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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