First Week of Grad. Schoolz

This will be most short, because I have to read two short stories for tomorrow for a class that I may or may not drop.

Tomorrow is my one week anniversary with graduate school! How will I celebrate? I will go to the aforementioned class at 9:50, then get a steroid injection into my shoulder at 1:00, teach piano from 3:00-8:00, and I will end the night by going to an "Arts and Crafts" event hosted by the gay fraternity on campus. When I write it all down, I wonder how I am actually going to do all of this? Especially since my shoulder will feel massively awkward for a good two days after this injection. NICE.

Being a grad. student at Rutgers is LONELY, y'all! I am only taking two musicology classes this semester because everything conflicts with everything else! How rude is that? Technically I only need to take two classes every semester because my Teaching Assistantship counts as 3 "non-billable credits," bumping me up to full time. All of my Carnegie Mellon friends will understand my inability to only take TWO classes. What the hell will I do with my time? I signed up for a Russian short story class appropriately called "The Russian Short Story." Will it be worth it? I don't know. There are only two papers, each 5-7 pages long, and the final exam is MULTIPLE CHOICE. What?? Seriously? Yes. I am still debating whether or not I should take this class, because I want to take three musicology classes next semester as well as a feminist theory course so that I can begin building credits towards my certificate in Women's and Gender Studies, and that adds up, y'all! Still, how could I only take two classes? Things to ponder.

I am most happy to report that I got a job teaching beginning and intermediate piano students! I will maintain the appropriate decorum and not discuss the particulars of my salary, but I will be working half of music as I did as Borders and I'll be making about three times as much. The keen reader will notice that I used the past tense. That is because I put my 2 (actually 3) weeks notice in today. I really enjoyed working for Borders...sometimes. When I was working by myself, gettin' great tips, and having some cool conversations with interesting customers, then I loved it. However, whenever I had to do "retail training," try to sell people things, meet quotas, and work with REALLY incompetent people who felt the need to talk down to me because I was new, then I hated it. Ultimately my decision to resign was based mostly on the fact that my manager did not post the following week's schedule until Thursday and, with all my school projects and teaching, I need to know what I am doing in two weeks so that I can plan accordingly.

I know you will all understand.

Next Tuesday, I am doing a 15-minute oral presentation on various sources of a 15th century chanson, including original manuscripts (yeah, neumes!!!!) and modern editions. I was the first person to volunteer, and now I am half-regretting my impulsivity. If I am proud of the work that I've done, I will discuss it on here. To prepare, I suggest that you all read The Decameron, some 11th century feminist literature by Christine de Pisan, and contract the plague. A basic reading knowledge of French is required.

Hugs!

- StevenJude

Blogging.

Many of my friends put such care and art into their blogs. Elyssa and Shannon (Miss Manhattan and Cats in Chicago respectively) are legitimate blog artists; if they decided to charge for subscriptions, I would totally pay. Through their own blog refinement, I feel as though *I* need to start writing better blog posts unlike my last one which made little to no sense. Sorry!

I originally conceived this blog as a place for me to intelligently articulate my thoughts on various musicological topics, but it has disintegrated into an artless anthology of my various non-sequitirs, a glorification of the random unimportant things in my life. Hopefully that will change once I am thrust into a scholarly setting again rather than the mundane, faceless day to day of a Bookstore employee.

After e-mailing seven different people various inquiries about the state of my financial aid, I have finally received a beautifully succinct and straightforward "yes" from someone. What was my first reaction? E-mail her for further clarification. Carnegie Mellon endowed me with a desire for clarity, precision, and competence that is practically insatiable in the real world given that these are qualities that only 5% of the population share. Getting a direct explanation from anyone at Rutgers takes about three weeks, six phone calls, and eighteen hours of waiting music music. I want to go up to whomever I have to go up to and offer to revamp EVERYTHING about the music department, including a current and clear graduate school handbook. For a school that ranks among the top 20 graduate programs in the county in most academic programs, they're not doing so well in the organization department. Despite all of this drama and the massive room for improvement, everything worked out with my financial aid and stipend drama. I can finally semi-relax again.

Working at The Bookstore is extremely low key and relaxing...for me, at least. There is a LOT of negativity from my coworkers stemming from recent management shifts which has caused a lot of people to start looking for other jobs. The scary thing about Borders is that most people who I've met have not worked for the company for more than a year but still claim to have worked there "for a long time." Gee, great. It's important to rise above the negativity, people!After all, it's a café in a bookstore. This is not something to stress out about it. Go in, do your job, leave. I think this another aspect of the CMU mentality that is lacking in many other people. Stop complaining and do something about it! Then again, I am in the position where I know I will not be working at The Bookstore for the rest of my life, so I have the luxury to not really care, but, still, if it is your main source of income, why not try to make the best of it? Of course, I do have an awful tendency toward complacency so perhaps I shouldn't be giving this advice.

I'm afraid I've ventured into hodgepodge/mishmosh world again. I am in the Zebra Lounge drinking the usual half Lava Roast, half Hazelnut coffee. It feels good to be back.

Good things.

A lot of good things have been happening recently. I wish that they would spread themselves out evenly over the year rather than happening all in ONE WEEK, but it keeps me on my toes or something like that.

Firstly, I am enjoying The Bookstore. There is usually only one person deployed to the café at a time, so I work by myself a lot. Sound stressful? It is so gosh-darned slow compared to Starbucks. I love it. I also make a wild amount of tips when I work by myself in the morning. Accordingly, I hate working nights.

Secondly, I went to gay karaoke with my friend Dan (not Wetzel). After a few gin and tonics you better believe that I was READY to sang, so I broke out "The Man That Got Away." Whoever says that alcohol isn't good for singing is a LIAR. I don't think singing ever felt so good especially that high. Lovely. That's not the best part of the night. The best part was the extremely GORGEOUS and tall doctor who came up to me after I sang to tell me that he loved it. I wanted him to stay and talk to me longer, but I think he thought I was with Dan. I should also mention that this place is a DIVE BAR...not in appearance, but in terms of the people it attracts AKA a lot of older bears. Okay, maybe that's demeaning to older gay men with facial hair. It's a nice environment and everyone's nice. The moral of the story is we were the only devestatingly gorgeous people in the bar. Gravity pulled us together.

I ended the evening by singing back-up with a middle aged black lesbian to a total man-Guidette's version of "Killing Me Softly." Perfect.

What happened next?

I got an e-mail from Rutgers saying that my Financial Award was revised. The last time I checked it my tuition remission wasn't included and there was about FOUR listed that I had no interest in taking out; I assumed that this was just a notification that this had been remedied.

WRONG.

I found listed: Work Study moneys, a subsidized loan (no thanks. been there. paying that), Graduate Tuition Remission (aka my teaching assistantness), and...A Graduate Fellowship for $12,500 a year. UM WHAT?!?!?! This was a Saturday so I couldn't call anyone to confirm or refute that Rutgers is now giving me a stipend, so I walked around in this daze of "ZOMG, I might not have to kill myself working and going to school for the fifth year in a row!"

After wading through a million busy signals, I finally got through to the Financial Aid office to confirm that yes, Rutgers is giving me a $12,500 stipend. Skeptical of people's competence as usual, I said "Am I listed as an in-state student?!" thinking that they had overlooked the fact that I've never lived anyone OTHER than New Jersey and were billing me for out-of-state tuition and thought that I needed the money to cover tuition. Nope, in-state status.

So. Good things for Steven. Now, I may quit Borders...

Lavender

A brief update on my life thus far.

