Flying

It has been a pretty crazy couple weeks. I flew out to visit e. for my spring break and had a wonderful, if hectic, time. I tried to prepare for this week, but somehow things have still been running at a sports car clip.

Here's a glimpse of this past week:

Monday: Drag myself out of bed, combatting the jet lag and time difference. Finish one large and one mini-project for my stage directing class. Run to classes. Rehearse for Tuesday performances.

Tuesday: Warm up early. Perform in Voice Repertoire class and hand out paper profiling the art song I'm singing. (An Ernst Bacon piece using Emily Dickinson's poem, "And this of all my hopes.") Perform a staged scene in Opera Workshop - a very tricky ensemble number from Mozart's Impresario, complete with blocking (staging). Rehearse for the first time with piano the contemporary piece I'm singing Friday. Classes and homework complete the mix, but the evening is quite late, spent gathering the rest of my visa paperwork.

Wednesday: Hop a 6 am flight to the Italian Consulate to apply for a visa. (I'm hoping to study Italian for 6 weeks in Italy this summer.) Hop a 10 pm flight home. Sigh because I have to go back in person with more documents that weren't clearly outlined on their website.

Thursday: Up early, warming up for an 8 am rehearsal on the contemporary piece. This is the first rehearsal with all the instruments. Also go to a voice lesson, classes, and a long meeting that was business-focused. Mix in homework.

Friday: Up early warming up for the master class on the contemporary piece. While my part of the master class is only 30 minutes, it lasts 2.5 hours beyond that because of the other composers and singers. Lots of afternoon classes, including a rehearsal on another opera scene.

Saturday: 6 hours spent in the rest of the master class. (There are a lot of composers and performers on this project.) More homework, including another stage directing project and music theory, to do.

Tomorrow: a 4 hour rehearsal plus homework.

I feel like I'm "running just to catch myself", to quote some Mark Schultz lyrics. Most of what I'm doing is fun and interesting, but it's very challenging. To sing well, you really need to have time to let the music digest, like letting meat marinade or bread dough rise. I've been learning so much lately that I haven't really had the digestion time, which is making me a little breathless. All the projects and extra "housekeeping to dos" (visa and FAFSA to name a few) aren't exactly helping. Figaro will start in 2 weeks, which means we're heading into tech week now, so I'll be flying for a while longer.

Off to find some jet fuel (read: sugar!!)...

~Hope