Last Saturday in LA...at least for now...

LA, LA, how I love you!

On time for class this morning- whu?!?!?!  Martin Katz taught a masterclass on Romantic song--we heard Duparc, Berlioz (Katz solved a riddle for me.  I have always found the cycle "Nuit d'ete" problematic for my students who want to sing it.  Some of it is clearly for low/medium voice and some for high voice.  Mezzos sound great in some of the songs and then almost strangle on others--he said that I'm not crazy but that the cycle has a mix of songs for low and high voice.  He suggested transposition to get it to work for one person!) and he said that all three times the refrain should have the same rhythm in the melody and that the one that is different is actually a typo! (those of you who sing this piece know what I mean). Lock sang Hahn's "Le rossignol des lilas" and he was lovely!  Katz liked his work and Lock had a great sense of the style and atmosphere- helped of course by his excellent French and his years living in Paris.  I left my camera battery charger at home in my rush to leave, so I have been saving the last drops of battery juice for Lock's performance with Liza. I took these photos and the camera died!

Dear Bor Liang Lin sang "Le temps des lilas" by Chausson so beautifully- a tenor with control of dynamics and not everything at forte!- and there was a HILARIOUS staging of "Danse macabre" by Saint-Saens in duet form.  We pretty much laughed our butts off!

Siobhan and Zach

I had a private coaching with Michael Rader, and Matthew Morris was actually there too, so we had a really interesting session.  I would love to talk with them all day about performing, and music, and acting, and life in general.  What a great couple, and insightful, funny, kind people.  I sang "So in Love" for which I had done my homework of assigning specific images to all the phrases so that it felt more sincere and from the heart than my previous performance.  I used the distant past rather than the immediate and it seems to work.  They both liked it, but we had some serious problems of an accompanist who didn't know how to play musical theatre so we couldn't quite get the tempo right.  Matthew gave me some feedback on it being very heartfelt but sort of at a cabaret/reflective tempo/feel and he was right.  I did it again with more movement and we were getting somewhere as far as "dropping in." But, we moved on to "Tale of the Oyster" since the pianist wasn't going to get it no matter how many times we did it.  We talked about it first-I said, how do you do a comedic, story-telling song for which you can't really go back and mine your own life for similar memories?  Michael said, why are you singing this song?  It was a great question, because I was singing it because it was funny and not because I had anything to say with it.  All it took was a suggestion of telling a younger person "you might get what you wish for, but it won't be what you thought it was going to be" and we laughed at how that parallels so many of the young artists here in the program!  Anyway, this very simple thing (that I really should have known) really made the song easier to perform. I didn't feel the burden of acting it out so much, because I was TELLING the story more.  They both thought my performance was very funny, with good timing, good gestures, but that I looked around a lot and they suggested one eye focus.  Make it personal rather than a caricature- sound familiar?  Well, that's what Joan and Bill said to me!  Hmmm.... if more than one person gives you the same feedback, it really deserves some deep thought.

Caught the end of Graham Johnson's Schubert class- I remember singing Schubert for him and feeling flayed to the bone (back at IU), but when he finally liked something I did I felt like flying all the way home!  He expects a lot of performances of Schubert, but of course he is correct.  He did great work on "Der Wanderer" and I'm glad I went to the class.

Then, I skipped.

And I don't feel bad about it.

 As you can see from the color of the sky, I simply had to skip.  The LA County Courthouse has been featured in movies, most famously perhaps in the original Superman movie.  There is a lovely park with fountains, but guess what?  It was closed for renovation.  Still, this is a very grand and majestic building.  Everything in LA is large and spread out--it simply doesn't feel crowded here.  It feels super-sized!

 Union Station, the place that brought people into LA via train before LAX airport.  Still operational, with huge leather chairs, wooden beams and vaulted ceilings, and humongous chandeliers that make the place very grand indeed.  Includes, guess what?  Lovely gardens and flowing water.

Across the street from Union Station is El Pueblo de Los Angeles, the first Spanish settlement in LA.  Big plaza, huge old trees, music (Spanish karaoke!) and dancing, lots of small shops and stands, where I bought presents for my friends back home (yes, YOU) and had a wonderful meal of tacos and guacamole to go.

Main plaza, complete with gazebo

 Some of the restored buildings in this historic area of town.

Pico House: A grand hotel, the first in LA, now standing empty.

 Restored building, now houses restaurants.  Olvera Street is to the immediate right of this building.  It is a very narrow corridor with shops down the middle and lining the sides.  Clothes, leather products, jewelry, tourist tchotchkes, and lots of skull stuff (?) here along with tons of food.

 This is the meal I got for take out. And I ate it:

 Here!  At the Peace Fountain in the Music Center Complex.

Caught the sunset (but didn't catch it in this picture :(   ) before....

I attended "War Horse" at the Ahmanson Theatre!  I saw the show at Lincoln Center and absolutely loved it so I wanted to go again.  I got a rush seat in the balcony (all seats left in the balcony are $20 on the day of the performance), and Jihae joined me at the last minute.  The vantage point was so different from when I saw it in NYC and sat so close, directly in front of it.  So the show this time was less personal and frankly, less overwhelming, but on the other hand I saw A LOT of things I missed last time. It has such a unique concept and staging, and is a wonderful, wonderful show.  So glad we went!

We have been trying to have some "roommate time" with Jihae, Liza, and me, and we found it tonight!  We met Liza and some others at the Omni for some good conversation and a drink- I finally feel that I know her a bit, and I know that the world is small and life long and that our paths will cross again.  I can't wait to find out when that will be!  Lovely evening- thanks Jihae!

Great music, culture, ethnic food and culture, perfect weather, and good companionship.  Could it be any better?