And now for something completely different...

Well, somewhat different. I got a very cool opportunity today to work with Maria Todaro, a French mezzo, currently in New York. She was in Springfield doing a show, I was a stagehand for the show, and in the end, she let me sing for her today before she left.

I had thought of several things I wanted to get to with her, since this was the first time I've ever worked with another mezzo. We got to most of them. The biggest was that weird break into chest. We didn't spend much time on it, but she basically said she'd faced the same thing, and eventually just had to say "if it's below this note, then I'm using chest." I'm going to have to work on it some (more) and see what works.

Secondly, I wanted to get to French, seeing as how she's from Paris and all. We worked the entire time (almost 2 hours) on the Seguidilla from Carmen. As it turns out, either my French isn't really that awful, or she's just too nice. We went through and translated and spoke through everything, and I THINK I got a pretty good handle on it (she said it really wasn't bad to begin with). But must.... remember... to... elide!

All this said and done, I really didn't sing much in the two hours with her. We spent most of the time talking about characterization and what it takes to define a character. I've thought a lot about this with Dorabella, but not in the same way I went about it today. She started off by making sure I knew what was going on in the opera (Carmen), which I basically did, though not as well as I should (but in my defense, my focus has been on a different opera). Then she had me describe what I saw as a modern-day Carmen. My interpretation would be the girl who runs off to Vegas or something to pursue a career in a less-than-innocent field. Then she had me explain why the girl went to Vegas in the first place, which is because she was burned by a man in the past, and now she's living in denial of what happened and is playing with every other man she meets, as a kind of means of retribution. This anger toward the man who hurt her is what drives her to care so little about herself and about the men she seduces. She is shallow because of her youth, but also because she had allowed herself to feel deeply at some point and was hurt, so now it is a means of protection. And so on. So, now that I had defined MY Carmen, we worked on moulding the aria around that.

(I'm writing this A: because the characterization has everything to do with my thesis, and B: because it'll help me remember it.)

First, for my benefit, here is how we "translated" the aria (which I trust is accurate for true meaning since, well, again, she's French):

In the ramparts of Seville, at my friend Lillas Pastia's,
I will go dance the Seguidilla and drink manzanilla.
I will go to my friend Lillas Pastia's.
Yes, I will go, but all alone it is boring.
True pleasure is for two, so I will take my lover to keep me company.
My lover... HA... My lover is with the devil- I threw him out yesterday!
My poor heart-- it is very consolable. My heart is free like air!
I have dozens of lovers, but I don't like any of them.
It is Friday, the end of the week-- who wants to love me?--- I will love in return.
Who wants my soul? It's free for the taking-- You've arrived at just the right moment.
I have no time to wait, because with my new lover I will go to the ramparts of Seville to dance the seguidilla and drink manzanilla.

At this point, Carmen has attacked the woman in the cigarette factory and is being held. Don Jose is with her, and she is trying to figure out how to escape from prison.

We took as much of the aria as we could phrase by phrase, talking about Bizet and Carmen's motives for what is happening. I'll start at the beginning:
The first phrase is in the orchestra (or piano). The first two measures are a very legato statement, which seems to suggest a serpentine cunning, followed by a "laughing" descending line, with staccatos and a dotted rhythm. In this phrase, Carmen seems to be contemplating an idea, which she finds rather amusing. There's a slight pause, and then the phrase repeats, an octave lower, and with a different resolution. Carmen has thought through her idea again, decides that it will work, and is set to put her plan in action.

(This is awkward to write, but hopefully it'll make sense to me later.) The seguidilla rhythm starts in the orchestra. It is written as staccato notes for the violins, mimicking the traditional Spanish guitar. Carmen begins shooting Don Jose looks and tells him she WILL go to Seville and dance, not that she would if she were free. From the very beginning, she displays unshakable confidence, which further entrances Don Jose. She manipulates him throughout the aria. In the next section, she tells him about how when she goes, it's going to be boring, unless she takes her lover-- but wait, she's thrown him out, and she's quite available. In the score, but not in my adapted version, Don Jose breaks in and tells her to shut up. She replies that she's merely singing and that he doesn't have to listen.

The composer (and editors, I'm sure), include many nuances that help the singer and orchestra to paint for viewers exactly what is happening. For example, when Carmen is singing about the dance, she has very short, separated notes, in the style of the dance. When she talks about drinking, the notes are written the same way, but it makes sense to make these notes very legato and sexy (not that there's anything NOT sexy about Carmen). There are countless things throughout the aria, and I'd be up all night if I tried to write about them all, but I've marked a lot in my music, so hopefully between this and that I'll remember most of it. If I had half a brain, I'd have taped the session, but the thought honestly never crossed my mind until I was there.

Basically, everything was about taking a character and making it my own. There was lots of talk about mirrors again. I practice in front of mirrors, I swear I do, but so far I haven't made it effective... but I shall try again, as usual. Toward the end, she had me doing lots of things without moving my body, only using my eyes for expression. That is EXTREMELY difficult. But she swore it was great. I don't know that I can use that much in singing, but it was definitely a good exercise to make me aware of what's going on with my eyes and face, so I'll have to keep playing with it. It would also seem that I sometimes do weird things with my shoulders while singing? I'll have to figure that one out.

Also, she made me aware of lots of other bodily things while singing, like that I should always complete an action before I sing about it. Yeah, that sounds weird. But she had me laughing at one point, while singing, and it really does make much more sense to do the action of laughing before making the sound. Never mind, I know what this means, no one else needs to.

