Run, Run, Run, Grand Jete!

When I was little, I took a few years of ballet lessons. Besides the particular odor of the dance studio, the color of its hardwood floors, and the feel of its metal bars, all I really remember from when I was really little is my teacher's voice enthusing, "RunRunRun GRAND jete!" (with little accents aigus over the "e"s in "jete") To me at the time, this sounded like "RunRunRun Grahnjehtay!" About 30 little girls and one little boy all clad in leotards would scamper around the room at top speed going "step step step LEAP! step step step LEAP!"

This memory is especially vivid right now since that's what my life feels like. It's a bit hectic with lots of LEAP!s to make, but it's also really fun. At the end of the day, the breathlessness that's there because I actually made all the leaps makes me really happy.

Today, I had a wonderful mix of various things. There was a bit of housework in the form of going to the grocery store. Accomplishing that always feels like a foray into the wilderness and a triumphant hunter-gatherer's return because I have no car, so a combination of bus-riding and snow-shoeing gets me to and fro. I also did a touch of vacuuming and dishes - good for little ole' not-so-domestic me!

There was also lots of singing, probably the primary reason why I'm glowing. I had plenty of personal practice, and I spent an hour in Ariadne rehearsal, where I discovered that I do remember all my blocking (choreographed stage movements).

My academic brain was sated with an hour and half of theory class, where I got to perform Brahms' "Immer leiser wird mein Schlummer" - in the low key, no less! And talking through the harmonic insights into Brahms' interpretation of the poem and storyline reminded me of why I love Lieder.

I met with some folks to talk through the conference topics and sessions and sent the requisite emails for that.

I had a great networking conversation with a really kind alum from my past company.

And I am about to dive into my outreach work in preparation for tomorrow's outreach performance.

Sleep will hopefully figure in here somehow....we'll see how that goes. But for now, I'm pretty thrilled that I actually made some progress on all of the big categories on my to-do list.

A very GRAND jete indeed!

~Hope

Good day

I had a fantastic day yesterday, partly because I finally had a day mostly in one spot instead of running about from appointment to appointment. What made even more of a difference was that my day was focused on music - gasp! what a shock for a conservatory student. The conference and job hunt went on hold, and I spent my day singing my recital music, taking a voice lesson, signing up for a coaching, and researching my recital music in the library. Ok, there was a theory class in there as well, but theory is still a class, a place where I can kick back, take some notes, and think about music.

I think getting actual sleep the last two nights probably helped a bit as well.

Much of my work yesterday dealt with Desdemona, the wife of Othello whom he falsely accuses of adultery and then murders. Right after he's accused her but before he comes to their bedroom to strangle her, she is sitting with her only friend, Emilia. Desdemona tells Emilia that her mother had a maid who sang this folk song called The Willow Song right the night she died. And Desdemona feels like singing it then.

The Willow Song was a popular ballad in Shakespeare's day. We know it today because of Othello, but he actually lifted the lyrics from the popular cannon. The original was actually sung by a man about his faithless female lover, but the refrain, "Sing willow, willow, willow", was still there. Shakespeare transformed it, and later composers have taken Shakespeare's version, transformed it a bit, and added all sorts of music. Kilpinen created a Swedish version. Loewe did one in German. Khatchaturian - Russian. Gilbert & Sullivan - "Tit willow, tit willow, tit willow". Jean-Jacques Rousseau - the philosopher - wrote one in French. And several composers like Baber and Korngold set it in English. It's really interesting to hear the different takes. Some are major, some minor. The various languages give the text a different flavor as well. But all are filled with the same aching grief.

Today, lots of practice, a coaching, a couple meetings, and a rehearsal for Manon (I'm playing the maid who gets to say "C'est l'heure du souper, Monsieur."/"It's time for dinner, sir.") If I'm really good, I'll also knock out Monday's theory assignment. The weekly theory work due Mondays usually takes me about 5-10 hours, so it would be great to pull that off my to-do list today!

~Hope

Tornadoeing

There are so many balls in the air right now that I feel a bit like I'm in the midst of a tornado. It's a little like I'm in The Wizard of Oz, watching all house paraphenalia zip by me. Except the house paraphenalia in my world is more intangibles that need to be taken care of.

The big things?

• Job hunt
• Conference I'm organizing for April 10th on business skills for graduating singers
• Recital
• Recital (I have to put it on there twice because it's Really Important. And A Lot of Work.)
• Outreach
• Classes (especially theory, which sucks up hours of time faster than a Hoover vacuum cleaner)
• Oral exams
• Possible upcoming competition requiring 30 more minutes of music
• March opera scenes program which will soon be 3 hours of rehearsal a day

If it were just the singing or even the singing and the classes, I'd be fine. But the conference and the job hunt are eating too much mindshare and heartshare. It's incredibly stressful to know that The Loan Payments Are Coming and a job is nothing more than a hazy specter on the horizon that may not even really exist. And the low ROI on emails is just disheartening.

For now, it's back to reading about Schubert's Moment Musical and the use of E natural as a "promissory note" (yes, as in a debt that should be repaid, in this case by resolution).

Hope you're having an easier time and much less tornadoeing.

~Hope

Finito

Well, the opera finished on Saturday. My last performance was Thursday, but I was "on call" for Saturday in case the other Silberklang was out for the count for whatever reason. Since I'm not a doctor and haven't covered any other roles for a show in which I haven't actually played another part, this was my first experience being on call. I rather enjoyed it. There's something exciting about the thought that you just might have to rush to the theatre and have the costume and makeup people throw you into clothes so that you can be onstage that night. You probably won't have to perform...but you just might.

My sweetheart came up for my final show and stayed through the weekend. He brought me the most gorgeous flowers, gave me a massage, and cooked an extravagantly wonderful dinner of ginger-glazed, wasabi-crusted baked salmon with homemade wasabi mashed potatoes on the side and Thin Mint ice cream for dessert. (I'll post pictures of the flowers and the dinner later.) He also sat with me in a coffee shop through the hours of homework I had to do, took me to a tropical butterfly garden even though he melts in humidity, and ploughed through the snowdrifts and 2 degree Fahrenheit windchill as we walked to and from school. Suffice to say he qualifies for the Boyfriend of the Century award.

After he left Sunday, I finished up a few things and then crashed on Monday. I think I had a delayed reaction to the show ending since I was so keyed up about him being here for the weekend. I slept 13 hours Monday night. Now, I'm trying to jumpstart everything else that has been coasting along since the show (laundry, cleaning, job hunt, conference I'm organizing, recital work, classwork, catching up with people, etc.) Admittedly, some of the thing on that list have been getting a good amount of attention despite the show, but I do feel like I've just been keeping the balls in the air and now it's time to increase their height.

I'll post pictures soon. For now, it's off to rehearse for the next opera, which is coming up in March. My memorization deadline for my scene is Friday. Things move quickly around here!

~Hope