Shostakovich and Cherubino

Yesterday was a recital from violist Maggie Snyder and bass Dennis Bender, all Shostakovich! The pieces performed were his Sonata for Viola and Piano, Opus 147 (his last work) and his Suite on Verses of Michelangelo Buonarotti, Opus 145. Both were wonderful pieces, and the Michelangelo piece was especially dramatic. His music is definitely interesting, and it always keeps you on your feet. Although I'm not that acquainted with his music, it's something that I'd like to hear more of.

Mr. Bender gave a Master Class today, and this time I did get to sing. I sang Cherubino's Act I aria ("Non so piu") from Mozart's Le Nozze di Figaro. It's still a fairly new piece to me as far as singing it, but I've been familiar with it for years. Most of what Mr. Bender worked on, not only with me but with everyone that sang, was diction. Now, this aria is fast and there are a lot of words to get out, and there were some that I wasn't quite getting out. "Mi si turba mi s'altera il petto" is one tough phrase to get out, let me tell you. We talked about Cherubino and what he's doing in that moment of the opera, how he's been chasing Susanna around the room trying to get his song back from her, that he's out of breath and excited. So, to get me into that mood, he had me run around the Chapel and back onto the stage, gave me a chord, and then I sang. And it felt good. It made me more in character, which Mr. Bedner pointed out. We also worked on the top G during the phrase "porta non via con se." and the diction on that phrase. And that too felt good.

The Master Class (and Donna's little speech in Italian Diction) really reinforced the importance of diction in singing. As Mr. Bender said, diction is part of the technique. Of course, we've all heard singer, even the pros, who have terrible diction (Pavarotti's English, anyone?), but it really is an essential thing. Nicolai Gedda sounded like a native speaker no matter what language he was singing in. The importance of diction isn't a sudden revelation to me, but it has been very much reinforced.

Only two days left of class until Thanksgiving break! We're all more than ready for a break, and I have a feeling that these last few days are going to go by very slowly. Oh well, let's just hope that next week is a long one.