On Thu, 6 Apr 2000, Kate/Constance wrote:
> Any advice...repetoire advice, exercises, etc? I'm pretty much a free > spirit with my teacher, so don't worry about interfering.
I'd suggest trying some of the _zwischenfach_ stuff that has a higher tessitura, not just a higher range. Something like "Voi lo sapete" from CAVALLERIA RUSTICANA, or "D'amour l'ardente flamme" from LA DAMNATION DE FAUST. Perhaps also some slightly lower-tessitura soprano arias - say "Abscheulicher...Komm Hoffnung" from FIDELIO, and "Sur mes genoux" from Meyerbeer's L'AFRICAINE. "Pleurez mes yeux" from Massenet's LE CID is another one to look at. Lady Macbeth's arias from Verdi's MACBETH. And perhaps even "Geliebter, komm" (Venus' aria) from TANNHAUSER and the Liebestod from TRISTAN UND ISOLDE.
Purely as an excercise (too "light" for your voice in performance, if your voice truly is of "Verdian" proportions), you might also play with "Quando m'en vo" (Musetta's waltz) from LA BOHEME, and Zerlina's arias from DON GIOVANNI. And "Amours divins" from Offenbach's LA BELLE HELENE.
> My big problem to this point is a shaky jaw which goes away when the jaw is > completely open. My teacher's solution is to have me sing into the mirror > (which I hate!)...and I was wondering if anyone's done exercises to work on > this issue....
I find that starting out my practice sessions with what I call a good "lion's yawn" stretch can really help reduce jaw tension before it has a chance to creep in. Basically, you open your mouth with the idea of being "totally vertical", and then open it more and more - as open as you can get it - always with the sense that you're opening upward, i.e., lifting the top part of your head up off of your jaw (rather than thrusting your jaw downward). Then, when you've opened as far as you can (you should feel totally "unhinged" in those sockets just in front of your ears), let your tongue first hang down out of your mouth, towards your chin, then consciously stretch it downward, feeling the stretch start at the base of your tongue. If you have a hair-trigger gag reflex (which I do), you will probably gag at the point when you've really got the tongue stretched.
Now relax everything, then do a little "chewy" with your jaw, and smoothly shift it side to side. It should feel *very* mobile, as if you've somehow "greased the wheels".
The next step is to concentrate on creating your vowel changes as much as possible with your tongue. Italian "I" and "E" particularly should have no jaw involvement at all beyond opening and closing to accommodate changes in register. Instead, *think* the sound you want to make, and let your tongue do all the work to actually create the vowel sound.
Finally, when you sing phrases that end with closed-off consonants that require you to close your jaw (e.g., labial consonants, especially, but also dental and palatal consonants), do not anticipate that last consonant. Instead, save it for the very last moment in the very last beat of the phrase - indeed, place it on the rest just after the phrase ends. Of course, at other times, unless dramatic emphasis absolutely requires you to break the phrase with the ending consonant before singing a word that starts with a vowel, you should always place the closing consonant (or consonant cluster) at the start of the following vowel as an ellision. The only exception being the Italian double consonants, where you will actually close the consonant at the end of the syllable and redouble the same consonant at the start of the next syllable. When you have to do this, always be very vigilant that you're not tightening your jaw in the process.
Karen ----- Ich singe, wie der Vogel singt, Der in den Zweigen wohnet; Das Lied, das aus der Kehle dringt, Ist Lohn, der reichlich lohnet. -- J.W. von Goethe, WILHELM MEISTER
My NEIL SHICOFF Website: http://www.radix.net/~dalila/shicoff/shicoff.html
My Website: http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html
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