Nuova Year II
Today was the kind of day where a bunch of weird things happen. Also, I can't tell if every day is like this, and I finally just noticed, or if really was the day. Or maybe just me...
I was already in a weird mood. I've been trying to get enough sleep, but it's hard, even with going to bed at 11, it's not quite enough. I haven't made it to yoga yet this week, which starts at 8, just b/c I need the sleep soooo very badly. And apparently, to top that off, I had bad people reactions today. Which, roughly translated, means people pissed me off today. Not all people, not all the time. But.
My double for instance, has suddenly gotten very whiny, and has decided to tell me about it every time. It was fine 2 nights ago when she came and cried in my room after a bad rehearsal for a concert. It was not fine when every spare moment after that she seemed to tell me about why her life is not perfect. You know what? It's not even that bad. It's just that it *felt* like that kept happening, and I just couldn't handle it anymore.
Then I'm doing a duet for the coming concert on Saturday night (Aria Extravaganza - best word ever to type!!) and my duet partner, to put it shortly (and unkindly) is not a very good singer. She means the best. But. She is not good. She tries like CRAZY, and is pulling it together and will hopefully pull it off. But. Every coaching thus far seems to be primarily about helping her get her pitches, while she rambles in Russian about how sorry she is, and how she keeps trying so hard. And then every coaching is secondarily about helping me sing better. Not like I need the most attention, but I just feel like I am slightly beyond the point where we should spend rehearsals working notes. The other thing is that she's much shorter than me. O, and I have I mentioned that we're doing a love duet? That's right, those old-fashioned composers pre-Mozart just LOVED to make romantic male lead roles for castrati (ie: guys who got the snipsnip in childhood to prevent their voices from dropping), which means nowadays, they get sung by mezzos. Which makes for wonderfully awkward scenarios of love scenes between women, only one of the women is pretending to be a male, only you never reeeeally manage to forget it. So anyways, this crazy Russian short chick is supposed to be my love interest. Only, she has no personal space, and throws her arms and stamps her feet whenever she makes a mistake. Did I mention we perform it Saturday night, and we're supposed to have it staged, only we haven't really done that yet? Anyways.... so she was PISSING ME OFF today, and I was trying to hold it together, but with trouble....
And then a brief coaching today with my super-crazy-picky conductor... I've had several bad experiences with her already. She really fabulous, and knows her stuff for sure, but at times, you can't sing more than a note, or something even just breathe before she stops you and tells you you're doing it wrong. I don't function like that, so I get super frustrated, and have to constantly force myself to let it go, and just do it again and again and again and again until I finally get it to go right... Anyways, after I was trying SO HARD to think of the meaning of the words I was singing, she told me I wasn't thinking about the meaning, and I SO NEARLY SNAPPED.
So it was *that* kind of a day. I didn't spend the day angry or sad or exhausted or anything. It's just... I had a very depleted level of tolerance for annoying things.
WELL, it also was a day of randomness. Maybe the random didn't even start till this afternoon, but here's what I remember of it: about 5 firetrucks in the bus depot area on campus that is just outside our dorm... unexplained, no accident in sight. No flaming bus. The LRT (Edmonton pseudo-subway) has several stations right there as well, so it could have been that. But no one seemed panicked or urgent, there were just... multiple firetrucks, and firemen watching us walk by.
Catching the bus to West Ed to see a movie: seeing a car wreck with a car litterally bent in half. It must have wrapped around a tree or something, but it was on an off-ramp of a semi-major roadway... several cop cars, but no ambulance or anything, so it must have been the tail-end of it.
A chair on top of a dirt pile in the middle of a construction zone. A huge pile of dirt, as tall as the overpass. I wondered if the chair was for resting (although who would want to rest in the full sun?) or if it had mysteriously been unearthed during excavation...
Getting to West Ed, and seeing just outside the bus depot there, a large group of cops -at least 6 or 7- all surrounding this guy sitting on the grass, about to get up. A young guy, but there seemed to be nothing wrong with him. There were also several cops at a distance that I saw as I got off the bus, seeming to keep an eye on the situation from afar, but who knows?
A crazy man in McDonalds yelling "hey busboy!" to the poor Phillipino man wiping tables.
When leaving West Ed, walking past an old Chinese lady who belched loudly just as I passed by.