I started working at The Bookstore on Wednesday! For the time being I will be trained in the café and then on the book floor. I hope that I can eventually work in inventory because they get paid more, and I imagine that I will tire of interacting with people constantly. Also, the company has a strict confidentiality/don't blog about us clause, so I will now refer to it as The Bookstore. Maybe The Book Job. I'll switch it up.

Moral of THAT story is: Training/working in the café is easy because I worked at Starbucks for three years, so it is basically the same thing. I feel competent and useful which are good for the self-esteem.

--------------------------------------------

If there is one thing that I have difficulty tolerating, it is people who constantly make excuses based on how "sick" they are or who are incessantly talking about their various ailments. Itespecially frustrates me when voice majors do this because we all know someone who went to class as often as she could up until a week before she died. Moral of that story: Stop complaining.

With that, I will share something with my dear devoted readers that most of you probably do not know. I have major issues with my back/neck/jaw. Sometimes the tension/pain/whatever is so intense that I can't stay awake (or fall asleep), pay attention, form cohesive sentences, et cetera! I believe it stems from my stress/anxiety issues as well as that one time that I jumped off a 40 foot water tower and landed on my back. That was awesome.

I believe that my stress and anxiety are the main culprits for perpetuating this tension and so I have decided to take action! Yesterday, while coming back from Trader Joe's, I stopped in at GNC and bought "Stress & Anxiety" capsules (which sounds counterproductive, right?) You take one or two "day time" supplements to ease stressful and anxious feelings and one 'nite time" (yes, nite) supplement that helps you fall asleep and is supposed to ease nocturnal anxiety. I also bought "Nighty Night" tea. Can someone rename this please? While at Trader Joe's I also picked up lavender soap and lavender body oil (Sexy, n'est-ce pas?) since lavender is supposed to be a relaxing scent.

Did it work? I am not sure. I greatly enjoyed smelling like lavender all night long, however, I am also experiencing INTENSE itchiness that woke me up at 2am. Sadface. However, I slept straight through until my alarm at 9am, so something good must be happening! Then I spent some time on the couch and stupidly arranged myself in a position that I KNEW would ruin my neck for the rest of the day. RUDE.

I'm also starting a 2 weeks liver cleanse on Sunday with the hope that, by ridding my body of lots o' toxins, I will be less tired and feel less lethargic. Of course, this feeling will probably go away once I get my Rutgers ID and can start using their gym. Being in New Jersey, where one does not have to walk everywhere, makes me feel fat.

OKAY HUGZ BYEEEE

I would just like to point out that my first entry in this blog was titled "Inception."

Steven Jude Tietjen - musicologist, Bea Arthur enthusiast and...prophet!

Pittsburgh

Being back in Pittsburgh has made me realize that I really enjoy Pittsburgh. If my parents had allowed me to bring my car while I was at Carnegie Mellon I would've enjoyed it more WHILE I went to school here. The problem with Pittsburgh is that it is LOVELY in the summer because you can literally walk everywhere (if you do not want to take a bus), but it is a TERRIBLE city in the winter when you HAVE to take the bus.

Anyway, I have already spent $30 on books. It is a good thing that my mother does not read my blog. Some gems include:

Pushkin: A Biography. This was published within the past 3 years (I don't feel like looking right now), it is hardcover and still has the dust cover and it was ONLY $3.75. Genius

Life of Rossini by Stendhal. For some reason this book which is 40 years older than the Pushkin was $3.00 Still, I am not complaining.

Confessions of St. Augustine: $1.00 (Yay for bargain books!)

Then at the Caliban bookstore:

Musicology and Gender (YAAAAAY!) $8.00. Worth it.

And an enormous biography of Tchaikovsky that was only 2.00 (similar to the Pushkin.)

Their bargain bin had an enormous amount of books on classical music and they were almost all soft cover aka 5o cents. Excellent.

That is my life in Pittsburgh thus far.

Jay picked me up at the bus terminal. He is a god for driving/eating Chipotle with only one fully functioning arm.

Wedding tomorrow. Most excited!

Lastly, I may be able to audit Russian at Rutgers for free. It would cost me the same amount to take officially audit the class as it would to officially register for the course, but the professor is allowing me to audit it unofficially. Rutgers, you are a mess. Or maybe this is policy everywhere and in undergrad I didn't have to worry about paying for overloading on classes so I did not care.

It is going to be massively awkward to only be taking 9 credits. Oh, grad school!

Divine Weekend

This weekend I had the joy of seeing some fabulous CMU people not once but TWICE! Oh, it was lovely to be around like-minded (or at least like-educated) friends.

Every time that I go to Hoboken I am reminded of how much I love it. Being a student who cannot work full-time means that I will not to Hoboken any time soon, and that makes me sad, but I assuage my anxiety by remembering that the more money I save now, the less stressed out I will be later. Yeah, sure!

Anyway, Sunday was a day of all types of brilliance. I drove an hour north to New Milford to hang out with Dan. We watched ANNIE HALL, which he had never seen. I've seen this film a minimum of five times in the past two years. It is still cripplingly hilarious every time. It's that kind of intelligent, real-to-life humor that is missing from most mainstream movies. Dan loved it, especially the line "Touch my heart with your foot." So, overall it was a win.

Then we watched the HBO "Grey Gardens" movie with Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange. Good performances, but a pretty boring script.

With the movies watched, we headed to Alex's apartment in BROOKLYN for pasta et cetera. In contrast to my adventure to Hoboken on Friday, Dan and I only got lost once...when we went into an apartment building, knocked on a stranger's door, and then realized that we were definitely NOT in Alex's building. Hilarity.

Anyway, the evening was full of great food, fabulous people, and brilliant conversation. Dan and I stayed with Shannon and Alex until well after midnight just talking. I had about a bottle of champagne plus some chianti, so I was feeling absolutely great. These are the kinds of nights that I constantly prefer over "going out." They are cheaper, you can adjust the lighting and music volume, you can see the person in front of you, and there is no better way to get to know someone better than having an intelligent, group discussion on sundry issues and interests.

My all day hangover was worth it.

What is next for Steven Jude? At 2:30 I FINALLY get my permanent porcelain veneers. My one tooth came out consistently Sunday night. It was REALLY annoying.

Borders hasn't called me back about when I am starting. Sketchy. But my friend just told me that there are openings at the MET gift shop, so...I am definitely going for that drama if Borders flakes out on me. Or, I'll just work at both places.

Okay, that's it. My neck hurts, and I have to go mentally prepare myself for this procedure.

For those of you who are a little slow and do not notice these things, I would like to point out that I have changed the layout of this here "blog." (Can we come up with a new word for blog? It is too close to bog, and not close enough to Blok.)

Comments appreciated, but by no means necessary.

I would also like to assert my love for La Sonnambula.

No music as of yet.

I think I may turn this into a summer reading blog, so that I can put some ideas that I am trying work out on "paper."

Anyway, I got the job at Borders. YAY. I'll be working on the book floor as well as in the café (Starbucks rears its ugly head!) Actually, working at Starbucks for so long was one of the reasons that I got the job, so I can't complain. I am excited. I've heard a lot of negative things about working for the company, in terms of crazy management, but you get 33% off, there's a "library system," so you basically never really have to buy a book, and part-time benefits, which is very good, considering that I will be off my parent's dental insurance this December.

Other news? I get my permanent porcelain veneers on Tuesday. Should be a HELL of a procedure. Not looking forward to it. Luckily, I have been authorized to take valium and advil beforehand. Yay. I should also get my new glasses sometime next week! Yay! Driving and seeing!

