More Tech Talk

Well, this big breakthrough that I have made with my singing has held.  This is the first big breakthrough I have had with my singing in several years.  And my teacher is totally on board with it, even though it wasn't something he "found".  And what's interesting is that although it has made a big difference with my high notes, that was not what we were working on when I found it.  We were working on trying to get the muddy sound out of my upper passaggio.  That was the next big thing on the agenda after fixing the break in my lower passaggio.  So in trying to get rid of the muddy sound, I figured out how to lift the back of my soft palate, which is something I never knew how to do before.

I was talking to another singer yesterday about tension, and said I never had any, certainly not in my throat, so why did my voice sound "throaty" (this is a word people had used).  Well, I actually did have tension, only it wasn't in my throat it was in that place that I can only refer to as "where the post-nasal drip lives" - the back of my soft palate.  All of that infrastructure feels bunged up and tight and sort of collapsed unless I think about opening it up.  When I do that, my voice sounds entirely different.

I also have been religious about using the nasal saline spray.  I probably have a post-nasal drip all the time.  It's not like having a cold or an allergy where I'm aware of having a stuffed nose - it's all in the back.  I had bought a Neti pot (with the blessing of my primary care physician) but I never used it.  It just seemed like such a production (first you boil the water, then you cool the water....) so I've just been using the saline spray every time I need it.

So now I'm chomping at the bit to sing somewhere.  The last time I sang anything really challenging (aside from choral soprano parts) was at my October concert last year and I did not sing well, although this was at least in part because of how bad the air was in the room.

The Requiem plans are moving ahead apace - I now have a bass.  He's the man who sang three roles in my production of Samson et Dalila and we have also sung duets in concert.  He is actually one of the few singing "peers" that I have.  He began singing classical music in his late 30s, and has a huge voice with some rough edges, but it's a voice that's definitely suited to Verdi.  And he is very reliable and will willingly chip in with expenses.

I can tell that my teacher is excited about the progress I've made because he has his wheels spinning about things I can sing.  Definitely the scene from Adriana Lecouvreur (would be great on a program with some scenes from Gioconda).  And now he's talking about Norma because he and the soprano who will be in my Requiem are doing a concert version of that as well as the Adriana.  I will have to say that Norma is one of my five favorite operas, but I always assumed it was off the table for me because the mezzo part (which my teacher said was written for a soprano) has two high Cs.  Well my teacher said that duet is almost always transposed down a whole step, so I would just have to sing two B flats which are in the middle of arpeggio-like progressions - usually not a problem for me and even less of a problem recently.  My teacher suggested looking also at the Adalgisa/Pollione duet to sing with him.  That sits a little high, but a high tessitura is usually not a problem for me if I don't have to sing above an A.  There is one B flat at the end but we are singing it together.  I have always had my own wryly amusing Lesbian/poly/bi interpretation of the story (you can read the story here) which I shared with my teacher for a laugh and he said, "Well, maybe they just used Pollione to have children" and laughed along with me. In my version the two women live happily ever after and no one gets on the funeral pyre LOL!

In other news, I have a solo date at the church on August 26, probably singing the Raff piece "Great and wonderful are all Thy works".  And some time after August 1 I will contact the woman putting on the September 11 concert.

Lastly, my partner's cataract surgery went well, although the anesthesia, which was full of epinephrine, and the extra cortisone she took, made her act like a crazed crackhead for at least 48 hours and my life was sheer Hell.  I have never been happier to go home - not to sing, just to curl up with a book or with my work for pay (this week it's an article about football players with head injuries).  She will have the other eye done in September and I hope I can steer her away from doing it the beginning of the month.

Starting Over with the Engineer

Just when I had decided to make the best of the recordings and cut my losses, I got an email from the sound engineer saying he is going to try to re-work them. I told him not to do anything with "Amour", because it sounds perfect, but to have another go at the others. He thinks the problem with "Acerba Volutta" is that he added too much "reverb" (I think I know what that is but couldn't tell you if you asked me). It also turns out that the reason the high note in "O Mio Fernando" doesn't sound good is that he sent me the wrong version. That was one of the arias I had sung on the day I wasn't feeling well for which we did not splice in anything, but then I sang the cabaletta over on the second day and the engineer was supposed to splice that in. He said he did, but did not send me that version.

He is going on vacation but should have the new files to me by mid-February. So when I get the new files, I will post any here that I think are good.

Last night I watched and listened to Anna Bolena on PBS. The role of Giovanna Seymour is one that I struggled and squawked my way through sang with the "opera underground" when I was a quasi-anorexic 28-year-old who was only two years away from her last cigarette. I had actually auditioned to sing Smeaton but that role was given to someone taller with a lower-lying voice. (My voice is not particularly low for a mezzo, it's just "short", either naturally or because I started serious singing late - and by late I'm not talking about starting again at 54 I'm talking about starting in essence for the first time after I quit smoking at 26). I had no business singing that role, but they couldn't find anyone else (that company had a few heavy Verdi mezzos but the director didn't see them in that part either vocally or otherwise). Back then there really were not that many people who wanted to do this kind of performing on an amateur level which is why despite my singing badly I got quite a few opportunities.

