The French Connection

On Wednesday and Thursday, the covers of the Nozze cast rehearsed to make sure we knew the blocking in case any of us need to go on during the run. We’ll have one more run-through of the show on Monday, and then the show opens! Final dress was yesterday, and it went great. My fellow Bridesmaid and I felt like we finally nailed our little number; it’s harder than you might think, that two page ditty! We settled into the tempo right away and finally got the bounciness and space that the conductor was wanting. It’s great to feel like we’re on top of things before opening night!

During the cover rehearsals, I was happy to be on my feet revisiting Barbarina. As we ran my short little scenes, I was surprised at how easily the recit was flowing! I remembered my stumbling two years ago when I was first trying to get Susanna in my mouth, and was comforted by the realization that maybe Italian recit is like a bicycle: once you learn how to sing it, you’ll never forget.

I’ve now done principal roles in three Italian operas in four productions, including my second time around with Susanna this past March. I can honestly say that I feel completely at home in the language, and as I’m working on new arias and roles in the years to come it will not be an issue. A wonderful place to get to!

But now? Time to start the entire “getting comfortable” process all over again... On to French!

Time to read the play and a few synopses.
Time to spend hours pouring over the Nico Castel libretto translation book and then more hours with the French-English dictionary making up the worksheets that I will carry around in my bag for the next few months.
Time to repeat lines of text over and over again to feel how those French vowels and consonants fit in my mouth.

If you see me mumbling to myself on the subway, I'm not crazy, I'm just studying...

Here we go!

Tasks on the Musical To-Do List:

* Finish memorizing music for the ASO concerts next week: Mendelssohn, Porter, Berlioz.

* Stop singing the musical numbers from Candide that I know already and actually get down to brass tacks on the rest of the darn piece! Rehearsals start in about six weeks.

* Review arias for some potential upcoming auditions.

* Format my libretto study sheet for Ariadne.

* Write translation into Ariadne score.

* Learn the actual notes of Ariadne...


It will be fun to work in German this summer after a winter of Italian. German is the language that comes most easily for me, due in no small part to the fact that I lived in Germany for three years as a child. My father was stationed over there, and my parents did their best to get the most out of the overseas experience (unlike most Americans on military bases, I think). We lived off-base for a year, and I spent half of my kindergarden year in an actual “kindergarten,” playing Haus with German kids, even though I couldn’t really talk to them. By the time we left Frankfurt when I was seven, I had a functional-enough passive vocabulary that my parent’s could no longer talk secrets auf Deutsch in front of me. I took three years of German in high school, and went back for a long visit as a high schooler, both with my family and solo.

A few days ago B and I were seeing how well we could converse in the other opera languages: French, Italian, German. We were both pretty miserable at French, his Italian was great and I could always answer him in English (again with the large passive vocabulary), and we were both surprised at how good my German was! I have a feeling that I could get to fluency pretty quickly were I to go over there for work.

And THAT, my friends, is a post for another day...

Italian Lessons via Opera Libretti

Words I didn’t need to translate in the Barber score, thanks to my time with Figaro:

biglietto - letter
cugino - cousin
guardare - to look
sigillo - seal
ebbene - well then
ragazza - girl
gridare - to shout
rabbia - rage
testa - head
lontano - far away
foglio - paper
niente paura - have no fear
cervello - brain
pazzo - crazy

Not to mention all the verbs and pronouns and adjectives… And, of course, the expletives: ohime! maledetto! scellerato! indegno! ohibo! cospetto!

Notes on Rehearsal

* Clothes make the maid: About thirty minutes into rehearsal on Saturday, I noticed that my stance and my walk were very “un-Susanna.” They were very modern; sassy, and not in the quick-witted-maid sense. I quickly figured out that is was due in large part to the fact that I had forgotten to put on my rehearsal skirt. I had never really paid much attention to the importance of a rehearsal skirt, preferring to inhabit the character without the aid of costumes and such. But when wearing my favorite black skinny jeans, the ones that really make me feel like a rock star, I just couldn’t seem to shake the “attitude” they give me. After putting on the full white tea-length rehearsal skirt, however, Susanna’s stance was back: weight evenly on both feet, posture firm but subservient. Even my interactions with Figaro were more “period appropriate,” less modern. Boleslawski wouldn’t like it, but I apparently need my rehearsal skirt in order to be Susanna.

