Currently Listening Mozart - Le nozze di Figaro / Te Kanawa, Popp, von Stade, Ramey, T. Allen, Moll, London Phil., Solti Dové sono see related

Still in Rome. It's fucking hot here. Like, I thought it was hot before, but this is super hot. I think it's 104 out today..wait, I'm going to check. Ok they said it was only 100 but I don't believe those lying weather people.

Today I bought a fake Gucci bag. I'm fighting against the commercialism in the US by buying overseas AND by buying a fake. I feel very revolutionary today. I've spent the last two days here with my mom showing her around everywhere and she came to the concert I sang at last night. It was very fun especially since those of you who know my mom know how kick ass she is. I was so psyched she was here, but she didn't stay long enough. Mahhh.

Tonight is my second to last performance of Nozze di Figaro, thank GOD. I am so tired of that dang opera. I love it, but there's only so many times you can see an opera before you want to fall asleep and forget where you are for a while. It is kind of stink that our backstage area is upstairs in a basilica full of dirt and heat. I miss the cool air conditioned DRH. Man I am spoiled.

I'm excited to come home to see you all, but in all reality I could probably stay here for another couple weeks and go to Florence and Pompeii, but c'est la vie. I want to see my brother and I hope he's good with all the different centers he's been moving around to. I want to just get home and hang out with the guy because he's stuck by himself most days. So if y'all make plans with me, a lot of the time you may have to hang with him too. He doesn't need to be surrounded by a bunch of cracked out recovered addicts, he needs real life and real people.

And I need the swimming pool! Hooray! I'm going to go swim now. I'll see everyone soon.

Currently Listening Verdi - La Traviata / Cotrubas · Domingo · Milnes · Bayerisches Staatsorchester · Carlos Kleiber see related

Wow. I'm updating my Xanga in Rome.

ROOOOOME.

So I got here a little over 2 weeks ago. I was so clueless getting on a plane by myself and flying thousands of miles. It was great though. Traveling by yourself is surprisingly exhilarating. Has anyone seen the sun rise while you're on a plane? It's incredible. I think I was like, south of Iceland and the sun was rising and the whole sky below you is pink, but the sky is below you. It's a trip.

So I got here, and it's been....more than I can explain in a Xanga entry. I mean...I don't even know where to start. I got here June 28th. I live in the Centro Universitario Marianum, which is basically a nice dorm where you get daily maid service and your own bathroom. I was by myself for a few days and then I moved into my friend Miriam's room when the rest of the cast for Le Nozze di Figaro got here.

There's a couple of tricky things one must understand about the New Operafestival di Roma. The first thing is there's about 38 people total, a few of which are in a program called the Opera Italiana program. Opera Italiana is doing La Bohème, La Traviata, and  Rigoletto. I'm Annina and Flora in Traviata, which actually accumulates to quite a bit of work, more than I expected. I did my first Traviata performance last Friday, but it was actually with the professional cast that they PAY to sing. It was pretty nervewreaking, and I thought I was gonna pass out trying to remember where do I come in, and which chair do I sit on in that scene, etc. Especially after having rehearsed with these pro Italians...good lord...they know their operas backwards and forwards, standing on their heads...these people could sing Traviata in their sleep. It was insane. And actually, the people I'm singing Traviata with tomorrow night have all done professional work in the states, so they're fantastic singers too. Especially our Violetta...Stephanie Gregory. Seriously, remember that name, she'll be at the Met soon. She's incredible.

Anyway, there's Opera Italiana and then there's the Young Artists program, which I'm in too, and then there's the leads in Nozze di Figaro. The leads in Figaro aren't as good as I thought they would be but there are a few really outstanding ones. The best people, the professional singers are the ones in Opera Italiana, and I am lucky enough to be part of that in an indirect kind of way, so I've gotten to know so much about Opera from these people. And is there any diva in the Italiana program? Hell NO. Miriam, Stephanie, Guendolyn, Krista...these women are amazing sopranos, they're all 30 years old except for Krista who's 28. And the men! Roman Garcia and Jesus Leon are these incredible "tenori" as we fondly refer to them as, and both of them just blow any tenor I've ever heard out of the water. Roman has this voice that is just the size of a house. He blows my mind. Granted he's 40, so he's been working on it for a while, but my goodness. And the Baritones, Dan Klien and Brian Johnson, are incredible as well.

