Hello Opera lovers!
It’s the start of a new week at the NYDV Winter Intensive! After a day off to rest and let the last week of music and staging sink into our bones, we are back at it! It is 10:20pm and I am at a subway station waiting on a train to take me home after an 11 hour day. We had music rehearsals for all of our scenes with the Maestro as well as a masterclass with Ken Benson and after a dinner break we had our first rehearsal with staging and music in the performance space. (It was so cool to see the scenes come to life on stage for the first time!) Whew! What a day!
Mr. Benson spent time with each artist discussing possible literature choices for current and future use and I found it quite interesting! Especially because there were three of us circling the same rep in our books and we all had different music prescriptions. So enlightening!
I spent some quality time in a practice room really rooting myself and experimenting with some ideas Maesto introduced in our last coaching. I am new to Sieglinde and I am really appreciative of the time and effort he is taking with me. I am feeling better and better about the portion of the role am singing.
It is important as a singer to check in with yourself on these long days. I am guilty of letting myself get wrapped up in what I am doing and forgetting to have human moments. Such as, eating. I forget to eat a lot. I also forget that we are allowed to be human. That we are allowed to make mistakes. That is why we are here working with these directors, coaches, and colleagues. We have a hunger to be better and a desire to find success. Maybe it is out of this hunger and desire that I forget that I am allowed to be imperfect and am actually encouraged to be, many times. I am a voice teacher by trade and I am constantly reminding my students to never apologize for being a work in progress and to enjoy their journey. A very wise man taught me that. Time to take this advice and put it to good use.
I hope you enjoyed your evening lovelies! It is time for me to hop off the train, get home and fall asleep!
Good night,
Kristen