Well, the day after my bookstore success, I tripped on the pavement and fell smack on my left knee: the one with the six screws and the metal plate over it. It was very badly bruised and swollen and I was very shaken up. I was on my way to my partner's for my chores weekend (I was planning not to come Sunday so I could sing with the choir and watch the movie Quartet at the church afterwards)so I went there and got into bed and put ice on it.
I called the surgeon who had operated on my knee and he got back to me Saturday morning and told me to go to the urgent care center at the hospital where I had had the surgery. I found out nothing was broken, just badly bruised. I was told, in fact, that the metal plate had probably saved my knee from breaking. They told me to wear a knee immobilizer and walk with a cane (I had already been doing that after I fell) for a week. I came back from the hospital and ended up still needing to do my partner's grocery shopping. It makes me sad beyond anyone's imagination that I have gotten to be 63 and she has gotten to be almost 80 and there is no one, paid or unpaid, that she can call on an ad hoc basis who will be helpful. No neighbors, nothing. People just don't care. Of the mutual friends that we've had since we've known each other, some have died, some have moved, and the rest either spend every other month with grandchildren, or traveling on their big fat pensions. This just astounds me. When I was growing up (is this because there were women who stayed home??) if someone was injured, sick, recently widowed, etc. people would call and say "is there anything I can do to be helpful?" You just don't hear that any more. I actually have more people who would help me, thanks to my involvement with this church and the fact that my building has a tenants association. Anyhow, I begged off singing this morning (if nothing else, the elevator at the church is broken) and the woman in charge of the September concert told me not to come to rehearsal Monday; she is mainly using the time slot to audition a pianist and two other singers. All I have to do is scan the music for my two solos and email it to the pianist. She will have to play part of the flute part to "Primary Colors". Other than the two solos I will be singing two duets: the Barcarole from Hoffman and the lullaby from Hansel and Gretel. One change, though, is that the lyric soprano might not be singing those (she is singing a song by Samuel Barber). There may be a mezzo singing with me in which case I will sing the top part. So I was told to learn both parts to both duets. The highest note is a G so it certainly will not be a problem to sing either part.
In other news, I don't know if I'm being paranoid, but I was upset because a voice teacher who is a prolific writer (whom I am friends with on Facebook) wrote about all the bad Youtube videos she has seen lately. I hope she wasn't referring to my Habanera video. I have to remember she sees a lot of bad stuff. Not to be a snob, but I know she teaches both classical and nonclassical singers, and if there are classical singers who sing badly, there are a lot of would-be nonclassical singers who can't sing at all or even carry a tune.
I also see that Regina Resnik died.
I remember seeing her in a dress rehearsal of Carmen when I was in high school and not being impressed. She did not have a wig or makeup on (unusual for those dress rehearsals; usually they are practically indistinguishable from performances) and I thought she looked blousy and decidedly un-Carmen-like. On the other hand, this voice teacher I just mentioned thought she was the greatest Carmen who ever lived. So maybe I was too immature to appreciate her. She certainly was a great artist, I will say that. I always feel pride when I read about a singer who came from New York. There were quite a few in that era but not very many now, which is something I have written about. She also began singing heavy dramatic roles when she was very young, which didn't seem to do her any harm at all.
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