Ist Montag

I walked about half way home before I caught the next bus yesterday afternoon. I arrived home and Martina started to make supper. While she was making a wonderful shrimp salad, I was going through my flash cards and drinking tea.

After supper, coffee and dessert, I headed upstairs to continue studying, read, and get to bed early.

Today I had to get up and do my hair, makeup and pick out my dress for today. I have a coaching with Mary Dibbern again today and am also singing in her master class after lunch. Then, tonight I have a ticket to the opening night of Mozart’s Don Giovanni! I am very excited. Sofia and I have already decided we’re waiting for the singers to come out to meet them.

The master class was absolutely wonderful. Everything went really well. We discussed how to say the nasal vowels in French without them getting stuck in your nose. She also corrected diction errors; common mistakes.

The Opera was… interesting. At the Salzburg Festival, they have a fascination with doing modern productions. This Don Giovanni was set in the forest and even had a car that drove onto the stage. Zerlina also practically had sex on stage… it was a very intense bloody and sexual production. I’m still now quite sure how I feel about it. The baritone that sang Leporello was incredible and gorgeous.

I walked about halfway home; until the bus caught up with me. Then I crashed for the evening as soon as I got home

Sonntag

It was a big dinner with the family. Edith’s mother came to pick the girls up along with their grandmother (I think). There were 10 of us at dinner. Afterwards, Julia, Edith and I played one last game of rummy before dessert was served. After dessert, I headed upstairs to take a nap before having to get ready for the concert.

The concert was wonderful! The pianist could just make you melt with one finger on a key. The mezzo was phenomenal, I only wish I had her control.

After the concert, a bunch of us went to Murphy’s. If you speak any German in the pub and the bartender’s catch you, you have to buy them a drink, or potentially round for everyone.

I left to catch the last bus home, and had given myself more than enough time to get the bus stop. I would’ve had a 15-minute wait, so I decided to continue to walk to the next stop. I timed things, and kept track of when the bus was to be at each bus stop. It take a little under five minutes to walk from one stop to the next, so by the time the bus caught up with me I had walked more than half way home and had only about 6 stops to go. It had finally stopped raining, so it was a nice ending to the day.

This morning I slept in till about 11, though I did wake up at first around 8:30. There was a band that was being carted around on a truck that started playing right outside my window. Apparently they do it once a year, driving around the neighborhood as some sort of fund-raiser.

I ate a nice little dinner with Martin and the girls, and then came into town. The market along the river was still going on today, so after dropping off my stuff, a few of us headed over to pick up gifts and look around. It’s a beautiful day today, perfect for strolling along the river looking at different booths.

Now I need to start studying for my German quiz tomorrow. I may head back down to the market to pick up a bottle of mint oil that we saw and had a sample of while walking around. Just a drop on a cube of sugar and it cleared my sinuses. It’s also good for rubbing on sore muscles and a drop in water to gargle for a sore throat… the list went on and on. I may also walk home today since we’re finally having a beautiful day.

Samstag

I was able to sleep in a little this morning, but we had a tour of the festival houses at 8:30 and with the weekend morning bus schedule I had to catch my bus at 7:57. I ate a quick breakfast thinking I’d get coffee once in town as I would have a good 15 minutes to spare. Laura was up and asked if I could make her some toast. I did quickly and ran out the door. Unfortunately just as I was getting to the street the bus went by and the next one wasn’t until 8:18. I have not had luck with the weekend bus schedules. I started to walk, in the rain, to town. I got about half way when the next bus caught up with me. I knew I was going to be late, but I figured I head over on the off chance that I could catch them before it started. I arrived about 5 minutes late and as it turned out, the guy that was giving out tour was 30 minutes late.

We couldn’t go into the main theater as there was a rehearsal going on. We walked into the Karl-Bohm-Saal. This is one of the original rooms of the building. The back wall is the stone from the side of the mountain. It was one of the rooms for the Arch Bishop where horse games would take place. Now it is used for intermissions. The ceiling has a mural of the horse games.

The next theater we went into is the theater used in The Sound of Music. It is used for some concerts and operas. The arches are carved out from the side of the mountain. It was built in the 1600s and originally the arches are where the Arch Bishop and nobility sat to watch events. It was all open/ outside. Now the arches serve as a backdrop. Some go into the arches for parts of performances, but no public is allowed. The roof that is now in place is retractable.

The last theater we went into was Haus von Mozart. It is a smaller theater used for chamber concerts such as the Liederabend we are attending tonight. As we are all singers, we stood on the stage and sang a little. Not everyone did, but it was fun.

After the tour a few of us wandered around a little, got coffee, and returned to the college. We were showing each other our favorite youtube videos. We watched a few Victor Borge videos (if you haven’t seen him I suggest phonetic punctuation and page turner). I need to head home for dinner with the family at 1. I hope you wake up to a beautiful morning.

