W2D6 - Funny things are happening!

Welcome to the end of the second week. Wow, it's incredible to think of all that has taken place in 2 weeks. Literally incredible (and yes Jess, I mean literally) Every day I'm constantly trying to open up my brain to stuff in more and more nuggets of gold.

Today was another busy day. Scheduling is something that can be tricky, to put it lightly, when you have 3 operas rehearsing at the same time. It's get even more tricky, when you have a few people who are in all three. It's been an interesting challenge trying to get to every rehearsal you have been called for. Between Romeo and Juliet, Beatrice and Benedict, voice lessons and classes, organizing 60 people is insane. Wilmarie, Kim's assistant does an amazing job of keeping it all straight. Part of me wants her job so bad. Assistant to Kim, it would be incredible, stressful, fun, tiring, challenging, exciting, and wonderful way to see a summer program from the inside out!

So today, we had a diction session with Nico Castel in the morning, and then it was off to Lunch Box Talk. Today we focused on the best way to learn a role, from the perspective of the faculty. There were a few different variations, but most people said roughly the same thing. Some focus on different stuff, but in the end they all had the same basic outline. Here we go:

How to learn a Role
1.buy the score, and mark in everything that your character does. Be as creative as you can, use colours and highlighters. (this kind of thing excites me. I love crafty stuff)
2. Take all your aria's and recits, and any chorus stuff that you have, and get a libretto version, or type it out yourself, and make a word for word translation of the text. It is beyond what words can express how important it is too know the word for word translation. (This is something I have only really discovered while at NUOVA. I knew it was important, but I didn't understand that it was the first step
3. Once the text feels good, add the rhythm of the notes while speaking the text. Do that until the rhythm is en stilled in your body.
4. Take the text away, and learn the melody on your favourite vowel. Just the melody and the rhythm.
5. Then put the words, meaning and melody all into one package.

Another incredibly important thing about learning a score is to know what everyone else is doing in the show. When it comes to character development, it's often everyone else that defines who you are suppose to be.

I will never learn a piece of music the same way, ever again! There is no such thing as generality in art. You can't just sort of know what you are singing about, you have to actually know.

Tonight we had a masterclass with Michael and Jackie. It was a great set of songs by everyone. I sang some French Melodie. It went pretty good. Adieu felt pretty good today. I've never been more aware of how bad my french is until today. Which seems harsh, but I seriously need to get my but in gear and learn the languages.
Yesterday and today I don't really now what's going on in my voice. Ever since my lesson with Jackie, dealing with breath, this have started to change. My voice has been tired for that last 2 days. The breathing stuff is opening me up a lot more, and that could be why my voice is so tried. It's hard to explain. I'm hoping that a day off tomorrow will really relax my voice and my body. I need a day to just process the week.

Kim ended our week tonight by encouraging us to really focus on listening for our 3rd week of rehearsals. Listen to all the things you say out loud and to yourself, about yourself. We may be nice to everyone around us, but are we nice to ourselves? Do we love my own body's? Kim brilliantly describe our self awareness like a child growing up. When we take our first step, use the potty, eat really food; these are all times when everyone around us celebrates even at the slightest improvement. The child wants to keep learning because when he trys something, his little success turns into large celebration. We need to be able to celebrate our success more regularly. (and that doesn't mean a party every other day) Also, part of the listening exercise means to be away of how often you say things that don't help you get to where you want to go. A good way to think is that if you wouldn't say the line to a child learning how to walk, then you shouldn't be saying it all all. As Kim said, "you're inbeast is back!

Well this is record how early this entire is at.

Over and Out!