bare, not to mention that with my 60 year old eyesight I misread the phrase "nil inultum" as "nilli nullum", which is what I sang.

Well, in my current impecunious state I had given up all hope of ever making another recording, but then a woman I had been friends with as a teenager, whom I reconnected with on Facebook, said she wanted a recording of me singing "Mon Coeur" and offered to pay something toward the cost. So I emailed the sound engineer and asked what he would charge to record several new arias (my goal would have been to put them on a CD with the others to sell at the church). Well, he told me that he would not charge me anything!!! not only for recording new material, but that he wanted to re-record the old material because he now had better equipment!. He said partly he is doing this because he just inherited money and feels there is no need to charge me. That in and of itself has restored my faith in humanity.

So I am now going to get 8 arias recorded.

This will be my next project after the concert.

I am so excited!

I will have the CD, and new mp3 files, and then I can make copies of the CD and get someone to tell me now to design an insert for it with a picture, etc. and sell it at the church!

So now I just have to sing the concert first!

Countdown Continues

I haven't posted anything for a while, so I suppose I'm due for something. I have been very busy with work for pay, and endless conversations with and emails to social service providers about my partner, and, of course, have been working hard on my concert rep.

I am very very happy with all of it and the B flat is getting easier. I have tried all sorts of things - an octave jump, for one, which worked in Samson et Dalila but didn't seem to work here (I think my voice is much bigger now) and then back to the scoop on the A. Really all I have to do is get my body in the setup position (with my larynx down) while the tenor is singing his "Quale Orror" and I've got it. I sang through the whole aria this afternoon and it went very well.

And I need to continue my "in training" regime of high protein low carb, 8 hours of sleep a night, and minimal talking, particularly minimal talking with a tight throat. When I'm agitated, I sound like an aggravated New Yorker (not a "New Yawka" - thank goodness I don't have that kind of accent) but like someone who's always in a hurry and talks fast and loud down on my chords. So the less I talk the better, if I want to sing well. And I've been doing the exercises of singing arpeggios on a V with no vowel. That places my voice farther forward and gives it a buzz.

So I have the week pretty well mapped out.

Monday the 26th is the first rehearsal with the pianist.
Tuesday the 27th I have my regular lesson at 4.
Wednesday the 28th I am taking off (not going to choir rehearsal - I sing differently in a choral setting and need to stay on message that week)
Thursday the 29th is the second rehearsal with the pianist.
Friday the 30th I am home taking a vow of silence.

I had a bit of a scare a few days ago when the pianist I had originally thought we were using had a family emergency, but he found a replacement who knows the rep and is available for the time slots.

The other new wrinkle is my partner says she thinks she "should" come even though she hates the Trovatore scene. I said that was fine and that I would give her money to take a cab. She said no she could take the bus. In any event, if I think she's coming I will be careful to wear something that does not show cleavage because, like so many Lesbians of her mindset, she is incredibly puritannical (I call her the "cleavage police").

Having her there is likely to make me nervous on the other hand I can ignore her and focus on my teacher who is a good anchor. Things I can expect to hear from my partner are that she hated the music, my upper register sounds screamy (she just doesn't like high singing even when I know it sounds good) that I look nervous (which makes me feel more nervous) and whatever I am wearing she will say it looks awful.

Maybe in my next reincarnation I can be married to a mentor of some kind?

Countdown

My concert is on October 1, and it's now September 5, so the official countdown begins.

I am in contact with the woman who runs the studio where I'm performing, and with the pianist, and we have some tentative rehearsal dates. Then I will get flyers and programs made up. I think my teacher's wife can do that. And spread the word! Other than my angst over that B flat (I think I really do have a handle on what to do now) I am very pleased with how I sound singing this rep. I just need to polish the recits and continue to drill the words to the Trovatore scene. (I know the Aida scenes by heart.)

I also have to reacquaint myself with "Florina", aka the chorus part for the Traviata drinking song which we will do either as an encore or a closing number. Back in my earlier incarnation as a mostly trouser role mezzo, I did numerous of performances of "Florina". For those who don't know, it's an amalgam of Violetta's friend Flora, who is in Acts 1 and 3, and her maid Annina, who is in Acts 2 and 4. The same person can play both roles as they're never on stage together.

My partner has stopped making snide remarks about how I'm wasting time and money - now she's telling me how boring that Trovatore scene is (I got her to listen to the performance on tv) and that no one will want to sit through it because it's not "something people know". I tried to explain that people who like opera all know that scene, but to no avail. So I told her just to put a sock in it and not to undermine me, especially as I've been working very hard on it.

But I just can't dwell on any of that. I am excited about the concert and want to give it my all (the woman running the concert venue, who is a mezzo herself, said she is "dying to hear me" and I am eager to make her a friend/mentor) and then it's on to the CD, and trying to organize the pocket Verdi Requiem. I mentioned the latter to the choir director when we were rehearsing the Bach (which I sang twice yesterday) and he said he thought I would have to "rent" the space but that I should check with the pastor. I am hoping that because it's a piece of sacred music that I want to produce during Lent, that she will be happy just to collect the ticket money. I know she likes my singing.

In other news, the Bach went really well yesterday. I sing Bach very well. I don't give myself enough credit for this, because I guess I feel, well, as none of these pieces goes above an E, so what? But then I have to remember that he is one of the two or three greatest composers who ever lived and that having an affinity for singing this type of music (not to mention the breath control and ability to sing clean ornamenetation) is a major talent and something I should foster. I don't know how many more years I can sing Verdi (and my extreme upper register will never be competitive) but I can probably sing Bach well into my 80s. The choir director seemed genuinely impressed.