Oper fur alle

My voice lessons have resumed. I don't quite feel the psychological benefit yet. Part of that is my fault. Ok, it's all my fault. The day before my lesson, I had a bizarre and dare I say, bad, dream about my voice teacher. I dreamed that I arrived for the lesson and it was in this glassed-wall building, like a store-front. Some guy was playing the piano and she was there insisting that I sing, and I kept saying that I didn't know the song so I wouldn't sing, and there's no way that these minutes were counting toward the lesson. In the dream we were yelling at each other. I finally left. Later I tried to call her to apologize but I couldn't get through. I learned that the guy playing piano was her brother and he didn't like the way I was yelling so he told her she could no longer get in contact with me. I finally went to a dinner party where they both were, and we were watching a movie about her life, and it became real (yay, dreams) and it was a part where she gets raped by some guy she had one date with. I was her roommate and I knew what was going to happen but I had to leave the apartment because I couldn't interfere with history. It was terrible. The whole thing was terrible. Then the next day I had my lesson - so that's why I wasn't able to open up. I felt guilty about the dream. I felt guilty IN the dream. Weird stuff. Gotta get over it so I can get back to work.

That said, it was a pretty good lesson. I told her about singing for my friend's mother and the other guests, and about how I rehearsed all summer, and watched the professionals, and finally how I managed to relax, use my abs to push the air and my throat just opened, allowing me to hit higher and rounder sounding notes. She said she could definitely hear the improvement. I sang Una Donna and it was much better than ever. Of course I can always do it better at home or in the car than I can during a lesson. What's up with that? Anyway, I can hear that I'm singing better, she could hear it and I could see that she was excited about it. Another of my many problems is, when she gets excited I start laughing. I had to turn my back on her at one point, and other times I just kept my eyes closed. But I can't always sing with my eyes closed, can I?

We worked on Ouvre ton Coeur. You'd never know that I studied French all through college - the pronunciation is driving me insane -- I have too much Spanish and Italian interference. Plus we were doing the words before I felt confident with the notes. Must remind myself (and my teacher, in this case) to slow down. My plan is to feel totally comfortable with each part of the song before putting it all together.

Look! One of her friends is from and/or went to Germany and brought her a t-shirt that she gave to me:




Next lesson: Thursday, Sept. 18.