A Lovely Night, Some Pictures, and an Attempt to Build a Bulwark against Post-Performance Depression

The concert last night was a lovely occasion.  For the most part, I think I sang well, certainly the aria from Handel's Joshua.  That is the type of thing I sing really well: fast moving in an upper middle register with no sustained high notes.  I am going to try to see if I can sing it as a summer anthem next year.

The place was full, so even though only one of the people I personally invited actually came, I was not disappointed by the turnout.  The purpose of this concert is to provide solace on that day for people living in the building.  I wish more of them had come to Carmen, but that's water under the bridge.

One of the women in the audience even asked me if I had sung at the Met!!! That's the type of audience I need to find more of.  People who love classical music but don't know all that much about it.  My friends, unfortunately, are only going to come to these things to hear me and be supportive.  If they want to hear music, they know, in this huge city full of free events, where to find it.  I think next time I do something big I have to find a new marketing strategy, and the market is not going to be the people who come to the chamber music series at the church, it has to be a different segment.

One great thing that happened is I made friends with a lovely soprano (actually, she had sung Micaela's aria at one of the living room events where I sang the duet from Carmen with my tenor, and she had actually been my first choice for Micaela) and we are going to work on the Aida/Amneris duet together.  I am dying to sing that again.  I know I sing it very well; the last time I sang it in public I didn't because I was in a room where the air conditioner had not been cleaned properly.

Technically I continue to make huge breakthroughs.  (I hesitate to write about technique here because I can say one thing works and there will always be someone telling me to do the opposite.)  I finally (think I) know what to do to open my mouth and sing a high B flat off the cuff.  It really is about lowering my larynx as my teacher always said, but I can't do that (apparently) by yawning or anything else that's "gentle".  I have to push it down by making a (silent) "woofy" "h" sound and then sing the note.  Most of my problems with high singing (I finally figured out) are the result of my having an involuntary "gag" reflex that kicks in.  My teacher said a lot of people who start singing when they're older have that problem because the muscles that make a big pharyngeal space are not flexible in older people.  These are not muscles that people use who are not singing, unlike abdominal muscles, which some people who are not singers do use.

In any event, I need to find something asap to ward off post-performance depression.  It hit me particularly hard after Carmen because I thought the concert producer was angry that I didn't bring in more people (and I was deeply disappointed by this - see previous paragraphs).  Also that month was the month of "Little Miss Conservatory's" senior recital and that was what everyone in the choir was buzzing about and I was aware that people who wouldn't have been caught dead at any concert I threw together went to see and hear that.

So next up is to look at the Bach piece we are singing for Reformation Sunday and see if it is part of a larger work with an alto solo.  And pick something for Advent.

To finish on an upbeat note, here are some pictures.  The one in the church is of me singing "Erfreute Zeit" and the other is of me and the lovely soprano, before last night's concert.