First Performances, and Mimes

It's been a little while since I've written here. It's been a busy couple of weeks, with dress rehearsals and performances and everything, so I haven't had much energy to write when all is said and done.
We did our dress rehearsals and first performance in a town called Excideuil in a castle that Richard Lionheart stayed in for five years during the Crusades. It was pretty cool rehearsing in such an old place - definitely don't have things like that in the states. The dress rehearsals were just as frantic and confusing as dress rehearsals tend to be, but we got through them without too much anger and frustration. It was great getting to finally work through things with the orchestra as well. The new maestro, Willy Anthony Waters, is great to work with and has definitely managed to put us at ease with the transition from conductor to conductor.
The first performance was great. The audience was very energetic and enthusiastic, and made us feel like we'd done a phenomenal job onstage, which, come on, of course we rocked it.
Our second performance was in a really nice theatre in St. Yrieix, though the wings were a bit small and the orchestra was actually off to the right of the performers, which made it a bit tricky to keep in sync with the music. I didn't actually perform on that night, because they had too many chorus members and not enough props, so I graciously volunteered to sit out. It was nice to get a break from being in all four casts, which is very draining.
On Friday, we had our first day off. Some people went to Bordeaux to go exploring, but a few of us wandered around town and enjoyed....the Mime Festival. Périgueux puts on an annual mime festival celebrating mimes from around the world (Ukraine, Australia and some other countries including France were represented). Despite what you might think, these are not your grandma's mimes. There were of course the classic mimes similar to Marcel Marceau, and the ones we saw were VERY acrobatic - standing on each other's heads, flips, throws and catches. It was really cool. Of course, you also had the abstract theatrical mimes, which, honestly, I can't really get into. I'm a classicist, I like things that are cut and dry in performance (although I'm not against cerebral theatre, as long as I can understand what's going on), and abstract theatre like what we saw just bores me. There were three mimes (at least) that were hiding in this HUGE pyramid of cardboad boxes (at least 12 feet tall) that moved the boxes around the square and put them in different places, in trees, up on balconies etc. One of the mimes stole signs and barricades to put in the pile. I dunno, I didn't really get it, though I think? that it was a commentary on homelessness, because at one point one of the mimes stepped into a cardboard box, stripped down and took a shower by pouring water over himself from a water bottle. In any case....boring after 20 minutes, and it was scheduled to last for 4 hours. The last mime that we saw was probably my favorite. I can only describe him as a "traffic mime". He was wearing an orange traffic jumpsuit, kneepads, white face makeup and a whistle, and would run back and forth across the street from one section of the audience to the next and interact with spectators and people driving down the road in their cars. He was awesome, so energetic and graceful and comical. He would talk to the audience and people in their cars by blowing through the whistle in speech phrase patterns, and it was really funny. One car that he stopped didn't realize what was happening, so when he opened her passenger door she screamed! and he collapsed in the street. As he's standing and "apologizing", he nabs her purse and closes the door slowly. She had NO idea what was happening, and starts speeding down the road. He frantically chases after her blowing his whistle, and the audience is trying to flag her down to stop so he can return her purse. It was HILARIOUS.
The grind started back up on Saturday, with a performance in a TINY community center in Lanouaille. The performance itself was HOT, and I had sweat streaming down my back and face from minute one, but again, the audience was really receptive. We were thanked at the end of the night with a dinner hosted by the mayor of the town behind the mayor's office building, and it included wine, french fries and a bluegrass duo from England playing hopping music. It had rained earlier in the evening and the sunset was beautiful thanks to the low-hanging clouds. Definitely one of the best nights I'd had in my time here. It was refreshing to get out to the countryside, enjoy good food and drink, and dancing to great music. Our fourth performance was last night in Thiviers, in a renovated barn that was, at this point, one of the better venues we performed in. Plenty of wing space, big and open, and they were able to open the windows in the barn for us so we didn't die of heatstroke. They also served us dinner before the performance, which was probably not a great idea because A) it was a lot of food and it made us sleepy with not enough time to take a nap, and B) there was a lot of food and it made us all gassy. Seriously, backstage was like a fart chamber.
Today was our second day off before three straight days of performances starting tomorrow. I took it easy today, watching How I Met Your Mother, going out for lunch, grocery shopping and a visit to the town's Medieval Fair, which was....kind of a letdown, but still kind of cool since it was in front of castle ruins. Again, you can't get this stuff in the states. I've also managed to pack one whole suitcase. I seem to have less stuff than I came over with. I borrowed a friend's portable scale and this suitcase only weighs 40lbs (though I'm not putting any more in it just to be safe), and I don't think I have much stuff left to pack. In any case, I'm definitely ready to come home and get back to my normal life, as well as my upcoming audition for Puget Sound Concert Opera. Starting to get a bit nervous about it, but I'm optimistic!
Here's a picture of me in my "maid of honor" costume....note, I am NOT really pregnant!

