I can sing high...and low

so yesterday in my lesson I sang a C3, and a F6, with in minutes of each other.
ummm so an F6 is the one the queen of the night sings above the staff.
and a C3 is the one that's the second space in the bass clef.
I've definitely always known that I can sing low, and my teachers have always told me that I'll "get" the F soon. But sheesh.
My teacher said that something must be wrong with me (haha) because most singers have a three octave range, and I just sang three octaves and a fourth.
She also commented how awsome it would be if someone with my size voice sang the queen of the night. It would actually be scary. Usually the women who sing the queen of the night are teeny teeny women, so you're all like "oh no the queen of the night is coming scary...oh wait hello wee one, are you trying to frighten me?
Anyhow it'll be a long time before I feel ok performing either of those extremes

winter has not left

I woke up this morning and noticed that it was very gray, not surprising nor particularly concerning. I then looked out the window and exclaimed out loud "oh man!" (in the less than thrilled fashion). After pretending that it was spring briefly it is winter and snowing. I'm not surprised, but I had stopped wearing a hat, something I was really sad about yesterday.

Yesterday was Maundy Thursday, a day that I did not know existed before I was asked to sing for the service. In the Passion story, I think that what happens on Maundy Thursday is the most intriguing to me. I think it is because Christ is begging God the Father to not let this happen. He is fearful. I'm not going to write a ton more on this except for that I find that really fascinating and far more powerful than what happens on Good Friday. On Good Friday all that he predicts goes down. I'm far more interested in the prediction I think.

I've seen two operas at the Lyric recently. The first was Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin. The production was really lovely, leaves all over the stage. They really focus the story on Onegin and his struggles rather than on the melodrama of Tatyana the girl who falls for him. Beautiful overall, the choral work was good, and the orchestra was great!

After as I was hopelessly waiting for the bus to arrive (it seems to always take forever after the opera) I saw Dimitri Hvorostovsky walk swiftly by, silver coat, red scarf, collar up. Following him were two girls about my age "Mr. Hvorostovsky!" He stopped and autographed a number of people's programs. I was tempted but couldn't bring my self to do that. It was cool though.

I also recently saw Il Barbieri di Siviglia this week. Again I really enjoyed the production, the sets and costumes were based on Magritte paintings which was really cool. There was a nice mention on our critical edition in the program (it was of course written by my big boss, he wrote the notes for the La Traviata program as well). I thought the ornaments were both tasteful and really exciting, a combination that is difficult to achieve!

I'm sick :(

Not really sick just the beginning of a head cold, but sick none-the-less.

Now this is the same cold, presumably, that my brother had all last week and skied through. So it's not a super bad cold (though I hear he has it back this week). But I have a fairly important audition on Monday. So it's been not very exciting here for me!

I've been feeling this come one for a few days now, I've been feeling like I've been bludgeoned, I've just been slow hurting and tired. And my voice has been feeling like I've been pushing it to the edge more frequently. Last time I sang in a lesson and it hurt, I got sick very shortly after that, so I've sort of been expecting this.

Of course that doesn't make it suck any less. So lots and lots of liquids for me, and vitamin C. As long as the cold stays in my head I really don't care. I can sing through a head cold all day long...well not really it still is unfortunate, it's that I really don't want it to settle into my throat. I don't have any singer tricks to share with you about how I do that, because I don't know any.

Anyhow it'll be a movie with lots to drink and bed for me, and then tomorrow I'll be up early to sing at church (I have a semi-permanent gig out in Hinsdale filling in for an ailing section leader/soloist!) and then I'll come back and take it easy all day. I'll probably warm up some and perhaps run through my songs to reinforce my Thursday coaching, but I'll just really really hope that my voice will take care of itself by not being used and be there for me on Monday!