Getting close to Halloween... ハロウィーンが近づいて来たね・・・

Here is what I looked like last year's Halloween...
Well, for a concert so it's not like I went around town looking like this.
Though, come to think of it, this would have been AWESOME to go bar hopping here in Tokyo looking like this.  Alas...

I typically do NOT dress up for Halloween.
Yup, I am totally lame like that.
My excuse is thus...
I wear costumes and get made up on stage, why bother doing that on Halloween???
Well, knowing myself, this year's Halloween will not be different from any other Halloweens past.

Y'all have a fun and safe Trick-or-Treating this year!!!

去年のハロウィーンはこんな感じでした。
と言ってもこれはハロウィーンのコンサート使用で別にこの格好で町を歩き回った訳では無いのですが・・・（笑）
でもこの格好で飲みに行ったら楽しかっただろうな〜。
もう遅いけどね。

自分はハロウィーンの為に衣装を着ると言う事はまずしないので、
これは勿論仕事でしたから。
衣装を着ない理由はオペラ等でステージの為に衣装やメイクをするので何故それをハロウィーンの為にしなきゃあかんのかが分からん。と言うとってもくだらない理由があるのです。（爆）
今年もいつもと変わらず普通に過す事でしょう・・・

皆さん楽しいハロウィーンを!

Saturday

OMG... It's like the summer has returned here in Tokyo.
It is OCTOBER!!!! Come on!!! Can we go into a typical fall weather where it's nice and cool???
I mean really...

---

Since returning to Japan, I started working for a "Christian" style wedding service here in Tokyo.
The word "Christian" is very loosely used here...

Weddings are done in chapels at different hotels around town, along with many wedding banquets that are around.

The company, which I belong, provide a celebrant/pastor(some ordained, many are trained, you know like took an online course per se. But not really an online course, these folks go through a course given by the company). Many of these celebrants/pastors are foreigners, i.e. Americans,  English, Aussies, Spanish(I know there is one), etc., and of course Japanese.

It is quite interesting at first(to some extent, still is very much interesting) to see this "Christian" style chapel weddings and be involved.
Most of our customers wants that "feeling".  You know, that whole foreign feeling(I'm gonna omit the word American, because that's not quite right) of doing it the Western way.
Of course, even in America, not everyone gets married in a church.
But the tough part is, these folks want "Christian" style wedding in a chapel without so much of the "God" aspect of it...
I'm not gonna get into it too deeply here.

I am not completely a Christian.
What I mean is that I am not baptised.
But, I worked and attended churches when I was in US for many years(about 20 years).
The denomination I feel most comfortable is at an Episcopal Church, because I worked and attended it for the longest.
I enjoy the service, the hymns and anthems, the people, and of course learning and talking and practicing our faith and teaching of Christ.
But these weddings... Oy vey... I'm not gonna say it because God is everywhere and is in each one of our souls.

I digress...

I have worked with this company doing weddings over the weekend for the past year.
There are some crazy(and I mean CRAZY) times, to the point where I go "Really? REALLY???".
Of course, there are many beautiful moments(it is a wedding after all...) all fit in to a short 20 mins.
So short compare to what I am used to in real church weddings.
But, to see the faces of the bride and groom's parents... Their joy and tears, the bittersweet moment where the father of the bride walks down his daughter down the aisle.
To see both mothers of the bride and the groom crying.
Their family members, relatives, friends, coworkers, who came to celebrate their very special moment in their life starting together as one.
It is quite heartfelt and awe inspiring.
Not often but we are moved by seeing the happy couple and their loving family.

As much complaining I do regarding my weekend job, I enjoy it all the same.
One problem would be that, depending on a schedule, there could be upwards of 10 weddings in a day or more.
This can take some toll on my voice...
And doing that for two or three days, well that can be very tiring.
Oh well, I must do something to get paid.

---

I hope everyone is staying cool where ever you are.
I am praying here that the temp will go down a bit so that I won't be sweating like a whore in church...


May God bless you and keep you
May his face shine upon you and bring you peace...
Amen






P.S.
Wait, can do that after the whole "whore in church" phrase???
Bah! Who cares, I am an Episcopalian after all...

This is what is on the menu today... 今日のメニュー…

I'm gonna study this today!

今日はこちらをお勉強します。

Nothing too important...

Holy crap it was HOT today... This needs to stop.
I WANT AUTUMN WEATHER!!!!!

I have been teaching at an upscale kindergarten/day care school here in Tokyo since this past August.

I mainly teach 5 yrs. olds singing and also discipline/manners/etc...

Along with that, I get the little ones, they are as young as 6-8 months olds and up to 3 yrs. olds, to do English immersion.

No big news here other than these kids are SO damn CUTE!!!!

that is all...

That was today.

Well, Monday was a study session that happens every once in a while.

We have a Japanese Arts dealer who LOVES opera and classic music in general.

He rents a large studio for bunch of singers and make us sing in front of him and everyone else.

We all make comments/advice(mainly he and yours truly make comments/advice) to singers involved.

It is quite fun though because we all make improvements by performing in front of others.

These opportunities to sing in front of someone in a large space is hard to come by here in Japan.

We got some great singers in the group too!

So that is fun.

Of course, not always fun and games but nonetheless...

Thanks to this study session(or as everyone calls it "Master Class"...), I got to try out my new aria that I will be using for an audition.  The same one I mentioned few days ago.

