Dear Readers,
Today was just one of those days...
Looking back it was kind of like a "pastrami" sandwich on "soggy nasty old stale tasteless manure bread." The middle of my day was awesome (awesome = pastrami), the beginning and end of my day were both horrible (horrible = soggy nasty old stale tasteless manure bread).
In short, I had a fantastic rehearsal and coaching with Maestro McDonald. In his charming Scottish accent the Maestro said to me "You know it's right when the tenor gives you chills. Joe, the chills never lie." We worked in very fine detail, on vowel selection. Despite what one's natural or instinctual reactions are to singing in English, it is very challenging. We spent a lot of time considering which vowels sound most like the spoken English word printed and which sound best in my voice. We talked about consonants contributing to legato as opposed to stopping or impeding the legato. My favorite aspect of working with Maestro McDonald is that his answer to all of my questions is: let's find the solution that works best in your voice. We also came to the conclusion that almost all inaccuracies in pitch or music or vowel came from a misuse of my breath - we fixed that and things just lined up!
Maestro McDonald is a singer's conductor. He is a sticker for precision, but very flexible and reads his singers very well. It is nice to come to a place in my singing development where I feel like I am collaborating. In our coaching we talked a lot about breath. We even borrowed a Tibby Plyler quote BOYB (Blow Out Your Breath). I worked with Ms. Plyler in 2010 in the semester that I sang my first Merry Widow at UGA. It is a small world.
I also had a lot of fun staging the first act duet with Gale Novak Mosites (playing Valencienne) and Mo Zhou (Merry Widow director). It is going to be a great show, I am sure.
I found out after rehearsal that my car wouldn't start....
However, Johnathan Eaton and Dennis Robinson were so accommodating and helpful.
I was fortunate, again, that Ms. Demareus Cooper was available. She was kind enough to drive me all the way back to Rosslyn Farms.
I am going to call it a night early... if I can get away from this Murphy's law day sooner I would.
A great day for music - a terrible day for me.
Thanks for reading,
Joe
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