In other, sadder news, it has been discovered that my maternal grandmother, known affectionately as Mimí, has lung cancer. It hasn't spread anywhere, which is good. Ostensibly, they could just take the tumor in her lung out. But, if the cancer caused some sort of inflammation of her lymph nodes, then she needs to do chemo before they can remove the tumor. Also, it has to be determined whether or not she is healthy enough to be operated on.

Lots of layers, no? I have a difficult time dealing with situations with that because, contrary to what many people believe, I am an eternal optimist. I get through life by saying that everything will be okay, it'll all turn out for the best, et cetera. But sometimes it doesn't, and I don't prepare myself well for the instances in which it doesn't.

One thing I do know, however, is that you cannot reverse situations by ignoring them. So, no matter what may happen, I will try to spend more time with my grandmother (hopefully her senile, 89 year old boyfriend will not be around.) Since I am home, don't have much else to do, and she lives two blocks away, it's not difficult. Plus, I want her to teach me how to cook Italian foods and the crazy cookies she makes, including lavender and black pepper cookies.

I've always felt a connection to my grandmother. I think her and I are very, very similar people. In fact, the more time I spend with her now, the more I realize it to be true. I can imagine my life taking a similar course that hers did.

Okay, enough sad stuff. I have to go to work at 9, which means I have to leave at 8, which means I have to wake up at 7:30, and I got NO sleep last night. Ugh.

Peace and blessings!

Ah, vorrei trovar parola a spiegar com'io t'adoro.

This will be brief since I intended to write on a different subject, but then the beautiful lines in the post's title came into my head, and I became distracted. Nothing new.

LA SONNAMBULA by Vincenzo Bellini is probably my second favorite opera after Bellini's NORMA. They were written in the same year, 1831, and are testaments to Bellini's versatility. NORMA is a heroic, passionate, organically human and tremendously overlooked work of art of undervalued significance. LA SONNAMBULA is pastoral, sensitive, deceptively complex in its simplicity and idiotically castigated as irrelevant, frivolous, and obsolete.

I believe that it is SONNAMBULA's lack of pretense and Bellini's ability to create genuine human emotion in a beautiful display of economy of means that makes it relevant, poignant, and relatable despite what some may call an overly idyllic and improbable plot.

Anyway, the music is simply gorgeous. The melodies are almost folklike in their simplicity set to a deliberately, purposeful accompaniment and orchestration owing to Bellini's divine ability to effortlessly realize textual meaning in musical device. The duets between Amina and Elvino are textbook examples of characterization through music and poetry dictating music.

I could go on for hours, but let us now listen!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eH5jzYjXP0g

Elvino confesses that he was jealous of this old dude who came to town who took interest in Amina. He says "I am jealous of the errant breeze that plays with your hair, et cetera, et cetera," and Amina replies "I love the breeze because I confide your name to it." (A literal and unpoetic translation, forgive me.) It is just fabulous. Historical note: Callas revived and OWNED this role. Divine.

And now Scotto and Kraus sing the same duet:

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=Q78JdqkK0bs&feature=related

I am not doing this chronologically, my apologies:

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=AWHvwOUAYNE&feature=related

Elvino presents the engagement ring to Amina.

Later in the scene. Callas.

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=Ctn42xk3bB8&feature=related

So Amina gets herself into some trouble! She sleepwalks (Sonnambula/Sonnambulist) into that old guy's bedroom thinking that she was going to see Elvino. Hey, she was asleep! Anyway, the jealous Lisa tells all to Elvino who then promptly calls off the engagement. Amina says "I'm not guilty of a stray thought or action." Glorious.

Callas and the elegant Cesare Valletti:

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=LPEvQm40MrI&feature=related

A fresh-voiced (and diction less) Joan Sutherland with the outstanding Nicolai Gedda:

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=TqqB9LQony4&feature=related

And, lastly, if you are still paying attention by now, I give you Amina's two arias.

Come per me sereno (Scotto). Basically, "I am really happy with life!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxfwR6q6zws

And her sleepwalking scene "Ah, non credea mirarti," which basically means "O, flowers I didn't think you'd die so fast," you know, flowers being a metaphor for love, blah blah.

I give you Callas at the end of her career and her voice, because it is THE best interpretation of this aria. Every note and word is imbued with meaning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRhBY0X4sv8

And, the cabaletta to that aria. Elvino says "Oh, I was wrong!" and Amina says "Oh, yay! I am most happy!" as evident in the massive amount of coloratura. (Note: The many E-flats were not penned by Bellini, but were most likely written for Jenny Lind or Adelina Patti in the late nineteenth century. They've stuck.)

A younger Callas:

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=jDDDRyYMkKc&feature=related

Cecilia Bartoli gives a very personal, successful and "mezzo" rendition of the cabaletta:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cM1d-b_SpaM

Enjoy. Please leave comments! Note: Every time I listen to "D'un pensiero," I am overcome by music's ability to express that which cannot be said.

In my life news:

1. I had my second interview at Borders today. The manager basically told me that I have the job, but I have to wait for official notice once she talks to the general manager. Let us hope it works out!

2. Not chronological. Jennifer's Body is about to come on TV. Oy very!

3. Telemarketing is not so bad. In fact, it is highly amusing most of the time. The people I work with her are MASSIVELY hilarious.

Bbye.

Tidbit

I forget to mention that my last lesson with 9-year-old-girl, she suggested that I buy her silly bands to reward her for when she does something well. She made this suggestion multiple times. This after she spent five minutes spraying a FLY on the window with water, because she hates flies, and using the same spray bottle to attack her 3 year old sister.

Of course, my desperate pleas of "Come back to me, [Name]," or "Focus!" or "Re-center yourself!" fell upon deaf ears.

I should also mention that she eventually killed the fly. She did not, however, play her scales hands together, which would've been the loftier achievement. I also never succeeded in getting her to center herself and focus on the concept of accidentals.

Moral of the story: Does it look like I would ever buy silly bands for anyone?!

È ben altro il mio soooooogno!

There continues to be little for me to report on as my life presently consists of very little musicological doings and inquiries. I did, however, have a dream that I applied for an internship with the Kennedys/Juilliard in which I had to write some sort of thesis/dissertation relating to World War II. Unfortunately, the bulk of my dream consisted of me frantically packing. Then, in true dream form, I completely changed topics. It had been discovered that Maria Callas was living in Brazil and had decided to run for president of the United States. Former First Lady Betty Ford spoke of her warmly in a press conference. First, I was Callas's press agent, but then I turned into a young Callas auditioning for some random guy in a cabin. He made me sing "Ah, non credea mirarti" from LA SONNAMBULA but in the incompetency of my dream-Maria Callas-self, I started singing something else halfway between. He yelled at me. I yelled back. I overturned a table, shook some hands, and then got back into my covered wagon.

Seriously.

I had my first day of work on Saturday, of which I will speak no more, came home and discovered that I had a fever. That was pretty glorious. I took the opportunity to get ahead in my reading of Jude the Obscure and was successful in that endeavor.

I am feeling better now just in time for my voice lesson at 6:30 this evening.

Highlights of this week?

Tuesday: Interview at Borders; Second day of work

Wednesday: Third day of work

Thursday: Fourth day of work

Friday: Voice/Piano lesson for 9 year old girl, which has been going splendidly.

It is now time to shower!

Il capira! (Il capira!)

Short post.

1. I have a job calling subscribers to the Paper Mill Playhouse to make them subscribe again. Oy. At least it's talking to people about theater?

