Friday, July 22, 2011

It's Friday Friday

Hey!! So today is our last full day in Novafeltria! :( very very sad.. Some people have already left for home.. We said goodbye to Luke Randel like two hours ago.. Can't do it!! Everyone here is so fun.. :(

But yes.. My masterclass went well on Wednesday as did the scenes performance. Luckily I get to have a copy of the scenes concert DVD to show off :D and yesterday I had nothing until the Don Bucefalo performance that night. We did really well again and I can't believe we're all done performing the show :(

We've all been hanging out a lot with eachother trying to get our last days and hours together with our fellow singers :) it really has been such a joy.. I'll probably touch back on this when I'm in Rome tomorrow or the next. Gotta say goodbye to everyone :( this is ciao to Novafeltria!

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

The last Wednesday!

Ciao! Alright, so this week has been really interesting. Sunday was when we went to Cesena to see one of the performances of Rigoletto and it was AMAZING!! Really good cast. And Monday was my BIRTHDAYYY!!!! :D For my birthday, we went to the market in the morning, I took a really long nap, and we went out to dinner and to the cafe in the evening. I had a lot of fun and didn't end up in Italian jail or anything :) Italian classes, coachings, and voice lessons are all done for the program, so I've been having a lot of time to just hang out and relax. Our scenes are performing tonight and Friday night, so that's really all we are working on. EXCEPT... I sing in a master class today at 5pm! That's going to be really fun because I'm singing for a teacher from LSU named Dennis who is apparently really awesome... and I was told I should look there for grad school... so we'll see how it goes. I'll try to get it recorded so you can see it! I'm going to sing Ach ich fuhls from the Magic Flute.

In other news, I'm ready to come home. :) This has been so fun, but I'm excited to come home and see my friends and family and be back in the states. I've done some awesome things and met some great people, but I can feel the whole thing coming to a close...

Alright, well that's all for now. Bye!

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Ciao!

Hello to all :) soooo today is Sunday. I have so many videos to upload from this week!! But lemme catch you up on yesterday. So yesterday we got on a bus at 6:45 am to go to Florence!! It was a four hour bus ride, so in truth we spent most of our day on the bus... But once we got there, I decided to walk around with Emily Mansfield, Emily Karns, and Carlisa Johnson. We first went to the open air market. For those of you who have been to Florence, it's the market next to the boar statue that you rub its nose and drop a coin in :) for Emily M and myself this was a different visit to Florence because we had already been to the tourist sites.. So we just had a fun and relaxing say walkin around the city. We did some bargaining for presents and shoes and bags :) then we ate at a restaurant called MammaMia and had some great pasta and meat dishes and ICE in our drinks!!!! Yeah, that was a big deal. Lol. But then we walked around more... Shopped some more... Took pictures at the Ponte Vecchio and the Duomo.. And that was our day! Very relaxing in a very beautiful city :) we got home last night around 10:30.. And I promptly went to bed. But yesterday was Happy 21st birthday for my wonderful boyfriend Timothy :) and 21 months that we've been together :) anywho, today will be another performane of Rigoletto in a city I don't remember the name of... More to come on video!! Ciao!

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Updateee

Hey guys! Okay so I'm writing to you from a castle! Tonight is our opening night for Don Bucefalo! We rode a bus for an hour and a half to the city of Montegridalfo where we are performing. The venue is a 1200 year old castle! It's very cool but a complicated performance space. There is actually a five star hotel attached to the castle, and apparently it's a popular wedding site. I hope you've been checking my YouTube channel cause I've been posting videos about my days a well :) Tomorrow some of us may be going to the beach in Rimini :) anywho, I have to go, so ciao!

Friday, July 8, 2011

The last recital day

Ciao!! So I just got back from getting gelato after our third and final recital for the young artist division vocalists. I sang "zeffiretti lusinghieri". I had to memorize the recit for the song in like three days so I was freaking out thinking I would mess it up... But I didn't! The video will be on my YouTube channel :) in other exciting news today... I made Alfredo sauce from scratch! I was super proud cause I had no recipe or guidelines other than having eaten Alfredo before. :) but I wrote down what i did so I can make it at home :) but yesss... Today was another don bucefalo run that went better than before.. No scenes but I'm pretty sure I'll have them tomorrow. Until then! Buona sera!

Thursday, July 7, 2011

The first run-through!

Ahhh so today was our first run-through of don bucefalo, the main stage opera in which I have a chorus part. I went into it thinking it would be pretty bad... But all of us in the chorus worked really hard to be completely off-book, so it went somewhat smoothly. I still have to put in more work so that I'm not concentrating so hard on words though.