* Fixin’ Diction: We don’t have a prompter or Italian coach here, so it’s up to us to come to agreements on things like how to navigate notes with more than one vowel sound. Our maestro helps, of course, but sometimes we can fix it ourselves, even without talking. (I’m not sure I can really explain this in words; it might be a “you had to be there” moment, but I’ll try…)

In the Act II Finale, there is a moment when Figaro, Susanna, and the Countess say together “how will this end?” - “com’ha da finir?” There are rests between the words, so it’s kind of like this: “com / / ha / / da / / finir” The first time we sang it (in a staging rehearsal), Figaro and I noticed that we were putting the M at the end of “com” in different places: I before the rests and he after. We sing the line twice; the first time we exchanged a look that said, “Wait, did you just…?” The second time, the look was “Oh yes, you did; we’d better fix that!” But when we paused, we got busy with staging stuff and didn’t get a chance to discuss it.

I did check in with our Countess, though, to see what she was singing. She was with me, putting the M on the end of “com,” and we were fairly confident that we were right. (Of course! FG, care to verify?) We ran the scene again, and when we got to that line, Figaro gave me a look: “Oh, we didn’t fix this!” My look back said, “I did!” The repeat of the line came and we both turned to the Countess, who pronounced the line together with me. Still singing, Figaro snapped his fingers and gave us a look that said, “Rats! Outnumbered!” and we all carried on, smiling.

It was really a sweet moment of nonverbal communication and collaboration, one that wouldn’t have been possible if we weren’t enjoying working together so much. This is a great cast, and we’re all having a ball. A bit of a stressed ball, but a ball nonetheless.

* Flashbacks: When we got together in NYC and ran through things (Count, Countess, Figaro, and I), singing through the Act IV Finale brought back some beautiful memories. First, the bittersweet moments as Barbarina, saying goodbye to Cherubino during “Tutti contenti…” (In the Met's Miller staging, Barbarina and Cherubino don’t end up together.) But then, when the music shifted to the upbeat final section - “In contenti e in allegria” - I was suddenly transported to the woods of Vienna, VA, where we used that music as the opening to our Instant Opera programs! I never had this flashback during the Figaro’s at the Met, though, because there I was singing Barbarina’s line, and at Wolf Trap I sang Susanna’s! It was a wonderful stroll down memory lane.

There was another flashback tonight, when I overheard our Barbarina singing her aria. That will be a special aria for me for a long time, I think. I was taken back to the dimly lit stage, to the warm lights coming from the orchestra pit, seeing Mo. Jordan on the podium and the beautiful Met house behind him, hearing Bryn’s quiet “Barbarina, cos’hai?” My opera career is just beginning, so I know these moments of “flashback” are going to start overlapping, running together as I do repeated productions. Yet I can’t help but think that those moments, those sweet, dream-like moments of late 2007, will always be special.

Study

A short Italian lesson: to help get those long Italian vowels and short double consonants into my tongue and mouth and voice, I’ve been told by several folks to speak the text exaggerating those sounds. For example, this line from the Figaro Act II Finale - “...qui li ha fatti capitar” (“here has made them come” or “has sent them here”)- has a double consonant in the word “fatti” and a long vowel in “capitar.” I keep getting them mixed up, putting a double P in capitar, so I’ve been drilling the line like this: “qui li ha fat--------ti caaaaaaaapitar.” Out of tempo, stopping all sound on that double T, and holding that Ah long enough that I make the following P very short. It's a great way to drill the recits, too; this kind of direction to the words creates a naturally conversation shaping.

Clear as mud? Awesome.

This week I’ve been multi-tasking in some funny ways: listening to Figaro on my iPod while marking my score and drilling rhythms for The Old Burying Ground, or listening to TOBG while typing up my Barber translations. The mix of new music and Classical is a fun stretch for my brain! Nothing like hearing a steady 4/4 while counting “2/4, 6/8, 9/8, 3/4…”

I was studying this afternoon (and eating lunch, even more multi-tasking) when “that moment” in the Act II Finale came up on my earphones (the “Deh signor nol contrastate” moment, with that low E in the double basses, you know the one). I put down my pencil and had a moment of amazement. It’s here! In four days we start rehearsals. I get to sing that beautiful role, to create that wonderful character, to tell that silly and touching story.