Le Chalard

I haven't written here in a while, mostly because the last few weeks have been difficult and not a lot of fun. Staging has been difficult, the music has been difficult, and last week our orchestra conductor was fired. Without going too much into it, I was really upset because I felt he had been doing great things with us, and was asking that we be very musical and professional. I appreciate that kind of directness in conductors, and was grateful for whatever help he could give us, and I was very sorry to hear that he had been let go. I have heard, however, that our new conductor is excellent and very well-respected in the United States, and has worked with a couple of students here at the program, so hopefully we can catch up to his style quickly enough and still be able to put on a great show. Our performances start this Wednesday and I'm ready to get on the stage and go.
Today, however, was a good day. We were supposed to start our sitzproben (or orchestral rehearsals) today, and since I'm in all four casts that would have been 6 hours of musical rehearsal. I was kind of dreading that. Luckily, however, I received an email from Professor Added with an invitation to sing in a concert this evening. I was asked to fill a last minute spot. This was basically an all-afternoon-into-the-evening event, so that got me out of the sitzproben for the day :D
We drove an hour and a half to St. Yrieix, a pretty village that is also one of the stops on our "tour" of surrounding villages, to their church that dates back to the 12th century. Love old churches! The acoustics were amazing, AND we had a real piano instead of a keyboard, and overall it was a really nice change from the castle concert that I did which was very dry and not terribly forgiving for singers. The place was packed too. I didn't expect such a large crowd for such a concert, but the audience was very excited and enthusiastic and definitely gave us a warm response.
I sang five pieces total: Ravel's "Sainte", Aboulker's "L'archet" (in its entirety for the first time, which was AWESOME), Debussy's "C'est l'extase" and "Il pleure dans mon coeur", and "Je dis que rien ne m'epouvante" from Bizet's "Carmen". I was a little unhappy with my "Carmen", I felt like I pushed my high notes after I'd been singing them so full and resonant recently, but the church was so forgiving that it wasn't too bad. Everyone sang incredibly well, and I felt really blessed to be part of such a talented and musical group. I got the same sort of feeling that I did at the castle concert, that we should be putting on recitals like this all the time - art for art's sake. I've started to wonder if it's a cultural thing, where the French love to come and listen to music and watch theatre pieces and support the arts in general, where in the US it seems like there has to be a reason to go and watch those things. I'm frequently one of those that needs a reason, at least when it comes to the required recitals for private lesson credit at school, but I feel guilty about that now, and we should go out and support art for no reason other than it's important. I'm going to try and really work on that this upcoming year.
Speaking of this upcoming year (not that this has anything to do with France), I saw an audition opportunity in Seattle that I'm pretty excited for. Puget Sound Concert Opera doesn't do staged productions, as their name implies, which makes it slightly more available to me as an option. They're looking for lead roles for their productions of "Pelleas et Melisande" and "Idomeneo", as well as supporting roles for "Andrea Chernier" (which I know nothing about and actually none of the roles they're auditioning for call for sopranos, so I probably won't go for that one). I'm kind of anxious about it, because it would mean my first "grown-up" audition ever, but they didn't post their audition requirements and they haven't responded to my email asking for more information, so I'm wondering if the adventure is over before it began.
Anyway, it's getting late, so here are a few pictures of today's excursion:

The outside of Le Chalard.




















Our singing area.



















