One week...

No, not since you laughed at me.
But one week (and two days) until I hope no one laughs at the state that my recital is in when I present it, because as of right now it's sure "interesting".
Ok, no, to be frank I have everything except for ONE song memorized. I have sung through three sets straight, (not five-yet). I have felt not vocally great so I'm just trying to get through it all with a pretty sound and without pushing, and today that seemed to work.
After 45 minutes of a lesson on the Debussy and Strauss set, I had an hour break, and then I sang the Mozart and Bernstein. Leaving one set that wasn't sung in the same day.

I felt tired, but not completely feeling like this would never come together.
I did find out today in other non-awesome recital news, that I will NOT be able to have a full runthrough due to my accompanists (yes, both of them) not being able to ever meet in the same hour to run the whole thing straight through. That doesn't make me a happy camper, because this rep is not only challenging in general, it's challenging to sing one after the other. So hmmm...interesting.

In other weird musical/audition/future news, I got a call from Unnamed-Opera-Department-at-Ivy-School-that-just-got-a-lot-of-money-toward-their-music-program , notifying me that they JUST received my application from the admissions office- there must have been some mistake or backup (seeing as how a zillion people applied for the "million" dollars), and can I come audition? Well, I told the assistant I'd like to, but I'm 5 hours away, and it would be tough, and I've gotten an offer for next year. He said he'd tell the head-important-teacher-director lady. 5 minutes later she calls me back and says she really really really wants to hear me. I was definitely one of the ones they wanted to hear, etc. etc. what can we do to get you down here, etc. etc. we'll make a hotel reservation and fit you in whenever time-wise.
Even after I told her my situation for next year and my offers (which she agreed anyone would be hardpressed to turn down), and asked her about deferrment, or if they could hear me next year, she STILL wanted me to come this weekend instead of not auditioning.
So-I'm going.
I can't lose anything. I hopefully can only impress, and that's about it.
And hopefully I'll learn my recital music on the way.
So there.
Excellent.

Last night I spent about an hour (oh, between midnight at 1am) looking at the Lakme score backwards. It's absolutely true, learning it backwards makes singing the ending easier, because it's what you learned first.
There are about seven huge chunks/scenes of music to learn- not including the aria scene that I already know. It will be a huge undertaking but I'm definitely up for the challenge. I already highlited in pink, wrote out the tricky rhythms- Old School publishers, why you gotta make quarter rests and eighth rests look EXACTLY the same besides the way they are facing???-- and listened to those big chunks of scene while looking at the score.
So gorgeous. I can't wait.

-g