04 March, 2006

post recital breakdown

Yay! I have waited SO long to NOT have to still sing my graduate recital. And now it's over!
And I don't miss the feeling of not having sung it yet...at all! :)
But to real music criticism.
My review of my performance:

The Debussy were the best they have ever been. The technique just clicked, I wasn't singing into the room. I was singing out the back of my head and it was really working. I felt connected to the words so much. Just gorgeous music...how can you not?

The Mozart AGAIN (just like in previous recital) was a bit shaky for me. No nerves because I know the piece, no one else could vocally tell there was much of a significant change for me from when I usually rehearse it, but for me it felt completely different. Those sustained G's just felt like they were about to taper off at any time, so I think I either pushed into them to make sure that didn't happen, or I relaxed them too much so they got a bit soft. It wasn't off in any way except in my mind- comparing it to what I had done previously.
I still don't think I'll ever really sing it again unless I do a recording of Mozart concert arias one day (IF I'm famous..famous...famous (Rasputina anyone?))
The good: The recit. I was all there. And that's the toughest dramatically.
The needs to be improved: Just getting OUT of my own way on the "easy" part of the aria! I mean, this is Mozart. This is easy for me. The high G's-that's what I DO. So yes, the runs were fine, but my larynx slowly rising and trying to choke me was NOT fine.

The Bernstein- good as usual. I added some more childishness into it and hopefully it didn't come off as "too coy", as Bernstein instructs the singer specifically not to do.

The Strauss- The best it's been. Got all the words except a tiny flub in Amor but I just kept singing something like "hirtin" or "hilfe"--either one works! No weird rhtyhmic things went wrong. I think I wrapped my head around them all really well and I'm happy with the performance.

The last set- fun for me and fine as usual.

Teachers were happy with it. They knew I was struggling in the Mozart, but otherwise they said the voice came through like no other time before. I was really into the new space.
The coach was happy- we'll talk more on Monday to get the full review.

OK then. Now all I have to do is attend diction classes until the end of the year (I can only miss one more..boo), and do my TA work for my professors!

I just ate a big piece of cake and had coffee so I'm sure I'll be up for a while and that's OK because I have NOTHING more to study for this week! Now it's time to start cracking open those scores for the summer and next year.

-ggg (for the three in the Mozart).

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