2. I also have an interview at Borders on Tuesday. I will try to have two jobs at once if all works out.

3. I am also applying for a temporary research position at the Metropolitan Opera.

4. I must finish studying for this DAMN EXAM.

Good night, cuties!

Boredom.

Dear Musicology,

I hate you right now. Well, that's not true entirely, I just hate studying for this diagnostic exam that I have on Friday. Technically, I could just take it on August 27. The only thing I am struggling with is this list of about 60+ terms that they will chose 20 from for me to 'provide short definitions or identifications" for. What causes further complications is the guideline that all definitions can be found in History of Western Music by this guy, this edition. So, I got it from Amazon for $0.50 (+ expedited shipping), and, of course, it is the vaguest, most convoluted 800 pages I have ever skimmed through.

For example, I have define "hymn," "isorhythm," and "sturm und drang." For the first two, the book provides about 15 definitions across three stylistic periods, none of which are anything more than "Hymns were used in fifteenth century church services." Um. Okay? That is not a definition. My absolute favorite is "Sturm und drang was a literary movement. We will discuss this more in the next chapter."

I go to the next chapter.

"Sturm und drang was a literary movement. Now let's talk about Haydn for 70 pages."

And my favorite piece of contradictory information ever:

"Motets were the most popular form of secular music in the medieval ages."

In the glossary: "Motets: a polyphonic, vocal composition, almost exclusively written using sacred texts."

So, this is stressful. Luckily, the majority of the exam is on things like

"Who wrote [insert piece of music]?"

Or "Who is [insert composer's name]?"

This blog post is intensely boring, but I thought that I would inform you all of my current frustrations.

Good news? I have a job interview tomorrow to telemarket for Paper Mill Playhouse. Yes...telemarketing. But it's basically just convincing people to buy theater tickets who like theater. I like theater, too! It's part-time, so it'll hold me over financially until the fall comes, and I can find something more stable since part of the salary is based on commission.

Boring. Sorry. Hugs.

Bea Arthur. Marijuana.

This has nothing to do with musicology. I found this yesterday, and I have watched it multiple times in a row laughing hysterically!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XotNYOZfbtE

Short Short!

I am really tired, so this is a short post.

I went into the city today to have my voice lesson. I decided to walk from 34th and 8th to 83rd and Broadway, because I need to get exercise and the whole "having a car and living in New Jersey thing" is not conducive to exercise. On the way, I stopped at the Westsider Records store and bought some fabulous items including a Verdi Requiem score ($9) and a recording of highlights from Lucia di Lammermoor with Luciano Pavarotti and my beloved Renata Scotto ($5). They also had Ned Rorem's diary, but I will buy that next week. He "tells all" about his liaisons with famous gay Americans such as Truman Capote, Leonard Bernstein, and Aaron Copland...oh, and I guess he talks about musics too???

Then I went to my lesson. People. I cannot tell you how absolutely happy and now confused I am. Happy because this was the best voice lesson I have ever had. Twenty minutes into the lesson I was singing high A's, B-naturals, and (2) C's that were (almost all) connected to the breath, my body, and right on pitch. That is a good fifth + above anywhere I have normally vocalized let alone healthy sustained. The best part? It wasn't just "hitting notes." Oh, no, no! Anyone who has worked with me knows that it is not enough to "hit" the note. I sustained them. They were my voice, and they were connected, and they were pretty darn attractive.

Additionally, my teacher is of that rare breed who really wants to and loves teaching. She was just as excited as I was. I remember at one point we were both laughing hysterically because we were both excited about what was happening. Ridiculous.

That being said, we have a lot of work. She is basically reworking my voice entirely. I cannot wait.

Now, why am I confused? Because she told me to not entirely give up the idea of performing. She thinks that as a singer I am employable, and that I'd be very marketable as a "spieltenor" (character tenor.)

UGH! I just spent two years of my life convincing myself that I had no desire to perform! And now I have a consummate professional, who actually knows what she is talking about, who is teaching me how to sing for the first time in my life with my voice, telling me that I could perform for a living.

The question is...do I want that life? Maybe. I do not want to audition endlessly. I do not want to face massive rejection. I don't want to be in debt, and I don't want to have to live the nomadic life of a professional opera singer or musical theater actor. But I have to say that the stage is one of the few places that I feel comfortable "expressing myself" and taking risks. And, let's be honest, we all like the applause.

All things for me to think about. What I am concentrating on right now, however, is the here and now. I am getting my masters for free in a field that I love, which leaves money for paying off my loans, paying for voice lessons, and extra language and theory classes in the city if I want. Plus I am close enough to NYC that I could audition if I wanted to.

One day at a time! Now, I just need to get over my massive anxiety (I felt like I needed 6 valium before I auditioned for Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and felt like I need an additional six every night before the actual performances) and enjoy life.

Oh, wait. First, I need a job.

Okay, I am interested in everyone's thoughts and comments. Hugs.

Also, I know I am a terrible blog proofreader. Forgive me.

Extreme Ennui. No discussion of music (or the TONY's for that matter.)

"In my soul I feel an inner lack. Just suppose he wants his dinner back!"

Well, here I am about to turn thirty...almost!

Being unemployed was fun when I had dentist appointments to do and general "things" to do, but now I am just suffering from extreme ennui. This has only been exasperated by my reading of Russian novels in which everyone seems to be constantly bored. Grigory Alexandrovich Pechorin? Bored. Sophia Alexeyvna? Bored. Anna Karenina? Bored. Andrei and Pierre? BORED. Princess Mary Ligovsky? BORED again! You get the idea. Everyone in Russia during the nineteenth century was bored.

I received my History of Western Music book (5th edition Grout) that is required for taking my diagnostic test on June 25, but I was too bored even to read THAT. You know it's bad when you are too bored/tired to do anything that would make you unbored or untired. Crippling! Ennui is crippling! I am crippled by ennui. Okay, you get the point.

The problem with my ennui is that it is caused by a lack of activity, because I do not have a job besides teaching my nine year old. If I could teach nine year olds all day everyday, I would. Not kidding, and not just for the money! Nine year olds, at least the one that I teach, are so smart and insightful. It is so wonderful to see someone who has yet to be corrupted by a world in which you're "supposed" to give the right answer. When I ask her question she actually looks for the answer instead of saying "Okay, what do I have to say in order to make him think that I am smart?" I am going to begin practicing this more.

Oh, I got off topic. So ennui comes from no job. No job equals not having money to do things that would help to alleviate ennui. I would love to take yoga or a Russian class in the city, but such things cost the money, and since it now costs me $20 to go to NYPenn roundtrip (as opposed to $13 in March!), it is an expense for me to even go into the city and walk around, window shop, pretend I live there.

One luxury that I am allowing myself is the revival of my voice study. I found a great teacher who teaches in the city. When she told me her fee, I nearly died because 1. I couldn't afford it 2. I was embarrassed to say I couldn't afford it, but I told her anyway. The moral of the story is: people are nice. She said that I could pay what I could afford. GET IT!!! So, because I feel bad taking charity and not giving anything back, I offered to help her. Now she wants me to be her studio assistant and help her with scheduling. SCORE. The downside (which is not even a downside) is that I won't get paid to do this...I think. I'll just get discounts (like 60%) off of an hour lesson. Yay. I am willing to do this, because if I am going to take voice lessons again they are going to be from someone who is known in the business and who knows what they are talking about. My first lesson is tomorrow at 2:30. ZOMG I am getting out of the house, and it doesn't involve going to Borders to buy books or go to Dunkin Donuts to get fat!

