Another hard-work voice lesson yesterday. With my Pirates audition behind me, I've resumed work on Offenbach's Hymn to Bacchus (Orphee aux Enfers), which I'm working up to use as an audition piece. I chose it because I plan to audition for a production of a different Offenbach, La Belle Helene, but also to broaden my repertoire a little and to challenge myself, because has a broader range - 2 full octaves - than anything else I've auditioned with.
This piece has a couple of phrases near the end that start on the G above the staff and descend from there. That G has been something of a challenge for me, as my throat keeps trying to tighten up when I get to the F at the top of the staff. Warming up to a Bb or a C hasn't been as successful as I'd hoped, but yesterday NA gave me a couple of exercises that will help. Better, we were woodshedding the "dramatic intent" of the piece and I was concentrating hard enough on that that the G finally came freely. Took some doing, but the last couple of times I got through the song, that G actually felt pretty good.
La Belle Helene auditions are still 2 weeks away. If I can discipline myself to practice most days, if not every day, and try the exercises NA gave me, I should be able to go into that audition and surprise the MD (for whom I've auditioned for any number of productions over the past 6 or 7 years at least) with how much more I can do and how much better I'm singing these days. That, at least, is my hope. Now to get to work...
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