Tra la la

Just dropping in to say, yes, I am still singing.

But I do feel ten pounds lighter not having certain people/blogs/online groups on my reading list.  If I want to read things from singers and voice teachers I want to hear about roles they're singing, vocal technique, repertoire choices and interpretation, or  health tips, and that's it.  Let's leave the dishing to the Queens in the Parterre box.

I have gone back to work on Carmen.  I have not heard back from the woman who produced the September concert regarding whether and when I can use the performance space, but I know right now she is busy with other things.  She made a genuine offer and seemed to like my project.

My teacher is going to ask the tenor who sang in my Verdi concert, who is singing Don Jose somewhere, if he would be interested in this project.  I need a tenor, a reader, and a venue, and that's it.

At my lesson today we worked on the Seguidilla.  I had made some headway with the B, and it had all slipped away after I didn't sing the piece for a while.  Now I feel I am on top of it again, but I need to nail down what I learned today.  Also, working on the "Chanson Boheme" I can really see how much tension I have in my jaw/tongue (although not as much as I had in the past) because all that "tra la la-ing" is hard for me.  He gave me some pointers about that as well, particularly practicing singing/saying/mouthing "lalalala" without moving my jaw, which is not easy.  Certainly the piece sounded much better in my lesson that it did this week when I was practicing.

There are some minor annoyances of course.  There was a ready made alto solo in the choral piece from Judas Maccabeus, but the choir director said he is going to have all the altos sing that.  So I feel there is a double standard.  We continue apace with the endless spirituals with the obligatory high solo descant (I think I have sung backup to 10 or 15 of these in the past 3 or 4 years), but the one time there is a solo for a lower voice we are not doing it???  I still don't know which part I am singing (the soprano part only goes up to a G and the alto part doesn't go below middle C so I could sing either), so I haven't worked on the piece.

On a more positive and enlightening note, I had an interesting talk with a woman at church about how I am not the only one getting tired of all the talks by superachievers (not just in music; it just happens that I haven't attended the others).  I don't want to say too much because some people from the church may read this blog, but it is an important issue with regard to how I feel.  One reason I love this church (in addition to the music) is the very strong message they give about charity toward the poor and the outcast.  They have a soup kitchen and food pantry, which is one reason I make an annual donation.  But often the poor are spoken of as "other".  I mean *I'm* poor, for Pete's sake, and I am taking care of someone who is really poor, aka on Food Stamps.

I think it might behoove them (although as I am not a member of the church, only of the choir, I don't feel it's my place to say something) to ask someone to talk about what it's like to be a waiter, a harried administrative assistant, or a single Mom working at a low wage office job, not just what it's like to be a Broadway producer, a star in a musical, or a banker on Wall Street.  That's one thing I love about 12 step programs.  Everyone's story is considered equally worthy of being told.

Well, that's my two cents.