I officially changed my calendar, and it's prepped for all of the crazy and fun rehearsing and performing I have left for my master's degree. So many people are coming to visit me, I'm so excited! I hope that I can spend quality time with them and not stress out for the performances.

April 7th and 15th--Carmen. I'm playing Frasquita, her higher-voiced gypsy friend. It's a load of fun, and so far working with everyone has been fantastic. It's the most performed opera in the world, and so if you've never seen it, now's the time. It's at 8pm in the MAC.
If you are short of cash (read: a music student) come check us out at the dress rehearsals: Monday April 3rd and Wednesday April 5th. I think the dress rehearsals start at 7, but I could be wrong. You won't get the polished performance that you would for the production nights, but it's free and we still give 100%.

April 12--Mock recital at Meadowood, 6:30pm. I'm really excited about this because it gives me a chance to run most of my recital. It'll be held in the nursing area as opposed to the retirement area, and I'm really psyched about this. It's casual, and I can talk inbetween songs and interact with all of the people. This is what I really love. I'm not all about the super-fancy walk on and walk off, judge-me-please kind of recitals. This will give me an opportunity to experience the recital in a more relaxed way, and to truly feel like I am communicating and offering something to the people in the audience. I hope I can bring the experience to my real recital date to keep from being nervous.

April 23rd--Recital!, 1pm Ford Hall. I've picked lots of music that I love, and hope that it's an interesting program. I'm starting with a Carissimi small ensemble piece, and Kaia and Naomi are along for the ride. Then 3 Nin-Culmell sephardic songs, 3 Rachmaninoff, and "Songs of Another Autumn," a world premier of the full song cycle composed by Ralph Buxton. The pieces are really beautiful and eclectic, and the text (by once famous NYTimes reviewer and poet Louise Bogan) is incredible. The recital ends with 3 Barber choral pieces, performed by a group of 8 of us (Kaia, myself, Meghann, Sarah, Jason, Tim, Joe, and Jonathan). Tada! Please come support this fun recital. Plus, mom's making yummy food at my apartment afterwards, so come on over for post-recital goodness :)

Ok, off to start the pre-dress week madness!

Church

I haven't been feeling very religious lately, yet today I went to church nearby. I realized the main things I have problems with when it comes to church services:

*I find many of the teachings old-fashioned and unappropriate in this day and age. Who can say that the exact teachings thousands of years ago can apply to the daily life of someone living in 2006? Also, those that try to change the wording to make it more applicable to the here and now--who says that these synonyms really mean the same thing? How many times have the wordings been changed, and how different it is now from what what was originally said?

*I don't believe that only my faith saves. I cannot believe that, because there are so many fantastic people that radiate the love of God in all that they do, yet do not share in all that my religion says. Is God really hoping they all become one faith? Plus, religion is such a deep rooted part of many cultures. Certain countries' beliefs and structures can certainly adhere more to one or a few religions, and of course in general the people will find more comfort in that faith that they have grown-up more closely to.

*In my experience, the people in Catholic congregations are completely underwhelmed. They sit there like rocks, oblivious to any reason why they might be there other than guilt. Nobody sings and people barely respond to the prayers. Not that I feel comfortable with jumping around and dancing, speaking in tongues, etc. but some kind of emotional response would be great.

*The music is generally poorly produced--I do not expect all of the cantors and organists/pianists to be professionals (though it certainly would be nice) but it would be enjoyable to see a charismatic leader. I often can barely hear the cantor, and they sing with a garbled tone, and look like they don't even know what they are saying.

I have felt closest to "my church" at St. Paul the Apostle in New York. They really are the community I feel that fits my life and the people there are full of joy and purpose. They attend mass on Sundays despite the busy city life, and go actively to find what they need to take and need to give. I miss it there, and though it doesn't mean to, it really highlights the weaknesses of so many churches elsewhere.

*However, I do realize that church is a wonderful community nonetheless, and in general, people are trying to become better people by going. They want to find something to believe in, to share with others, and despite the many uninspiring laypeople, there are some that truly open their hearts and try to reach out.

*Though the music is generally bad, the words in song always reach me more than the scripture. Particularly today the communion hymn--as I sang it I felt it trying to reach out to me.

Return to God with all your heart, the source of grace and mercy; come seek the tender faithfulness of God.