After the performances (I was surprisingly cold in the church).















Outside by the tombs - it's only morbid if you're not paying attention to me :-P



















Goodnight world!

Update

So I haven't been writing in this much lately, mostly because there hasn't been a whole lot going on. Friday, Saturday and Sunday were recital days (I'll talk about those in a bit) so rehearsals were really light, though actually I wasn't called for anything so I had an awesome three-day weekend. I haven't done much sight-seeing either though, which is kind of sad but A) the weather hasn't been great since Friday or Saturday, and B) The Plague is still making the rounds in the program and I figure, while my social skills are suffering, my voice is being safely quarantined by just staying in my room and resting. I also had three papers due in my Intro to Religion online class (which I'm taking to try and have a lighter Spring Quarter) by midnight on Sunday, so that's what I did with my off weekend.
We're at the halfway mark of the program now, and next week we're apparently starting orchestra rehearsals and run-throughs. I'm a bit nervous about those, mostly because there are still some chorus things that we haven't blocked/run through (considering all the things that ended up NOT being cut that have a lot of chorus music in them), but I guess we'll get to those eventually.
Ok, so now to talk about the recitals. We were assigned music by Maurice Ravel, Isabelle Aboulker and Henri Sauguet for the program, and Friday, Saturday and Sunday were recitals for Ravel and Aboulker music. Some people were unlucky and had to perform two nights out of the three, but luckily I was able to knock out both of my pieces on Friday night. It was a really nice recital, with a very intimate audience (though there was a big turnout and people ended up spilling out onto the balcony of the hall) and Mme. Aboulker herself was there to watch. I sang "Sainte" by Ravel and then "L'archet" at the very end of the program. I got super nervous at the beginning, which is strange for me because I don't really get nervous before performing, just that short little rush of adrenaline before going onstage, but I was shaking during my first piece. Oh well, I guess it would be weird if I didn't still get nervous once in a while.
We have our Sauguet recital coming up on the 27th, 28th and 29th, and I guess we're going to be having a master class at some point with a specialist in French opera, for which I'm kind of excited (I'll be doing my "Je dis que rien ne m'épouvante" since I don't have another French aria yet) but I don't know when that is. I've also decided that as soon as I know when my next day off is, I'm going to actually try and do some sight-seeing. Some friends of mine went to Basque country this last weekend and I'm really interested in going there. I wish we could get a chance to go along with the next group of Castle Concert-singers, since they're going to a castle that Richard the Lionhearted stayed in on his way to and from the Crusades, but the bus isn't big enough to fit us all in.

Stay tuned!

