Optimistic Again

I had quite a week! My computer's hard drive died and I took it to the repair shop (I would recommend going to "The Geek Squad" at Best Buy - there's one three blocks away from me - over spending hours on the phone with someone in the Philippines or India working for Dell) so I had two days when I was unable to work and last night had to stay up until 2 am finishing a project.

So I used the time to sing!

I had had an appointment anyhow with the accompanist to rehearse what I'm putting on the CD, so I kept it.

She hadn't heard me sing in several years and said how solid and secure my upper register sounds. I sang "Amour Viens Aider" with the B flat in the run, "O Mio Fernando" from Favorita, "Stella del Marinar" from Gioconda and "Liber Scriptus" from the Verdi Requiem. Afterwards we still had some time so I sightread through the Kyrie, Quid Sum Miser, Recordare from the Requiem. I can see that musically I will have my work cut out here. There is nothing that is difficult to sing (true, I haven't gotten to "Lux Aeterna" yet!) but it will be a bear to learn. But I can learn it. I am not a musician (meaning I don't read key signatures or understand chord structure), but I am an auditory whiz and if I listen to the recording and pound my line on the little keyboard it will stick in my head forever. And I am determined to sing this because it is a great piece, I love it, and it is something to have in my pocket.

I used one of the days I wasn't working to get further with the sections I had sung through with the pianist and I see they are coming along. This is something that will get done if I put in some time on in several days a week (I want to have it ready by January). And a lot of the work doesn't involve singing, just saying the words out loud in time, and pounding on the keyboard when I'm playing the recording.

Overall, I am singing much better even than I did at the concert. Going back to simpler things (and what isn't simpler than "Condotta"?) they sound very different. During one of my practice sessions I went through "Acerba Volutta" (probably my all-time favorite aria to sing) and the Sappho aria with the B flat at the end.

On the choral front, I am doing very well with the pianissimo high A flat. We are singing the piece Sunday and I think I will be one of about four sopranos. The star coloratura will not be there. I know what to do, so I just need to do it. The rest of the soprano part is in a low tessitura so that is definitely the part I need to be singing.

The not so good news is that by the end of last Wednesday's choir practice although my voice was still surprisingly fresh, my brain sort of imploded and I came in in the wrong place in another piece we're doing (because I had the book open to the wrong page).

Lastly, here is a photo from our concert!!