I got my Boheme score last week-- I was way too excited. And wayyyy too anxious to wait even a minute before playing through my part in the second act.
My last two roles have been so pleasantly linear and easy to come in at the right time that I'd forgotten just how tricky Puccini can be. After highlighting all my singing in each act, and putting little tabs on the pages, I put the score back on the piano and walked away, telling myself to just calm down, that I've got three months to learn it.
The next day, I opened it up again and turned on the metronome. My god, I said. Then I really started to freak out because the tempos are so insane, and when I listened to the Karajan recording, well, I nearly had a melt down. So I put the whole thing away and watched a Barefoot Contessa segment on the Food Network, after which I felt much better and will always be in awe of her ability to calm my soul with her Long Island-French cuisine, even though I will probably never eat any of it, or attempt to make it myself.
So the new directive is to become just a bit more confident with small sections everyday, starting from the end of an act and working forward, always beginning way under tempo, going through that way first, and then trying to get it back up there where it should be. Then is the interesting task of figuring out what's the best way to know when to come in-- taking a cue from the orchestra, the other singers, or, if all else fails just plain having to count. Counting really sucks at times. I avoid it at all costs. :)
In other news, I went dancing over the weekend, and hung out with my mom. Why is it that we're always the most fabulous chicks at the club? I tried to talk her into going to see Sex and the City movie with me again, but she wouldn't hear of it. Oh well. I'm just dying for Joe to come back from Ohio, and for our fun 4th of July weekend...
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