coaching

Had a coaching today to refresh some arias and also to go through some new-additions-of-already-learned-arias-to-my-replist.
It's so fun when you have someone who is just as excited to work, perfect, tweak, and really get that stellar performance that you're looking for--guiding you from the piano with new ideas, new thoughts, and new inspirations (for old, old, old arias).
Now, not that I don't like any of my old pieces. I sing them and offer them at almost every audition, and wouldn't give them up for the world. They show off my voice best, they're a mix of mozart, standard, contemporary, and off the beaten path. I think that I have a great list of 5,6,7-10..whatever I feel like offering that day for that particular audition.

But they have all been in my rep. for a number of years. And every once in a while when I'm not coaching a new role, or learning a new aria for something specific, it's really nice to actually coach my current audition repertoire--instead of just offering them at the audition and seeing which ONE of the six the panel will pick second.

Things to remember:
It's about the whole phrase, no matter how musical I make each of the mini-parts of the phrase.
The first note of the word "una", no matter how "little" the word is, set the tone and framework for the rest of the aria.
Play with the Tra la la's on the offbeats and accents.
Play with the first cadenza and build up to the Morbleu!
Don't rush the high notes that everyone thinks are hard, even if they're not hard for me to sing.
To accent a note more (and HOW could I forget this from my days of piano lessons), DE-accent (emphasize less) the note before it, don't just ACCENT the note MORE.

Looking forward to another coaching with a coach-new-to-me, but highly recommended on Friday.





-