In Uomini, In Soldati

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WbJVdO36iao&feature=plcp

Okay, so I really was't very happy with how this song turned out, mostly just because I have done it so much better. I worked on this song this past summer with a Juilliard professor, Dr. Robert White, while I was at NYU, and it was just a lot better then. So, it's hard for me to listen to all the things I did wrong, but I have to accept that this was the last song I did when I made my audition videos, and it is what it is. Hopefully it will be enough for me to get through pre-screenings. Some of my high notes were a touch under pitch, and my breath control was all over the place, but I was exhausted. I have been singing this song forever. I sang it at OCU two summers ago for a recital, I sang it at NYU, I sang it at the Miss Charleston Pageant, I sang it at the Miss South Carolina pageant. Now I think I am done with this song. I'm just ready to try something new. I really want to learn the other Despina aria from Cosi fan Tutte! Here is a link to Cecilia Bartoli (an extremely famous and amazing opera singer ) singing "Una Donna a Quindici Anni"  (the other aria sung by Despina from Cosi Fan Tutte)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PXz3ilXrxs

With both songs you can tell this character has a lot of attitude, which shines through her arias. Despina is the maid of the two other girls (seen in Una Donna), Dorabella and Fiordiligi. In Mozart's time, the poorer people were often the wiser ones. Therefore, Despina, the maid, is giving Fiordiligi and Dorabella advice in both instances, with a tone of sarcasm of course. 

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. 

O Sleep Why Dost Thou Leave Me?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3fEb9AtJLu4

This song is one of my other audition songs. It is from the opera Semele by Handel. I have been working on this song a little bit longer than the other one I posted. The hardest part of this song was the very opening phrase which is unaccompanied. I worked on soto di voce, which is when you start on straight tone and then slowly add and increase vibrato. I worked on vocal contrast between loud and soft, but I still have a long way to go. Hopefully, I get through the pre-screenings with this, but it's still a work in progress. I also really need to work on my breath control, but if I make it past pre-screenings I still have a few more months to prepare for the live auditions. 

Auditions, Preparation, Rejection... OH MY!

One of the three facets of my project it may seem I have been neglecting lately, but that is not true! I have been working extremely hard to finesse each of my four audition pieces for college prescreening auditions. Some of the pieces are rather new to me, while some I have sung what seems like a million times.

http://www.youtube.com/my_videos_edit?ns=1&video_id=GnJbQeGkxjQ

This first one is "I Hate Music" by Leonard Bernstein. It is the new song I learned for auditions, and I have to say I had some difficulty with it, but audition tapes are due, so I had to learn it fast! My voice teacher and I worked on tongue placement a lot for the higher notes. We also worked on keeping it "talky" in the lower range so it didn't sound breathy or pushed. 

One thing I have learned from my interviews and readings that is pertaining to me right now is how to accept rejection, and I am trying to prepare myself for that the best I can. As Janai told me "No two paths are the same." I just have to remember: rejection from one school might mean acceptance to another. So have a listen, and wish me luck! I will post the other audition songs soon!

Shirley Verrett

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-0GAV15KRW8

Here is a clip of her singing the aria "O Don Fatale" from Don Carlo as the character Eboli, one of many roles she played and became famous for. 

Shirley Verrett: I Never Walked Alone

It was sheer Irony when I ordered Shirley Verrett's biography from Amazon.com two weeks prior to my meeting with Janai. As it turned out, Janai's voice teacher at Michigan, was the famous Shirley Verrett. After I read her book, I understood the protective nature Janai recounted to me of Shirley. She had said that she wanted her students to be protected when going out into the world of opera. She had her own story from which to teach, and that is what I read this month. 

One thing I have learned from my readings and interviews is that at some point you know if someone is going to make it or not. Someone who is going to ascend to fame either has it or they don't, and usually, the right people can tell. Shirley's voice teacher at Juilliard remarked, "There is only one star in this studio, and that's Shirley." Shirley recounted that she probably shouldn't have said this in front of her other students, but never the less, she was correct. Shirley Verrett's career of course had obstacles and mountains to overcome, but she rose to the top fairly seamlessly.

