Well, I did walk to the Opera Bastille this morning, mostly with the goal of getting out of the dorm room, I mean apartment. At the last minute I decided to make use of a contact there I'd been given, for an administrator at the Atelier Lyrique. I managed to tell the security guard who I was looking for and explain that I didn't have an appointment, and he managed to tell me that she wasn't there but would be coming in soon. Of course she rushed in and I didn't know who she was at the time...waited another 20 minutes, then finally the security guard mentioned me to her. Well, she didn't have time at the moment to talk, and explained that all the information was on the website...at least I got to sit down for a little while!
I grabbed a sandwich avec thon and the sandwich guy told me I didn't look like a French girl so he started speaking to me in English. Mind you that he was an immigrant himself. I decided to take that as a compliment (?) since French women smoke and probably have worse teeth than I do. Not saying that I wouldn't kill for the legs on some of these women stalking around on 4 inch heels in mini skirts. The Parisian woman who gets up one morning just not caring, maybe feeling a little under the weather, and just rolls out onto the street STILL looks 8 million times chicer than 99% of American women. It's just sad.
I had my first coaching today and it was great. I was still tired and warming up as I sang, etc., but it was very constructive. As hoped for, it's nice to have someone know so much about style tell what you're missing or have just forgotten along the way. I found I was working too hard, and that everything was there in the music should I choose to actually sing it as written. You get voice teachers and other professionals that tell you that's it's ok in certain places to do your own thing, not get stuck in the squareness of the rhythms, but then my coach today showed me that (duh!) Mozart knew what he was doing and you really can't ignore rhythm and meter, even in recitative, or you lose the character. I have another coaching with the same person tomorrow, so let's hope I can incorporate some of this and be a little more awake.
I'm a little worried about my apartment. I'm fairly sensitive to mold, and I think this place, particularly the tiny salle de douche, is coated in the stuff. The plumbing is kind of, shall we say, rickety? Did I mention that I'm not supposed to flush anything, even toilet paper, down the toilet? Oh yes, I have a little trash can filled with my used toilet paper. I'm sure that's not helping with the whole mold issue. Eww.
