oops

Crap. It's Thursday again already, and I haven't posted in a week. Why does this keep happening? I know how angry I get when Robert hasn't blogged by like, 10:30 am EST; so I can only imagine how pissed you all must be. Truthfully, I feel guilty blogging these days. Whereas blogging used to conveniently fill the many hours of downtime at various boring day jobs, now I feel like I should be doing much more constructive things during my non-working hours. What I've forgotten is that this blog is going to one day make me famous (snort), and all my fans out there deserve at least a bi-weekly update!

So, here goes. First things first, it is f---ing frigid here. And not only is it frigid, it decided to dump loads of snow on us too. I thought if it was negative one billion below, it wasn't possible to have snow? And yet there it is. Yesterday I cleaned off my car four times, because every time I would go inside somewhere, I'd come back out to find a newly accumulated inch. This is about the time of year that Chicagoans curse their existence, swear they are moving to a warmer climate, and are generally really grouchy. Then spring comes, everything is forgotten, and the whole cycle begins again. I do love the changing of seasons, but I could stand to spend January and February in, say, Palm Beach. I'll probably have to wait thirty or forty years for that.

Last night we had the pleasure of seeing Renee Fleming in La Traviata at Lyric. I purchased some very stylish camping binoculars from Target so that we could see her up close and personal. We have pretty decent seats, but I wanted to see her every breath and facial expression. It was a good production, but I can't say I was blown away. The tenor was amazing, as was Thomas Hampson as Germont, but I'm just not sure Violetta is the right role for Renee. The poor woman has to live up to the gargantuan expectations of the audience, I realize, but I felt like her singing was too..."precious", as my voice teacher would call it. There was almost too much nuance, and I just wanted to hear her sing from her gut! The pianissimos were exquisite, but it was nearly all pianissimo. Her character development, on the other hand, was FANTASTIC. The third act was just gut wrenching. But the whole time I was wishing I was hearing her Countess or Strauss heroine, so that I could just hear her glorious voice without all the fuss.


Third Act Aria "Addio del passato"

Otherwise, life is in sleepy winter mode at the moment. Nick is dentisting a lot, I am teaching a lot, trying to learn new arias and stay on top of my game singing-wise. Audition season ("Let's Give It Another Go 2008") will be here again before you know it, and I need to be ready. The real challenge is to look ahead just enough to be on top of things, yet stay in the present so as not to go completely crazy with worry. Luckily I have a lot of good stuff in the present to keep me busy while I wait for whatever is on the horizon...