Of course I am still singing!
On Sunday the 23rd I sang both the "Laudamus te" from the Bach Mass in B Minor and "Domine Deus" from the Vivaldi Gloria. Because there was no air conditioning in the church (they need a whole new unit, which is very expensive, so they have been taking bids) I was excused from singing at 9 and just sang at 11. The "Laudamus te" went really well. We even got applause!! "Domine Deus" went less well; we hadn't rehearsed it enough, and at one point the violinist seemed to be fumbling for the right note, so I ended up doing that also (which I am sure no one noticed) so I didn't get enough breath for the longest phrase at the end. I apologized afterwards to the pianist (who is also our new Director of Music Ministries) and he said there was no problem, because I had made it work.
So now there is nothing on my calendar - which means I need to fill it up!! Tomorrow I have an appointment with my partner's caseworker at the LGBT senior services center, which is where I also sent in a request to put on my pocket version of Carmen. When I am done with my appointment I will see if I can talk with the woman who coordinates the space usage, and see what the status of my bid is. I will need to set a date and line up other singers (and a pianist) before the year is out, so I want to get this moving.
I have gone back to working on the "Seguidilla" (never an ideal fit for my voice) and I am solidly able to nail that B (I have been vocalizing up to a C sharp every day), but staccati are just not my thing, so I have to sing the scale legato, then take a breath, and portamento from the F sharp up to the B. As I said, this is just not my style of singing. My teacher and I discussed the fact that a lot of it is low, but light, like a pop song, but I have to be careful at some point to get back on task with my low larynx position and strong support or I will not make it up to that B.
One disappointment is that the woman who used to produce the September 11 concerts and who helped me produce Carmen really isn't doing anything with classical singers any more. She posted something about a series of Christmas concerts, which I said I would be interested in, and she emailed me back and said that she really only wants pop or folk singers, as well as people who will help her organize the whole process of finding venues and booking the group into them. "Planning and organizing" (ah, yes, that was a category on the 100s of performance evaluations I administered when I was working, as well as on my own) is something too tied in with what I did for a living for me to ever want to do it on a volunteer basis, other than as the sole mechanism that enables me to sing anywhere, which I resent, but that's a waste of energy.
I suppose the last thing (and no doubt what prompted me to decide to write) is that I see that Little Miss's performance with The Opera Company That Said I Was Not A Future Investment has been reviewed by a well respected opera blogger. It was not reviewed in the TIMES (although another opera in that series was, probably because it was something new and different), but this blogger has a wide readership and he gave her the highest praise for her singing and acting.
As it is unlikely that I will ever even be noticed by anyone of that ilk, I have to content myself, as did David Copperfield, by being the "Heroine of My Own Story" here in this blog.
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