Too Much Vibra-a-a-a-a-a-a-to

Friday night after dinner Husband, Alex and I went to a holiday music performance and sing-a-long at a nearby museum. The singers were from the young artist program of my local opera company. They're all so young - fresh out of college - and so talented! The music was nice and almost all if not all in English. Alex's favorite was when the baritone sang the Grinch song. Listening to it again it sounds more bass than bari but the program listed him as a baritone. At the end of the short program they did the sing-a-long. Alex had been waiting all evening, past his bedtime, for Rudolph. As soon as it was over he lost all composure and was Very Ready to leave, so we did. I wanted to stay and sing... but it was not to be. So it was very lovely. I just want to comment/ask about one thing. The soprano, who was tiny, adorable and charismatic, sometimes had so much vibrato in her voice that it was hard to hear the notes. When the vibrato wasn't overwhelming the notes she sounded absolutely lovely. Husband noticed it too.

And now, for your cringing pleasure, here is a video that's so horrible you'll want to watch it twice.

Bad review, Good Review, Nice Email, Can I Go Backstage?

NJ Opera Young Artist Program recital today. The truth is we stayed only for about half the program. On the way there, as usual, Alex asked or should I say demanded to hear Barbiere again, Una Voce Poco Fa. Ok, fine. Let's warm up our ears for the performance. Well funny thing is, the mezzo whose name I don't recall did that very aria. Her bio was in the program: prestigious schools, famous teachers, honors, contests, etc. Bottom line: I sing it better when I'm doing laundry, and I have none of the special training, background or experience. I wasn't going to say anything but then Husband brought it up. Why I sing it while doing laundry... well that's another post entirely.

The tenor, on the other hand, was fabu. He sang Una Furtiva Lagrima. You can tell that he'll be going places while the mezzo will be left behind.

Maybe she was just having a bad day.

Changed my mind about the Zankel backstage pass. Thinking about sending a short email with a request to come back and say hi afterwards...

This isn't totally out of context. One juicy bit of information I've kept from you all is that a few days after I got home (Sunday night), I sent Nathan a short email (yes I have his email address and I'm not telling what it is or how I got it) listing the live shows I have. I included a few lines about my opera-loving Alex and I attached the pictures John took. Tuesday morning he sent a nice reply, apologized for having to run, thanks for the CD, keep that little boy of yours singing, blah blah blah. Oh and he said it was lovely meeting me. Well he didn't use italics but I just love using them at every opportunity here on the blog. Signed his full name, very formal, unlike the emails I've gotten from him in the past which had 1st name only. Obviously I have too much time on my hands if I'm noticing things like that... So anyway I might reply to his email closer to the date of the recital with a short and sweet, I'm coming, I'd love to say hi, any chance of getting on the list? Yadda yadda blah blah blah. He'll either do it or he won't, but if I don't ask, he definitely won't. (There's that chutzpah someone recently "accused" me of having, heh heh.)

Well I've posted enough that the Pictures are no longer on the page. Vaguely considering reposting... nah, I'm not that nuts. Or... am I?

Links to Barbiere Videos

Looks like someone managed to burn a DVD of the PBS broadcast of Barbiere and they've been posting snippets on YouTube. Like this one: Una Voce Poco Fa and this.

I'm sure I already posted that I signed up for singing lessons. My voice teacher assures me that I'll be singing Una Voce very soon. At first I thought she was nuts, but then I realized that except for some of the individual singers' crazy improvisations, I actually can reach all the notes. So I guess anything's possible...