But yeaaaah. So the other parts of the day were fine... Aly and I ate at a new restaurant where we got chicken patty sandwiches.. Pretty delicious after having pasta all the time. And Emily and I got to chill out and talk at the apartment for like 2 hours about life. So in between episodes of freaking out about the run-through it was a pretty great day :) looking forward to working my scenes again tomorrow and possibly singing in another recital tomorrow night! :D well that's all for now. Ciao!

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Wednesdayy

Blehhhhhh today was pretty tiring. I had a coaching with Ubaldo and a lesson and I was trying to memorize don bucefalo throughout until our rehearsal from 8pm to 10pm. I had an anxious mood in the afternoon and cleaned the whole house though.. Lol. My coaching was so fun! Ubaldo is my favorite Italian coach.. First because he's just an adorable little Italian man.. And also just because he helps me so much to incorporate my Italian diction into the very technique of singing. It's really very fascinating, and I always feel I improve a lot after coachings with him. After we finished, he just kept saying "Bene! Bene!". :) But yeaaah.... Good day... I'm just super sleepy. Aaaand I really need to get groceries cause I have no food... Sort of a problem.. Haha. So yes. Off to bed. Buona notte!

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Blogblogblogging

Hey!! So today was a rainy dayy... had scene rehearsals for my duet and my quartet.... had Don Bucefalo rehearsal for two and a half hours... IT GOES UP IN ONE WEEK!!! EEEEKKKK. I need to learn my words!!! So that's gonna be what I'm doing the next week.

The party for the Fourth of July last night ended up just being a bunch of us hanging out at the Cafe Grand Italia. We had some drinks and talked for many hours.. and of course sang the national anthem!! It was SOOO fun. Some of the faculty were out with us as well. Good times good times.

It's a different atmosphere this week as we approach the opening nights of Rigoletto and La Cenorentola. Very busy and rushed. We're all hanging in there, but you can feel people's stress levels rising... students and directors as well... We all just need more alone time and more sleep. lol.

Anywayyy I'm still doing well... cooking/eating well... having oh so much fun singing :)  I'm thinking I need to come back someday... be it next summer or during grad school.... but yeah. Tonight we are having a taco night! Cause we all miss mexican food. lol. They actually have salsa and tortilla chips at our grocery! Hehe :)

Well, that's all! Buona sera!!

Monday, July 4, 2011

Nuovo post!

Okay okay I'm still here I promise! It always feels daunting to sit down and write everything about the days I've had... Perhaps I can just write blurbs from now on. I've been takin videos and such but the Internet is so slow that it's very hard to upload.... but not to worry!! i'll post some today! Anywhoooo it's the fourth of July!!! After celebrating Canada day with our Canadian friends already it's about time :)

this past week went very well... Much rehearsing and singing.. I had another recital performance last Friday where i sang "dove sono" from la nozze di figaro and it went very well and is on video :) oh! And at one of my italian coachings the woman told me that I must come to study opera in Italy. :) she doesn't have to tell me twice!! I love it here!

I'm missing my family reunion which makes me very sad cause I don't get to see everyone.. But Novafeltria feels like a second home now. I can't believe it has only been 2 weeks so far in the program!! Anyway, just checking in to say things are going great. Ciao and Happy fourth!!

Friday, June 24, 2011

The Wonderful First Week!

Alright so after my long absence, here I am to ease your fears that I may have fallen off the face of the earth. It has been rather difficult to muster up the effort to write or post videos each night... I do have quite long and eventful days.

So the past 5 days have been so fabulous. I have been rehearsing scenes (opening duet from Nozze and the quartet from Falstaff), working in the chorus of Don Bucefalo, taking voice lesson with Brian Leeper, perfecting my Italian diction in Italian coachings, and attending Italian class every morning with my teacher Frederico.

The Italian classes are going very well. I have always loved learning languages and have found myself learning Italian easily by having experience learning Spanish and French. Our teacher speaks very little English during class and is animated and encouraging when teaching. Maybe I'll blog a little bit in Italian soon to show my skills :)

As far as the coachings and lessons, I am learning so much. The coachings are one of my favorite things; I have had two of them now. They basically consist of me singing repertoire or speaking my texts to an Italian voice teacher who does not speak English. They give pointers on pronunciation of texts and singing technique. For example, I'm working on having a brighter, more forward placement on my Italian vowels. My lessons, of which I've had two now, are just wonderful. Brian is a very talented professor of voice who is a perfect match for me here. Together we work a lot on technique. I always feel like I understand what he wants and how to achieve it. I feel I'm improving a lot even though the new elements of my technique feel strange to me now. This atmosphere here in Novafeltria is just so perfect though. I'm singing all day every day and not doing much else, so I don't feel distracted or rushed at any point. It is just so very beautiful. :)

The opera and scene rehearsals are going well also. I'm trying to work memory for those, but it's a tedious process. However, there's no time for just absorbing the texts for memory during rehearsals which is a change from my prior experience working on shows for entire semesters... Even in IOC, I felt there was more time... Gahhhhh :/

