Sunday, August 27, 2006

(2nd week of rehearsals,NYC)

Ahhh so nice to be working "from home" once in a while: Sleep in my own bed, have a nice breakfast with my love in our new kitchen, dress up (I would like to say that not living out of a suitcase increase your possibilities to "endless" but alas it is not so! "I've got NOTHING to wear,damnit!") and after rehearsal enjoy the city with all the people and places and things which make it my home.
This will be my 6th Carmen production, and by now I have learnt a few tricks to make it easier to sustain the stamina needed for this huge role, with no worries what so ever. {if you really want to know some of them, here we go: lipsink when the chorus is singing loud, not give too much here, but wait till this or that point, make the tenor who is seemingly trying to strangle me, cover my ears with his palms while singing directly at me,(so I don't go deaf), swallow my saliva purposely on a brief breath in between two difficult phrases (that's to lower the larynx) and ask for a drink of water set on stage as part of my props. Stuff like that.} This coming week we are getting into higher gear, starting to run the show, and in no time, I am being Carmenized in New York City!

Thursday, August 17, 2006

First day of school

S'wonderfull! Once again I meet : My new "jealous lover", my new " crush", my new two "best friends", a new bunch of people I smuggle props with, smoke-free fake cigarettes, and at last, once more, I am thrown back into this fantastic opera I love so much> Once again I will become Carmen, and it is like the first day of school: meeting my new colleges, the music staff, the director, and all the people involved. I am so happy!

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

My schizo life

Just finished a little tour with a bunch of beloved hippy ex flower children across France, by train and by car, to b*ttf***k- ville here and there, singing for no money in some church on a top of a remote mountain. The reason: friendship, and joy of singing. It's a thing I would recommend to anybody in the opera world who starts as a human being, and slowly becomes too famous, too busy and too high- maintenance.
There, on the top of the mountain, seated on a tiny little stage , where you think you are probably going to make music for your self, because who on earth is going to GET there, You almost faint when you realize that the place is full, absolutely packed with people, all kinds, all ages,all different, who actually LOVE MUSIC and traveled for hours to be there. To ENJOY the MUSIC.
And there, where the high dome reflects my voice back onto me and onto all those people underneath and bounces it back upwards and sideways and into the stone and outside to the woods and back into the skies, and there, where my soul, and all of our souls, feel like they are being heard; there, I am thankful again.

Thursday, August 10, 2006

Sing if you can

As much as Paris is relaxed, beautiful, fragrant breezy and si jolie, and as much as the music I am making with good friends is a harmonious melange of gentle viol sounds and beautiful compositions, and as relaxed as it all should be, my heart is so dark ,so heavy. It feels to me like this is a very close moment to the end of the world as we know it. The Middle East has lost it's mind; my best friend there sounded hopeless, devastated. My phone conversations with my family are cut by the sound of the sirens, and Hethrow stopped functioning. And if I do get back to New York, from CDG, so what? We are not safe anywhere. Mad mad people who fear nothing, are everywhere. Strange thing is, on 9/11 I was recording the same program with the same group of people, here in Paris. Try to make beautiful music, it might cheer somebody up.

Monday, August 07, 2006

Parisian Fantasies

The air was so light and so French the light was so
French and so see-through
The French were themselves, with air and some lightness
And I was walking in zig-zag crossing the Seine and crossing back very slowly;
In my head so many memories which never
actually happened
And will never ever happen at all.

Saturday, August 05, 2006

Paris Jolie

Paris today was so perfect; The open skies and the light breeze and the cafes and whispered French words are swirling around me like the faint jasmine scent in the air.
What a great life; one moment I am in New York the next I am St. Germain. Grace.

Tuesday, August 01, 2006

Jobs

This week was so much better, as I learnt about three new and exciting jobs that came in . Such a "simple thing" can make me so much happier: knowing what I am going to do in the future.
With mortgage and bills and with so many good (*and* pretty) mezzos out there, I sometimes feel I should just give up and just sit home (well, not THIS home since we'd have to sell it...), and well, collect my tears and sell them too. Sometimes this damn blues last a bit too long for me; the insecurity, the doubt, the fear. But then something shows up, eventually.
This week was the lift-up. Now I feel like I can inhale and then exhale with a bit more oxygen.

Hot and cooking

It is so good to be home; it's very hot outside but here inside it's cool and air conditioned. I clean a lot and cook for myself, something new, but how exciting.
My cousin came to visit and I cooked lunch. This is what I made:

I sauteed pine nuts, chopped onion, chopped prunes, some raisins, chopped tomato and some coriander, until brown. Then added stock (Chicken soup) to a boil. Then I covered with couscous grains, removed from the stove and let the couscous soak everything up. (my invention of the day: Moroccan/Dominican Couscous!) :)

I marinated chicken breast over night (the night before) in soy ginger and sesame sauce (which I bought at fairway...) and sauted that too. I also steamed some string beans with a touch of lemon and some salt. To accompany that lovely mid-day meal, we drank Australian chilled white shiraz (that's a better version of the usual Rose') . Was lovely!