French Medicine

Let's talk about doctors in France today.
I don't have a lot of previous experience with doctors here, because the last time I went to a French doctor my host mom took care of everything and it was really easy. The doctor was really nice, but I didn't have a serious problem so it wasn't a terrible time.
Fast-forward six years later.
My friend D. has a really bad sore throat, potentially strep throat (which I am desperately avoiding because there's some sort of Black Plague cutting a swathe through the singers here) and asks me to accompany him to the hospital because he doesn't speak French. You see, yesterday was Bastille Day and one of our professors told him all the doctors would be closed, so it would be best to go to the hospital. Mistake #1: hospital is at the top of a huge-ass hill. Who puts a hospital at the top of Mt. Everest?? My moisturizer/suncreen mixed with sweat was streaming into my eyes almost to the point of needing my own emergency room appointment by the time we got to the urgent care center, which was not, as is common in American hospitals, the first building or office on the campus. It's all the way in the back. I call that Mistake #1a. We get to urgent care and I explain to the receptionist what's going on, and she calls over a desk nurse to help us out. As I explain to her that we were sent here because no doctors were open, she says, "What?? Of course they're open!" - Mistake #2. She then directs us to one doctor at the bottom of the huge-ass hill and says he should be open, as it would be basically impossible for D. to be seen today as a sore throat is not really urgent.
On our way down, I consult the map and guide that we were given at orientation and suggest to D. that we go to one of the three doctors that are recommended on the guide. Mistake #3 - all three doctors are closed. I called all of them and didn't get anything, and none of their doorbell tags were clear enough that I could read with confidence what they said, except for one that I left a message with who was definitely not there. I then call the doctor located at Bottom of Huge-Ass Hill, whose receptionist tells me he's booked for the day but we should consult a local pharmacist to see who's open. Mistake #3a - pharmacist does not know who is open. She is also kind of a bitch and not terribly helpful, but she points out three more local doctors who are potentially open and sends us on our way. All three of THOSE doctors are closed, but one had the potential to actually be there later because his visiting hours were all sorts of weird, like 8am-11am and 4pm-6:30pm (how do doctors in France make money with these hours? I call that Mistake #3b) and we were there at 12:45pm or so. We decide to go back to this doctor at 4pm and think, "Hey, the pharmacist maybe would have something for pain, sore throat etc.," so we go back to the pharmacist.
Mistake #4 - pharmacist is definitely a bitch and not helpful. This pharmacy has no real counter, just a couple of island tables towards the back, so it's difficult (for foreigners anyway) to determine where we can and can't go. D. spots some lozenges behind said tables and goes to look at them. Pharmacist, while helping someone else, curtly tells him to get back on the other side. When it's finally our turn, I explain that all of the doctors were closed. She seemed shocked and demanded to know which ones we went to. I told her we went to all of the ones she pointed out, but there was one that looked like he'd be open again at 4pm. She then says, "Well, you'd better wait until then." I ask if, in the meantime, there's something she can give for pain, meaning lozenges (because D. had just been looking at them). She gives me a look like "are you effing kidding me?" then says "Well of course not! Something could negatively interact with his throat! Excuse-excuse-excuse!" and essentially dismisses us. I should point out to people in the states that pharmacies in France are kind of like a drugstore combined with a GNC - essentially everything in front of the counter is fairly useless (beauty products, lots of "vitamins" and "dietary supplements", baby stuff etc.) with useful stuff behind the counter (though they did have orthopedic supports, toothpaste, other stuff you'd find at a pharmacy). Of course, nothing in front of the counter was helpful, and I couldn't understand half of the labels anyway. So what do we do? Same thing any smart American does: go to a different pharmacy. This one was smaller, a bit more sketch-looking but far more helpful. The pharmacist there was very nice and was able to get D. some lozenges, though we're not sure how effective they are or how many to take because his accent was kind of weird and he talked a bit fast (despite the fact that I told him we were Americans and that at one of us didn't speak French).

To summarize, here are the things we have found to be wrong with French Healthcare Organization:

1. Do not put a hospital at the top of a big-ass hill.
1a. Do not put the Urgent Care center at the BACK of the campus.
2. Call someone first (like the hospital) to make sure that they really are the only solution and that other doctors will be open.
3. Just because a national holiday was yesterday does not mean that ALL DOCTORS should take a four-day weekend. People still get sick the day after Bastille Day.
3a. Pharmacists should not be depended on to know schedules of local doctors, despite the fact that they fill their prescriptions and are in constant contact with them.
3b. If the doctor IS open, he should have normal operating hours and not have huge gaps between appointment times (none of this work for 2 hours then have a four-hour lunch BS).
4. Pharmacists will never ever be helpful when you really need something and will essentially tell you your problem is none of their concern. Though don't lose heart - there IS someone who will be helpful - you just can't have them involved in your problem.

All in all, I think I like the organization that we've got going on in the states. Hours are clear, if there's going to be a holiday or everyone is booked there is always another option for health care, and for the most part pharmacists will at least help you find a GD lozenge.

