Happiness = Your First "Brava!"

My concert last night went fabulously well. I somehow found some attitude to accompany my Habanera and there were orchestra members crying during my "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again."

The conductor was so impressed by my performance that he kissed my cheek on stage right in front of the audience! Later in the show, Jack, a man who has been performing with the orchestra for 20 years came up to perform and he said, "Hey, you never kissed me!"

After Jack sang, the conductor gave him a big kiss on the cheek and said, "I hope that doesn't end up on Youtube." LOLZ

When I finished my song from Carmen, someone shouted "Brava!" I was astounded. That was my first Brava, a very big thing for an opera singer. All in all, it was a wonderful night.

The cutest little girl sang the National Anthem. She was five years old. After I sang my part and returned to my seat, she came up to me. I told her she'd done a fabulous job (she had; I almost died from the cuteness) and she just smiled shyly. Then her mom said, "Go ahead."

The girl looked at me and said in the smallest voice, "You sang very beautifully."

AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW. I almost died from cuteness again. I thanked her and told her again that she'd been fantastic as well. I gave her a thumbs-up and she skipped away, rather proud of herself.

After the performance, the conductor invited me to sing with them next year. Ah! I accepted on the spot.

One down, three to go. I couldn't be happier. :)

Susan Graham = <3

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to one of my favorite mezzos. Her individuality, infectious personality, and incredible singing have inspired me and many others.

In tribute, I offer "Parto, parto" from La Clemenza di Tito, one of my favorite Susan Graham moments.

Sadly, This is All True

You know you're a nerd when...

...you and your friends/family play "guess that conductor" instead of charades.

...you look at a shampoo bottle and say, "Hey! There's a comma missing!"

...you look at the daily Google picture and you know what it's commemorating before you scroll over it.

...you fall asleep with textbooks in your bed and you don't notice until halfway through the next day.

...you quote Captain Kirk in real life and your brother laughs because he knows exactly what you're referring to AND he knows the name of the episode is that the quote is from.

...you think of every purchase in terms of how many songs on ITunes that would be.

...you know a random date that your teacher/professor asked for but didn't expect anyone to actually know and you can't remember how/why you know it.

...you play charades and the choices are: movie, book, tv show, play, and opera.

...you know the Dewey Decimal number of a specific subject.

...you talk about famous people by their first names and everyone knows who you're talking about.

...you can answer the questions on Jeopardy that the contestants don't know.

...you know who Petra is and what their greatest hits were.

...you have drawn out conversations about the meaning of Time and whether it actually exists or not.

...you don't notice that you're randomly adding phrases in foreign languages into your everyday speech.

...you have 43 books checked out and think nothing of it.

...you squee over a New York Philharmonic concert (and think that the first-chair cellist is cute).

...you're 10 years old and your role models are Nancy Drew and an android named Data (Star Trek TNG).

...you can read three different alphabets.

...you know the date of every Mozart opera premiere but you can't successfully drive two miles without getting lost (in your home town where you've lived for over 10 years).

...you correct a teacher's/professor's grammatical mistakes when you copy down their notes.

...you're 12 years old and you want to be an astronomical geologist when you grow up.

...you visit three different libraries in the same day and think that it's normal.

...you use opera singers' names in the place of profanities.

When You Live With Me

My sister was allowed to get a Facebook account. So what's the first thing she writes as her status?


I guess that's what happens when you live with me.

Portamenti Make Him Sound Girly!

I had a typical lesson with Tammy yesterday. (Actually, the word "typical" is rather misleading since a lesson with Tammy is never, ever "typical." What I mean to say is, it was typical for Tammy.) She was talking to me about Orlofsky and she randomly screams the F-word just as the Chair of the Department walks by her studio. lolz

So we were working on my "big aria" and I was doing these portamenti (sliding between two notes) to make him sound more bored and Tammy says, "Don't do portamenti; it makes him sound girly. He needs to be a boor. You know, b-o-o-r." I think this is hysterical because 1. I'm a girl playing a boy and apparently I'm making him sound girly and 2. his big thing is that he's bored by everything and Tammy wants to make him into a boor. Oh, my English-geek nerves! How I love you, irony! How I adore you, homophones! (I haven't thought about homophones since like 2nd grade. This was huge. Although, I don't think they ever taught us bore and boor. WONDER WHY...)

She proceeded to nit-pick my aria and now it sounds SO much better than before. I knew what I wanted to fix but I didn't know how to fix it. The horrid thing about this aria is that it's really hard to do it well and when you do, it sounds like the simplest thing in the world. No glory, as usual. *sigh* Such is the life of a mezzo-soprano. You have to pull out some Rossini if you want respect. And, alas, we shall never do a Rossini opera in college. The boys would fold under the pressure. ;)

HOWEVER, the words "Your Russian accent is very good" came out of Tammy's mouth. I have it on tape! That made my life.

