Paul’s “G”odiva Spot

Last night, we opened Street Scene at the Timms Centre, in Edmonton, Alberta!  It was amazing!!  Everyone was in top form, including our director, Bradford Diesel, who showed up at the premiere in a  tux (grey and burgundy…nice combo) and bright yellow shoes!!!  I asked him very nicely what he was thinking about this particular choice of ensemble, but he was very proud that he could put himself together like that.  Needless to say, we got a good chuckle out of it!

I arrived at the theatre desperately early, bursting through the doors, bosom first of course, taking deep breaths and gleefully beaming as I zwiddle desperately along my merry way.  A.K.A. I was on a chocolate high!  I wontonly milled about until others began filing in.  There was a mix of different emotions that night.  Some were as wired as I was (too much coffee to counteract a desperate hang-over, or just because…), and some that if you saw them, you would automatically reach for a fully charged cattleprod and chase them around a room.  And for some, even THAT would not work!  I did my usual warm-up rituals to get the voice nice and supple.  You know, I have had a big vocal brealthrough being here!  I am learning to keep my throat open all the time as I sing through phrases, so as to allow the resonance to take maximum effect, and have more space to jiggle around in my body before coming out to those listening!  I was able to warm up to and sustain an F above tenor high C comfortably, and the day before that, I sustained a G!!!  So this is so cool!!!  Then, I flung myself butt first, pirouettes and all, into my dressing room to apply my make-up and get changed.  And true to form, I was asked by our dear Nuova director, to take the patron letters, wrap them in a ribbon and tie them in a bow! 

School is done, let’s have fun…AAAAAH!!  Now I have that music permanently stuck in my head and I cannot turn it off!  We took our places, and then, the downbeat…we had begun!!  I felt that it was the best I had sung this role in all the rehearsing and nursing apart!  So now, I have to repeat this thrice more, and outdo myself!!!  THAT is always a challenge.  Which is why some opera singers retire after a while, even before their voices hint that it is time to stop, because they find that they cannot seem to hold themselves to the high standards they know they are capable of.  I am NOT saying that I have reached that in ANY way, because I am young, and still growing vocally, and will keep growing so long as I stay open to learning, which is a very wise thing to do.

Oh yes!  And there is this dreaded (by moi) end of Nuova partay!  I have been threatened that if I do not show up, horrible things involving a large pot and hot oil will happen to my corpus!  See?  Everybody wants a piece of me…LITERALLY!!!

Moi

If you cut us, do we not bleed? 

If you tickle us, do we not giggle and wriggle (or hiss like a cat if you are a soprano)? 

If you applaud us, do we not have an entire list of encores at the ready?

If you say, “hey…you are filling out there…” do we not go on the craziest fad diet and get paranoid to the point of looking for the lowest calorie celery stick to eat?

If you take our picture, do we not strike a pose?

If you pamper us, do we not purr?

If you repremand us, do we not throw a fit of temper, and walk away in a huff?

If you say “sing” do not not respond, “how high?”?

If you deprive us of attention, do we not shrivel up, like a flower in the desert?

If you play any Wagner leit motif, do we not get a sudden urge for pigtails?

If you give (some of) us water with ice, do we not complain?

If you deny us chocolate, do we not get violent?

If you resonate, do we not tingle?

If you play ANYTHING by Liszt, do we not get the sudden urge to go “Chopin” ?

If you tell us to get a grip on ourselves, do we not literally drop everything and do so?

If you tell us we are too melodramatic, do we not agree wholeheartedly and tell you to DEAL WITH IT!!?

Yes, we are people too…and we need to be seen and respected as such.  Now, if you will excuse me, methinks I hear a Wagner tune…so off I go for pigtails!!!

Moi

Here are seven factoids I have learned about opera singers:

1. We are all a bubble (or four) off centre!

2. Putting a bunch of opera singers in the same room at once is liable to become terribly interesting, if left to our own devices that is!