Isabelle Aboulker

I had a really rough day today and I hadn't planned on writing anything here, at least not anything positive, but I thought I'd talk about my experience with French composer Isabelle Aboulker.
I've had experience with 20th century French composers before. When I was at Lycée Fénelon in Lille we were asked to perform, with a couple other schools in the area, to perform a children's "opera" titled "Gédéon" (it must not have gone very far, because I can't find it on the web, nor the composer). It told the story of a little boy who wanted to be a violin player or something like that, and it was the stupidest musical experience of my life (and I don't say that lightly). The music wasn't great, the text was pathetic (in France, the land of literary geniuses), all over terrible. I'm a bit jaded therefore, and I had a horrible sinking feeling after receiving my art song assignments and the piece of hers that I was doing, titled "L'archet". I had looked her up on YouTube and found a recording of "Je t'aime", which I personally do not like at all (though a few people here really liked it, and that's ok), and thought "oh God....another off-the-wall 20th century composer that uses really lame text." I was very wrong.
I translated my text and was actually pretty interested in the story that it was telling, something about a mysterious woman who captures the heart of...I think it's a huntsman, and commands him to make a bow (as in bow and arrow) out of her hair after she dies. The end result is that he can never let go of her and will always be entranced. I LOVE these kinds of stories. I'm a huge sucker for medieval-type tales of sorcery and seduction and magic and all that, so I started to become optimistic. Plunking through it made me nervous, because I didn't have a recording and I can't play piano so I couldn't get a feel for how it really sounded, but once Professor Added sent me a recording that SHE had made, and I listened to it, that's when I really knew it was going to be an awesome piece. The music itself is CHOCK-FULL of artistic markings: crescendos and decrescendos, staccatos, slurs, all sorts of different accents, it's very detailed. As difficult as it's been getting every nuance right, I feel like I'm being my most artistic ever by singing this piece - kind of a sad thought, since I've been singing for a while, but also a very rewarding thought.
I had a coaching with her one-on-one yesterday, and it was amazing. First of all, another member of the program accurately described Isabelle Aboulker as "my French grandmother", because she's absolutely adorable - you just want to give her a big hug and sit in her house and drink tea and listen to her stories. Secondly, you can tell right off the bat that she is EXTREMELY passionate about the music that she composes, and is not afraid to tell you how she wants it to sound. Her biography says that she considers herself a student of Debussy and Ravel, and it's evident in the harmonies that she uses as well as the sweeping piano parts. My French is good enough that we were able to do the whole coaching in French, which was awesome just in itself (let's be honest, how many times will I ever be able to get a coaching from a foreign composer in his/her native language?) and we discussed the importance of the text. She told me a lot of her pieces don't really have an important story, just a simple poem, but this one actually painted a picture for the audience to imagine, and it was important to keep every aspect of artistic detail and every appropriate syllabic stress to paint that picture. Working with her was, in contrast to my last dealings with music in France, probably one of the most enriching experiences in music that I have ever had, and there really aren't enough words in the world to explain how that coaching changed my mind.
Mme. Aboulker also told me something that has lit a fire in my belly: "L'archet" is orchestrated. Depending on how accessible the orchestral score is (I bought my one single piece from a distributor in France, so I don't know how easy it would be to get her music over to the states), I think I'd like to do this and maybe another piece for the Concerto Competition next spring. I looked at doing "Les Illuminations" by Britten earlier this year but decided against it after realizing it would be waaaay too much work to get done by competition time. But maybe the "Fanfare" and a couple of others would be good to do in a set with "L'archet"....oooh, ideas ideas!

Ok, I'm going to watch an episode of "The Simpsons" and then get to bed early - another long day is ahead of me!