So friends. Pray or send out good vibes that I will get a job so that my ennui will be banished, and I can go back to being the eccentric, snarky Jersey boy that you all fell in love with all those years ago...

Renata Scotto and How To Act.

Scotto was the sole topic of one of my first posts way back in February. I believe I promised that she'd be back, and she is. Surprisingly, though, I have not blogged about Callas. That needs to happen soon.

Now, one of the "hot topics" in opera today is that everyone has to "act" now. Whenever anyone says this I immediately dismiss them as moronic and ignorant to the richness of opera history. I mused on this point before that opera and entertainment in general have become so visual that we turn off our ears. This is why I frequently close my eyes when going to a concert or at the opera. It is not because I am trying to say "Oh. My. Gawd. Everyone look how DEEP I am. I am feeling it SO much. Look how artistic I am!" For me opera is still very much an aural art. If a singer cannot move me through the music alone, then I am not interested. What I am saying is that when we talk about how singers have to "act" in opera nowadays, we are trying to superimpose classical acting methods, many of which are based on spontaneity, reality, and a feeling of 'being in the moment, with acting that is initiated through the music, which, unless it is some sort of improvised performance, has to be established technically, rehearsed, and planned. Of course, there is spontaneity and reality alive in such things but singing Blanche in Andre Previn's operatic adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire is very different from playing Blanche in the original A Streetcar Named Desire of Tennesse Williams. When an actor is given the text of a play, they of course must do textual, dramatic, and character analyses and learn the script by rote, but after they experiment with intention, gesture, staging, et cetera in rehearsal.

Here is the difference: When a singer receives a score all of that is laid out for them by the composer. It is up to the singer to study that score and bring nuances out. The character analysis comes from a study of the libretto as it is related to you through the music. There is a fine line between "okay, I have learned the music. Give me a cookie!!!" and "I have studied this music (structure, dyanmics, rhythmic and melodic nuance, orchestration, et cetera), I have studied the text as it relates to the music, and this is how I think they work together." And there are as many possibilities in this type of acting than there are when you are given a dramatic script not set to music, it just takes a lot more effort to bring it out.

Another difference is that with the singer 75% of the acting is communicated through the voice. I really want to emphasize that I do not mean a "beautiful" voice. Beauty has nothing to do with it. Life isn't beautiful all the time, life's situations that are reflected in drama and comedy are not beautiful all the time, therefore the voice should not and cannot be beautiful all the time. All the intention and energy of that moment has to be filtered through the voice and through the music with genuine feeling. This is when opera, art song, and musical theatre are most powerful, when the expression is genuine. This goes back to my original point. People say "Oh, opera singers just stand there and do nothing!" While sometimes this is unfortunately true, it is often an issue with the listener. I give you the example of Carlo Bergonzi heard in this performance singing an aria from Verdi's Luisa Miller at 72. He stands still almost the entire time, but just close your eyes and listen to how he is singing, how he fuses the intention of the text and the music and sucks you into his world:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NQniGmtiy4

No one sings like this anymore. And he was 72!

Now, how does this relate to Scotto? Besides Callas, I believe that Scotto is the greatest operatic actress of the twentieth century. Unfortunately, she is almost totally forgot or misunderstood by many young singers. Her voice, in her later career, is not the most gorgeous but she knows how to command the stage as the character through the music. Every gesture that she makes comes from the music. Every word and note is fused with meaning. Nothing is lost. What is marvelous about this is that in her singing and gesture the music is enhanced. Please observe everything:

Il Tabarro (This is how to act in opera, people. Watch this constantly, and come back to it often!) Also Moldoveanu is a GORGEOUS Romanian, and what a fabulous voice!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2AHbz2siHA

Compare this to a 2007 production of Il Tabarro from the Met. You know, 27 or so years later when opera was all about "acting." "Nowadays, opera singers have to act!" Yeah, is there ANY of that in here? Not at all. Hint: Technical imprecision = terrible singing, terrible acting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tkHHDKF9nj0

Don Carlo. With Moldoveanu again!

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=hcPOV_tZE1E&feature=related

More Don Carlo! More perfection!

http://www.youtube.com/watch#!v=lkw4dIRhFuU&feature=related

Luisa Miller. This entire DVD brings me to tears consistently.

http://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=4853746922177403319

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lb_3lVWgkIA

What is fabulous to notice is how Scotto colors her voice for different aspects of Luisa's character. In "Tu puniscimi" there is more bite to her sound as she rails against God, but when she addresses her father right before her death, it is a sliver of gorgeous sound! FEARLESS!!!

Otello.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjtKkulTLPw

And, now, just listen!

La Sonnambula. This is bel canto with life as it was meant to be sung!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxfwR6q6zws

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2OEGSUKIvo

Madame Butterfly. Scotto pretty much owned this role for all of her career.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8S068auyMo

I am anxious to hear any and all of your comments.

ONE WORD OF CAUTION: Scotto, like all great artists, must be appreciated. You don't have to like her, but be cautioned that Scotto is not someone that you listen to in the background and say "oh, I like her!" Her interpretations challenge you to be an intellectually active listener. You may not like what she does, but there is nothing worse than saying "Oh, I don't like her" without examining her choices first. :-D

Restless!

Oh, how restless am I! I've been waking up exhausted for the past three days and simply willing myself to get up. Obnoxious. Waiting to hear back about employment opportunities is most exhausting. Perhaps I'll go to the mall tomorrow (which mall is the question since I am in New Jersey and live within 30 minutes of 4 malls) and see what's up.

I taught my nine year old today, and it was surprisingly satisfying! I thought she'd be really bored by technical exercises but she loved them. The best part was that she made up her own exercises based on what I was doing. Since this stage of her music-making life is all about the creative experience and learning to express herself I went with it. We need to work on matching pitch more consistently. She's pretty consistent up until about a G above middle C, but anything above that is a little worrisome. I am sure that'll come with breath. She also really liked the little bit of piano lessons that we did. Overall, this is a great learning experience for me because you really need to explain things well to young children or they will call you out on it. :-)

I also began Lermontov's A Hero For Our Time, and I am quite enjoying it. I hope to finish it tomorrow, and then I will move away from Russian literature and try to read Jude the Obscure (Hardy) for the fourth summer in a row.

And now, in a separate post, I will muse on Renata Scotto's acting.

No Musicology Yet

I will take a brief moment to discuss the ridiculousness that is the American-born, Canadian-residented Sondra Radvanovsky.

I was mildly obsessed with Sondra (we're on a first name basis clearly) for about a year or so before I saw her last spring break at the Met in Verdi's Il Trovatore. After that performance, I was hooked. Sondra Radvanovsky is THE Verdi soprano of our generation.

What makes a Verdi soprano? Here is a crash course. A Verdi soprano must have the size to cut over the orchestra of Aida, Forza, and Un ballo in maschera, possess the agility for coloratura, have an upper extension to a D-flat (a D if she is to sing Giovanna d'Arco without cuts, or a D#/E-flat if she is to sing the traditional, but not written, 'high notes' of Gilda and Violetta), and have a strong lower extension down to at least an B-flat or A (if she has a low F-sharp for Elena in Vespri then she is everything we have ever needed in life.) The Verdian soprano contains the same 'morbidezza' that we want in verismo - that beautiful, sad quality that pulls at the heart strings and sends our ears into aural rapture! She possesses utter control over her voice navigating Verdi's long melodies (an influence of Bellini to be sure) with exquisite breath control, staying true to the dramatic markings of the score, and coloring her voice to match the dramatic structure of the opera.

A Verdi singer, therefore, isn't just someone who screams in Italian loudly.

