Notre Amour

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dOk_LPKsYwc&feature=plcp

A while back I posted a video of me singing Notre Amour, which was from last year; it was part of my application video for NYU's summer classical voice program. Well, it's been about 8 months, and I am definitely still trying to improve upon this song, but hopefully I've made some improvements since last March. I have been working more on the musicality of the piece by keeping the line legato instead of choppy phrases. Also, I have been taking French for a while and spent a month there this past summer as part of an immersion program, which of course was beneficial to the pronunciation of the French. However, in classical art song, all "R"s must be flipped, like in Italian. Instead of the regular French "R"s that use the back of the throat and sound very guttural, we must use the flipped "R." This is because it is absolutely impossible to sing from the back of your throat on a Frenh "R." I am still trying to get that idea to stick in my brain, but it may take some time.  I also still need to work on more dramatic variance with my voice. My voice teacher said that in art song, like "Notre Amour," pianissimo, or "very soft" can be used much more often than in opera. I am definitely going to continue working towards a better mastery of that as I get closer to the  live auditions in January, February, and March.