3. One in every 1,000 sopranos comes with the ‘diva’ gene surpressed. The same is the case of one in every 5 mezzos! 

4. Everybody is really out to get the tenor!  We are always the butt and sport of singer jokes!!

5. Some of us walk around randomly phonating everywhere, not caring who may be listening, yet get desperately paranoid when someone walks into the room while we are practising!

6. We do not run around throwing ourselves on the floor, and gasping loudly in tears every time a crisis occurs…only I do that!

7. We are the only species of creature who can have over a thousand different emotions in the span of five minutes or less!

Have you ever seen a half chewed piece of raw liver just lying limp on the pavement in the hot sun?  Well, I have actually seen that, and it is NOT a pretty sight!  And that is EXACTLY how many of us feel three weeks in!!!  I look around at the faces of everyone who I pass by as I am on my way to or from rehearsals.  When we first came, everyone was so pumped and raring to go, and now, we all look like death warmed over…thrice!!!

In the midst of all this constipation, I have found out some useful things about myself along the way.  Seeing that I have always known I am a type A, high strung kind of person, I am learning what my stress limits are, as I have crossed them a few times, only to be rescued by Casper, who would pick up pieces of me from off the wall (after my spontaneous explosions) and patiently reassemble me, for which I am desperately grateful!!  Actually, the three of us hold each other together as we each have had, and will have our ‘fall apart’ moments when we just need each other to surround us with love and assurance, so we have a good little emergency care unit going on here.

I am learning more about what really gets to me, and what really drives me to panic attacks.  I am also learning that I have more stamina than I thought I ever had, and that is helping me to pull myself, and others through the best I can.  And I am also learning that it is OK not to be all well put together all the time, though I always desperately try to be.  It was told to me that this programme at Nuova is designed to exhaust and stress you out past our limits, so that when our learned patterns fail us, and they will, we will be forced to be open to the many alternatives that are available to us, but were too analytical to even try them.  One thing is for sure!  One has to have faith and open one’s self to trying things, especially when they make no sense as to how this or that applies to singing.  Actually, so far, I have had a major vocal breakthrough, and I am looking forward to seeing where this will lead me. DO NOT get me wrong!  The moment they start doing evil rituals or such is the moment I draw the line!   But I am open to wearing a wig with pigtails and a horned helmet just for the heck of it!

So there you have it.  An update.  Sorry this has taken so long, but as everyone here can attest, we have had no time to even breathe, much less do anything else!  And yet, they keep yelling, “breathe!!”

Moi

Everyday being here in Nuova is a challenge.  We have sooooooo many rehearsals, lessons, coaching sessions, where we are force-fed so much stuff that at the end of each day, one has to either process it, file it away for later processing, or suffer a rather severe headache from overload!!!

There is however, another kind of challenge I face each morning.  They come in the forms of the two stooges, namely Casper and Jiminie!  Casper is not too bad when it comes to getting him up in the mornings (you see, I am their self proclaimed agitant, whether they want me to be or not…and they do not really care for it, but I am not for a moment going to let THAT stand in my way!!!), as he will just whine about wanting five more minutes…until I drag the sheets off of him and he is then left with no choice but to surrender to the cold and trudge desperately to warmer climbs…THE SHOWER!!!  This is of course when he is not cat-walking his way to the bathroom like a desperate supermodel!

Now, on to Jiminie!  Remember I was talking about these being the BRIGHT early mornings?  Well, they are bright because whenever Jiminie wakes up and the covers roll back, the sunlight hits his skin, and he becomes this flamingly and blisteringly pasty white glow-stick…with hair all over his face!!!!  So the entire room fills up with light!!!!  I am amazed that he is not blinded by his own glow!  I always wear my glasses because they are transitionals, so they always darken automatically once I yank away his covers and teddy bear!  Oh yes, the teddy bear…but that is for another time.  The first thing to exit Jiminie’s mouth, other than night drool, is his usual whining about not wanting to go to school…mommy!  And then there was last night when I went to go rescue him from being stranded at a bar…but that is for another entry date and trust me…you do NOT want to miss this one (*insert evil baritone chuckle here*)!

So it goes without saying that there is ne’er a DULL moment our mornings!!!  HAAH!!!!!

Moi