It’s time…

For MR in Chicago, with thanks to Casey

ä é í ö ü

Thanks to all for your help and concern! :)

On and off

In tonight’s Figaro, I had both a big “oops” moment and a big “wow, this is awesome” moment. Sometimes you’re on, sometimes you’re off, sometimes even in the same show.

For my first recit in the wedding scene, when presenting the flowers to the Countess, I heard the chord in the harpsichord and just plain didn’t know what my note was supposed to be. I started high, but still in the key, and found my way back to the correct melody by the third word or so. But whooboy!! was that a scary split second! Kim, that’s truly where the improv opera came in handy!

The rest of the scene was fine; fun, even. The Act came to an end and I went back on for the aria, looking for the dang pin. (Side note: on Saturday, when I came into the scene to start looking, what should I see on the floor in front of me but an actual bobby pin! I thought, “Oh! here it is! No need to sing the aria, Maestro!”) I finished up, and we started the recit in which Figaro chides Barbarina for playing these grown up games all too well. We never do the scene exactly the same way twice, and today it was particularly fun.

Bryn usually lifts me by my arm off the floor, where I am crouched looking for – what else? – the pin. But today, I was in a bit of a different position, and he essentially grabbed me by the scruff of my neck! Like a cat, as JB said. He is a master of physicality onstage, so he never hurts me; but this was so different and unexpected that I think I squealed! When it was finally time to say my next line (“What? Are you mad at me?!”), I know that the pitches were approximate, ‘cuz I was speaking/singing as if I were getting picked on my big brother, which, in fact, was kind of what was happening. It was a little whiny, a little pouty, very like a little brat who’d gotten herself in a tricky spot. (Did anyone happen to record tonight’s Sirius broadcast? I’d love to hear it, if you did.)

The moment is hard to describe, but the whole scene was so much fun, as it always is. I never know when Bryn is going to actually let me have the pin that he’s holding; we play keep-away until he gives it up. We are six shows into this run, and every night I learn something new about my character, every night we all make things new. I am thrilled that I’m becoming comfortable enough with recit and Italian that I can “play” like this in performance. I only get two chances with Susanna in February, so I’m going to need to be ready. Ready to play!

Adolescence

So. How’s the language going, you’re asking? Well, after a great coaching last week, the things that everyone else I’ve worked on this with finally clicked into place. I’ve been getting the same notes over the past few months, you see – brighter vowels, shorter final consonants, find the direction of the phrase – but sometimes I guess I need to hear things a few times, and practice them often, before they become automatic.

CL’s most valuable piece of advice for me was to make the verbs my focus in the recit. Obvious, right? Why would I stress the word “che” (that) when the word “diedi” (gave) is so much more essential to the meaning of the sentence? When focusing on the verbs, the natural flow of the language comes out and all those little notes and rhythms fall naturally into place. Easy! (It really does feel easier this way; I felt so labored before I figured this one out.)

Another note I’m still working on is final syllables. Make a longer vowel on the first syllable, give a good double consonant if there is one (as do most of the words I have this issue with), and just barely touch the final syllable. This one isn’t quite organic yet, but I’m practicing. If you see me walking down 9th Ave mumbling to myself, I’m working on my final syllables…

I got to sing my aria yesterday since we worked through Acts III and IV in cover staging rehearsal. (An aria! Alone on stage!! Pinch me!!!) We’ve also blocked the recits, which is giving me time to play with my physical characterization of Barbarina. She’s supposed to be young, and, well, I’m kind of on the tall side. Since I don’t automatically look like a child due to my size, I’m trying to make her exceptionally awkward. Gangly, fidgety, but! She still has to be sweet and attractive enough that Cherubino and even the Count want to spend time alone with her… So maybe my Barbarina isn’t 12 or 13; maybe she’s 14 or 15. Hmmm, tall, gangly, awkward yet flirty 14-year-olds… add seriously frizzed out hair and you’ve pretty much got me in junior high!

