Recording today!

Celia's Owl
Originally uploaded by Alta Marie

Well, after work I am off to Chelsea Studios to make a recording. Every year we need to do new ones, and the time is nigh upon me. This year's fare:

1. O mio Fernando from La Favorite by Donizetti. This is the most beastly thing I've ever sung, and by beastly I mean awesome. It has everything an aria needs. Drama and screaming high-notes abound it. I love it.

2. Orlofsky's Aria from Die Fledermaus. This is standard fare for me. I've been singing this aria since I first did the role in 2004, so much fun. Getting to play an eccentric Russian prince gives me the license to do fun and crazy things. I never get bored with this aria.

3. En vain pour eviter from Carmen. This has been my starter aria for the last couple years. It is my favorite of the Carmen arias because it seems to me to be the aria where she is most herself. In the Seguidilla and the Habanera she is totally working it. You know those girls who are totally different whenever there are men around? Carmen is one of them. It's great fun for me to sing this because it's so raw and honest and she's confronting her fate in a very defiant way. Opera doesn't get any better than this, in my humble opinion

4. Lucretia's Aria from The Rape of Lucretia. Had a great session on this this summer during my apprenticeship at Des Moines. Historically, this one has been tricky because I get too involved and when I cry I lose most of my chest voice (which is not good for this one). I've been focusing more on technique lately, and plan on singing this one with the music to avert this problem for now.

In case you're wondering what the owl has to do with this post; nothing. I just think it's super cute, and it lives with my friend Celia now. I may do a couple more for Christmas this year, although the cork elves (more soon...) do have my heart.

ALSO! Sock number 1 is finished! I'm not allowing any pictures until I at least cast on sock #2, lest I abandon them entirely and carry on through the winter with just one sock.

To be or not to be

I feel like I'm in third grade again lately. In third grade, when we were asked what we wanted to be when we grew up I remember thinking I wanted to be a singer, but I simultaneously thought that it didn't sound like a legitimate job. I think what I ended up with was Marine Bioligist. That sounded wicked smart, and fun- because you get to work with whales and dolphins up close.

Lately I've been wondering whether third-grade-me had the right idea. I have given serious and considerable thought to what else I would enjoy doing with my life- this again makes me feel like I'm in third grade as the options are:
Actress
Short essay writer
Photographer
Toy knitter/crocheter
President (not really-but again, I like to appear respectable.)

Truth be told, I really love performing! Let it be known! Is opera the only way? I dunno. But I think it's the best way for me. It's strange and seems totally unnatural at times and you have to find a way to make sense out of it, and communicate what you found to someone else, and hope they understand you in spite of the fact that you are (in many cases) not speaking to them in their native tongue-and for that matter, not speaking at all, but singing-loudly- in their face.

In the end, I have decided to forgo my run at the presidency and give this opera thing 110% (don't you hate people who say that they give 110%?) I have always walked a middle line, never fully committing to the opera aesthetic, but have decided to put away musicals and comedy (no!!) for a little while and focus on the singing. "Prima la voce" as they say. I feel like I'm in a 12 step program. My name is Alta, and I'm an opera singer. This means I must focus more time/energy into perfecting my vocal technique.
Here we go.

I will, instead channel all of my personal hilarity into my writing, and into my knitting/crocheting. I will also start to talk more about opera here. I've not done this a lot before- which surprises me. Just giving my loyal readership a heads up (Cam, and Mom)

A chorus line

I don't consider myself to be horribly uncoordinated, and yet there are moments when I feel that I should reconsider my self-evaluation. Last week (or was it 2 weeks ago? It all runs together) we had a dance call to determine which of the singers would be used as "featured dancers." (actually they call them "singing dancers" to distinguish them from the "real dancers.")

I will mention without a hint of pride that I have been a featured dancer twice in the past, and come to think of it, it was in two separate comic kick lines... which might explain it. Once I was a Russian model with a giant hat in an "impromptu-models-of-the-world" kickline. The other time was in Pirates of Penzance in the With Cat-Like Tread encore. We had glittery hats. I am quite sure that I wrote about it here. It simply gets no better than a Pirate kick-line.

