What's Up Next (Thumbs Up and Thumbs Down)

As both my Carmen concert and Holy Week are now approaching, there is a lot to take stock of.

For Thumbs Up, Carmen is really progressing.  Other than the B at the end of the "Seguidilla" (which is "passable" if not lovely or easy) and making sure I keep my strength up and my jaw relaxed during "Chanson Boheme" (and if we get a Micaela she can sing the bridges between the verses, which will make that a nonissue), there is nothing that is difficult to sing, and I can have a ball.  Also for Thumbs Up, the woman producing the concert is really excited about it, as is evidenced by the fact that she is already heavily into the planning stage.  The tenor is difficult to pin down.  He says he is on for the concert as far as he knows, but did not yet get back to me about whether he is available on April 6 to sing one of the duets with me at another "musicale" (she told me not to refer to it as a "concert" LOL) in her living room or whether he can go to me to any of the Meetups to rehearse.  Another Thumbs Up is that my partner did not give me any flak about returning to these Meetups.  I don't know if I mentioned it, but she had a little mini-tantrum over my telling her how much the woman producing this "meant to me".  I was referring only to her as a mentor, after a lifetime without such, not comparing my feelings about her to my feelings about my partner.  YIKES!

As for Thumbs Down, I have written quite a lot about my frustration with the fact that the only solos interspersed into choir pieces seem to be for high sopranos or men.  In fact, I was telling someone that I think the reason such a "fuss" is made over that young soprano is that she has sung (quite a lot of) solos that are interspersed into choir pieces, so she gets to be a star in situ whereas any solos I sing are a separate item that I rehearse before the regular choir practice when people are not necessarily listening and which I sing mostly during communion.  True, many people come up and say nice things (which I am sure they mean) but it doesn't have quite the same feel to it.  I finally got up my nerve and posted a question about this in a closed Facebook group for church musicians, mainly asking whether or not the issue is that composers don't write interspersed solos for midrange and lower women's voices or whether it is something else.  Quite ironically, when I went to choir practice last night, we were given music for Ash Wednesday, one of which was a piece with a little solo in a middle range labeled "soprano solo or unison" and we were told that all the sopranos were going to be singing that together.  So what am I supposed to make of this?  I know the Lutheran tradition is that the communal voice (meaning hymn singing) is more important than the choir, and that the choir is more important than soloists, which I have no objection to.  My only objection is that exceptions continue to be made where very high voices are concerned.  And of course there's the fact that the high soprano(s) can do something that other choir members can't do and that this is obvious to everyone.  Any untrained singer who can carry a tune could (theoretically) sing all the notes in "O Rest in the Lord" so the fact that I can sing that, albeit in a way that sounds "lovely" (I have been told) doesn't quite have the same "wow" factor.

Anyhow, I suppose on the side of Thumbs Up is that we have also been given, for Ash Wednesday, a very complex piece by Benjamin Britten in eight parts.  That means I can learn my part cold (I don't sightread, so I did a mediocre job last night with it, but several days' "plunking" and singing it against the recording will imprint it in my auditory memory forever) and be the anchor for a very small group of people.  Ash Wednesday has its positive and negative aspects, as a service to sing in.  On the plus side, you have to be there early on a work night so there are fewer people.  On the minus side, the other church that shares our building brings in paid singers but this is usually one high soprano and one alto, and I am holding down second soprano.

So now I am waiting for the Lent singing schedule.  I will see what has been selected for Good Friday and see if there's a mezzo solo connected with any of the pieces that I can "lobby" to sing, otherwise maybe I can sing "Qui Sedes" on Maundy Thursday.

And I won't be available on April 6 because of the living room "musicale".  Whether anyone will miss me is - well, it shouldn't really matter.  I am starting to accumulate a lot of other fish for a nice big fry-up.