I was having a similarly frustrating experience recently with Lucretia's
recitative and aria from Britten's THE RAPE OF LUCRETIA. My solution was
to set a more realistic timeline for myself in terms of preparing this
aria, which I was trying to get ready for a competition next month, but
which I've decided - in conjunction with my coach - I'd be more realistic
to give myself a few months to really learn and then internalise the
vocality and drama of it. Interestingly, with the "pressure
off", I've found that I'm having no trouble at all with the music, and I'm
definitely considering it for an April competition.
I haven't had as much luck with the very elusive (to me, at least) Helen
of Troy recit and aria from Michael Tippett's KING PRIAM. This aria has
proven to be my particular nemesis, and I'm frankly not sure if I'll ever
"get" it. No amount of listening to the recording seems to "stamp" the
musical structure or actual notes into my recalcitrant brain. It's just
one of those very modern thingies that I've finally allowed myself to
speculate may just not be very well-written.
Not so the Barber songs, of course. My suggestion to you is to give
yourself a break short-term, and to find a 20th century song that is more
"simpatico" for you to learn for the event. But also keep on working on
the Barber, because you WILL eventually "break the code", and the musical
skills you learn doing so will be very useful for learning other even more
challenging repertoire in future.
As for song suggestions from 20th century, I'm presuming you're a soprano
(since sops are the ones who usually do that Barber song), and will
suggest that you take a look at:
CYCLES (pick a song from one of them):
Granados: Tonadillas
Canteloube: Chansons d'Auvergne
Poulenc: La Courte Paille
INDIVIDUAL SONGS (just happen to be personal favourites of mine):
Peter Warlock: Rest, Sweet Nymphs
Denis Browne: To Gratiana, Singing and Dancing
Ralph Vaughan Williams: Silent Noon (from HOUSE OF LIFE)
Vaughan Williams: Linden Lea
Michael Head: Sweet Chance, that Led My Steps Abroad
Eric Coates: Bird Songs at Eventide
Sergei Rachmaninov: Vocalise, op. 34 #14 (no problem learning the words
for this one!)
Richard Strauss: Morgen, op. 27 #4
Karen Mercedes
http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html
***************************************
What lies behind us, and what lies before us
are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
|
|  |
