Voice Lessons

So the song I'm singing now is a song of spring. Like a bird, I can attempt to slide up and down the scale, or chirp the same note on consecutive phrases.  What tune might this be, you would ask? None other than "Mi chiamano Mimi" from La Boheme by Puccini. Specifically, the lyrics midway are:

guardo sui tetti e in cielo;

ma quando vien lo sgelo il primo sole e mio

il primo bacio dell'aprile e mio!

il primo sole e mio!

I look over the roofs and into the sky,

but when comes the thaw the first sun is mine

the first kiss of April is mine!

the first sun is mine!

Sounds a little like me, me, and mine, but I guess that's why they call her Mimi.  Still, I like the poetic concept.  The birds now are greeting the dawn an hour in advance with their songs, and I've spotted many a one singing their little hearts out perched on the highest branch of a tree. Their repertoires are complex and gloriously uplifting, and like a opera, generally about love and boundaries.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxojMn3lck4

Not content to be a passive listener to these arias,  a few years ago I thought I would give it a go of trying it out myself.  The idea of finding my authentic voice was appealing, as it was with my first cry when born. Unfortunately, this primordial pleasure is frequently corrupted by self-consciousness and shame as one leaves childhood behind. 

Taking time to twitter is as vital to one's soul as any art.  The ultimate in luxury is a private voice lesson, when your very own teacher focuses exclusively on your vocal folds as if under a microscope. With a piano accompaniment,  a beautiful melody, and personal participation, where is there more bliss?

Listen in to a talented soprano being coached "Mi chiamano Mimi" by Maria Callas:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GB5poss4d9k

Great singers make it seem effortless, and my operatic career will have to wait for another reincarnation. Still, I fantasize about groups of friends sharing song together as was common years ago for entertainment, simply for the fun of it. As a true amateur (translates as lover), I do it for love rather than for money.

Song Singing

A few years ago, I attended a Fetes de la Musique event hosted by the Alliance Francaise.  It was inspired by the annual  "day of music" when anyone and everyone who can sing or play an instrument takes to the streets all across France.  Our St. Louis contingent enjoyed an evening of piano, violin and voice.  I was enthralled by the sopranos and recalled how I loved to sing as a young girl.  After the concert, over wine and cheese, I asked one of the singers if it was too late for me to study voice.  She replied, not at all, but that a woman's voice matures at the age of 65...so there was time after all!   

My piano teacher Kathi Kurtzman and I always like to joke that playing the piano is far more difficult than voice, and that singers don't have to practice nearly as hard and long.  However, a great artist always makes anything appear easier than it actually is. Evenso,  I like this quote by Jerome Hines:

"Opera is an excessive art form populated by excessive people.  We make it more excessive than necessary.  Singing is really a very simple thing". 

And that is what makes it so darn hard.  My teacher Merry Keller says that it should take no more effort than talking.  I'm trying and looking forward to trilling like a bird one of these days, if I stick with it!

My father, a professional musician and long deceased, said that I was a coloratura soprano.  I guess that I have a childlike desire to want to please him and have him be proud of me.  And you never know when you might need to belt out an aria.

 Merry Keller et moi.

My teacher Merry lives on Tulane Avenue, which seems coincidental given that I used to have an apartment on Tulane, and my daughter Emily went to Tulane.  When I arrived for my first lesson with her,  I was amused that we both had on shirts like the staphs on a sheet of music; the notes were only waiting to be sung!  Lieder lovers, unite!