Greetings again from the *extremely cold" snap we are having in W-CNY! (That''s Western-Central New York to those of you who don't know the abbreviation.)
Two weeks from now, my comprehensives will be finished. Later today, I will post again the list of possible "big-topic" essays that might be on it. I had a great chat with PP yesterday about the scope of this exam. He assured me that I will do "very well." I just have to keep going at this point. It is an endurance test, after all.
I am thrilled that I've been able to stick with this blog for this long. I had started one about ten years ago, prior to usability ease and ability to label or post photos without a problem.
Someone asked recently, "how do I have time to write so much." It's not a lot, actually. "Much" would be what I am thinking about writing, about learning twentieth-century vocal repertoire, or my own techniques that I have found in coaching throughout the years. For me, it is a need to communicate.
Another "need" that I've been realizing that I have is a desire to be an educator, even on a project that is in the "professional" realm. There seems to be a large divide between "music making in academia" and "music making in the real world." This divide is sad to me. I have encountered equal amounts of bliss and frustration with both fields.
I've been talking to the conductor on this project about how much we love teaching (we both teach at the same school). And it made me realize, that whether I am working with a freshman on basic Italian, or with a managed artist on (her) role for the first time, I am a very happy teacher. I like feeling like I can make a difference.
Tonight, I have an interesting task ahead. My job is to help our speaker in our current production carry his voice more, more like an orator. His roles are written with underscoring (this means spoken dialogue or text over an accompaniment. This also means that the text has to be timed, in general, with the accompanying music. This happens a lot starting in late nineteenth-century French opera, such as Massenet's Manon. This writing techique is employed a lot in the twentieth century by Britten and Sondheim). Another challenge is that the text is in surrealiist-symbolist Spanish, and not only that, in the "lunfardo" dialect. This implies that consonant clusters in Spanish do different things phoenetically. ( ll = [d3] ), for example. Arrgentinian Spanish has different pronunciation than standard Mexican or European Spanish. (These are the things that I'm learning on the job!).
I will resume studying at this point. I will leave you with this lovely photo that I found online. It is me with Syracuse Opera's last production lead, "Carmen" (sung very colorfully by OR). I really enjoyed working with that cast and of course, on that wonderful music.
PHOTO: Ola Rafalo and I work on some French and interpretation together at the piano, before rehearsal starts.
