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!