Not Just Another Pretty Voice

I’m so tired!  So, I told you about the rock stuff.  I’m also doing opera stuff.

Remember I was maybe supposed to do Ariadne auf Naxos but I wasn’t really sure?  ‘Cause Brooklyn Repertory Opera promised to produce it for me three years ago, but then it kept getting pushed further and further back?  Well several weeks ago I found out IT’S ON.  Thanks to a little research from me, we located a score in English, which was one of the big issues- they ONLY do stuff in English.  I was horrified that they wanted to do this in English, but actually the translation is pretty good!  What a relief.  Except, they’ve only given us half the translation so far.  And the show is in December.  Um, they know this is a hard opera right?  I know I can handle anything they throw at me, but I hope the rest of the cast is up to the task.  And I don’t mean that as a knock on anyone- I don’t know who else is cast.  There hasn’t been a list posted or sent out, and I haven’t bothered to ask.  It’s just, you know, there’s always somebody in every cast who doesn’t know their music, especially at this level of company, and considering how difficult it is I’m nervous that it will be many people.

So I’ve been basically practicing two hours a day trying to learn Zerbinetta.  It’s HARD!!!  And it’s not like I haven’t worked on it before.  It’s not new to me.  I’ve spent quite a lot of time on it, actually.  But you get so far, and it takes TIME to get through each phrase, you can’t just sight-read it, or I can’t- and then you get stuck on a really hard part and maybe you work on it for a couple days and then you have a performance or a role or an audition or something else that you need to work on, and you put it away.  So I worked on it plenty in the past but didn’t fully get anywhere.

So now I’m finally really forced to memorize it.  It’s quite a long role!!  I don’t think most people have seen the opera, or are really familiar with much of it besides Zerbinetta’s and Harlequin’s arias. maybe the Zerbinetta-Composer duet or some of Ariadne’s music.  It’s a really hard, long role.  Like, you know Zerbinetta’s aria?  That’s like the hardest and longest aria ever?  The whole role is like that.  The recits, the duet, the ensembles.  So it’s been a priority project.  Like, “Sorry I can’t exercise/hang out/work because I have to learn this.”  It’s coming along great.  I’m very close to memorized, except the first half in English and the second half in German.

I don’t even know when rehearsals start.

Also, I’m doing Suor Angelica next month.  This is something with friends that’s been being tossed around- a friend is putting it together for someone else to do Angelica, and I volunteered my services.  I don’t know what role I’ll be doing yet- they want me as Genovieffa but they already promised it to someone else so they have to see if they’re still gonna do it, otherwise I’ll do 1st Cercatrice like I did at New York Grand Opera. Either way I’m doing Genovieffa this Spring in Harrisburg.  Yay!  I love opera.

Also opera?  You have to read my interview with Natalie Dessay!! Unlike most of my CS articles, you can read this one online for free, even if you’re not a subscriber.  I’m not sure if it’s just for September that you can read it without being a subscriber, so get on it now!

Everything else has been small.  I need to actually do some auditions this year.  I kind of haven’t really the last couple of years.

See ya later!

Hi fans!  Sorry, I’ve been incredibly negligent.  Things crazy, me busy, life overwhelming, etc etc.  Well, I made an album, you know!

Basically I went to the studio like a LOT.  Like 6-8 hours a day for weeks.  It was a full-time job I wasn’t getting paid for.  (Until you guys BUY TONS AND TONS OF COPIES OF MY ALBUMS.  TONS.)  I pretty much didn’t even practice or exercise like the whole time.

So, now that the whole thing’s over, it’s hard to know where to start.  I gave you the scoop on the drum and bass tracks already.  So, then we did guitar, which took two whole days.  Then we did vocals, which I did in ONE DAY THANKUVERYMUCH.  Under 7 hours.  AND then I went to sing at Opera on Tap.

Then we did pretty much two days for guitar overdubs and two days for vocal overdubs.  Why do vocal overdubs (background vocals and stuff) take two days when the ground vocals take one?  Mostly ’cause there’s a lot of stopping and starting.  Also ’cause you don’t really know what you’re doing.  Like, we’re kinda making parts up as we go along, so they have to be discussed, and we have to try different things.

Here’s a pic of my in the studio by Philine:

Highlight: we randomly added some Gregorian chant to A Carol.  It sounds fantastic.  Oh, and a lot of evil whispers in the backround of a couple songs that you may or may not notice.

Then we did mixing, which took forever.  Every song ran longer than expected. (Of course my expectations were optimistic, ’cause I’m an overachiever.) Actually I didn’t do very much, sat there drinking coffee and trying to book my Midwest tour over my iPhone.  Since we were on a tight schedule (read: budget) Martin kinda did everything and then when he was kind of done I’d listen and suggest my changes.  It was hard to wake up in the MORNING for all those days but kind of nice for someone who’s not used to it.

It was mastered all in one day by Fred Kevorkian. As far as I know he did a good job.  But I don’t have an ear for that stuff- I really can’t tell!  Mastering was cool because not only did I get to hear the final product on amazing speakers, but they do this thing where they switch back and forth between songs so rapidly- sometimes every couple seconds- and cleanly, it’s disorienting.  I think I’m listening to A Carol and then I get a few seconds of Monica, one second of The Sky is Close, and then back to Carol, seamless.  It felt like my musical life was flashing before my eyes.

So I pretty much rushed the finished copy right off to the printers.  There was some drama with the artwork.  My good friend Philine van Lidth de Jeude took the pics ages ago, but then the person I thought was going to do the layout bailed.  And I can’t use Adobe Illustrator for crap.  I tried.  I had no idea how to use the replication company’s templates.  Fortunately a friend gave me some names and James Sullivan stepped in and finished the job.  Yay!  Day saved.

So the long and short of it is that I’m waiting to get my finished CDs.  And then, party!!!  CD release: 9/24 at Spike Hill, Brooklyn. 8pm. FREE. See you there.