I’m having fun working with KL and the rest of the cover cast. Some of them will carry over into the November cast, so we’re all in this boat for the long haul. Great people.

Today: Macbeth musical rehearsal. It will be fun to see MG again; can’t wait to sit and listen to this wonderful opera for a few hours. Then Figaro final dress tonight! Should be an exciting evening…

The Italian Job

Before I write about my Barbarina coaching this week, I guess I should finally blog about how I’ve been working on the Italian, see as how I’ve been saying I would do that for, oh, weeks! So, here’s what I’m doing:

I’m a fairly visual learner, so the more different ways I can get the text in front of me, the better. I started by (re-)reading the opera plot synopsis in my Grove Dictionary of Opera to make sure I had the order of events right in my head. Reading the original play helped with this, too, especially since so much of the Italian is translated almost word for word from the French (which meant that both English translations were almost identical).

I then picked up my Nico Castel Mozart Libretti book and read through the opera. These books are invaluable. Every line of the opera is laid out with a word for word translation and an IPA transcription, along with interesting side notes and tidbits. As I read, I treat it as a language exercise, paying close attention to words that appear often, verb forms, pronouns, etc.. This is rather slow going, but I’m reading for detail in this case, language detail, as opposed to general story. Since I haven’t officially studied Italian, this is part of my class. If there are words whose interpretations or conjugations I question or don’t understand, I look them up in my It-Eng dictionary and/or 501 Italian Verbs book.

Next – and this is the fun part for the former secretary in me – I find a copy of the libretto online and cut and paste it into a Word document. After playing with the formatting a bit and getting my tabs worked out (dork!), I type the translation, again paying attention to the language. I’m not just typing English words at 70wpm; I’m watching each word and it’s Italian counterpart, making them match up in my mind. I do this for the entire opera, not just my parts (of course, there isn’t much in Nozze that doesn’t involve Susanna!).

When I’m finished, it looks like this: (Click to enlarge.)These documents (one for each act, printed and stapled) are then carried around with me and read and read and read. When I’m home, I read them aloud. The information has been processed several times through my filters, through my brain, so it feels different than reading Castel’s translation or someone else’s. It’s mine, I relate to it, so it sticks better. At least, that’s my theory.

And now I’m in the middle of writing all of this into my score. Again, it’s not brainless writing, it’s processing exactly which English words match with which Italian words and what they are all coming together to say. It sounds tedious, but I’m kind of loving it. I can feel my learning curve getting shorter (steeper?).

So here’s my summary, very briefly, of how I’m learning all this Italian:
1. Read plot synopsis.
2. Read source material.
3. Read libretto translation in Castel libretto book.
4. Copy libretto into Word document, type in translation from Castel, continuing language analysis.
5. Read it over and over and over again! Aloud, preferably.
6. Write the translation into the score, word for word, not poetic.

As you see, there is nary a mention of singing or music in this process. The notes will come easily, especially since so many of the ensembles are familiar to me. The text needs my focus for these first few months. Then, once it has started to settle, it’ll be a matter of singing it over and over and over again instead of reading it aloud. I’ve learned some great tools in my coachings that will help the recit settle (I’m already feeling it with Barbarina, a command of the language), but more on that later.

The Week in Re/Preview

This has been – and will continue to be – a busy week! Here’s a Hump Day recap and look ahead.

Monday: all day Italian coaching with FG, Wolf Trap’s Italian coach and astute reader of The Concert. And when I say “all day,” I mean all. day. Oy! My brain was fried by 5pm. Even with a fabulous lunch (a “family style” feast of pasta with lemon and herbs from the garden, cheese, roasted summer veggies, a glass of wine AND a pre-lunch cocktail, all lovingly prepared by FG) and a dip in the pool, it was a tough day. She pulled no punches, repeatedly (but gently) reminding me to
- keep my “ee” vowel skinny
- keep my “ah” vowel bright
- keep my r’s and l’s crisp, not lazy
- remember to speak through the conversation, not just to the end of my line. Duh. I know this; why is it so much harder in Italian?!

