It's been a busy past week/weekend. I'm so excited that Autumn is here. It's been a strange Autumn already though. It's been perfect weather for the most part - although it did rain a lot on Sunday. Other than that it's been warm during the day and chilly in the evenings. All with the exception of today which was 75 degrees!! The leaves are starting to turn too! I feel an apple picking trip coming on. Anyone game? I can fit 4 other people in my car!
I'm finding a lot more time to practice this year which is really fantastic. Really really fantastic actually. Karen and I were placed in the same Vocal Chamber Ensemble group and we're doing some really nice duets together. Some Purcell, Donizetti, a beautiful Ave Maria by Faure and so on. This is actually my first time working with another singer in the VCE class. The last two times I took it I was placed with a saxophonist the first semester and a flutist the second semester. We are having a lot of fun - the two of us are - and, not to sound vain - but man we sound really good together. LOL. I guess a more humble way of saying that would be - our voices blend together quite well together.
I'm really loving the Schumann Song Cycle class that I'm taking. I've always loved Schumann but have never sung anything by him. This was my chance - so I took it. Anyhow - I just finished a coaching on Süßer Freund, du blickest mich verwundert an from Schumann's song cycle Frauenliebe und Leben (A woman's love and life). This is the last cycle Schumann wrote before his marriage to Clara and was intended as a wedding gift to her. The poems are a cycle that give the emotional experiences of a woman at various stages in her life - narrating the progressive stages of her relationship with her love from her first sighting of him, their wedding, announcing her pregancy to her him, and finally - the death of her husband.
I was assigned song no. 6 which is the moment when she is trying to tell her husband she is pregnant. Well Friday was my last coaching on the song and I basically had to act it out - but under the direction of my classmates Yumi and Bree who had been told the previous week to come up with some sort of scenario and direct me through it. Well, guess who my husband got to be? Brian - one of the teachers who co-teaches the course. My accompanist wasn't there that day so he was playing for me and Yumi and Bree thought it would be interesting if he was the husband. Great. Thanks guys. I thought I was going to die. Poor Brian - I don't think his face could have gotten much more red.
The scene played out so that he was playing the piano (actually accompanying me) - and I was desperately trying to get his attention - trying to tell him in so many ways - but he was a like a man distracted by a football game. At one point he even pulled his phone (still playing the piano with one hand) and pretended to make a phone call at which point I grabbed the phone away and eventually sat down at the piano with him. Then it got to the "intimate" part of the song and I just wanted to melt to the ground. I was trying to stay in character and keep the fourth wall going - I continued moving closer and closer to him on the piano bench and he starts cracking up and then I started cracking up and then I spit on his hand!!! EWWWW!!! It wasn't a lot of spit - just singer spit - but still!! So that was how my Friday played out. I don't think I've ever been so embarrassed (not just about the spit thing - just the whole situation in general) but we are both adults and could laugh about it afterwards I suppose.
So there is a story for you all to laugh at. Next time we'll sell tickets for the show!
This weekend's supposed to be nice and we're trying to come up with something fun to do outside of the city. Apple picking, cranberry harvest festival - we're not sure yet. It's my first free weekend in a long time and I want to make the most of it. And who knows - this may (or may not) be my last Autumn here in New England so I want to fit in everything I haven't done yet. Good Luck with that Rachael