The only divas I've dealt with were that pro Italian soprano who sang Violetta, and she was a real piece of work, and then there's this other girl who gave Stephanie some attitude. But Stephanie is the most amazing singer and she's just a down-home southern girl at heart. I truly adore her, her sweetness and humbleness is so admirable. Plus she's gorgeous and looks like a model. I'll show you pictures, she's beautiful inside and out. My roomie Miriam is singing Gilda in Rigoletto. She is such a beautiful lyric soprano, which is something I will never be. She does such great coloraturra and just floats through it like it's nothing. Stephanie too. And I have to say this girl Guen is the best damn spinto EVER. She's singing Musetta, and she sang Verdi's Ave Maria for our Omaggio a Verdi concert and I was like, weeping embarassingly loudly. These women....I tell you, I can only hope to be half the singers they are.

So I've been studying with a voice teacher named Michael Paul here. He is a genius, I'm telling you. I have never met anyone who knew more about the anatomical aspects of the voice and how to use them and how they can work against you. There are so many physical aspects to singing that I feel like I've been missing out on...like feeling the space between your molars, the space at the base of your throat, the position of your larynx while you sing, the ridges on the side of your larynx, the connection between your appogio to your lower abdominals and your pelvis, and then back up to your vocal area. And keeping your soft palate up and your ribs expanded, keep your back straight and feel your neck completely relaxed, and make sure your back is straight but your neck can slightly tilt forward so you can sing internally and create more space. And if you breathe from your chest man...you're fucking screwed. Because they will NOT let you sing like that. I spent a whole hour with Michael keeping my chest from expanding when I breate using brute force! I had bruises! I'm not kidding, it helps SOOOOOOO MUCH! My voice has never sounded this good, and I've never felt this good singing in my entire life. Singing's so easy! It's soooo easy once you get the hang of it. I don't think I'll have the hang of it for another five years or so, but once you take your jaw out of the mix and stop trying to sing with your mouth, ohhh...everything feels so much better. And not letting that fucking larynx go anywhere. I have seen so many mezzos with voices that come entirely from their throats, and it literally makes me feel sick because it's so fake and ugly sounding. And I totally used to do that constantly. I'm so glad I've gotten that out of my system. The ridges on the sides of your larynx can really help you to know where the larynx is. If Michael would come do a masterclass at Long Beach I would pee myself. The man has 5 students singing ROLES at the Met, ten more in the young artists program at the Met and 5 at City Opera. He's a genius. He also told me about some bad teachers he's met...you can ask me about that at your own volition.

Anyway, weird things about living in Rome!

1. Everything closes from 1 till 4. Everything just shuts down because it's time to rest at one. I love it.                                                                                                                           

2. There's never much air conditioning. So we just deal.

3. Roman women have some very strange ideas about fashion.

4. Italian men don't understand the concept of staring and how it could possibly be offensive.

5. Salt cures all wounds. I went to the Farmicia, and salt was the cure to everything from sneezing to bug bites.

6. Romans adore American music.

7. A bidae is perfect for giving oneself a pedicure.

I love love love Rome. I'm having a fantastic time, getting a lot of attention. "Quella voce!" I hear that a lot. My nickname here is "Signorina di grande voce!" or, little girl of big voice. I've gotten a lot of great adivce about rep, and I'm eating it up with a spoon. I love getting people's opinions about where I'm going...it's all going very well. Tonight will be my 3rd concert I think...in front of 300 people I think they said? I don't know, but I love that the general public knows and loves opera here. It's so great, little kids know the words to Nessun dorma...all the college boys that live in the Marianum know so much about opera! I'm like, have I stepped into the operatic parallel universe? Going from no one knowing anything to everyone knowing at least something...it's polar opposite. It's great. Can you all come over here to sing too? It's a blast.