Tuesday: photo shoot!! I finally went in for some new headshots. I’m gathering opinions (shot 139 seems to be a favorite…) and will likely have my choices made by early next week. The photographer is an old friend, Alexander Vasiljev, aka Sasha, who has been my makeup artist through three summers now: both summers at Tanglewood (the first Ainadamar and Midsummer Night’s Dream) and here for Volpone. I loved having someone who knows me behind the camera, someone who could make me smile my real smile. He just won a major photography competition, too, for his nature photography. Congrats, Sasha!

Wednesday: High Mass at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. What a gorgeous church! I went to hear Charles sing with the professional choir there, and as he promised, the music was fantastic. (What was that final piece, Charles? Love it.) I dragged KG along to see all the beautiful mosaics, and they did not disappoint. Incredible detail, such vibrant colors. Our Lady of Siluva was one of many breath-taking chapels, but our favorite might have to be Our Lady of China. (Follow the link and scroll down.)

Thursday: road trip to NYC with YL. Install an air conditioner in the window across from my tiny room so I don’t roast up in the loft in these last days of summer. Then a date!

Friday: audition, then head back to VA for the weekend. My friends will be putting on the final WTOC performances – Magic Flute – and I wouldn’t miss it for the world. I heard a run-through last week, and the singing is out of this world.

Saturday: Flute performance (yay!) and final after party (boo!).

Sunday: more pre-season NFL while writing translations into my Figaro score, then one last dinner with my amazing hosts. They’re splitting time between VA and NYC these days, so we already have plans for a monthly dinner – and they’ll be coming to see Figaro for CH’s birthday!

I’ll putz around here for the weekend, trying to wrap up selling my car and spending more time with Susanna. Then on Monday or Tuesday, my time here is done!

“Where has the time all gone to?” Indeed.

Living with it

For an audition last week, I added an aria to my usual audition program. I was still getting over my cold, and my top notes weren’t as free as I wanted them, so I thought I would rework the audition pattern a little bit. I took a look at the audition notice email from my manager, which listed the operas that the company was looking to cast; what else could I offer that they might be interested in?

The only thing that I thought I might be considered for, besides the usual high-note roles, was Zerlina, the peasant girl in Don Giovanni. Her first aria, “Batti, batti, o bel Masetto,” was the first opera aria I ever worked on, back at the University of Georgia circa 1997. It’s Mozart, so it’s not easy, but it’s a good place to start at age 21. These days, the role is often cast with a mezzo, as there are two other (higher) soprano roles in the opera, so I haven’t offered it in a while. But I sang through it, figured it would do for the day, and tossed the book in my bag.

I warned JD of the new addition, and since it’s an aria we’ve played through once or twice over the years, she was her usual cool-as-a-cucumber self. We decided to start the audition with Nannetta instead of Baby Doe (see above re: that morning’s high notes), and it went well enough. The Man Behind the Table must have been picking up on my mind waves, because instead of the usual “What else did you bring?” he said, “Do have any Zerlina with you?” Score!

The aria starts with a short recitative (the talky bits of an opera that help propel the action), and as I was in the middle of it, I thought, “Wow, this Italian is really IN; I know these words!” Since I’ve been singing this aria in some capacity for ten years, living with it, there’s nothing new about it. I know it so well that it is automatic, as if I were thinking the words for the first time at the moment they were coming out of my mouth. It felt really, really good.

As I’m spending time with other Italian roles these days, I’m realizing that I don’t have ten years to let these roles settle! I have to find the way to get the words into my body, into my mouth and my voice, so that they are automatic. So that they come from my soul as I am “inhabited” by Lucia, Adina, Rosina. (ACD and I saw the same interview with Peter O’Toole on Charlie Rose; “inhabited” is a word I stole from him and his description of the preparation process. Go read ACD’s post for more from this inspiring interview.) This is especially tricky with the recit sections, where I can’t rely on the lyricism of the music to carry the words. The words need to come first, and they need to come without thinking.

Of course, this all applies with French, German, et al, as well, but Italian is the language I have studied the least. This is starting to feel like a problem as I’m looking at more and more bel canto rep. Since my summer gig fell through (hmm, I still haven’t talked about that, have I?), maybe I’ll go to Italy for an intensive language course. And shopping…