The End is the Beginning is the End

I had saved this post but for some reason never published it. (Actual date May 2011)

This has been the quarter of recitals. If you count a major opera role as a major performance you only need to give one recital. Since most of the grad students either had a major role last year or are new this year we had a LOT of recitals. With some being on Sundays I missed some. I was fortunate enough to hear Ashley, Meghan, and Erica's recitals.

Ashley isn't a voice major and so, her recital had a bit more freedom than the rest of us. She included some musical theater, a piece she played on the piano, and she invited her sister up to sing Fleetwood Mac's Landslide. I've loved that song since before we performed a colorguard routine, to the Smashing Pumpkins cover, in high school.

Meghan is a Ph.D. musicology student and has the same teacher Ashley, Erica and I have. My favorite song on her program was a composition by Tchaikovsky. The entire song has one word- ah. It was so beautiful. The song can mean anything you want it to. It's very interesting that Tchaikovsky decided to give this part to the voice and not an instrument. The voice can communicate even without text.

Erica, as a Junior is required to perform a 1/2 hour of music. In this half hour she managed to arrange sets in German, French, Italian, and English. Her choices were original and of course, I loved her Barber set.

May 27th was the Chamber Choir's concert Reincarnation. As we round out the year of American music the excitement for our French tour gains momentum.

Part of the requirements to receive a Master's in Music is to pass a german and

italian reading exam. Both consisted of an hour pre-exam in the library. Where, with the aid of a dictionary we are given a paragraph to translate. If we pass the hour exam we are given the longer take-home exam, where we are still allowed to use a dictionary. I don't know what all the fuss was about. They really tried to scare us into buying texts, taking the alternate course, and tell us of those that studied all year for the exam. Don't tell anyone, but I passed both without studying at all. I mean, we could use our dictionaries! Easy-breazy. Wunderbar!


For my final vocal convocation I decided to sing Azucena's, Stride la Vampa, from Verdi's Il Trovatore. I really wanted to make a great final statement. I tried to remember everything Susana and I had worked on. I also knew I had to raise the level of drama- crazy drama. Azucena is crazy! In this aria, Azucena tells her fellow gypsies about her mother whom the count burned at the stake. To get revenge, Azucena kidnaps the count's son to throw into the fire. She burned a baby all right, but it was the wrong one. She accidently threw her own baby into the fire. Azucena decides to raise the count's son as her own, biding her time until her revenge will do the most damage. Verdi is opera at its finest!