So it has been since 2007 since I last posted or even thought about looking at my own blog site until today. After watching "Julie and Julia"(Yeah, yeah, I know... I love food and cooking so sue me), I decided to find the blog Julie Powell did with the whole
Mastering the Art of French Cooking by Julia Child. Well, I am really enjoying the whole thing and that lead me(sort of...) to get back on the blog horse and update my life to whoever that is still out there that wanna read it.
So here goes...
Since my last post, I have been busy somewhat with opera gigs here and there but I have come to hit a wall vocally and was struggling. No huge problems but at the same time, I was being haunted by the possibility of "what if there is a problem with my singing..." and decided to do something about it. This thought started at the end of 2008. Well, this came full circle when I met my current teacher in June of 2009. Long story short,
he has changed my life. I put this in bold because that is the exact words my friend Chuck S. said when he told me about this said teacher. See, Chuck and I have known eachother for about 10 years now. Since my conservatory days in Cleveland, we got to know eachother, sang few shows together, drank many booze together, and of course, sang many arias after the said drinking of booze at his house. He has always been one of my few friends I can go completely "singer geek" with whether sober or not. So when it came to singing he was always searching for the "technique". Well, after his comment of "he has changed my life", I realized that he has found that technique.
Now of course, for those singers out there, I know that everyone has their own opinions of what works and what doesn't. I agree, just like religions. I got no objections to your God as long as you believe in them. Yes, yes, I got a little theological but singing technique for us singers is like a bible to the christians/catholics. And technique really make or break your belief and the confidence as a singer. So, I had to see for myself what this teacher is all about.
So I feel that up to last year June, I knew a lot about singing. I've been learning, hearing other singers, and worked with other singers to understand the art of singing. Well, I guess I was wrong since within my first 20 minutes of the lesson, Maestro F was very clear(more towards blunt) that I did not know how to sing because I had no technique to speak of. Pretty devastating since I felt like I have wasted the past 8 years of conservatory work studying.
The first lesson pretty much did it for me because after that initial 20 minutes, he completely changed my vocal production. I sounded completely different. Not different in a way that I didn't sound like me, but more like I am actually singing fully without forcing or trying too hard. I was convinced, he changed my life.
I am taking out a lot of the other crap here since it gets pretty boring with the pedagogy lingo and I want to avoid that unless it's necessary. Anyhow, after having three lessons in five days, I decided that summer while I was doing Bonzo and Yamadori with Music by the Lake's "Madam Butterfly" that I am moving to Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
So...
That being said, I dropped everything I had going in Chicago and relocated myself to sunny Southern Florida(not so much today but I'll get into that later) September 2009.
A lot has changed, needless to say
One being that I have ended a 4 and a half year relationship with my then-girlfriend(which did not end very well, but it really was for the best I promise you), left my friends, my favorite restaurants, my teacher and coaches, my little gigs, and my little studio apartment in the beautiful Gold Coast. Haul everything in the U-Haul trailer that was attached to my Wrangler and drove my ass down to Florida.
It was and still is a huge change. But I needed the frest perspective in life. I was unhappy with my singing and something was definitely wrong and lacking from it. I needed to do something. When I am unhappy with my singing, I am unhappy. I needed to change that. So with fresh mind, new technique, and new location I decided to make the big move.
I got many "what? You're moving to Florida???", "Are there any work down there???", or my favorite "What are you doing there?" from my friends up north. I told them, "I found an amazing teacher, so I decided that I am going take a step back and go back to learning the basics". It didn't go with few people but hey, afterall, it's my life. If the result brings me singing and for a long, long time then who fucking cares???
I never driven down that far in my life by myself so of course the person most worried about this trip was my mother. She thought that I will either: get lost OR fall asleep on the road and get in an accident... Thanks mother, I got here safe and sound 3 months ago.