All for now! Ciao.

Currently Playing Demon Days By Gorillaz see related

I really, really want a grilled cheese sandwich.
Current mood: hungry

I really, really want a grilled cheese sandwich.

My cousin is graduating from UCLA today. And I have to go. And I have to look pretty. And I'm really hung over. And I don't wannnnnnaaaaaaa.

However, a grilled cheese sandwich could pacify all my complaints.

If there was a grilled cheese sandwich to be had.

This is the worst blog ever.

For about the last hour or so, I have been looking at maps of Rome. Has anyone ever been to this city? It's fucking huge. It's so huge, it has another city inside it. That's right. Vatican City is inside the city of Rome. I did not know this. In fact, seeing as how I've never been to Rome, I have no idea where the FUCK I'm going in ten days. I mean, I'm staying at the Centro Universitario Marianum, Via M. Boiardo, 30. But I have no idea where that is. I'm singing in the San Clemente Basilica, located in the Laterano Piazza San Clemente, Via Labicana, 95. But I have no idea where that is either. I don't know how far away the two of them are from each other. No idea. Also, I don't know what a piazza is. And, if I asked a mean taxi driver to take me to that address, he could drive around for hours and I would have no clue.

Fuck.

Currently Playing Simple Things By Zero 7 Destiny see related

what doesnt kill you....kills you anyway.
Current mood: melancholy

I am sooo not okay. Like, I'll say I am and everything, but I'm really not. I really just want to be for a while and not deal with everything happening but here it is staring me in the face. Man. Stuff is heavy right now.

A while ago my brother went to jail for trying to buy drugs. He got off with community service and all that, but basically, it was the accumulation of my parents' frustration with my brother's laziness plus a looong history of my brother failing evey class except woodshop, disrespecting my parents, and going nowhere in life. He has no job, not in school, and all he does is sit on the damn computer all day and leech off my parents. Anyway, after he went to jail, he continued to use, and he then loaned my dad's mercedes to some crack whore who crashed it and then ran from the scene. She had previously been arrested on some drug-related charges as well. He left his first job. He quit high school. And now, we found the same girl who crashed the car hiding out in our house. My mom told her to leave and that if she ever came back, she would call the cops. And then get this--the next day, my mom goes upstairs to find this same skeezy bitch in our house, so she calls the cops. They arrested her climbing out my brother's window and handcuffed her on our front lawn. I guess this image is really burned in my mom's brain cuz she keeps talking about it. Anway, I guess this girl is going to jail. Under normal circumstances I would never call someone a skeezy bitch but that's what this girl is. And my brother makes me SOOOO angry!!! I want to punch him! Why does he keep doing this to my mom? A lot of yall know my mom and know how sweet she is and how she does anything to help people. He just uses her constantly and she can't take it. It's breaking her heart. He lies ALL the time. Seriously, there is not a shred of truth to anything my brother says.

My dad and I have always been closer than anyone in the family, and I think he's going to seriously lose it. Hearing my parents yell is so common to me now and that makes me so mad. I want to be able to have dinner with my family without something turning into a shouting match. It seems like everything is great with me and my parents, and then you throw my brother in the mix and everything goes to hell because he keeps messing up. I just wish he'd stop messing up, you know? I want everything to go back to normal, even though I know that's not going to happen.

But that's how my mom grew up...you have a pissed off Nobel laureate in the family during the late 60s with teenagers in the house, stuff is gonna get broken. Apparently, drama runs in our family. Someone asked me today what I would say if someone asked me what the thing I wanted most was. I said I wanted everyone to be nice to each other. That's so not what I would have asked for six months ago. Man, I really just want everyone to get along. It might be lame, but if I could have that just for a second, that'd be great.

Keep on truckin. Medieval-renaissance final tomorrow. Shit.