The bus driver being snarky, or maybe joking, but I couldn't tell. As I put my coins in the drop box, I said "No thanks, I don't need it" to the transfer he was ripping off. He replied, "I wasn't going to give it to you anyways" as I was walking away - I couldn't tell if it was a joke, or if he meant it, b/c there was another person digging in their purse looking for money, and maybe she had asked for it, or something. Anyways, I've never had that happen before.
While pulling out of the bus depot in the middle of nowhere, hearing yelling, and looking out the window to see some punk yelling and dancing. If he had his ipod on or not, I couldn't tell. But really, it was just the icing on a day of strange events, that I couldn't help but smile....
In other news, I just came back from Wolverine (which is why I went to West Ed). I went alone b/c I needed to not be with ppl after a day like today, and b/c I didn't know how much longer the movie would be in theatre, and b/c I don't believe I get another day off before our show goes up next week. (Nuova's great like that.) I really loved it, I loved how much of Canada was in it. I loved certain lines like (with great drama) "Your country needs you!" "I'm Canadian." I loved Hugh Jackman being Wolverine, and seeing how he got created with the adamantium, and that it wasn't against his will, but that his back story is still incredibly tragic. And I can't wait for the next installment!! I also loved the preview for Ice Age 3, and I can't WAIT for it!!! July 4 baby! Just in time for me to finish my summer programs!!!!
Also in the good news category, I sang through a Czech aria today that I absolutely adore. Last year my teacher said I couldn't do it yet, b/c my low range didn't equal my high range, and that that flaw was just too obvious in the piece. But this year, my new Nuova teacher said it's fabulous and works perfectly in my voice!!! She went through all the Czech language with me, and I ROCKED it!!! I've never sung in Czech before, but it came pretty easily, although the "przj" syllable tripped me up multiple times... The teacher even said it will become my party piece, and gave me advice for when I sing it with an orchestra. Not if I sing it, but *when* I sing it with an orchestra. So that was AWESOME, and I was, and still am, super pumped about that.
For the scary news, I get 3 more runs at Suor Angelica before I perform it. And that's just crazy talk!!! I'm so not ready, but at the same time, I kind of am. I still haven't had a big break down, or cried, or anything all the people said I'd do. But my teacher today (I seem to be quoting her a lot) said that my experience with the role would be different than anyone else's, but also different as my life experiences change. So that was good advice. Anyways, I have a huge run at it tomorrow, so I need to head to bed and get some good sleep in.
And for your listening pleasure: my new party piece: Song to the Moon
I was already in a weird mood. I've been trying to get enough sleep, but it's hard, even with going to bed at 11, it's not quite enough. I haven't made it to yoga yet this week, which starts at 8, just b/c I need the sleep soooo very badly. And apparently, to top that off, I had bad people reactions today. Which, roughly translated, means people pissed me off today. Not all people, not all the time. But.
My double for instance, has suddenly gotten very whiny, and has decided to tell me about it every time. It was fine 2 nights ago when she came and cried in my room after a bad rehearsal for a concert. It was not fine when every spare moment after that she seemed to tell me about why her life is not perfect. You know what? It's not even that bad. It's just that it *felt* like that kept happening, and I just couldn't handle it anymore.
Then I'm doing a duet for the coming concert on Saturday night (Aria Extravaganza - best word ever to type!!) and my duet partner, to put it shortly (and unkindly) is not a very good singer. She means the best. But. She is not good. She tries like CRAZY, and is pulling it together and will hopefully pull it off. But. Every coaching thus far seems to be primarily about helping her get her pitches, while she rambles in Russian about how sorry she is, and how she keeps trying so hard. And then every coaching is secondarily about helping me sing better. Not like I need the most attention, but I just feel like I am slightly beyond the point where we should spend rehearsals working notes. The other thing is that she's much shorter than me. O, and I have I mentioned that we're doing a love duet? That's right, those old-fashioned composers pre-Mozart just LOVED to make romantic male lead roles for castrati (ie: guys who got the snipsnip in childhood to prevent their voices from dropping), which means nowadays, they get sung by mezzos. Which makes for wonderfully awkward scenarios of love scenes between women, only one of the women is pretending to be a male, only you never reeeeally manage to forget it. So anyways, this crazy Russian short chick is supposed to be my love interest. Only, she has no personal space, and throws her arms and stamps her feet whenever she makes a mistake. Did I mention we perform it Saturday night, and we're supposed to have it staged, only we haven't really done that yet? Anyways.... so she was PISSING ME OFF today, and I was trying to hold it together, but with trouble....
