Today was a crazy day! This morning I had my first rehearsal for the operetta concerts with orchestra. We received our ensemble music *yesterday*, so nobody had really looked at it before our rehearsal, and yes, we are supposed to have it all memorized by Thursday. Gaaah! The entire vocal cast for the concert got together to learn the music from 10-12:30pm today. And - surprise! - I have been given a solo part in one of the ensemble pieces. Woohoo!!! So I have three ensemble pieces plus my duet for the orchestra concert. I'm telling you, it's a LOT of music to memorize in 3 days. Time to get very focused and just brute-force those words into my memory. After the 2 1/2 hr rehearsal, we rehearsed with our conductor from 3-4pm, and then had a private coaching with him for 30 minutes from 4:30-5pm. Oh - and I also found out at breakfast that I was to sing in tonight's recital at 7pm. But I wasn't done after that - I had another operetta rehearsal from 8-9:30pm. Phew!
The conductor for the operetta concerts is from the Volksoper in Vienna, and he's been great to work with. After the private coaching with my duet partner, he complimented me on my solo singing from our earlier rehearsal. He also said he was interested in hearing me sing "Depuis le jour" at the recital!!! Very cool. Even though I was exhausted by the time the recital came around, I had to dig deep to find the energy to perform to the best of my ability - especially with a conductor in the audience that was there specifically for me. While it certainly wasn't the best I've ever sung that aria, I do feel like I made improvements on my stage presence and connection to the emotion of the character. I felt in control on stage, and my guestures felt so much more natural than in the past. During the intermission, my stage artistry instructor came up and told me how proud she was of me and gave me a big hug. Yay!!! After the concert, the conductor asked me how I felt I did. I told him that I didn't feel like I had enough energy to keep the forward momentum of those long legato phrases. He agreed and said that he could tell I had more sound to offer and that he thought I was holding back vocally. I honestly think that I could've done a lot better had my voice, body and mind not been so tired. I've got to be careful about pacing myself and resting enough so that I don't burn out. It's great that he showed an interest in me and got to hear me sing one of my favorite arias, and I'll continue to work hard this week and next to show him what I've got. No holding back! And with that...it's time for bed.
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