Yes, it was sunny today!
My coaching this afternoon was good- any other singer will empathize with this- but so totally draining. It was one of the ones where you stop and pick apart basically every other note and analyze what you're doing wrong. Part of it was that we worked on two Mozart arias, and his music is so good at revealing the slightest flaws. And when it's right it's so right! We worked on arias that I don't know as well (Deh, per questo istante solo from La clemenza di Tito and E Amore un ladroncello from Cosi fan tutte) so it made sense that I wasn't quite as secure on words and phrasing. The big message of the day was that I, as a performer, need to know what's coming up and think in bigger phrases, so it doesn't sound like I'm surprised by the music coming out of my mouth. Very useful for everything else too! Sometimes I get too bogged down in what I know I just messed up that then I continue to mess myself up...must never forget that music is temporal and you can't hold on to any single moment. My coach has said both yesterday and today that one can never hold onto music, that you must "Give! Give!" I think this is part of it too- if you aren't ready to perform, you will automatically hold onto parts of your music, checking to see if you sang the right words, did the ornament before the beat, whatever it was that you were worried about. It's hard to do this in coachings when you are in fact there in the midst of the learning process, not at the end of it, so you are by nature going to have some hesitation.
I met another young American singer who was having a coaching after me, and we are having coffee next week, so all hope is not lost- I won't go for a whole month without socializing!
After my coaching I was so tired, I was tempted to lie down again....But I rallied since the afternoon was so lovely, and made my way down to the Louvre. I'd been there once before several years ago. I am now the proud possessor of a Carte Louvre Jeunes which anyone under 30 years can purchase as a membership. Because I'm still under 26, mine was only 15 euros,
so even if I go there twice this visit, it will have paid for itself. My plan is that, on days when I don't have anything else scheduled, I'll want to get out of the house, and there are worse places you can go hang out than the Louvre. I have a lot of books, so even if I just go and read for an hour, it will be lovely.
I take it, from all the honking outside, that France just won the France-Ireland football match. Yes there were lots of guys on the street today wearing their green jerseys.