One tough obstacle Shirley faced however was racism. She grew up in New Orleans, in the south, a place plagued by the evils of racism more concentrated and interminable than the rest of the country. However, when she was about 15, she moved to LA. Here she was able to further her singing.

She accounts that after her father told her she had a “very lovely voice” at the age of five, “Suddenly I felt a foot taller. I think it was at that exact moment that I became a singer.” Both of her parents supported her in her efforts to be a singer. 

As Shirley rose to fame, she did face obstacles involving her race. She was booked by a famous conductor of the Houston Opera, Stokowski. This was big; being good in his book, which many other conductors, booking agents, and musical organizations frequently consulted, was a big deal. However, shortly after being booked, she received a call saying she wouldn't be able to perform. Shirley was heart broken and overwhelmingly confused. What had she done wrong? Nothing. Stokowski himself called her. The truth was, the Houston Symphony board didn't want to use a Negro singer. "This will not stop our relationship. I would like you to know I will have you sing with me," said Stokowski. She appreciated that very much, but feelings of defiance rose up within her. He was true to his word. He had her sing with him with the Philadelphia Orchestra. She recounts that she had the last laugh with the Houston opera, seeing as singing with the Philadelphia orchestra catapulted her career in new ways she couldn't have imagined.

Something I also learned from reading her book was that Shirley sang on the La Vita è Bella  soundtrack. She sang the "Barcarolle" duet from Tales of Hoffman, which was used to signal to the character Guido's wife that he was still alive while in the concentration camps. First of all, I love this movie, and second of all, we watched this movie in Italian class, and I wouldn't help but notice the beautiful operatic duet and wonder where it was from and who was singing it. Well, now I know, and it is really great to know the story behind one of the singers.

Shirley Verret became one of the most celebrated singers ever, through a series of good decision and of course incredible talent. She has sung numerous roles at the Metropolitan Opera, her debut being Carmen herself in the opera Carmen,  The Opera Company of Boston, as well as all over Europe. She has also performed many concerts at places such as the New York Philharmonic as well as Carnegie Hall. One important thing I learned from reading her book was her ability to say "No" and knowing when she was ready for things. Once she even said no to an offer that "Promised the Met" in favor of an offer to be a graduate student at Juilliard. 

She was a great and powerful singer committed not only to the music but also to the meaning behind the words. She savored the interpretation and acting aspect of opera, enough to even suggest to the head of the Juilliard School once that she was not receiving proper education. Plàcido Domingo and Luciano Pavarotti don't just write forwards to anyone's book. They worked with her genius and considered her one of the great artists of the 21st century, and she was; she really was. 

Opera 101

Okay, so I just finished Opera 101 by Fred Plotkin, which was really long, but Plotkin's writing style made it easy to read, and the book is designed and geared towards newbies to opera. I think I will just talk about my favorite parts. The book discussed a 400 year history of opera, including some of the most innovative and important composers of the last 400 years, like Verdi, Mozart, Schubert, Bach, and Beethoven. He also talked about some of the most important operas. Of course, he mentions that these are just the operas that he feels are very influential. He not only chose particular operas but particular productions with particular casts of particular operas. He mentions how many applauded his choices as well as scorned his choices. However, this illustrates one of his main points: everyone has an opinion about opera. So, I thought I would talk about my favorite opera chapter: Don Giovanni.

Don Giovanni was written by Mozart, and it is heralded as one of his greatest and most revolutionary operas. The characters are Don Giovanni, Leporello, Don Pedro, Donna Anna, Don Ottavio, Donna Elvira, Masetto, Zerlina, and of course the under appreciated though extremely important chorus. "The story is not quite realistic: although many of the characters have emotions and responses like those of everyday people". I think this statement explains why people still love opera; because it's true, not many of the story lines themselves are relatable for the average person. However, the emotions are very real to many people, and that is why people are so drawn to the stage.