Castle Concert

Last night we had our Castle Concert. It was definitely not what I was expecting, but it was soooo amazing that I didn't care.
It turns out it was NOT the castle I thought it was. It was actually a private residence. But it was still a castle (I have Facebook photos to prove it!) owned by a friend of Profs. Added and Lewis who runs the hair side of Balmain (http://www.balmain.com/). Very very nice man, and his wife, and it looked like a whole mess of staff that work and live there. We arrived at the castle and were immediately given a really nice dinner - cold soup, a bunch of different salads, and then either hamburger patties (which were really too good for the bun anyway) or ribs. I got to enjoy a nice dinner and listen to awesome stories from Eric Halfvarson (this one! http://erichalfvarson.com/), who is teaching at the program.
We weren't actually singing in the castle, as it's an actual home and I don't think there was any room for us in there. We were singing in the upstairs area of a renovated stable, which sounds not as cool, but was really really nice. We had a little stage area, and there were seats for about 50 people, and there were medieval-style curtains and furnishings and it was super cute. Then it came showtime.
The acoustics were pretty dry, but not the worst place I've sung in. I sang "Mi chiamano Mimi" and I think it was one of the best I've done so far. I keep finding new motivations in this song to make it better. They made video recordings of our performances but I don't know if they'll be available to us later. I hope so, because I felt like I rocked it. Eric Halfvarson spoke a few words to me afterwards which have made me more motivated to continue with what I'm doing. Once in a while I wonder if I'm pursuing the right profession, and being in an intensive program like this is overwhelming enough to raise more doubts, but it's concerts and recitals like this that let me know I'm where I should be.
Everyone looked and sounded great! It was such a great experience to sing in such a wonderful yet intimate place. It made me think of back in the Romantic period when people would have parlor concerts and everyone would perform, and it also made me wonder why people don't do that more these days! I feel like so often we have to have a REASON for a recital, like a degree requirement or fundraiser or something else. We always seem like we're so busy to actually sit back and enjoy a recital given by our friends and peers, and to make a nice evening out of it. When I get rich and famous, that's what I want to do - set up little concerts for my friends and serve dinner and drinks and make things fun.

Here's a couple of photos for your viewing pleasure:

The castle itself.















Our stage.















Dinner, sitting next to Eric Halfvarson!















Outside on the balcony before singing.



















Awesome day!

Days Four and Five

Today I have been in France for a week. Kiiiiiinda crazy. One down, 5 1/2 to go!
I've FINALLY been able to get some good sleep the last couple of days, and it's so frustrating that it took this long when I've been so tired and worn-out by the end of my days. My first night here I bought a fan at the nearby grocery store, and it worked great....until about 12am, when it just stopped. There must have been a wiring problem in it to begin with, but no matter what I did it would not work. Finally I figured out that if I held down the 2 and 3 button at the same time, then held the 3 button down a little longer and released the 2, it would go at, like, slight-breeze speed, which I guess is better than nothing considering it was staying in the 60s well past midnight. A couple of days ago I decided, screw it, I'm buying a new fan, and took to the Monoprix (kind of like Wal-Mart) to buy a new one. Definitely should have looked at the label closer, because what I ended up buying was a power heater - not exactly ideal in 80+ degree weather. All the more pathetic because it said "power heater" in both French AND English.... Fortunately I was able to return it, and now I have a really good fan that has caused me no problems and has been allowing me to sleep in coolness.
The last couple of days have been pretty light. There's been a lot of music-learning, since I'm learning a new part for the operetta, but otherwise there's just been coachings with my accompanist and some staging in the afternoon (not four hours, thankfully). Overall I think my singing is improving, especially with some of the breathing "tweakings" Prof. Rock gave me. I certainly don't feel like I'm struggling for breath as much, and it's helped me get the sound placed higher, which I'd been achieving pretty well before but now have an extra boost.
So this castle that I'm performing at tomorrow....I'm still not entirely sure what it looks like, but one of the program coordinators said it was called Château Valade (Vallade?). I think it's this one:












which is Château de la Valade Bourdeilles, but I'm not sure. I guess I'll find out on Saturday! We did a run-through of our pieces last night, and again, every time I get a chance to listen to the talent that's here at the program I'm in complete awe. One girl sang "Casta Diva" and it was like Callas reincarnated. VERY honored to be in a program with so many talented people.
I've been doing a pretty good job of keeping an eye on my money while I'm here, but I need to start eating better. I've just been grabbing a sandwich on my way to the conservatoire, or going out to dinner and getting portions that are too big/not as healthy as they should be. I wish that our kitchens could have been just a little better equipped. Some people have bought cheap-o cooking utensils, which is what I'll probably end up doing just so I can have SOMETHING. It just feels like a big waste when I have to do that knowing that they'll end up being tossed in the trash, especially since I'll just be throwing away this fan that I bought and a lot of other things. But one of my goals while I'm here is to lose some weight, and I've got the exercise part down (20-min hike to and from the conservatoire, with a backpack full of books, not including the walking to lunch, shopping etc., as well as crunches in the morning) so now it's time to include diet.
I've been thinking a lot about the paths I may want to take in my education/career after my undergraduate. I have a lot of work to do in the next year as far as repertoire preparation goes, but I'm also wondering if a masters degree right out of undergrad is a good way to go. There are a few people here who have gone to Europe to work and get an education, and I'm wondering if that's an option that would work for me. I could certainly use the language skills (even though I'm fluent in French and have Rosetta Stone in Italian waiting for me). I don't know....the last few days there's been an overwhelming amount of information thrown at me and I feel a bit lost in my direction at the moment. I know what I want to do, but I don't know which way would be the best for me.

