I've been missing my previous voice teacher a lot lately. I can imagine what she'd tell me to do when the notes don't come out the way I want them to. Sometimes I can hear her voice in my head, telling me to lift lift lift my voice on top of the air, aim between my eyes, and so on.
I’m working on The Sun Whose Rays are All Ablaze, from the
Mikado. There’s one note that under any other circumstance I have ZERO problems
with, but here for some reason I have a mental block. I think it’s due to the consonants.
The note is on the words, “our worth” and “awake.” I think the W is messing me
up. And let’s not even talk about the R in “worth.” In fact, let’s forget it
exists. The K in “awake,” too. Doing the W and then the R or K has been my
downfall. Sure I want to have good pronunciation, but the phrase is repeated a
moment later in notes that I sing just fine. It’s more important to keep a
beautiful, round, rich open tone than to worry about pronouncing these two
words perfectly. When I stuck that idea into my head, suddenly I could sing the
notes! Such a simple solution. I just need to practice, practice, practice so
that I do it correctly every time.
At yesterday’s voice lesson there were a few other people in the house, so for me it was a chance to practice singing in front of people. I definitely felt a little self-conscious. But after a little while I got used to it. I told my teacher how well I can sing in the shower and she suggested I keep that relaxed shower attitude whenever I sing. Except, keep my clothes on. Obviously.
She actually feels I’ve progressed enough to sing with the Opera Project main stage again. I’m not sure how to even bring that up with the director. I did ask him if they plan on having Wing singers in any main stage concerts this year, but they haven’t planned that far ahead yet. Then he told me that the Wing is planning to do scenes from Marriage of Figaro this Spring. To me, that’s pretty much a message to stay with the Wing. So for now I’ll just wait.
At yesterday’s voice lesson there were a few other people in the house, so for me it was a chance to practice singing in front of people. I definitely felt a little self-conscious. But after a little while I got used to it. I told my teacher how well I can sing in the shower and she suggested I keep that relaxed shower attitude whenever I sing. Except, keep my clothes on. Obviously.
She actually feels I’ve progressed enough to sing with the Opera Project main stage again. I’m not sure how to even bring that up with the director. I did ask him if they plan on having Wing singers in any main stage concerts this year, but they haven’t planned that far ahead yet. Then he told me that the Wing is planning to do scenes from Marriage of Figaro this Spring. To me, that’s pretty much a message to stay with the Wing. So for now I’ll just wait.
There’s actually no news on any upcoming Wing concerts for
the library series. However, I learned
that the showcase concert in May is going to be a little different this year.
In the past, they assigned roles for a few scenes, and also had people sing
arias or art songs. This time around they’re having auditions. I’ve been
working on Marcelina’s part in the duet “Via resti servita” and I (personally)
think that would be a fun one to do. But as much as I’d love to be in a scene,
the reality of the situation is, I can’t attend a whole bunch of regular
rehearsals, what with working full time, having a young kid who’s in swimming, baseball
and sometimes soccer, etc. It’s also hard for me to find the time to learn the
recit. I asked them if there’d be any possibility of a “park and bark” as I
like to call it, to see if I can sing an aria or art song, but they said that
Figaro will pretty much take up the entire program. So unless I get a part that’s
just me running on stage and singing, I might not be able to participate. That
makes me sad, especially because my former teacher created the Wing for people
like me, to get practice singing in front of an audience. I don’t have a future
goal of being a professional opera singer. I just like to sing. I kind of feel like a
scenes-only show (consisting of mainly high-school students) excludes people
like me – adults with a full time job and a family — and therefore goes against
my former teacher’s intention when she created the group. But the group has evolved, as groups do, and there’s nothing I can do about
it except continue to ask if I can do an aria. And I'll audition for the concert when the time comes. Hopefully it will all work out.
Meanwhile, I’ll keep on studying. And who knows what other performance
opportunities might crop up.
