Voice Evaluation!! EEK!

I realized that with all the Juan Diego excitement I've neglected to write about my voice lessons.

We've put "Una Donna..." on the back burner, because in two weeks (TWO WEEKS!) I have a voice evaluation. I have a suspicion this is to evaluate my teacher too... so anyway I have to sing two songs for I think 3 or 4 people from the Conservatory (That's Westminster, for anyone who's asking) and then they tell me what's wrong OOPS I mean they'll give me suggestions. So my teacher and I discussed it and decided on 'Lasciatemi Morire' and 'Goodnight My Someone.' I think GMS is a sort of goofy song but it's good acting practice - how sincere can I sound?! It's also hard! It's sort of too low, but not really. It's in a range that coincides with a break in my voice so it's challenging. So in that sense it's not goofy at all. I've been practicing specific vocal exercises to help with the transitions, caressing the notes, and it's helping. They like being caressed. For LM, we realized that we never went over the ornamentation in the last two sections, so I've been practicing them. It's all about the timing - the piano accompaniment has some sections that are hard for me to maintain the correct rhythm, and then when the next parts come around I'm not always in sync with the music and I have to either stretch out or cut a note short. One day I'll try to record a video of me singing it. Until then, here's a similar version from about a hundred years ago. I don't sing it quite like this. I think she sounds like she's got a mouthful of marbles or something. We go a bit faster too. But hey, you can see the music, and that's kind of cool.