And then a brief coaching today with my super-crazy-picky conductor... I've had several bad experiences with her already. She really fabulous, and knows her stuff for sure, but at times, you can't sing more than a note, or something even just breathe before she stops you and tells you you're doing it wrong. I don't function like that, so I get super frustrated, and have to constantly force myself to let it go, and just do it again and again and again and again until I finally get it to go right... Anyways, after I was trying SO HARD to think of the meaning of the words I was singing, she told me I wasn't thinking about the meaning, and I SO NEARLY SNAPPED.
So it was *that* kind of a day. I didn't spend the day angry or sad or exhausted or anything. It's just... I had a very depleted level of tolerance for annoying things.
WELL, it also was a day of randomness. Maybe the random didn't even start till this afternoon, but here's what I remember of it: about 5 firetrucks in the bus depot area on campus that is just outside our dorm... unexplained, no accident in sight. No flaming bus. The LRT (Edmonton pseudo-subway) has several stations right there as well, so it could have been that. But no one seemed panicked or urgent, there were just... multiple firetrucks, and firemen watching us walk by.
Catching the bus to West Ed to see a movie: seeing a car wreck with a car litterally bent in half. It must have wrapped around a tree or something, but it was on an off-ramp of a semi-major roadway... several cop cars, but no ambulance or anything, so it must have been the tail-end of it.
A chair on top of a dirt pile in the middle of a construction zone. A huge pile of dirt, as tall as the overpass. I wondered if the chair was for resting (although who would want to rest in the full sun?) or if it had mysteriously been unearthed during excavation...
Getting to West Ed, and seeing just outside the bus depot there, a large group of cops -at least 6 or 7- all surrounding this guy sitting on the grass, about to get up. A young guy, but there seemed to be nothing wrong with him. There were also several cops at a distance that I saw as I got off the bus, seeming to keep an eye on the situation from afar, but who knows?
A crazy man in McDonalds yelling "hey busboy!" to the poor Phillipino man wiping tables.
When leaving West Ed, walking past an old Chinese lady who belched loudly just as I passed by.
The bus driver being snarky, or maybe joking, but I couldn't tell. As I put my coins in the drop box, I said "No thanks, I don't need it" to the transfer he was ripping off. He replied, "I wasn't going to give it to you anyways" as I was walking away - I couldn't tell if it was a joke, or if he meant it, b/c there was another person digging in their purse looking for money, and maybe she had asked for it, or something. Anyways, I've never had that happen before.
While pulling out of the bus depot in the middle of nowhere, hearing yelling, and looking out the window to see some punk yelling and dancing. If he had his ipod on or not, I couldn't tell. But really, it was just the icing on a day of strange events, that I couldn't help but smile....
In other news, I just came back from Wolverine (which is why I went to West Ed). I went alone b/c I needed to not be with ppl after a day like today, and b/c I didn't know how much longer the movie would be in theatre, and b/c I don't believe I get another day off before our show goes up next week. (Nuova's great like that.) I really loved it, I loved how much of Canada was in it. I loved certain lines like (with great drama) "Your country needs you!" "I'm Canadian." I loved Hugh Jackman being Wolverine, and seeing how he got created with the adamantium, and that it wasn't against his will, but that his back story is still incredibly tragic. And I can't wait for the next installment!! I also loved the preview for Ice Age 3, and I can't WAIT for it!!! July 4 baby! Just in time for me to finish my summer programs!!!!
Also in the good news category, I sang through a Czech aria today that I absolutely adore. Last year my teacher said I couldn't do it yet, b/c my low range didn't equal my high range, and that that flaw was just too obvious in the piece. But this year, my new Nuova teacher said it's fabulous and works perfectly in my voice!!! She went through all the Czech language with me, and I ROCKED it!!! I've never sung in Czech before, but it came pretty easily, although the "przj" syllable tripped me up multiple times... The teacher even said it will become my party piece, and gave me advice for when I sing it with an orchestra. Not if I sing it, but *when* I sing it with an orchestra. So that was AWESOME, and I was, and still am, super pumped about that.
For the scary news, I get 3 more runs at Suor Angelica before I perform it. And that's just crazy talk!!! I'm so not ready, but at the same time, I kind of am. I still haven't had a big break down, or cried, or anything all the people said I'd do. But my teacher today (I seem to be quoting her a lot) said that my experience with the role would be different than anyone else's, but also different as my life experiences change. So that was good advice. Anyways, I have a huge run at it tomorrow, so I need to head to bed and get some good sleep in.
And for your listening pleasure: my new party piece: Song to the Moon
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