Another Dreary Day

Jürgen Flimm gave the master class yesterday afternoon. He was director of the Salzburg Festival from 2002 until 2004 and has worked in many opera houses around the world including the Met, Royal Opera House, and the Bayreuth Festival (where Wagner built his opera house and houses the Ring Cycle). Only two singers performed. It was Regine Sturm (soprano) and our favorite deep bass Andrè Schuen. They performed the first part of act I Le Nozze di Figaro by Mozart. It was wonderful to watch them and see what Flimm wanted them to do with their acting in the scene. They sang through Figaro’s aria. We were all melting a little as Andrè sang.

After the master class we met back at the school to then go as a group along with the faculty to the Augustiner Brewery for dinner and their wonderful beer. We all had a lot of fun. The food was wonderful as was the beer. One group of us stayed for quite a while outlasting the entire faculty. We were just having so much fun talking and trying the different pastries. Some of the faculty came over and asked if there was a sign somewhere that told us to be a loud table. We were just laughing a lot and a couple of us had a loud “soprano singer laugh.”

I got home around 8:30 thinking I’d call it a night and go to bed early. However, as soon as I got home, Martina, Julia, and Edith wanted to play rummy. They had been waiting for me to get home. It is much more fun to play with 4 people. I started to teach Julia and Edith how to shuffle cards creating the bridge. We played and short game and I was able to get to bed around 10.

This morning our German class went to the market to look around and ask questions about how much certain things cost, where they’re from, and what different things we could find in the market. We then went to McDonalds to be inside out of the rain and in the warmth. There some got coffee and pastries (the McCafe is much nicer than ours, McDonalds in general is a lot nicer and the food much better). We then discussed what we had found in the market.

We came back to the college and headed up to the library where we sat on the couches and watched Puccini’s Tosca. After we watched the opera 5 of us walked to the music store where Aaron had purchased the DVD of Tosca. We had a lot of fun walking around town despite the rain. We got back to the college just in time to head to lunch.

Gwen and I ran to Getreidegasse to go to Mango or H&M right after lunch. (The Getreidegasse is a famous shopping street in Salzburg; it is also where the house Mozart was born in is located.) She needed to find a skirt and shoes to wear for the concert in the Marble Room at Mirabell Palace. It was the concert for the competition winners and as it was in the Marble Room we were told to dress up. A few forgot and went to get cheep skirts/dresses. We got back to the college with just enough time to change and be ready to meet Dr. Hardenbergh to walk over to Mirabell. Julia, Edith, and Laura also met me at the school to join us on the walk over. I knew Julia and Edith were coming to the concert, but did not realize Laura was coming. Lisa was home about to go to bed and Martina and Martin were going to see the dress rehearsal for Norma.

The room is gorgeous and it was a very live room, wonderful for singing. The concert was really good. Everyone sang really well. Debra started to get choked up on one of her spirituals (“Were You There When They Crucified My Lord” arr. Moses Hogan). She got through it and sang beautifully, but everyone in the audience was crying by the end. Laura behaved very well throughout the concert. She was quiet and sat on my lap for most of it. She was a little squirmy, but all in all for a 5 yr old, she was wonderful. All the singers loved her thinking she was so adorable and well behaved.

After the concert, Julia, Edith, and Laura went home while I went out to dinner with some of the crew. We went to a little Italian restaurant on the Getreidegasse and enjoyed a nice meal together. Afterwards most went to Murphy’s (the Irish bar just down the street from the college). I realized on our way over that I needed to get home. My house keys were in my computer bag, which was currently locked in the library of the college. I needed to get home before everyone went to bed so I could get in. It all worked our in the end.

I'll be home 2 weeks from today

I had a wonderful coaching with Mary Dibbern. She and I worked on the German Lied I planned for our midterm recital that evening, we also went through 3 of my arias to help determine which to sing for our final performance. We opted for “Poor Wand’ring One.” She helped my tweak my cadenza at the end and spots where I need to take time so my pianist or hopefully as the case will be someday, conductor, will know when to come in/ give the cue to come in. I will be singing in Mary’s master class on Monday, so she and I looked at French diction for the last 5 or 10 minutes. We also had a nice little chat about possibilities for my next step. She’s worked for a few opera companies as a pianist and vocal coach. I’m considering more and more either going for a second masters somewhere specifically in opera or getting my Artist’s Diploma. Without the experience performing complete operas there will probably be few young artist programs that would be willing to accept me. Mary said many times the young artist is thrown right in into supporting roles (some of which are quite large) or even covering a main role.

After the coaching I had a quick make-up lesson with Yvonne. She and I worked on a few technical things and ran through my German Lied. She and I walked to lunch together.

After lunch I caught the bus home and showered, did my hair and makeup in preparation for our midterm recital. I had a quick dessert with Martina and all the girls before running to catch my bus back to school. We all walked over to the little chapel together where we were performing. Everyone sang really well. I know I could’ve done much better, but everyone said it sounded good. I’m excited to sing in the master class on Monday because the piece I’m singing, “Après un Rêve” by Faure, shows of my voice much better than the Lied did.

I caught the bus home after the recital and arrived just in time for the cook out. We all sat around the grill and cooked sausages on sticks. After a long and relaxing dinner, we enjoyed a small cup of coffee and played rummy again.

