I Got My JuJu Back!

I guess all it took was a full night's sleep. Two.

Today's recording session went well. I would say I sang close to my personal best (which is not perfect). The engineer said he had never heard me sing that well on the other hand he hasn't heard me that often.

First he wanted to test the equipment, so he asked me to sing the loudest thing I would be singing. So I said "why don't we do the coda from the Sappho?" And if I like it, we can use it. So I did and it went well.

Then I sailed through "Acerba Volutta", at least in terms of the ending with the high A. I did make a mistake in the middle section "Verra? M'Obblio", so I did a do-over and we will splice it in. Fenena had no problems although I can hear that I sound lovely until I get to that high A and then it's just loud. But it had topspin on it and the run coming down must have been ok or the engineer would have asked me to do it over. Then we went back to Sappho and sang through the piece and did the coda just for the heck of it. I don't think the high note was as good as the first one, but I told the engineer he could pick.

Last but not least was "Mon Coeur" which I know like the back of my hand. I decided that rather than singing the ending with an F, I would just not sing the ending at all. It is written for Samson not Dalila, so I don't see why I shouldn't just skip it.

Then we had some extra time, so I decided I wanted a do-over of the end of the Favorita cabaletta "Scritto in Ciel" so I sang the last page and sang probably the best high A of the session.

I am still smarting from having had problems with the Laura and the Verdi Requiem pieces, but we have good notes to splice in and I just have to chalk Tuesday's problems up to the fact that I had been sleep deprived.

So this reinforces that I need 8 hours of sleep (shouldn't be a problem since I almost never have to set the alarm in the morning), and that I have to keep the floor around my computer desk dust-free. If I hadn't had all that sinus drainage from the dust, I wouldn't have used the nose spray and I'm sure that that is what kept me up in the middle of the night.

The "Muscle Milk" helped too.

So now I can enjoy singing my solo (the mezzo aria from the Saint Saens Christmas Oratorio) and also singing with the choir in a Magnificat written by the choir director this Sunday.

Then I am going to live Laura for a few weeks (am still thinking of a strategic time to tell my partner about that audition). That probably means re-working the aria. This is a role I sang 31 years ago when my voice was smaller. My teacher (and the engineer, now, as well) keeps saying I sing much better even than I did two years ago when I did the Dalila, but the thing is my voice is bigger and requires more strength to support, so singing is not easier although it sounds better when it's good.

Then if nothing comes of my January audition, I will dive into the Verdi Requiem.

Now I need to get back to work (my livelihood work) and then I will put up my small artificial Christmas tree with the cat-proof ornaments.