Settling in

I am sitting in my room listening to my roommate playing folk/gypsiesque fiddle music and really appreciating my living situation. I have entirely re-arranged my room and cleaned it out, as well as the 6 by 4 window that faces the courtyard outside.

I am finally really settling in and enjoying myself here. I think finally staying in the same place for longer than 2 months is really helping me to feel at peace. I miss my loved ones a lot as always, but I am able to balance that with my real blessings at the moment.

I had a small epiphany while I was home. I think it was really unfortunate to do my two last major performances at Pepperdine (the opera and my senior recital) while recovering from being sick/still sick. I think that that, followed by a long pause in which I was able to dwell on the difficulty of those performances, really shook my confidence in my technique and led me to believe it was more little flaws than it really did. I ordered “The Four Voices of Man” on Amazon (which the post person broke half in two while jamming it into our postbox) and am really enjoying reading it. Jerome Hines talks a lot about a variety of vocal approaches/techniques that are all feasible for a career. I think I have been exposed to three of them and they all have different advantages. Reading this book is really helping me to distinguish between them and be able to call upon them in different situations or even better, combine them for an optimal sound and ease of production.

Here is a frustrating little bit….

About a month and a half before Christmas, I was approached by the assistant director and asked interested in doing the opera. I met with him and the Director and they asked me if I could do Herr Reich. I met with the musical director and we sang through a bit of Herr Reich and she said I was in. Then I proceeded to work on the role with my vocal coach (who works specifically with the opera school) over the last 4 weeks and learn the entire thing. Granted it is not terribly large, and I do not have it memorized yet, but I have put considerable effort into it. In the last week, I saw the assistant director and asked him about it again, and he seemed confused and asked me what I was supposed to sing. Then I saw Piernay, and he asked if I had been recruited and I said yes, to do Herr Reich. Piernay also seemed confused.

I get a phone call today from the musical director asking apologizing for not talking to me for so long and asking if I would like to do another role and since Herr Reich is already full. It is a smaller part and the music is not as pretty, though perhaps a bit more fun. Also a bit higher, may be a little uncomfortable but might bring some good to practice singing up there in choruses full out a lot. Still, it gives me second thoughts about the entire thing.

So…now I get to learn a third Role in the Merry Wives of Windsor, Dr. Cajus. I tell you, I am all doubled up on several shows. Figaro and Bartolo in Le Nozze, Olin Brit and Harold Hill in the Music Man. and now this one…haha…should still come in handy though.
Still…ugh…frustrating….