It went alright for a first time with a pianist since last working on this piece almost 2 years ago.

Of course, there will be a lot of fixing to do in this piece to get it up to performance level.

We got one more class on Thursday so I'm gonna try again then.

Until then, I have couple other things so study... Like "La Boheme", "Kojiki"...

OH YEAH, I'll be doing a Christmas Dinner Show in Karuizawa in December!

I'll post more about it here.

秋らしく無い暑い日でした・・・

ほんまにやめて欲しいわ！

今日は夏から教え始めたちょっと(＝かなり)高級な幼稚園で歌を教えて来ました。

いや〜、小ちゃい子達は可愛いね〜〜〜。（笑）

月曜は数ヶ月前から参加し始めた勉強会が有りました。

今回はオーディションに使おうと思っているアリアを歌いました。

まー、1回目にしては上手くいった方かな？

でもまだまだ整えていかないとダメですね。

約２年ぶりに伴奏と一緒に歌ったせいか最初は緊張半分・興奮半分で力みなぎり過ぎちゃいました。（汗）

また木曜も有るんで、その時もう一度挑戦しようかな？

でもその前に他にも色々と勉強しないといけない物が有る・・・

「ラ・ボエーム」とか「ドラマチック・コジキ」とか・・・

あ！後１２月にやるクリスマスコンサートの選曲とか！

そうです、12月14日に軽井沢でクリスマスディナーショーをやります！

また詳しい事が分かったらここで書きますね。

Table Reading

Today was a table reading of the work I am doing in November called "Dramtic Kojiki".

It is a Japanese Mythology about how Japan was created by Gods and their story afterwards.

You may think that since I am an opera singer, this would be an opera. Well, guess what, it's NOT!

LOL

It is a stage work, with music, dance, narration, visual arts.
This may sound like a musical or an opera.
There are three characters in the show and two of them are dancers(one ballet and one Chinese tradition dance).
Of course, they dance their parts so no talking.
I sing(duh) my part.
And we have a narrator, who will... Well, you can probably guess what a narrator does.

It will be like a tableau of scenes depicting the dynamics of husband and wife Gods "Izanami" and "Izanaki", and also sister and brother Gods "Amaterasu" and "Susano-o"

I will be playing the part of Susano-o.
He is the God of Sea but being a bit of a childish and wild God(more on the childish side), he has been complaining and crying from the beginning because he wants to see his mommy...
So his father(God "Izanaki") got tired of his crying and ranting(which created all sorts of mess=natural disasters on the world his parents created) that he expelled him from his duty as the God of Sea.
Being set free he decides to go see his mother but before doing that, he thought to say hello to his older sister Amaterasu...

The tough part about this show is that no music is written!
Like I mentioned earlier, I will be singing all of my part(and some dancing).
I come to find out later was that most of the part, except for the very end where I will have an aria(solo), I will be doing a recitativo(a dialogue put to pitch to be sung but not a definite melody, it is used for conversation like situation outside of arias and other ensemble pieces) throughout the show.
Well, this is ok but what I am having the hardest time is that I am doing this pretty much ad lib!
Being an opera singer, I am not good at coming up with stuff on a spot...
I am not clever like that, so hopefully this coming two months until the performance, with the music director we can come up with something that is more solid.
Because let me tell you, what I came up with was pretty lame...

Wow, this post has gotten longer than I first intended.

For those who like to read up on Kojiki more, click on the link below.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kojiki


Well, this is all for tonight.

Good night y'all!

Next aria on the docket. 次のオーディションで使うアリア。

I'm applying for an audition in November and one of the companies will be doing Attila! So, I thought to work this back up to a performance level. This is such an exciting aria and yeah, it's tough... But what's new?
Here is the great Nicolai Ghiaurov's dramatic portrayal of the aria.

来月に有るオーディションでAttilaをやる劇団が有るのでこのアリアを歌おうと久々に準備しました。レッスンでは勿論、コーチとも練習をしましたが1年は経っているので久しぶりに歌いました。オーディション目指していい具合にチューンナップして行こうと思ってます。
今回はレジェンダリーなバス歌手ニコライ・ギアロフ様の素晴らしい歌声でお届けしたいと思います❢

Enjoy!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WKIcElfgMU&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Let's try this one more time...

So...

It has been, how long now? since I wrote my last blog update.
Well, I have definitely neglected my duty as a "blogger"(not much of one to begin with).

I would like to resurrect my position as much as possible from now on.

Much has changed in my life, yet again, for the past year.

Last place you have seen me was in sunny Florida.
Well folks, I am now back in my home land...
Where I was born 35 years ago...
The land of the rising Sun.

Yes, I am in Japan. Back in Tokyo and I am actually living with my folks for the first time since I left for high school.

I hope to write in both English and Japanese.
Perhaps it will be confusing, mainly for me, at first but hope y'all will enjoy as the time goes.
Then again, I'm sure no one is reading this anymore so I don't really have to worry about what I am writing about.

Some new and exciting things are happening from now till end of the year.
I am involved in a show that is taken from an ancient Japanese mythology called "Kojiki"(Ancient Tales) is completely brand new(we are creating everything from scratch as we speak!).
We will be performing in Miyazaki, where the story is originally from, in November.

Also, I will be doing a Christmas dinner show in Karuizawa, December 14th.

And one or two more events are in planning.

I'll try and update as much and often as I can!



To be continued...