Of course, everything we talked about was under the disclaimer that everything in art is subjective. Which is true. But I think she didn't realize that she was serving less to give me ideas than she was to help change the way I think. I've found that LOTS of this is changing the way I think about things. For example, I always learn notes first. Notes are the easiest, so I always learn them first, but she pointed out today that the words are the whole point, and that since notes are easiest anyway, it only makes sense to do the words first and THEN the notes. My brain won't like this change, but I have to try it.

We also talked about some of the many different Carmens I could choose to be. I could, in this aria, be the Carmen who's just being seductive, or the one who is trying to provoke more than seduce, by treating Don Jose as if I think he's too uptight, or a variety of other possibilities. We also talked about how my age, body type, personality, etc, determines how I interpret Carmen, and possibly how a director would choose the rest of the cast. If I were cast as Carmen, for instance, the rest of the cast would also have to be young. Rather than being the femme fatale type of Carmen, at this point I would be more young and flirty, using my body, but not in the same way as one more well-endowed. I guess put simply, I would be somewhat less sexy and more cute... or just sexy in a different way...

We talked about what to do with my hands. If they're tied behind my back, it really limits what I can do. She suggested that, especially in an audition or recital setting, I begin with them behind my back to give the idea, but then let them go. Another possibility is that they're tied in front, which changes everything yet again. If I let them go, then I have to think about what kind of motions communicate what. I have to concentrate on whether what a gesture is communicating is more open or closed, whether it radiates confidence or shyness. Apparently I tend to go toward the shy ones, so I'll have to work on that... I've never met a shy character in opera.

There are just lots of little things I'd never thought about before. I need to go this in-depth with all my music, I realize now... It will take a lot more work, but whatever it takes, I guess... At least it's the practice-room kind of work, which is much better than book-work.

Anyway, I know this deviates somewhat from Cosi and Dorabella, but it also has everything to do with what I'm trying to develop. In some ways everything I learned today was reassuring. I've often wondered if I'm really cut out for this, because I like precision and reasoning. Some might say it's strange for me to have gone into such a creative field, but I like to think of it as creativity of a different kind. But everything we talked about today showed me that there is reason behind all of the things that I need to think and feel on stage: Just because it's a creative field doesn't mean that I have to figure out how to not think and analyze... I just have to put it to good use. So, this was a great experience, and I'm very grateful she took the time to work with me.

I will choose the handsome dark one

If it's all the same to you...? Too bad Renee has graduated. I always said this is the perfect duet for the two of us, since I always pick the dark ones, and she always picks the blondes... and because when she lets go and really sings, she's so dang good...

I figured it up today, and I have 5 ensembles left to learn and I'll have the role down. Not all memorized yet, but at least in my voice and where it can be performable in a matter of days. So, I'm slightly more than halfway there. It's hard to learn ensembles without the ensemble... Also, it's not all in the same language... but Italian, English, what's the difference???

I worked on "more teeth" today. It really makes a big difference. I can spit out the diction a lot better that way, and the sound is bigger... it's just good all around. Why does it take me so long to figure out all these things? Something still isn't quite right, but it's closer. Hopefully it becomes a good habit quickly, since it takes so much concentration to get everything working right at the same time. It also helps with "waking up my face," as Buddy Clark has told me about every semester on my jury sheets, but we won't get into that-- it makes me grouchy.

I am REALLY tired of hearing about Michael Jackson. And he was NOT "our Mozart."

I may have said this at some point before, but oh well-- I find it really interesting to learn about the origins of this opera. Though who commissioned it, etc, is really not important, the history of the performers it quite interesting, and I believe it gives some insight into the relationships between characters. For example, the original sisters were sisters in real life too. Fiordiligi has a smaller part than most of the other characters, and a butt-kicking aria in the second act- as it turns out, she was da Ponte's mistress, and Mozart really didn't like her. The original Despina and Don Alfonso were married. Though they have no relationship like that in the show, they obviously have a history and know each other fairly well, from the way Mozart and da Ponte had them interact. I think it helps a lot to know these details in order to really develop the character. Of course, the sister thing doesn't help me a whole lot, even though I have a sister, since we never really lived together, but it still adds a new dimension to the Dorabella I'd imagined.

We talked in rehearsal last week about the way Mozart designed the music perfectly to fit the situation. I'm not good at picking up on this, but I'm working on it. For example, in the finale of the first act, Mozart uses straight note values in the voices trying to create calm, and dotted rhythms in the voices that are losing control. As the finale goes on, Mozart begins writing unison lines in the parts that really need to come out. In several places Dorabella and Fiordiligi have unison parts as they're trying to ward off the men's advances. The volume and intensity just keep building to the very end of the act, and the notes keep getting higher, and all the time the ever-proper women are losing control more and more, until at the end they've just lost it all, and have made it to high As. (Yeah, try reading that all in one breath). I realize now that I've never paid much attention to the way music fits text. Hopefully that will become a new good habit too.

I don't know if I'm learning what I expected to from this experience or not, but I'm definitely learning a lot. The biggest challenge I think is going to be putting all of this down on paper, in a way that's not offensive to academics... I tend to understand academics well, but I'm not sure they understand me. I can be very intellectual, but my mind works differently than most people. I HAVE to start getting the history part of all this down on paper soon. No more procrastinating... I hope... but I'm very good at it...