Anyway, Sondra possess all of these fabulous things. One of the greatest musical moments of my LIFE was hearing her singing Leonora's Act IV aria "D'amor sull'ali rosée" at the Metropolitan Opera. I don't think she breathed for all five minutes. Her high pianissimi on C's, B-flats, and D-flat were just breath-taking. They literally stopped time. I could not believe what I was hearing. Most amazingly I was in the Family Circle or the 'nosebleed' section, and I could hear her just as well in these pianissimi sections as in her loudest fortissimo. That is amazing.

Equally amazing was her handling of Leonora's death "Prima che d'altri vivere" in which the soprano sings one phrase from a middle voice G to a high, hopefully pianissimo A-flat, and then descending back down. Sondra took what was written on the page, executed it beautifully, and truly made it seem like the breath of life was being sucked from her. Oh, I can't do it justice people! And the amazing thing was that she was not even supposed to be singing at the Met that season.

Thankfully, she will be singing this again at the Met next season as well as Tosca. I will be there as often as I can. What a fabulous artist.

Some choice examples of this amazing singer.

From her CD, Aida's "O patria mia"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9t6fAk-ALc

This may actually be the SAME version that I saw. D'amor sull'ali from Trovatore:

http://www.youtube.com/user/camilla0690#p/search/9/tKnPs3C8sE4

And "Prima che d'altri vivere" (I also thought that Marcelo Alvarez was particularly wonderful.)

http://www.youtube.com/user/camilla0690#p/search/0/-WP2mzokORU

(A brief translation that makes this even more heart breaking "I would rather die yours, then live belonging to someone else!" Everything loses poetry in English. :-(

Showin' off that F# in VESPRI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLungTHZook

Showin' off that E-flat in Traviata!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxWU1sRo55E

And if you have 55 minutes to watch this, please do! She sings everything that needs to be sung...tehe

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=auZABJ94JN4

NOW ABOUT MY LIFE.

So, one of my fake teeth came out the other day while I was flossing. AWESOME. I got it re-adhered yesterday. Awesome. It came out again today, I bit it, and it broke in two. Great.

So, I got a new tooth today.

What else? Oh, I went in to see my old piano teacher at her music store in Scotch Plains, and her husband and herself want me to start teaching voice lessons at their store. :-) They teach everything but voice, so this is fabulous!

Still no news on the job front. Sent in my application to Avery Fisher Hall, waiting to hear back from Trader Joe's, and I am teaching a voice lesson on Thursday to a nine-year old who likes Lady Gaga. Certainly going to be blogging on THAT, man!

Otherwise, I am spending most of my time studying for my music history diagnostic exam. The basic moral of THAT story is that I cannot stand medieval music. So much conflicting information and interpretations since the time period in general is not well-documented.

Goodnight, y'all. I am going to start reading War and Peace.

Hugs!

ZOMG! A Summer Post!

And, so it begins! After a 3.5 month hiatus, I am back on the "blogosphere," as they say. All my friends seem to have taken up summertime blogging, so I figured that I will resurrect mine since it is quite popular.

Praise for "Musicology with Flair: My Sordid and Fabulous Adventures in Musicology:"

"I check your blog everyday to see if you've updated it." - Asha Carroll (paraphrased.)

"I love your blog." - Claire Mitchell (paraphrased.)

"When are you going to update your blog?" - Ian McEuen (paraphrased.)

"I liked your post on verismo style!" - Ian Tendick (paraphrased)

"Your blog is very interesting!" - Aprile Millo, divine American soprano.

That's a lot of pressure, but I am grateful that I can make "musicology" interesting to some and, hopefully many. I say "musicology" in quotes, because what I talk about is not exactly musicology. I mostly muse on style, performances, singers, problems with modern performances, issues with historical performance. Over the course of this summer, however, I hope to present my nascent explorations into some musicological questions that interest me, and which I hope to take into consideration for my master's thesis and eventual doctoral dissertation in historical musicology. These include:

1. Bellini's influence on Italian opera through Donizetti and Verdi to Puccini.

2. Bellini's influence on Wagner.

3. How certain voice types are associated with certain characters types in Russian opera in contrast to their character associations in the Western tradition. Example: baritone or the bass is often the hero in Russian opera whereas the tenor or low bass is the villain. In the Western tradition the bass or baritone is almost always the antagonist and the villain whereas the tenor is the hero, Romantic or otherwise.

4. Challenging the gendered assumption that women in Italian opera are one-dimensional, weak, and subjugated to the male Romantic hero. This draws heavily upon the work of Mary Ann Smart (U-Berkeley) and Carolyn Abbate (UPenn.)

5. Comparing and contrasting stylistic ideals in concurrent movements in art and music.

Anyway! Here I am in New Jersey. I am most bored. I legitimately have two friends from high school that I still talk to. To keep myself occupied I have been applying for jobs (Trader Joe's and every place at Lincoln Center), trying to find students to teach the singin' too, pretending to read, pretending to study for my music history diagnostic exam, and watching a LOT of FoodNetwork. It is dangerous. I want to eat everything.

I need to start working out. Taking ballet. Doin' the yoga. Of course, I cannot do ANY of these things without money, and so I need a job. I had a good interview at Trader Joe's, and I should hear from them soon. It would be beautiful if I could work there part-time and then usher somewhere at Lincoln Center as well as teach a couple of kiddies on the side. The music studio I took voice lessons at throughout high school anticipates having students for me this fall. :-) Happy face.

I also have a reading list for this summer. It includes:

A Hero for Our Time - Lermontov (trans. Nabokov)

War and Peace - Tolstoy

Anna Karenina - Tolstoy

The Winter's Hero - Vasily Aksyonov (and the pre-quel Generations of Winter if I can locate it.)

Jude the Obscure - Hardy

Winter Queen - Boris Akunin

House of the Dead - Dostoevsky (bad translation, but whatever!)

Suggestions? As you can see I go for the classics, Russian or otherwise!

I will leave you with this gem from one of my favorite shows, Sordid Lives: The Series:

"And she couldn't even afford plastic surgery to fix her shot off titty...And she never danced the jitterbug again. The memory of that almost-midget shooting off her titty was just too painful!"

Additionally, leave comments for what you want me to talk about musicologically!

Toti dal Monte

A short article on Toti dal Monte from Wikipedia just to familiarize yourself with her importance in opera history.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toti_Dal_Monte

I already always associated Toti dal Monte's name with "best Butterfly" of the pre-war era, but I had never heard her sing the role. While scrounging around at the Carnegie Library, I discovered a 1939 recording with Dal Monte as Cio Cio San and Beniamino Gigli as Pinkerton. Af first, I was really quite appalled at what I was listening to. After this first listen, I characterized her as nasal, and all that, but I thought "okay, I will be open-minded and I will examine what she is doing."

Toti dal Monte uses what is called the voce infantile or childlike voice that many Butterfly employed to sing Butterfly. After all, Cio Cio San is fifteen, and Toti was 46 when she made this recording! That is the beauty of opera. I hate when people say "oh, well how can I possibly believe that this middle-aged woman is an innocent, Japanese teenager?" Well, it is the singer's job to convince you and Toti dal Monte does that.

Compare Toti dal Monte's singing of the role to say, Patricia Racette's. Racette sounds like she is a divorced, middle aged housewife in white-face make up and a kimono. Sure! She "sings" the music, she "acts," but it is so disconnected from the music and the character. She's younger, slimmer than Toti dal Monte was - but she doesn't convince me.

