Week 5: Carmen what?
I have formerly-small-voice syndrome.
What? Sorry…maybe that takes some explanation. The progression of my voice has been a journey. I started my singing career in commercial music. When I first moved to Nashville, I sang and played cello (and occasionally bass guitar) in rock and country bands. When I started the switch to singing classical music in my mid-20’s, the teacher I was working with thought I was a soprano - like a live-above-the-staff, coloratura-rep-singing soprano.
I got to grad school and my new teacher said “You might be a soprano…and you might be a mezzo. I can’t tel!” And so we worked on lyric mezzo rep, and other repertoire that could go either way.
I finished graduate school and started auditioning as a lyric mezzo, but CONSTANTLY was asked “Do you think you might be a soprano?” I get it…a light-voiced mezzo with easy high notes is confusing.
I finally stopped getting the “do you think you might be a soprano” question about the time I turned 30. My voice warmed up, but I still didn’t have anything that could be called a “big” voice. So I sang lighter roles - lots of Mozart - and assumed that I was singing the rep I would sing for the rest of my life.
We all know the trope about assuming, right? There’s been a fair amount of growth over the past year or two, but I didn’t realize how much. It’s not like the rep I was already singing wasn’t working any more.
Fast forward to my voice lesson this past weekend when my teacher says “Yeah, you need to learn Carmen.” and I nearly fall over.
I’m going to be honest - Carmen scares the hell out of me. Not because of the music, or even the massiveness of the role. Nope, Carmen is an incredibly vulnerable role. Vulnerable isn’t something that I do very well. Comedy? Yes. Gender-bending? All day long. Sexy seductress? You’ve passed my comfort zone.
Am I going to jump in and learn this role anyway? YES.
I’m working on mapping out my learning for this. Stay tuned! I’ll share my process/progress next week.
So what did I accomplish LAST week? Lots of good things (I got in my three hours/day!), but not everything that was on my list. Here’s a reminder for you:
Finish picking my rep for the Jensen Competition. I’ve got four of the five pieces picked, and I need to nail down the last one! (Done!)
Finesse work on the five pieces I end up with. I’ll be checking languages, phrasing, intonation, acting….you know….all the things. (I did this, but I still have work to do!)
Set a recording date for (all of) said Jensen rep - recordings are due March 14, so I need to get on this! (Not done, but in the works)
Decide on fingerings for Nicodemus. I’ve already started this, but I need to finish! (Done!)
Finish reading Audition Success. I’m about halfway through this, and it’s been a great read so far. (Womp, womp…this isn’t done at all)
So this week, my list looks like this:
Continue finesse work on competition rep
Set a recording date for said competition rep
Map out a plan for learning Carmen, and start learning!
Read at least two chapters of Audition Success
What are you tackling this week? Care to join me in working on something outside of your comfort zone?