new music and learning it

My new favorite piece to sing and play with my favorite person in my life: La Maja y el ruisenor from Goyescas by Granados. GORGEOUS. Now, I like Spanish and Mid-Eastern flavored music in general, but in this piece the text, scene and music really all work so beautifully together that it's moving to hear and sing.

It was so beautiful out today that I walked six miles along a trail near my apartment. It felt pretty good! Maybe if the weather keeps up I'll start making it more of a habit, and even bring my ipod along next time to listen to all the music which I still have not learned.

Oh, speaking of that...
The music learning process
Things I've experienced before- studying a score front to back, back to front, inside out, language coached separately, notes learned on Ah... and only THEN do I really know every turn it takes. I can see the page in my head, the translation I wrote underneath it, any musical notes in pencil, etc. Everything is there right under the surface of my eyes.

OR I've looked at the score three or four times, and without even trying, it clicks and it's memorized.
Now, this version scares me, but in a way, I've learned it in my subconscious.
Does that mean it will stay there and I'll be able to bring it into my consciousness when I have to actually sing it?
Do I still have to go through the memorizing, writing each line out over and over on pieces of scrap paper? Humming in my head? Having the scores next to my bed so that at 1am when I'm trying to go through the part in my head and can't remember whether there is a rest or not in a certain spot I can check it?

All of my summer music so far is being learned through option number two. That's not to say that I'm not spending time on it. I just don't find myself consciously memorizing or trying to memorize. The music is all "learned". I just need to be off-book, and right now, I can sing a whole bunch in my head all correctly! But I haven't been "tested", or tested myself in a coaching to see if I can actually do it.

And in terms of big role for next year- well that I spent time on because the score was so hard to read, rests all over the place with two languages worth of notes. So I didn't really pay attention to the words as much as singing the right notes and rhythms--and now suddenly the words are in my head too!

I hope this easy way keeps working for me, but I'll back it up just to make sure.

-g