Now to others that were in attendance on that fateful dance call morn, what I'm about to describe may not have even registered with them (unless they were among the fallen.) I should mention too, that I left my bag of dance shoes in NYC in the big rush to Des Moines after Drake's graduation in Texas. I decided that my black puma ballet flats would do. (no buckle, no tie.)

I'll keep this short, cause it all happened within a minute. So all the ladies are holding hands in a circle and we are to do a grapevine which gets progressively faster until we are running with this simple dance pattern. One of my shoes flew off, and one of them simply stayed on the floor where my foot had been and where the other 20 girls were about to step since we were holding hands and running in a circle. Needless to say everyone tripped and the tripping stopped only with the dance instructors intervention. The show must go on, and such.

I don't recall anyone actually hitting the floor, so much as a great and growing stentorian outcry as each colleague twisted an ankle or disrupted the pattern. I confessed promptly, since I was the only one left entirely shoeless in the course of events and hid in the back of the room for the rest of the morning.

I was not selected as a featured dancer, even a funny one this year. But then again I bet none of the selected dancers ever got to rock a Pirate Kick Line.... ;)

Investment Banking, Valkyries, and Canolis

So am I allowed to still call my blog "Texification" if I am very clearly ensconced in New York City? How strange to have spent 4 years in the South wondering how I got there and then to end up in NYC wondering how I ever got back. Life is funny.

Drake and I got temp jobs right away, which was good. I'm in a long term assignment in Global Corporate Financial Strategy. Isn't that funny too? Don't I strike you as the Corporate type?

We've done many fun things since arriving in NYC we've seen the Dress rehearsal for Die Walkure, which was 5 HOURS LONG. I knew that going into it, but man alive. The third act is the very best act of all. The problem with this is that it doesn't come until the end, and by that time it's almost too late. Almost. I think the scene with the Valkyries is as close as opera singers will ever come to rock stars. When those ladies come out hoi-yo to-ho-ing I wanted to mosh or body surf or light something on fire. As soon as they left the stage I fell promptly to sleep. Drake got mad at me but, as I pointed out, Brunnhilde and Wotan were in exactly the same spot on the stage when I woke up 40 minutes later and I could hear them just fine with my eyes closed.

We also went to a movie premiere. Our friend works for Picturehouse which released "The Orphanage" (presented by the guy who did Pan's Labyrinth.) SO GREAT! so suspenseful and thrilling. And the after-party was great. Many tasty little foods. I love eating.

Speaking of eating.... have I mentioned the deliciousness of the canolis at Fortunato Brothers near my house? MAN ALIVE. these are tasty little devils. Historically, canolis have not been my poison, but now I think about them all the time. We happened upon them one night while re-parking the car. Re-parking the car is a hateful chore, but in this instance it yielded a tasty discovery. Like an oasis in the desert, a single parking spot materialized in front of the bakery and presented us this tasty dessert. Now there is no other dessert for me.

I get like this with desserts. I become entirely consumed with consuming them. For most of my childhood it was Twinkies (not dessert you say? well don't be so elitist.) It was Twinkies until my Aunt Denise encouraged me to eat as many of them as I wanted all in one sitting until I didn't want to eat anymore. I ate the whole box (12?) and never glanced sideways at a twinkie since.

Waiting for the Barbarians

So I'm in the American premiere of a new Phillip Glass Opera Waiting for the Barbarians which opens this Friday January 19th. It is an unbelievably cool production to be a part of. The music reminds me of a cross between Radiohead and Wagner.

Our director is Swiss and has a fabulous French accent. He speaks English wonderfully, of course but, as always, there are things that don't translate. Last night he asked if he was "going on someone's nerves" It's the little things.... When I was in France I told someone that I liked their chicken (poule) instead of their sweater (pull). Not to mention the very slight difference between the word "baiser" as a verb and the word "baiser" as a noun. One is a kiss and one is, as Ralphie says in a Christmas Story "The queen mother of all swear words."

But that's neither hear nor there. Come and see this production, all Austin dwellers. It is very gritty and violent, and definitely not a kids show. You will leave feeling like you were a part of something very big. ALO has definitely got a good thing going.
More production photos from the German premiere in Erfurt.