Last night's singing was glorious. Anna Netrebko is one of my favorite sopranos. She didn't get the ovation she deserved, probably because she didn't take the stratospheric note at the end that Beverly Sills made her trademark, but her voice is much richer and has more color. And Ekaterina Gubanova as Giovanna displayed a warm, rich voice that sailed effortlessly and smoothly up to a high B and was able to sit there - something that I would cut off a finger to be able to do. (I can hear my teacher saying that she probably is not really a mezzo and that someone like Giulietta Simionato, whose voice is much more like mine, would not be able to do that. She had a great high B, but it was of the spine-tingling scream variety.) This is opera at its grandest. I wish I could take the essence that is grand opera (larger than life, colorful, and full of sex and violence in beautiful surroundings) and find a way to take a tiny drop of it, well distilled, to sprinkle over my oh too mundane life.

In other news, yesterday I emailed the pianist about the opera audition I had been to. He said he thought the roles were cast but they might need a cover. I would be willing to do that as it's only a few blocks away and rehearsals are 2 hours on Saturday, but not if I would also have to sing in the chorus. It's too much music to learn for no money and no "star" time. At least if I'm a cover I would probably get to sing one of the roles in a rehearsal, which would be like getting a free coaching, and at best I might get a performance.

Opera Review

Last night I watched Don Carlo on t.v.

Some people consider this the greatest opera Verdi ever wrote, and it is one I have seen numerous times with stellar casts.

The role of Princess Eboli is sort of like the Holy Grail for mezzos. Actually as I've gotten older, I can see that it's not as complex or interesting a role as Amneris, for example, but it has two exposed B naturals, which has absolutely put it off the table for this mezzo. I've seen some great Ebolis: not just my current idol Dolora Zajick, but also Tatiana Troyanos and Marilyn Horne.

Last night's Eboli was Anna Smirnova, who, according to this online bio, is not even 30! (And is about 30 pounds heavier than she was in this picture!) I didn't take to her at first, but as she went on, I could hear that she had that light, airy, spin on the top Bs that I would kill for. Not all mezzos have it. The last Eboli I heard was Olga Borodina, who, despite being one of the hottest ladies on the stage (she owns Dalila IMHO), definitely had a hard time with not only the B naturals but also the B flats, most of which were nothing but screams. And despite her excess weight, Smirnova really knew how to move onstage and was a totally believable character.

The romantic leads were, to say the least, disappointing. Marina Poplaskaya was totally miscast as Elisabeth (could anyone hear her in the house? her voice is smaller than many Susannas)and I'm just not a Roberto Alagna fan.

But this is the world I so yearn to be a part of! Not just opera, but this kind of opera. Large, lavish, romantic, heavily costumed.

So now how can I go about incorporating this into my life?

Last night's practice went very well. I've gone back to doing those exercises my teacher gave me a long time ago singing just on the consonant "v". No vowel. What's odd is that this has helped me more than anything, but when I told him that he sort of pooh poohed it and said I shouldn't get too stuck on one thing???

So first this concert, then possibly my "pocket" Verdi Requiem idea (I don't want to say too much about this until I've got a venue), and then my goal is to be able to sing "O Don Fatale" in the original key before my 62nd birthday (I've got 12 months and 2 weeks.)

I met my goal of being able to sing "Condotta" by my 61st birthday, so there's hope.

Quickie Post

I have about five minutes before I have to get dressed to leave, so why not write something? (The more I write, the more I'll be read, and the more I'm read, the more I'll be known.)

I watched Boris Godunov on tv last night. I haven't been to a live opera in over a year (money is tight, and I'd rather spend it on my voice lessons), and I stopped listening to the broadcasts when they changed the station. The reception is too poor to enjoy listening now.

I had never seen Boris before and it was quite a spectacle. I was interested in listening to/watching Marina, as this is a great mezzo role, albeit a small one. She is, of course, everything that I craved about opera and singing: sexy, mean, vain, passionate, a diva, with big hair. The music is less than memorable but my tastes tend to run to the oompah (a friend's disparaging catch-all put-down for Verdi and his immediate predecessors).

Patricia Racette was the host and seeing her got me back on a train of thought that I just can't let go of, namely, how different it is being a Lesbian who wants to sing opera now from what it was like when I was young, and I'm speaking of both sides of the equation. By "both sides", I mean Lesbians singing opera, most notably in romantic leads, are no longer considered outre, being out is acceptable, being out a looking like a lovely woman is acceptable, and being out and not being obsessed with deconstructing what it means to be a Lesbian is also just fine and dandy. And I think it's possible now to be a Lesbian singing opera, and have Lesbian friends, even a "community", who won't disparage you for participating in a "patriarchal" art form, or even for playing a love scene with (goddess strike me dead!) a non-woman!!

I was thinking about this again because (sounds like a non sequitur) I dropped out for all intents and purposes of the LGBT caregiving group I'd been going to. Ido need to talk about caregiving issues, but conversations there (especially with the women) always seem to deterioriate into aforementioned deconstruction, which just sends me into a blinding rage. One woman mentioned in passing that she didn't want to attend meetings (of another group) if there were any bisexual women there (which is how I now define myself) and I just wanted to tear my hair out. Not because I took it personally but because I am so sick and tired and then some of the Lesbian verion of fundamentalism. Really, if I wanted that sort of thing I'd become an Orthodox Jew or join the Assembly of God.

In other news, I think the portamento is working in "Condotta". I also dusted off the Mozart "Laudate Dominum" which has to be sung almost entirely pianissimo and has quite a few "high" Fs. This I can do, I just need to get in the groove. Actually, I don't know if I'll be singing it on May 22 - the choir director was annoyed that the other soloist took it upon herself to assign music for that service, on the other hand he had no objections to my singing the piece itself.

And for Ash Wednesday I'm back in the soprano section singing something with numerous Fs. This I can do, again, I just have to sing it into my voice.