One thing that is stressed throughout the book but namely with Don Giovanni, is how the views of a scene have changed so drastically from the initial 18th century audience to the 21st century audience. For example, when Leoporello dresses as Don Giovanni to seduce Elvira, previously seduced and relinquished by Giovanni, the 18th century audiences looked at this as a comic scene against Elvira. She was poor woman who was fooled again. However, modern audiences look at this as a cruel trick against Elvira. This shows the political changes that have occurred since the 18th century, and how we look upon cruelty to women with a more unforgiving eye.

Plotkin also stresses the highly political nature of Don Giovanni, in comparison to its predecessors mentioned in the book: Rigoletto, Tosca, Il Barbiere di Siviglia, and  Lucia di Lamermoor. Of course all of these operas are enigmatic and politically relevant with characters of deep emotional turmoil and multifaceted layers, however, Don Giovanni much more politically adept. With the political turmoil erupting at the end of the 18th century, Don Giovanni is a product of just that facing the issues of the old aristocracy versus the rights of the everyday people, both in France and America.

Another thing that Plotkin does, is seamlessly weave the operas together, showing how each predecessor affects a later opera; they are intertwined. He notes that there is, "An impending sense of doom coupled with festivity that one finds in Rigoletto.There is sexual blackmail and ferocious frama, as in Tosca. There is a hysteria and presence of ghosts and apparitions, as in Lucia di Lamermoor. There is brilliant comedy as well as harpsichord-accompanied recitative, as in Il Barbiere di Siviglia." This is one of the greatest things about this book. It not only tells the story of one opera, but it weaves them together, and it shows how each affects each other, allowing the reader to build upon their knowledge of opera more easily.

He also chose specific casts for each of the operas who he thought best displayed the music and lyrics. He chose the film version of Don Giovanni, including Rugero Raimondi as Don Giovanni, Kenneth Riegel as Don Ottavio, Donna Anna by Edna Moser, Kiri de Kanawa as Donna Elvira, Teresa Berganza as Zerlina, and José van Dam as Leporello. Raimondi was chosen for his ability to be aristocratic, elegant, seductive, cynical, dangerous, and musical.  The difficult mastery of Don Giovanni brings the rest of the superb cast together. While all of the cast members, excluding Don Ottavio, were excellent, none were as well rounded and enchanting as Raimondi.

In one of the most key scenes in the opera, when the statue begins speaking to Don Giovanni, many audiences have trouble giving themselves over to this form of reality. Plotkin notes that in modern times we have no trouble adhering to false senses of reality displayed for us in movies or televisions shows. It is all in the mind of the viewer he insists. The statue tells Don Giovanni he will die in the morning. This brings up the universal theme of life and death and whether or not God punishes us for our sins; is there a divine hand in our fate, or can we chose it? This is a huge theme of the opera.

I have not really explained the plot line of the opera because I feel that is the busy work nature of book like this. The beauty is comparing it to other works, observing it's relevance throughout the centuries, and speculating on its themes. So, in the end Don Giovanni is presumably swallowed up by hell in the last chords of the opera. This leaves the audience to decide for themselves why his fate ended so, and whether or not it was an act by God. Also, interestingly Don Giovanni accepts his fate, instead of fearing or fighting it. This opera is a direct product of the enlightenment, asking questions such as: Are the bad always punished? Are the virtuous always rewarded? Should we live in fear? Is fidelity desirable or even possible? These are the questions that make Don Giovanni great.

Finally, this chapter offered an interesting fact about Mozart, who composed Don Giovanni, he finished most of the music for this opera only a month before it was due, which shows he was greatly inspired and worked incredibly quickly. He also waited until the last minute.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF4grLVtoNs

Here is a link to Rugero Raimondi singing "Deh Vieni Alla Finestra" as Don Giovanni. This occurs when Leporello is pretending to be Don Giovani and seduces Elvira, while Don Giovanni goes to seduce a maid from outside her window with a mandolin.