Ok, time to get ready for the day and make some music. Tonight is our French 3 "class", which is more just a social with a free dinner at the conservatoire. I love knowing French :D

Days Two and Three

I have some extra time this morning to catch up on blogging and whatnot, so here goes. The last few days have been pretty intense, with lessons, music rehearsals and four hours of staging in the afternoon. Let's start off with lessons:

Professor Rock is such a wonderful lady. She's very clear and to-the-point, and has given me some really good advice on how to handle problems I've been facing over the last few years. We've been elaborating a lot on breath support and flow (my nemesis) and on maintaining a constant stream of sound, rather than an explosion at the start of a phrase or at a high note (in one of my pieces in particular there are a lot of 6th and octave leaps, which have been difficult to balance out with the rest of the phrase). Luckily with all of this I haven't felt too much of a change in tone, just in the...I guess type? of sound that's coming out, and I told her that I've been personally struggling with the concept of sound being louder out in the space than it is in my head. She's also been working with me to help make it to the ends of phrases without feeling out of breath (Sauguet and Ravel have INCREDIBLY long phrases, what were they thinking). It's taking a lot of mental work to distract myself from counting out the beats of the measure and allowing control to come from a natural release. She also gave me a great suggestion for working on the onset of phrases, to use the consonants as a leaping point for the sound instead of forcing it out and pushing the breath along with it. I'm really glad that we're working well together - I've been hearing a lot of stories about people not having great experiences with the teachers they've been assigned to, or rather just not being used to direct feedback from voice teachers in general, and I'm thankful for Drs. Marra and Blaisdell not sugar-coating my progress (or lack thereof, in some cases).

Musical rehearsals have taken a frustrating turn. They've divided chorus voices into sections, and I am now singing alto. Most people are unhappy with where they've been placed. I'm not unhappy that I'm singing alto (honestly I don't care, and if it brings more balance to the voices then that's awesome, because there ARE a lot of sopranos), but what I AM unhappy about is that they waited so long to make the divisions in the voices. Even though they only had our audition recordings to go off of, they still had some idea of our voices and could have at least made divisions based on that, and then maybe make some tweaks here and there depending on what happens when we start. I feel especially bad for one person, the Iza in my cast, who is completely memorized and learned in her part and now has to relearn everything because she was assigned to the tenor line. This will definitely be an exercise in music-learning for me, and I just wish that it could have been assigned sooner to save myself the embarrassment of not being learned in my "new" part when staging time comes around.

Staging has also been a very long process. Thankfully it's being more streamlined to avoid four hours of people standing around in the same spot while principals learn their blocking. Some of us are in three choruses which does equate into a full four hours of staging, and while it's good to learn it that much quicker, I feel it has been taking away from time that could be used to perfect music, especially since most of the free time for coachings has been in the afternoons during staging and yet we are all called to be at staging rehearsals.

In good news, I've been scheduled to sing in FAVA's first Castle Concert of the season, so I get to sing "Si, mi chiamano Mimi" in a gorgeous castle IN FRANCE and I'm super excited. I can't remember the name of the castle, but I'll talk more about it tonight or tomorrow. EEEEEEE!!