My problem with the digitalization of opera is that, while it makes it more 'accessible' (I guess that's the argument), it turns opera into a visual rather than aural art. We are distracted from the music, the story, and the basic human emotion. The singers themselves seem to think "oh, well, I have to ACT it, I have to be a REAL actor," (whatever that means) and they fail to realize where the acting in opera comes from. It must ALWAYS come from the music. Every decision that the opera actor needs to make is influenced by the music. Every decision that the opera director makes needs to be influenced by the music.

Of course, one must sing with one's voice. One must also have the necessary and rigorous technical training, and the knowledge of how one's own personal voice works in order to color it to any character. That is why Toti dal Monte, Scotto, Callas, and to some degree Tebaldi and Albanese, are successful as Butterly. They use the voce infantile when it is appropriate (before Butterly becomes a woman after the 2nd act) and then make a change in their voice when there is a change in the character. Now, THAT is acting.

When listening to Toti dal Monte please don't assume that it MUST sound a certain way because it is Puccini. Butterfly needs to be sung by a lyric soprano or larger, it is true, but that does not mean she needs to lack dynamics, finesse, innocence, and dramatic/musical nuance.

For example, notice how different Toti's color is in the aria "Che tua madre dovra." Butterfly is now a woman in this. The voice is almost entirely different than we heard in the Act I duet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObbsZ8RhbeA&feature=related

And here is our friend Patricia Racette - singing the music, emoting in a generic sort of way, but what character is she supposed to be portraying? How do you believe that a middle-aged, white lesbian is a 15 year old Japanese Geisha?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Bror-r0Wfw

TOTI DAL MONTE

I am curious to get your opinions on Toti Dal Monte, before I say anything.

Caro Nome:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Se8CYiyO8U&feature=related

Casta Diva:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imNlIS4-gP4&feature=related

Selections from Butterfly:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imNlIS4-gP4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTadlnmtes4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ObbsZ8RhbeA&feature=related

This reminds me. I want to see if I can get Gheorghiu's recording of BUTTERFLY for like $2.00 on Amazon... She is my guilty pleasure.

Listening to singers with big voices on recordings.

This will be brief. I no longer have internet at my apartment, so I am writing this from work. Does that make me a professional blogger?

I've had to explain this to a lot of people who don't "like" certain singers based on a few recordings they've listened to. Singers, I might add, that had long and well-respected careers or, if they had short-lived careers, contributed a substantial amount to opera (I write this specifically for Maria Callas.)

Singers who fall into this category include:
1) Maria Callas
2) Leonie Rysanek
3) Joan Sutherland
4) Renata Scotto
5) Victoria de los Angeles
6) Regine Crespin (the topic of today.)

My sophomore year of college is when I stopped listening to a singer's voice and started listening to their technique. I believe this is why I am such a critical and unbiased listener, even when it comes to my close friends and peers who are singers.

One of the main things that I think account for the decline in good teachers of singing and in good singers is that everything is digital and recorded. With hundreds of thousands of recordings out there, we get into our ear an idea of "what an opera singer should be," and it is entirely and external notion. We have a difficult time looking internally and saying "okay, well what is he/she doing to produce THEIR sound?" This results in many teachers who want a singing "product" rather than a singing process. (The process is the only way to teach. Sorry if anyone disagrees, but get back to me in ten years when you have to pay thousands of dollars to rework your voice.) So what do we have? People who don't know what they're listening for, what they're teaching, and what they're singing.

Back to the point at hand. How do we listen to these recordings of big voiced singers? First of all there are many questions to ask, the most important one being HOW are they singing and WOULD this be audible in an opera house? For me, the question of audibility is one of the most important in singing (and a by-product of technique, not a component of it.) How can you communicate to me if I can't hear you??

Question number 2: What is lost when a voice is being recorded? That is why we listen for TECHNIQUE and not for SOUND, bitches. You can add "reverb" to a recording, but that is a false sound. Renee Fleming's voice can "sound big" in a recording, but it is not. (I know, I've seen her live and could barely hear her.) A problem with old recordings is that they didn't have the reverb option (or in the case of some singers like Callas, the mic was placed too close and you lose a lot of overtone color.)

Now, how does this apply to my BFF Regine Crespin? First of all, a little history on Regine Crespin (1927-2007):

A French soprano of both French and Italian heritage, Crespin was one of the first French singers who had a successful career outside of France, mostly because she was schooled in the Italian tradition of singing. She sang Madame Lidoine in the FRENCH premiere of LES DIALOGUES DES CARMELITES. (This was NOT the world premiere. That was in Italian, at La Scala and starred Virgina Zeani as Blanche de la Force and Leyla Gencer as Lidoinie.) She also sang Wagner (Sieglinde, Brunnhilde), Strauss (Marschallin, Ariadne), Verdi, and Puccini (Tosca). This was a big voice, people! Later in life she switched to mezzo roles such as a Carmen (which is often done by sopranos anyway), and ended her career singing character roles such as the Countess in PIKOVAYA DAMA and Madame de la Croissy in DIALOGUES.

Regine's voice is bright, clear, technically secure (although her top wasn't the easiest), and penetrating.

What do I want you to listen for in her singing?
1. VOWELS. She sings real, bright, honest vowels. This is her voice.
What people have said about her: "She's nasal." "She has no color."
Wrong, people. She didn't have a naturally dark voice, so she sounds "nasal" because someone where along the line some moron decided that a dark voice was really "operatic." This is entirely incorrect. Listen to any good Italian singer before the 80s. (This includes Pavarotti before the 80s but not after.)
2. Vibrato. There is no excessive vibrato. This is her NATURAL vibrato, a result of good, free singing.
Complaints: She sings everything straight tone. She's flat. Once again, "She has no color."
One of the things that I like about her is her crystal, clear voice. It's not straight tone. It's unaffected, real singing. Get WITH it, people.
3. Listen to how her voice "soars." I never heard Crespin live, but you can just hear how the top just flies out of her mouth. Listen to the way she sings, how penetrating the sound is and you can imagine how BIG that must've been in the house. WOW.
Some say her high notes are "shrill," or "tight." That's how they SOUND to the ear that is only listening for the product. We can only judge how she sounds in records. I beg you, my friends, to listen to the WAY she sings, and imagine how that could sound in the house. Shrill on records, maybe, but a sound that must've filled the cavernous Metropolitan!

Okay, I hope SOME of this made sense. I tend to ramble.

Here are some TUBES:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpsbFZuvVu4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70rBkk759vo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwOFvOili-4&feature=related

DUET!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoA1DAi2Mm8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-P-29vSnXI8

In Song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVuLQeQa8DA

Scotto

Our dear, dedicated reader Olivia (and thus far, only commentator) pointed out that I neglected to include the link to Scotto's DIVINE singing of Flammen, perdonami!

Eccola:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMwJUS6jq-M.

And as my penince, I just found this gem:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMio52JOFhA&feature=related

I don't know anything about her, and while she certainly couldn't compete with her contemporaries such as Renata Tebaldi and Magda Olivero, I'd rather hear her on the Met stage than one Anna Netrebko or, sadly, Karita Mattila! (But only in Italian opera, otherwise I think KM is lovely.)

The Verismo Style...Original, Yesterday, and Today

For my second post, I provide you with three versions of Lodoletta's death from Mascagni's LODOLETTA. For those of you who aren't familiar with Mascagni, he was a contemporary of Giacomo Puccini who wrote CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA (the common companion to Leoncavallo's PAGLIACCI) and IRIS (among others.)

