Starting Over with the Engineer

Just when I had decided to make the best of the recordings and cut my losses, I got an email from the sound engineer saying he is going to try to re-work them. I told him not to do anything with "Amour", because it sounds perfect, but to have another go at the others. He thinks the problem with "Acerba Volutta" is that he added too much "reverb" (I think I know what that is but couldn't tell you if you asked me). It also turns out that the reason the high note in "O Mio Fernando" doesn't sound good is that he sent me the wrong version. That was one of the arias I had sung on the day I wasn't feeling well for which we did not splice in anything, but then I sang the cabaletta over on the second day and the engineer was supposed to splice that in. He said he did, but did not send me that version.

He is going on vacation but should have the new files to me by mid-February. So when I get the new files, I will post any here that I think are good.

Last night I watched and listened to Anna Bolena on PBS. The role of Giovanna Seymour is one that I struggled and squawked my way through sang with the "opera underground" when I was a quasi-anorexic 28-year-old who was only two years away from her last cigarette. I had actually auditioned to sing Smeaton but that role was given to someone taller with a lower-lying voice. (My voice is not particularly low for a mezzo, it's just "short", either naturally or because I started serious singing late - and by late I'm not talking about starting again at 54 I'm talking about starting in essence for the first time after I quit smoking at 26). I had no business singing that role, but they couldn't find anyone else (that company had a few heavy Verdi mezzos but the director didn't see them in that part either vocally or otherwise). Back then there really were not that many people who wanted to do this kind of performing on an amateur level which is why despite my singing badly I got quite a few opportunities.

Last night's singing was glorious. Anna Netrebko is one of my favorite sopranos. She didn't get the ovation she deserved, probably because she didn't take the stratospheric note at the end that Beverly Sills made her trademark, but her voice is much richer and has more color. And Ekaterina Gubanova as Giovanna displayed a warm, rich voice that sailed effortlessly and smoothly up to a high B and was able to sit there - something that I would cut off a finger to be able to do. (I can hear my teacher saying that she probably is not really a mezzo and that someone like Giulietta Simionato, whose voice is much more like mine, would not be able to do that. She had a great high B, but it was of the spine-tingling scream variety.) This is opera at its grandest. I wish I could take the essence that is grand opera (larger than life, colorful, and full of sex and violence in beautiful surroundings) and find a way to take a tiny drop of it, well distilled, to sprinkle over my oh too mundane life.

In other news, yesterday I emailed the pianist about the opera audition I had been to. He said he thought the roles were cast but they might need a cover. I would be willing to do that as it's only a few blocks away and rehearsals are 2 hours on Saturday, but not if I would also have to sing in the chorus. It's too much music to learn for no money and no "star" time. At least if I'm a cover I would probably get to sing one of the roles in a rehearsal, which would be like getting a free coaching, and at best I might get a performance.