We had a lot of fun in German this morning to the point class started to go over. I had to leave because German ends at 9:30 and my lesson begin at 9:30 in St Marks across the street. In my lesson we worked on “Après un Rêve” in preparation for Monday.

When I left my lesson there was a fire truck, ambulance, and a couple cops all parked in the plaza in front of St Marks and the college. They were all just standing around. I walked into the college and found out that there was a guy up on the mountain behind the school threatening to jump. I’m assuming nothing came of it if that story was true because all the vehicles have since left.

This afternoon we have a Salzburg Festival master class to attend given by Jurgen Flimm. We are all quite excited to see some of the singers we saw last time again. Especially the Baritone Vladimir Kapshuk (whom many of us have friended on facebook) and the true Bass (who’s name we still do not know). A few of us ran into Vladimir yesterday as we were leaving our recital. When a few of us had gotten to the plaza between the college and St. Marks I swear I saw the bass, but no one else was paying any attention so couldn’t confirm it.

Tonight after the master class we are all going to the Augustiner Brewery. It is right down the street from the college. The plan is to have dinner and our first beer will be paid for by the program (meaning we already paid for it when we paid tuition).

Je suis fatigué; Ich bin müde, I'm tired!

It seems the more German vocabulary I learn the more French I remember. I still haven’t the slightest clue how to string a sentence together in German, but I’m learning a lot of vocab.

We had a fun master class with Professor Moteki yesterday. Sometime after the class, Brendan, Sara and I all went for coffee. We ended up getting Eiskaffee; which isn’t exactly like our ice coffee. Here Eis means ice cream, so Eiskaffee is coffee with ice cream in it. We also split a dessert cake thing that had a chocolate piece on the top with music notes on it.

Once back at the college I grabbed my stuff and went to catch the bus home. Unfortunately when I walked out the door and saw all the traffic, it was not a good sign. I crossed the street and walked the couple of blocks to my bus stop. In that time, the traffic hadn’t moved an inch. Knowing traffic would be better once I was outside the main part of the city, I kept walking thinking to catch a bus further on. As it happened, everything was at a complete jam. I saw 5 buses heading back towards the city, and not a single bus going my way. It wasn’t until I had just passed the bus stop 2 stops from the house that a bus had finally caught up with me. At that point I was so close I kept walking. Of course it started to rain when I was one bus stop away, and by the time I reached home another bus had passed as well. The busses are supposed to be every 10 minutes during the week. Things were just a little off yesterday.

I beat everyone home. I went up to my room and completed my German homework then read for a while. Martina, Martin, Julia, Edith, Laura and I all enjoyed a wonderful dinner together. Afterwards Martin and Laura went up to bed and the rest of us cleaned up. Then we sat and had dessert and coffee. After the coffee, we played cards (rummy). Martina, Julia and Edith couldn’t just stared whenever I shuffled the cards. It’s all those years’ playing cards at the county and state fairs growing up. Martina brought out a bottle of red wine along with chips and pretzels. Needless to say, I didn’t get to bed until 11:30 and I am a little tired this morning.

I have a coaching with Mary Dibbern at 11 today, a makeup lesson with Yvonne at 12:30, lunch at 1, then home. I need to get ready for our midterm concert; which is this evening at 5:00.

I hope you wake up to a wonderful day today. The sun is shining here!!

It's raining

We had a day and a half of gorgeous weather and it’s raining again. The rain started yesterday afternoon just before 5 right as I was going to leave to catch my bus. It didn't just start as a drizzle either; it poured!! I opted to stay inside a bit longer hoping it would lighten up. I still had a good two hours before Martina expected me.

I ended up braving the rain and going home around 6. Martina couldn't believe I was home so early. I walked in the door and Laura ran over to me giving me a hug and wouldn’t leave my side. Two of her relatives (I think they are nieces) are in town to visit for a week or two. They are 15 and 16. Martin was still at work, so just we girls had dinner together. Martina made sure to tell me that tonight she’s making a nice dinner for all of us to eat together and to be home by 7.

We all sat and talked for a while once Martin got home and watched the girls play. Then Lisa was put to bed at 7, I did homework, and the others went down to the whirlpool. I called it a night pretty early. I read for a little while to help relax then shut the blinds and turned out the lights at 8. I hadn’t slept very well on Sunday night, so I need a couple hours extra sleep.

This morning after I ate breakfast, while I was finishing my coffee, I sat with Laura and watched “Dora the Explorer.” Laura just curled up on my lap as we watched it. I could understand a little of what was going on. It helped that the show teaches English.

I had a wonderful lesson this morning with Yvonne. We were working on my midterm piece, which I’ll be performing tomorrow. She’s helping my with my breath support. It’s been something I’ve been working on a lot lately. Yvonne started pushing me in different directions. The support needed to stay standing while she’s attempting to push me over is the same I need to sing. Yvonne had me start singing my piece and would then start pushing me as I sang. The sound was so much better.

Apparently we’re having some spinatstrudel for lunch and some dessert with chocolate. MMM I love spinach.