As I came out of my lesson, Dan-the-Nero-hound was waiting outside. The first words out of his mouth were "You look great." Strangely enough, the first time he ever said anything to me about how I look was when I was in costume for Valetto (a page BOY) for the opera last January. Creepy, much? I really do wonder about these boys; I got more attention dressed as one of them then I do on a daily basis. What is THAT all about? Maybe I'll figure it out this January when I play Prince Orlofsky. *shrug* Either way, Nero-Hound-Dan is not going to be in the show this January because he's going to California. Too bad; he has a nice voice.

A Beautiful Day in NYC

My sister Heather and I had a fun little excursion into the City. We went in to see the doctor (I'm fit as a fiddle!) but we made a whole day of it. We didn't do anything of consequence, but that was the best part of all. We just walked and shopped and hung out in Central Park. I staged an impromptu photo-shoot of my lovely teenage sister. You can find the rest of the pictures here.



I love Columbus Circle -- it is so gorgeous! I love the fountains and the statues. One of my all-time favorite statues (the young boy with his arms out as though he's about to take flight) is in that square.



This is Heather's version of The Lion King.



Here's to a great day in NYC. If only there had been an opera playing...

Lolz

Vittoria Tesi, a famous singer in the 18th century, refused to play pants roles because it was "harmful to her health." What does that even mean?

Maria Cere was considered so ugly that she was never allowed to take female roles. Therefore, she "specialized" in pants roles. What a compliment.

Metastasio's libretto "Achille in Sciro" tells the story of Achilles who's dressed as a woman until the end of the night where he throws off his trappings and reveals his true gender. However, the part of Achilles was played by a woman at the premiere. Strange, much?

Shameless Post of Death

SHIVER is Maggie Stiefvater's brand-new book and it's going to rock! How do I know this?

I read her LAMENT a month ago and it was one of the best books I've read in a while. It combined music, magic, mythology, and mysterious boys into a huge adventure. As a musician (and an Irishwoman) myself, I thoroughly enjoyed this book.

Here's a trailer that Maggie made herself. She composed the music and made the stop-motion animation. It's gorgeous and definitely worth checking out.

New York Phil: Russian Fest!

Bramwell Tovey led a smashing concert last night with the NY Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall. It was an all-Russian program: Tchaikovsky's Polonaise from Eugene Onegin and his Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture, Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini for Piano and Orchestra, and three pieces from Khachaturian's Gayane (including the Sabre Dance!).

Tovey led the orchestra with his usual deftness. I love watching his left hand; he was always doing something or other. Oftentimes, I thought he was painting a picture up there. He was a brilliant standup comic. He had the audience laughing between every piece. My favorite line of the night was as he was introducing the Romeo and Juliet. He was quickly telling the story and he said,

"And then Romeo did what many of us dream of doing: he killed one of his wife's relations in a bloody sword duel."

He attempted to tell the ending of the story without using the words "poison" or "dagger" or "suicide" so he said,

"And they [Romeo and Juliet] were both lying there on the slab and...well, it's all rather gory."

He was fantastic.

The orchestra, of course, sounded simply exquisite. It was all music that even an uneducated musician would know at one point or another. The Polonaise was sufficiently bouncy and exciting-- a perfect opener. I was shocked by the perfection of the balance between the sections. And the celli-- they rocked the house on this one.

The Rachmaninoff came next with Vladimir Feltsman on piano. He had such a unique touch on the piano; it was much springier than most renditions of Rachmaninoff. I really enjoyed it. Feltsman was absolutely outstanding. He was just sitting there, having a gay old time like he was hanging laundry instead of playing an infinitely difficult piano piece. He did all 25 minutes of music from memory (of course!) and he didn't miss a thing. The Variation XVIII was absolutely otherworldly. I thought I would float away, it was so beautiful. I could listen to that forever.

The Khachaturian was great. The second movement, the lullaby, was gorgeous. I'd never heard that part of Gayane before. They played the Sabre Dance at the perfect tempo. I thoroughly enjoyed this selection.

The Romeo and Juliet is beyond words. That piece is amazing to begin with (it's definitely in my top ten all-time favorite symphonic works) and to hear it played live was just amazing. I keep using the word "amazing" because I'm not sure there's another word to describe it. The music swept me away and the story of Romeo and Juliet became something more than it had ever been before. I heard things last night that I'd never heard before, even though I've listened to that piece a hundred times. The opening was so pious; I could almost see the church. The sword duel was exciting and the love theme swept through the room with a passion that can only be born from live music. I heard Romeo's heartbeat ebb away. It was all truly fantastic--beyond words.

I love Tchaikovsky.