> This is amazing, if you can sing it from memory that
> is. If you can sing a
> role after 3 hearings you should have no trouble
> finding work.
Oh no, not from memory; I have to be holding the score
-- that *would* be an amazing talent. No, I think I'm
pretty normal in terms of learning new music.
Listening to recordings is easy, but I have the
nagging feeling that it isn't a "legitimate" way of
learning a role.
For example, last week my voice teacher told me to
take home her Elixir score and look at Adina for my
next lesson. I took home the score and completely
forgot about Adina until the morning of my lesson. So
I sat down with three recordings (Sutherland, Freni,
and a live recording with Blegen) and listened, with
score in hand, to Act I three times through. Then I
listened to Act II three times through. When I went
to my lesson that afternoon, I sang through the role
and didn't have to be corrected for notes (except for
the occasional recit note -- those sudden accidentals
can be startling -- and some of the trickier runs). I
think that's pretty normal for a singer, but obviously
I didn't have the role memorized and couldn't have
sung it from memory. Also, I'm not sure how much of
an advantage this is, since it's going to take (at my
stage of training) another six months before the role
is technically finished, translated, etc., and ready
to take to a coach. So simply learning the notes
quickly doesn't seem like it's unusual or helpful, and
I still feel like a fraud for learning from
recordings.
I'm not sure this "three times through" method would
work with Britten or Wagner. For totally atonal
things, I find my computer notation programs helpful
(but again, I'm learning from another "cheating"
method).
In terms of quickness, my methods of learning music
are (from fastest to most laborious):
1. Listen to many different recordings
2. Type it into a computer program
3. Sight-sing through the melody line (with piano at
hand for occasional corrections)
4. Play the melody line while struggling through the
bass line in the piano
I've never tried to take an unknown piece into a
coach. The coaches I know would send me home if it was
clear that I was still learning the notes. And I'm
not sure where one would find a simple repetiteur; do
opera houses really still employ them? I always
assumed that house coaches worked on diction, note
correction (not teaching, but double-checking all your
intricate rhythms and runs and things),
interpretation, memorization, etc. -- not teaching you
the part from scratch.
I just feel like less of a real singer without
instrumental skills. I was eavesdropping on the
general director of the SF opera house the other day,
and he was singing the praises of Fleming to some
patron: "Oh, she is a wonderful musician -- her
musical committment -- and piano, everything." It got
me thinking.
Isabelle B.
=====
Isabelle Bracamonte
San Francisco, CA
ibracamonte@y...
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