I am having some issues seeing past blogs on my main screen. Hope you can all access them. Sigh.

Things here are going well. I've definitely been a little lazy, and have only been practicing, making good meals, watching movies, and sitting around for the past few days. It's already Wednesday, which means my normal school week is already half over.

...Now I'm feeling a little too lazy, though I should use this time for a break.

I did do a lot of frontloading before now, however, and have only 1 class that I have work to do for, and of course work keeping Carmen in my head and placing my recital rep there.

Anyhow, this blog says nothing new. I'm just hoping once I publish it, you can see the last blog as well. Who knows.

I wish it were warmer here...the sun is taunting us all by being present and beautiful, but it's constantly chilly and definitely not full-out spring weather. What can one expect? Alas, I dream of warm beaches and tropical drinks...

Spring break has officially started

So, although this actually only means 4 days of class off, I've got 8 days from now to do whatever I please.

Here are my non-fun goals:

1-make sure I have the Carmen music and stagings down and ready to go for our return
2- practice my gypsy stance/moves
3-Have my recital music pretty much memorized and ready to mold into different interpretations
4-record the song cycle I'm premiering and send it to the composer, to have him give me any input to make it more like he wants
5-go clothes shopping and get rid of the lots of old holey and ill-fitting clothes in my closet
6-get a headstart on my Rodgers song analysis (if not finish it)

Fun Goals:

1-spend quality time with friends still in town
2-finish a book or two
3-get out of town for a day trip with Andy
4-get lots of sleep
5-be a little lazy

Tada. There we go. Let's see what I've actually accomplished a week from now...

~L.

Life

Wow, it's been a long time. Things here are going pretty well. I suppose I should update in a list, to make it faster:

1) Ryan, Dave, and Tony's recitals (in that order) went really well, I think. Overall, I was pleased with the way things went, and hope that all of the composers were too. I think they were, which is fabulous. Makes me think of asking more people if they need soprano soloists for their compositions (during summer vacation, perhaps).

2) as a result of singing in Tony's recital, the conductor, Hebe, asked me to solo for a reading of Mahler 4's last movement. I know, Mahler doesn't seem like it should = me, but for the purpose and the general feel of the movement, I should be ok. It's not partularly high at all, but it's light and beautiful. Yay!

3) Carmen is going really well. We made it through the week of musical rehearsals, and yesterday I had my first staging (making it a 13.5 hour day at school. phew). Of course, when you add staging, inevitably it falls apart a bit musically, but hopefully we'll be able to reign it in soon.

4) lots of fun tidbits with Carmen--we're doing flamenco moves on stage, and alas, although our moves are not complicated, we need to learn how to hold our bodies (shoulders as low as possible, but shoulder blades tight together, almost touching, elbows up, etc.). They're going to provide us with a teacher, who has already started working with the Carmens. Also, I hear they are paying for us gypsies to get spray tans before dress week. Hahaha. Craziness. It's all too fun.

5) As for outside school musical things, nothing is happening yet. I have won no competitions, and am still waiting to hear back from Opera North (who absolutely has nothing to offer my voice type this summer anyway) and Brevard (I'd have to pay). Wheeha. Doesn't sound that great, but hopefully I'll be cast at Brevard in something good, and get almost full scholarship (one can dream...).

6) so, this summer I'll probably be in Bloomington. It'll give me time to study up on things I'd like to sing/new music/opera roles, plus time to read, and I think Ms. Wise might want me to house sit in the beginning of the summer.

7) Spring break is next week, and although I'll be here in town, I'm very excited about it. I'll have to spend some time making sure I've got the Carmen internalized, and spend a lot of time working on my recital rep (My recital will be Sunday, April 23rd, at 1pm in Ford Hall). I think I'm perhaps 70% memorized, but not a performable-memorized, if you know what I mean.

8) This break with also give me more time to spend with Andy, who I suppose I've been officially dating for almost 3 weeks. :) It's been wonderful, and I already feel quite attached to him. Since we've been becoming better friends over 4+ months, this probably isn't a surprise.

9) Mom and friends and family are coming to visit over the weeks of my recital and Carmen, which should be lots of fun. Yay Leanne, Mom, Karen, Diane and Richard, and Rachel! :)


ok, time to get on with my day. I've got rehearsal from 4-6, and then a CVE concert tonight, so it'll be another long day, with a slight reprieve around lunchtime.