And the Work Goes On

Yesterday I spoke on the phone with the woman producing the Hispanic Heritage Concert and told her I would be coming back to her get-togethers some time next week, if she was having one.  I said I was working on the Manuel Garcia songs.

I took them to my lesson yesterday and worked especially on some of the melismatic passages.  I know that for most of the songs I will be expected to use correct Spanish diction (including pronunciation of the vowels) which is fine, but I intend to beg off for the high trilling in the "Contrabandera" song.

Dare I say that I think I may finally have made some kind of breakthrough with using the "h" sound to begin all the exercises?  I am still not vocalizing above a B, but certainly the G, A flat, A natural, and even the B flat are much bigger and fuller, and there is much less tension in my voice overall.

My teacher is going to be singing Alvise in a concert production of La Gioconda (in years past he sang Enzo) so he said I should take a look at that duet again so that I can sing it at my next lesson.  Here's a peek at what it sounds and looks like (let's hear it for sexy bodice rippers as well as for singing!)

http://youtu.be/gg_wpIu13wM

This entire role is tailor made for my voice, even moreso than Verdi, because it is a little lighter and sits higher, but has no strenuous high singing.  There is one B flat at the beginning that is in the middle of an arpeggio-like progression, three or four As (mostly in the first half of the opera) and that's it!  And she gets lots of breaks.  And of course gets to look luscious and have two guys chasing her.  Probably the hottest mezzo role after Dalila and Carmen, except that she is a sympathetic figure.

You can read more here.

I mean there is not a prayer in Hell that I will get to sing the role in this concert as it is triple cast already (there will be 5 or 6 performances of it in different locations) but if I keep it fresh, who knows?

Lastly, I think the videos from Carmen may finally be available soon.  The man who took them is having a hard time uploading them to Youtube, but he is still working on it.