Off to sing Nemorino

As I pack to prepare to head to Torino, Italy to compete for the role of Nemorino, I have been walking around our apartment in Paris constantly humming every person's lines except my own. Those are the easy ones to remember. While working with one of my Parisian coaches this week, I stumbled repeatedly on my entrances when there was nothing more than the simple piano accompaniment. What I realized is that I know every single one of my lines, I often take my word and entrance cues off listening to the other characters...Not a good idea when the audition is just me and a pianist singing through the entire role (including ensembles) and there is no one else on stage with me. This has caused me to go back and really focus in on every character besides myself (hard for a tenor to do).

Amidst preparing for this trip to Italy, I have decided to change techniques mid-stream. Not exactly an easy thing to do (nor recommended). In any event, my whole thinking was, there is no time like the present. Regardless how Italy goes, the most important thing is to move forward in some aspect of my voice every day (be it language practice, technique work, etc). I know there is a limited amount of time we all have to get our careers off the ground before it becomes such an economic albatross that we have no choice, but to find some other kind of employment and way of life. I have felt this albatross growing stronger on my back this last year and have decided I need to make things happen (even if drastic). I am going for broke (literally and figuratively) and that means evaluating every aspect of how I work as a musician. I have gotten certain criticisms over the years that are now becoming pretty much a pattern and because of this I have been seeking advice from professionals all across the voice field to solve them. I did not have much success in the US finding help to solve these problems (the help I received in the US was more fixing the symptoms, but not really solving the root problems). Luckily, I stumbled into some people here in France that have really been able to help me. My new voice teacher and I have been working 5-6 days a week for 2-3 hours at a time for the past couple weeks just to get me a head start on this new technique as I head to Torino. His approach is to not treat the symptoms, but instead to fix the actual problems. This is certainly not an entirely novel approach to many things, but to my voice, it has been a huge help.

For you singers out there, let me suffice to say that Europe has an opinion on American singers and it is definitely a fair one. My voice embodies many of the problems we have as American English speakers singing in Italian, French, or German. It is sometimes too bright and shrill and at other times unfocused and lacking strength (without pushing) on the bottom. This is the general opinion of American singers. People here have told me it is because we form our mouths wrong when forming words. Europeans will form words at the very front of the mouth and lips and as Americans we form it in the back of our throats. This presents many interesting problems. Next, because we form everything in the backs of our mouths, we tend to also try and find all our resonance places there and in our heads (read...NOSE). This creates that midwest twang or southern drawl or many other accents we have in the USA. In any event, this whole process of speaking (or in this case singing and creating sound) needs to be re-learned to get the color that European singers are so famous for having. I won't get into the details, but needless to say, it has been a VERY tough road for me (however invigorating at the same time). There are times I sound like a child learning to speak for the first time, but at other moments, there is a greatness that sounds that I was never capable of before.

On other fronts, I am preparing to also sing in Marseille in front of the great tenor Rolando Villazon in 2 weeks and after that I am singing in a concertized version of The Rake's Progress in Paris on October 22nd (did I mention I still need to start learning that role!!). Somewhere in this I also have several local (ie local to Paris) auditions coming. They will be blogged about when I take them.

One more note to all the Americans out there. Paris, France and the rest of Europe are a wonderful way to vacation, visit, or live. The idea that either we (Americans) will be met with hostility, rudeness, or disdain could never be more far from the truth. Wherever I go, regardless of how well I speak a language, I always find people willing to do whatever they can to lend a hand or offer directions (even if often people know less about the city roads than you do as a traveler). In the US, there is almost an aversion to making an effort to meet people halfway with languages when communicating, but here, if you don't speak French, they will try English, and then if you don't speak that, they will try meeting you halfway with a little German, Spanish, Italian, or whatever to make the conversation happen. It is truly amazing to watch and of to be a part. There is a certain INclusion that exists here that seems to really be lacking in many parts of the US (where the term EXclusion really has a strong meaning).

au revoir!