Day One

First actual day of rehearsals and staging. I thought it was going to be really difficult and intimidating, but it wasn't too bad. Two hours of first-act musical run-through, then an hour in the practice room for my art songs, then a couple of hours for break, and then four hours of staging the first act. Being cast in the chorus for my off days (i.e. days where I'm not my titled character) is actually kind of a blessing. My part is pretty much the same for both characters, so I'm memorizing the music a lot faster and I'm getting extra time to practice. We're encouraged to go to all the musical rehearsals we can, and I fully intend on taking advantage of at least three hours of musical rehearsal (each cast, A, B, C and D, gets one hour of musical rehearsal in the morning, my titled character is in cast C, and I'm chorus in A, B and D).
Same thing goes for staging today. Each cast got at least an hour to block some of the first act, and repeating the chorus part and watching my parallel "ladies of dishonor" made learning the blocking a lot easier. Unfortunately the brooms we're using as "weapons" are made of genuine hay, and made everyone including myself cough and sneeze. I've been battling some breathing problems lately and the hay definitely didn't help. All in all, by the end of the four hours we were able to run through everything we did with minimal errors. I think it's great that we're fast-enough learners that we can pick this stuff up so quickly :D
On a side note, I've taken to doing my laundry in my sink instead of waiting to do it in the washing machine upstairs. I've gotten spoiled in the last year or so by doing my laundry in my apartment for free with a washer and dryer, and doing my laundry in the sink isn't so bad, I just wash what I wore that day or the day before and hang it up to dry outside (it's warm enough outside that things dry quickly). The effort is worth it, to avoid having to buy laundry tokens.

Tomorrow is a fairly light day. I have a half-hour voice lesson in the morning with Professor Constance Rock (University of Connecticut) and I'm pretty excited for that. I've heard good things about her from the people that had voice lessons today, so I'm ready to learn awesome things to take back with me. Then I have four more hours of staging in the afternoon, hopefully without brooms to make everyone miserable. I'm going to try and do some sight-seeing around the town on my down time and take some pictures, so keep an eye out for those!

...And away we go!

So here I am in Perigueux, a small town about 2 hours northeast of Bordeaux, in the Dordogne region. It's BEAUTIFUL here. Clear blue skies, sparse trees, clean buildings with ancient roofs....the area looks like Ellensburg in the sense that, if Ellensburg was over 2000 years old it would look like this.
The last few days have been pretty rough though. Getting here wasn't too bad on the plane, but trying to juggle 100lbs of luggage on a train is not exactly easy, and by the end of the train ride I was exhausted, sore and covered in sweat...mmm...my little apartment was definitely not what I expected either. Very little furniture, bed with a foam mattress (and not the good kind), bathroom with a faucet that sprays water at my chest every time I turn it on, kitchen with almost nothing...I knew we wouldn't be getting a gourmet chef's utensils, but I was looking forward to cooking more than soup and pasta, which is essentially all I'll be able to do. Of course, there is no air conditioning, and I had no expectation of that, but what DOES suck is the brand-new fan I bought stopped working at 11pm last night and will not work at full capacity, which is a SUPREME bummer because it is quite hot here and my windows face west. On the plus side though, I'm content to HAVE a room to stay in, as well as hot water, toilet, internet etc., and I do have a balcony which was quite pleasant last night and this morning when I woke up at 6am. Plus, sunshine without a tornado - take that, Ellensburg!
Orientation was today, as well as what was adequately explained to me as "death by aria". We were instructed to sing 2 minutes of an aria or art song, so that the professors could get a better grasp of how we sounded besides our mp3 audition. No cast ice-breakers, no going around the room playing games, just get up and sing! Boy was it intimidating. SOOOOOOO many talented people in one small room! I'm really excited to work with everyone, at least based on the caliber of their singing, and whatever else our production is going to sound awesome! We also took a tour around historic Perigueux, which reminded me quite a bit of Vieux Lille back when I was there. Cobblestone streets, squished-together buildings, it was really cute. There is also a GORGEOUS cathedral here, Cathedrale St.-Front (my default picture here is the outside lit up at night) which we wandered around in for a little bit. I love cathedrals, the architecture is always so overwhelmingly astounding that I can't help but stand and stare around me for a while, then try to explore every nook and cranny.

Tomorrow: rehearsals begin. Eight hours of rehearsals, to be exact. The downside of having a small role is I'm a chorus member for three other casts, which equates to the eight hours of rehearsal essentially. But the conservatory is so cute, it used to be a monastery for nuns and it shows. I forgot to take pictures of it but I will tomorrow. Hooray France!