What characterizes this "verismo" style? Well, first of all, for those of you who have seen Renee Fleming promote her new CD entitled VERISMO, you will be enlightened to know that verismo does not mean "truth," as she will so ineloquently and irreverently tell you; verismo corresponds to what we English speakers know as the realism movement. Very well then, what is realism? Realism was the desire to show real people, real situations, real outcomes. No aristocracy, no idealized happy endings, no melodrama (see: the Gothic, the Romantic, my lover Bellini.)

So yes, the Italian word for truth, "vero," is the root of this word, but in this context it does not mean truth. Think again, Renee.

Back to the original question. What characterizes verismo? What is verismo style?

It is an absolute adherence to THE WORD (la parola.) The drama flows without much interruption in terms of arias, and if there are arias they serve to move the plot rather than character development (we can find thousands of examples where this is not true, such as Vissi d'arte from TOSCA.)

That does NOT MEAN THAT MUSIC TAKES A BACK SEAT TO POETRY. In fact, the music is just as important as the poetry, but they flow together in a constant give and take of time. The main characteristics of verismo are slancio, morbidezza, and, perhaps the most characteristic, portamenti. Portamenti MUST be executed cleanly otherwise it cheapens the music and makes it cheap, sentimental, dishonest, UNREAL. (We will see an example of this.) Morbidezza is a color in the voice epitomized by one Mafalda Favero. Slancio is a little more difficult to describe. It's declamatory, it's raw emotion. Literally it means "an outburst" or a "dash."

I cannot reiterate to you enough, my dearest readers, how important MUSICALITY is here. Verismo is not musical theatre (nothing against musical theatre). The music and the word work together. Listen now to our dear friend Mafalda Favero, who sang during the first half of the twentieth century. Her voice is so fresh, so young as befits the character of Lodoletta. She knows when to hold back emotionally and musically and when to LET GO.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSGrB6wpauU

And now, my favorite version of Flammen, perdonami, as sung by my most recent obsession Renata Scotto (who will one day get her own entry or six.)

First of all what makes this interpretation is the pianist. Like Scotto he is SO involved. This is MUSIC, this is DRAMA, people!

Listen to how Scotto plays with the words in the opening of the scene before the aria. She dips into chest effortlessly and only when necessary to create dramatic intension and integrity (another post will come on the tasteful use of chest voice.)

Nothing is as fabulous as around 2:45 when Scotto sings "quanta paura" (how much fear!) and the piano erupts under her before she "portamentos" sweetly and achingly into the aria proper "Flammen, perdonami! Non pianger piu!)

Listen how she caresses the words such as "piaaaanger, piu" with sweetness of tone and absolute love. There are tears in her voice on both "Flammen, perdonami!" in which she is truly repentant. After her declaration of love, Scotto executes another portamenti up to "Flammen, perdonami" from "Sei tu!"

It tears the heart. What dedication to her art form, what absolute love for the music and for the audience! The aria doesn't go above an A (don't quote me), but it is 5 minutes of music that I can't forget!

Now, for something entirely degenerate.

This begins halfway into the scene unfortunately:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vG4Lk2aCQjY

Now, Ms. Fleming is VERY confused. She's got some good things, but she doesn't SING most of the time. She exists in this place of breathy, half-speak on pitch and scooping, which is infinitely less effective. Yes, her voice is quite attractive, but her style is mostly atrocious. It lacks the honesty, the real suffering, sweetness, and sincerity of repentance that we hear in Favero and Scotto. And why? Because she is ignoring the music. She has not done her homework. Fleming discusses Olivero, Rosanna Carteri (look her up, I love her), Scotto and Favero in the notes of her CD, but after listening to the CD I think she is paying empty homage.

So, what was SO different about Favero/Scotto and Fleming? As usual my friends, it is that glorious relationship between music and poetry that can tear at our souls. A musical voice brings a rainbow of colors and layers of subtext that simple speech cannot get close too. Favero and Scotto understood this (see also Tebaldi and Freni), and while Renee attempts the style (we won't begin the discussion about how her color, temperament, and vocal size are entirely unsuitable), she doesn't quite get it. The effect that she makes with an attractive portamenti is immediately cancelled out by her mannerisms.

What is a mannerism? From the Italian maniera, meaning "handled," "styled," aka "put-on", "disingenuine."

I consider myself to be a dually mannered and honest person. I like manners, propriety, modesty and formalities, but I also hate bullshit.

Fleming's mannerisms are self-indulgent bullshit. Perhaps you never noticed it before, dear readers, but I hope, especially if you are singers, that you understand what I mean now. How can you BE Lodoletta or any character if you have these "-isms" that are unique only to you? I give Renee credit because she sings with her voice and she obviously has a sound technique, but beyond that she is an idiot who thinks she can sing anything she wants, in her way, without taking the time to study and truly understand what she is singing about.

Okay, so this turned into a rant against Renee Fleming, but it's a good example.

Recap:

1. What is the natural flow of the language? The composer will have set them according to the natural inflection of the language, and now it is YOUR job to make it YOUR inflection.

2. You accomplish this through studying the music. Not plunking your melody out on the piano and then listening to the rest on the recording, but looking at what is written in piano or orchestra. What tonality is underling THIS word and what does that MEAN? Often this can be deduced to: "am I resolving this situation (tonally) or is something unresolved? Am I ill at ease? whatever? (unresolved tonally.)" It's easy.

3. BE MUSICAL. Straight tone is an artistic choice, portamenti are an artistic choice (and need to be chosen carefully and with discrtion), dynamics are an artistic choice. SCOOPING IS NOT MUSIC.

4. It is hard enough to justify the validity of opera and verismo in today's "realist" society. (This is another entry as well.) Know your words, know your music, and sing honestly. Become the character, and the audience will join you. Get lost in your own world of "lalala I love singing, tehehehehehe," and someone will come along and chop your head off, 'cos that would be MUCH more entertaining.

Questions in the form of comments are encouraged.

Inception.

I really need to be writing a paper on Lermontov right now, but instead I will give a short introduction.

Having spent the majority of my undergraduate career as a voice performance major, I did not have the time to take many intellectually stimulating courses. That is not to say that one does not need a critical brain to be a musician (notice how I did not say a 'singer or a musician' thereby implying that singers are not musicians, because they are!), but it is an entirely different type of critical thinking. As a consequence of following a curriculum saturated with music classes and dessicated of courses in the humanities, I lost a bit of my ability to express myself eloquently and coherently, using sound arguments and a varied vocabulary. It is my desire that this blog will help me in honing my thought process and my writing ability, both in word choice, variety of vocabulary, and grammar.

What will I tell you lovely people about? My thoughts on the current state of opera, mostly, with youtube videos or suggested recordings that examine and display the changes, mostly for the worse, that were engendered by the digital age. I will also discuss my favorite composer, Vincenzo Bellini, who is wildly misunderstood, underestimated, and wrongly lumped into that catch-all category of bel canto. I also really enjoy Renaissance and Baroque sculpture and their parellels in music, so we'll have a visual portion in addition to aural!

Finally, I myself would like to investigate how classical music (once again, especially opera and the vocal medium) has evolved alongside cultural and political trends, concentrating on the question "How is it relevant today?"

Also, I will provide some sassy commentary on my life.

My personality heritage? A combination of Dorothy's caustic wit and Blanche's proclivity for men (if you are Golden Girls fans) alongside a very traditional outlook on life and society (I am often accused of trying to maintain propriety even in the most inappropriate of situations), while always striving to understand every side of an argument and never allowing myself to fall into the terrible trap of everything being either black or white.

- S. Jude