First Concert

I haven't posted to this blog in a little while, because of a lack of things to write about and because in the past few days I've been pretty busy.

We had our first concert last night, and it went really well! I'll attach a picture of the program below:

None of the scenes that I am "featured" in were placed on this concert (each for different reasons), so aside from the three choral numbers, my five bars in Falstaff II, and being a ghost in the Orfeo scene, I just hung out and played Pokemon Blue backstage. That's an acceptable pastime for an opera singer, right? I think so.

Even though I wasn't singing much in this concert, I still had quite a bit of rehearsal time near the middle of last week up until yesterday, which is good. Before that, I had a couple of days where I just sat at home doing nothing for most of the day.

Obviously I can't complain about having nothing to do while being in Italy, I was able to relax at the caffés  around town and practice my repertoire for my upcoming senior recital. I'm excited to start rehearsing my scenes for this upcoming concert, though!

Here are some photos from last night:

This is the performance space from last night at the Museo Diocesano in Urbania, Italy. It was so live! Everybody sounded really great during the performance.

One of the perks of performing in a museum? The works of art and wonderful exhibits that we were able to see. This one was my favorite, an actual book of chant! If you look closely at the picture, you can see impressions from the other pages, showing how much time was invested into making books such as these such a long time ago.

When I posted this photo to Instagram, it cut off both girls on the ends, so I figured I would post the original here instead. This isn't everybody in the program, but it's most of us. (With La Poule, of course!)

This is where we had our reception after the concert, at a restaurant in Urbania called il Gilbo. It was really interesting because it wasn't a dinner like either of the ones provided for us last year, but a buffet-style dinner. It was so good! I couldn't stop eating the cantaloupe...it was perfectly ripe.

Alejandro and I at the reception after our concert. Last year I wasn't able to really work with him, and this year sort of worked the same, but I did really enjoy being able to coach with him. His attention to detail and emphasis on the language help tremendously. 

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Today at 16.00 we start rehearsing for the Così fan Tutte sextet in which I'll be singing the role of Don Alfonso, and immediately afterwards at 17.30, we'll rehearse the sextet from Le Nozze di Figaro in which I'll be singing Bartolo. We're not finished until 19.00...so it looks like the days of me lying around doing nothing have come to an end! It's about time, too!

 

Mock Auditions/Italian Lessons

Yesterday we had our mock auditions with June Card at the Teatro Zuccari. 

Last year, Mrs. Card was kind of a shock. I sang "Ein Mädchen oder Weibchen" from Mozart's Die Zauberflöte, and she told me that my German diction was not up to par and that I needed to work on my acting. I was a little surprised, not because of the feedback she gave, but mostly because of the way in which it was delivered. Mrs. Card is very blunt, and she will not sugar coat anything for you. This year, I made sure to remind myself of her personality before going into the mock audition so that I wouldn't be so surprised again.

Now, I don't want to give the impression that Mrs. Card is rude or mean, because she isn't that way at all. She is actually a very kind person. What I'm trying to say is that she is very up front about what she doesn't like about your performance, and that is because her goal is to make your audition etiquette better, and she is a very great instructor. She just tells it how it is, and I really admire that.

This year, I sang "Madamina, il catalogo è questo" from Mozart's Don Giovanni. I felt pretty good about my performance, but also felt that it could have gone better. However, when I walked into my one-on-one with her afterwards, I was shocked again by her response. She gave me a hug and told me that I did wonderfully! She did give me a few notes that I hadn't thought about before, and I will work on those things for the masterclass, but she told me that it was very apparent that I had been working really hard all year. I couldn't be happier with the way my audition worked out! It was a pretty fantastic morning.

That evening, we had rehearsals for our sextet from Cosi fan Tutte, which went remarkably well. The girl who was supposed to be our Despina couldn't get a visa in time for the program, so Professor Stone and Alejandro had to cast another girl, Ellen, into the role the night before. Ellen did a really fantastic job at that rehearsal, having only been given the music a few hours before. Since it was the first time any of us (including the pianist) had run through it together, it was a little bit rough; I'm sure that it will be fantastic, though. Alejandro is a great conductor, and he knows exactly what he wants and expects from us, so we will be fine.

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Today we started our Italian lessons with Scuola Italia, and then rehearsed in the afternoon. My schedule today is very light, and I don't have to be in rehearsal until around 8:15, so I did some grocery shopping and now I'm at the house resting for a while. We're rehearsing our three Verdi opera choruses tonight. We'll see how that goes!

Scuola Italia 2013

Last summer, I visited a small town in Italy called Sant'Angelo in Vado as a part of the Scuola Italia summer program, and had such a great experience I came back this year! So, I'm going to try and chronicle my experiences this year, as it will provide a way for me to not forget this trip, and also maybe help some students considering auditioning for the program make their decision.

My friend Aaron and I left from Orlando on the fourth around 2:42 P.M., and after a brief layover at JFK, landed in Rome at roughly 11:00 A.M. the next day. After waiting until 5:30 for the bus, we embarked on the almost five-hour drive to Sant'Angelo. The first day is the only day of the program that I would say is horrible. Just because of the time change and all of the waiting. Plus, the last hour or so of the drive is on an extremely curvy road in almost complete darkness. Once you're past the first day of travel, however, you're golden! 

When we were accepted back into the  program, we specifically requested to stay with the homeowners with who we had stayed last year, and were able to do so. The living accommodations are really beautiful. In our apartment, we have our own living area, kitchen, bathroom, and there are two rooms. 

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Yesterday, we had orientation at 3:00, and afterward we were guided through a tour of the town with a reception at a local bar called Carpe Diem immediately after. After the reception Aaron, Ellen, Ruth, Jessica, Scott, and I all headed towards La Vecchia Fattoria, which is the best (and the cheapest) restaurant in town. One girl in the program asked me how cheap "ridiculously cheap" is, so once she arrived at Vecchia, I went over and showed her the menu saying, "'Ridiculously cheap' means that you can get 1/4 liter of wine for €2." I ended up having 1/4 liter of white wine, pizza quattro formaggi (the pizzas aren't a slice, by the way. They're a whole pizza.), and their specialty for dessert--Mascarpone con fragoli. It's so delicious! It's essentially strawberries in cream, and is like heaven on earth. Total for my dinner, I believe I spent €11. 

After that, Aaron, Scott, and I went back to the house and talked for a while to get to know one another. 

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Today, we left in the morning for the medieval town of Urbino, one of the most important historical and cultural cities in the region. We also went to Urbino last year, and I really enjoyed it. It is a beautiful city, the only complaint I have is how steep the roads are! Even that really isn't a complaint, because how can you really complain while in Italy?

Tomorrow we rehearse with our pianists for our mock-auditions with June Card, and in the afternoon we are finally doing our sing-through!

Me in Urbino. Such a beautiful city!!!!

This little guy belonged to a student at the university in Urbino. He kept running up behind Ben for the shade.