It was fun though. I made a little 5-day vacation out of it by visiting few friends I have not seen in years. One being my Chamorro bro Paul S., who lives in Indianapolis. I used these friends also to make a mark point in my trip to get free night stay also. Hey that's what friends are for right? It was nice to hang with him for a day, in fact I could've used an another day at each locations. Because after that, I went and got a hotel outside of Chattanooga(no friends there...), then went into Atlanta to see my friends Wade T. and Magda W. I stayed with Wade which was nice since I have not seen any of these people for quite sometime(except Magda, I see her occasionally). Again, I wish I could spend another day in Atlanta but I had to get my ass in Florida. Once I left Georgia, the next person I was going to see(and crash at the house) was my old voice teacher from Cleveland, Beverley R. She "retired" outside of Orlando area and enjoying teaching and singing. Well, I have somewhat miscalculated my distance and my own endurance from driving that sadly, I never made it to her house. I found myself a Holiday Inn Express(here we go little blog name dropping/product placement. And it was very nice when I had to stay outside of Chattanooga. Thanks to my parents for paying the hotels...) to spend the night and decided to meet up with Bev in a morning for a breakfast.
After the fun filled 5 days drive to Ft. Lauderdale, I have finally arrived. Stayed at a friend's house who is also in the studio Phil A. and his girlfriend Caitie G. They were kind enough to let me live there(I paid rent) for month and a half. But any of you who know me, I have not lived with a roommate since I was sophomore in college. I needed to find myself an apartment. Living with other people, as nice and lovely as they are, really started to drive me crazy. Also there was the whole "I don't got a visa to get me a day job" situation so I was at home ALL THE FUCKING TIME! Unless I had a lesson, a choir rehearsal, a grocery shopping to do, or an occasional outing with few friends that I have here, I never really left home...
So thanks to them for giving me roof over my head but at the same time, THANK GOD I have my own place. I'm sure they feel the same way.
It's been 3 months now since I moved here and things are going very, very well on the singing end. Maestro and I have come to a huge discovery before Christmas and made some huge break throughs on my singing. At first he thought I was actually a tenor. Then it became, "well, you are either tenor or baritone". But after one lesson of break through, it became "You are either tenor or bass"
...
What???
Tenor or BASS???
It made no sense but he is my teacher and he knows what the hell he's talking about so I pretty much listened and did what he asked me to do. I had two more lessons after that and now it has been confirmed that I am actually a bass. This really brings me full circle since when I started singing I was a bass.
He even gave me a first aria to learn! Not that I was unhappy with vocalizing and vocalizing only. Yeah, I did get to sing Angelotti in Tosca but really, no arias??? But I had to be patient. If I didn't know how to sing then what's the point of learning a song or an aria???
So I am learning Gremin's aria from Eugene Onegin. We are doing a Tchaikovsky concert in March. And if I am doing well and not fucking up or going crazy, he may give me another aria to learn for another concert. If ALL of these things go well along with my lessons, I will be singing Sparafucile in the upcoming summer production of Rigoletto. Pretty exciting.
But for now, more vocalizing...
I am mainly writing about singing and sorry to say, I can't help it since this is what I do. But I will be writing other mundane shit that happens in my day here in sunny... Wait, not sunny, it's gloomy and FREEZING Fort Lauderdale.
I mentioned earlier and just now that it's been freezing here. Now, I've already gotten some angry messages and Facebook posts from few of my northern friends that I am a pussy. I know, I know... It's only 54 degrees but it's 54 fucking degrees outside AND inside!!! I have no heat(because we're in Florida and I live in a nice but crappy old apartment with no insulation) and all the space heaters are sold out in, what I came to find out, 10 mile radius from my apartment. I called everywhere and everyone is out. I guess I was a bit late on the uptake with "oh, I should get a space heater for my freezing cold apartment with stone tile floor". Don't worry, I ordered one online it will be coming next week. Although by then, I'm sure that the weather will look on the brighter( and warmer) side. According to the forecast, it will stay cold for a while. I hope it was worth spending the money to buy the heater...
I don't know who's out there reading this but hopefully it's somewhat enjoyable to read this.