One exciting event was the witch festival here in town! It is a festival unique to Novafeltria in which it is believed that you should put a bowl of water outside your window where he moonrays will shine on it and give the water magic powers. To celebrate this night, the people in the town have a festival in he piazza and dress up like witches and wizards. There was music and dancing (and drinking vino)!! LOTS of fun :)

Also, last night was the young artists recital. I and 22 other member of the young artists division performed in a recital for the other members of the program, instructors, and citizens of this town. It went very well! There is a HUGE amount of talent here... I was performing up next to grad students some of whom had 10 years on me age-wise... But I felt very good about the performance. ((VIDEO TO COME!))

But overall, I'm having the time of my life. I live with Aly and Emily, and we have now stocked our kitchen with delicious Italian food ingredients and snacks. We cook everyday now and have made some delicious pasta dishes!!! I will miss all of the fresh ingredients here when I go back to the states like veggies from the town market, prosciutto cut fresh from the leg, and handmade pasta from the deli down the road. Actually... One of those pasta rolling machines may find it's way home with me... Haha :)

I send my love to you all, and know that I'm safe and having so much fun! I'm headed to Venice on Sunday for an excursion... So more to come soon!!! Ciao!

Sunday, June 19, 2011

The first weekend: Novafeltria!

So right now I'm sitting in bed still not used to this timezone.... it's already 2:39am. But! Now I shall tell of the past two days...

So on Saturday Aly, Emily and I took a shuttle from our hotel to the Rome airport at 10 30am. When we arrived there we had NO idea where we needed to go.. But then we ran into Ben Wright, another one of the Butler students. We ended up tracking down or group, and we ate some food at the airport and then tried to meet some of the singers who were there. Aly and I both met the other halves of our duet scenes, Eric and Ryan. And we met others, but I keep forgetting names :) so we waited in the airport for a good number of people to arrive so we could get on the buses to Novafeltria. We ended up leaving around 2pm, and we lucked out and snagged a group of bus seats that faced each other with a table between. I did a lot of sleeping while people took pictures of my apparently hilarious sleeping face... :) and about 4 an a half hours later we arrived in the town to a welcome party. After hearing from the mayor of Novafeltria and the director of voice here, we were served some local cuisine in the center of town near a beautiful fountain. After dinner we were shown to our apartments and settled in. I am rooming with Aly and Emily in the hotel Magda.

Today, we woke up, got ready, and headed to the center of town to meet up with Ben and Eric (who ended up rooming together!) for breakfast. After munching on some pastries from the gelateria, we headed to the teatro for our meetings. We had an introductory meeting where all the staff and students introduced themselves. There we also got general info about how things work over here. After this meeting, we had individual meetings for our operas and scene groups. Then we headed back to our apartments for a while. I bought the wireless password from the hotel and tried skyping Tim! Next, we had lunch in the hotel restaurant. I had yummy lasagna and a caprese salad. Then Emily and I took a trip to check out Ben and Eric's room. I took a nap in the evening and woke up, having missed the dinner that was planned as an option for members of la musica lirica, and Aly and I walked out, found Ben, and got some food for dinner. We then were met by those who had been to dinner together at the gelateria. We sat with some new people... Carlisa, Megan, Paige, and Luke. Then on our walk back to the hotel we met Matt, Michael, and Steven. Aly and I went over music before bed and hung out in the room. Now it's 3am... Wow... Time to sleep. Buona notte!

Friday, June 17, 2011

First day in Italy!

Buona sera! So I am staying up late in our hotel in Roma! We had a very long day of flying; and we got into Rome around 11am, took a taxi to our airport, and promptly passed out in our beds :) So after sleeping the day away, we hung out in our room till about 8 and decided to explore the area. We walked to a tobacco shop thinking we would find sim cards for our international phones, but the shop was closed. However, we did stumble upon a cute little restaurant where Emily and I ate pizza and Aly had some linguini. We also had some DELICIOUS desserts: vanilla pudding with strawberry sauce and chocolate cake with cream (infused with a healthy dose of rum!) So we dined the Italian way and talked for a couple hours over fantasic food. Then we walked back to our hotel and had some bonding time :) It is already 2:20am, but we aren't tired! That's what we get for sleeping all day. Lol. Well tomorrow we meet up with our fellow members of La Musica Lirica and take our bus ride to beautiful Novafeltria! Ciao!

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Here we go...

Alright so I made my blog. Hopefully I'll be good about keeping this up while I'm away. For now, I'm just trying to get prepared for this trip... music.. packing.. money stuffs.. but I know it will all work out. And hey! I'm still going to Italy regardless of how much music I polish or what I forgot to pack :)