wanna hear me sing?

[lapietra]

Here's a link to an mp3 of an aria I did in my voice lesson yesterday ("Il est doux, il est bon" from Massenet's "Herodiade")... it's not *perfect* (I wasn't trying for any dynamics or expressiveness, just technique... and the French is pretty wonky) but I'm pretty happy with it. If anyone's interested, it's here:

http://home.earthlink.net/~mjstone323/Il_est_doux_il_est_bon-9-24-02.mp3

I actually have much better recordings of myself (which at some point I'll stick on a website if I ever get around to making one...*sigh*) but this one's brand-new... :) Comments welcome.

[Ctrl+Alt+Del]

Wotta voice!!! Do you sing in any performances of any kind?

[lapietra]

I haven't in a while... one of the last things I did was two concert performances of Mozart's "Don Giovanni" in June 2001 - I sang Donna Elvira. I do have recordings of the two performances... I was quite sick, but I still sounded okay - not as good as I could have, tho'. :) Maybe I'll post something from one of those if anyone's interested...

I started working with a new teacher and a new technique last September... between that and working on my acting technique (& trying to teach myself how to design websites so that I have a more rewarding day job) I've sort of been in hibernation & haven't auditioned for anything. But I will again someday! And I'll post here & let everyone know. ;)
Thanks again for the nice comment. Things like that help keep me going.

[zenbabe]

Wow! That was awsome! My aunt used to be an opera singer, she used to scare me when I was in little when she was in costume. Yeah, get out there and audition, what have you got to lose! I lived in La La land for 3.5 years in pursuit of an acting career so I know how hard it is. I had some jobs, but not enough to keep it going. I am so glad that I went up there and gave it a shot though. Break a leg kid!

[lapietra]

I really appreciate you taking the time to download & listen. :) Have a great weekend!

[quintondotcom]

Lapietra: that's very cool. yes, please make mention of it when you get around to posting more recordings. singing opera seems like such an ambitious undertaking to me. hearing you is amazing. i love encountering people vigerously in pursuit of high goals. :)

[lapietra]

I will... maybe I'll just put them all here in this thread... and one of these days I'll build my own darn site & stop taking advantage of ze's great audience! :)

[red]

I'm impressed. You sounded just like my parents opera records! :eek: I almost turned your recording down by reflex. ;) Why are you in Hollywood? Is that where you go to break into opera?

[lapietra]

I almost turned your recording down by reflex.

That *is* quite a compliment... Sorry - I don't seem to have the right kind of voice for G & S... I think there are a total of two, maybe three roles I would be considered for (in Iolanthe, Princes Ida, and Mikado...) I mostly sing Puccini, Mozart & Verdi...starting to look at a little Wagner. :p

Ah, yes, the big question... Why does she stay in Hollywood? It's complicated... It's a combination of factors, the major one being lack of funds to transfer myself and mine anywhere useful, like New York or Chicago. These are expensive places to live... and I've become a wimp in my "old age" - not so old, but old enough to enjoy a certain amount of space and comfort...I have a landlord who puts up with my spotty employment and subsequent poor payment schedule... I know where everything is... I love to cook & I can get ingredients for *any* recipe in the world... I know, it's a small thing...but when you're *in* it, it's important. So yeah, a lot of it is mental, a combination of lack of confidence and fear of leaving a situation I'm comfortable with for the unknown. (It's funny... I used to just change households at the drop of a hat... I had less stuff... and fewer cats dependent on me...hell, I was *really* flaky!) But that's about money, too... If I had enough I'd just go. :) I should - I'm single, no kids...

The weird thing is that I'm pretty sure that I belong back East. My parents lived in Boston for awhile and every time I visited, I fell in love with the way things looked, the energy, the way the people were, more defined somehow... how they communicate (much more direct than here)... There's a greater level of dependability - like, if a friend says they'll call you later, they actually do. ;) (One of my HUGE pet peeves is that Californians seem to think keeping their word is optional.) And everything I'm hearing about New York from friends who've visited makes me think... "If I can only get over not being able to drive... it's like, MADE for artists!" The cultural life alone... concerts in the park... the museums.... sigh.... And they actually have a logical public transit system. That *alone* should make me want to be there. ;)

Anyway - I'm trying to do things to make moving East happen... trying to change old habits and learn new, lucrative skills. My signature (from the movie "Buckaroo Bonzai") that appears at the end of my posts has a few different layers of meaning, one of which is "Even if you change your location, you bring your life and habits with you". I don't want to bring my sloppy, lazy habits back East and end up worse off than I am here.

Aren't you glad you asked?:rolleyes: :D

Lately, the songs "Hotel California" and "Sunset Grill" have begun to take on an unholy resonance for me... :(

[bbutrosghali]

Originally posted by lapietra
That *is* quite a compliment... Sorry - I don't seem to have the right kind of voice for G & S... I think there are a total of two, maybe three roles I would be considered for (in Iolanthe, Princes Ida, and Mikado...) I mostly sing Puccini, Mozart & Verdi...starting to look at a little Wagner.


Very nice. Based on that recording, I'd say Wagner might be a bit ambitious for your voice, even if it is fun and interesting. Just doesn't sound quite big enough. Verdi is definitely within range, though.

Not that not being Wagnerian is a bad thing - I used to date a budding soprano who was crushed when she realized that her voice was heading in the Wagnerian direction. That basically put the vocally lighter stuff like Mozart, Rossini and Puccini out of reach for her (maybe not out of reach to sing per se, but out from a professional standpoint). And that was the stuff she liked to sing.

bbg

[lapietra]

My voice type is characterised as "lyrico-spinto" or, alternately "Jugenlich-Dramatischer" (not just by my current teacher but regularly by past directors and teachers alike), and while it is true I will never sing a Brunnhilde or an Isolde, it is the perfect type of voice to sing Elsa (Lohengrin), Elisabeth (Tannhauser), Sieglinde (Die Walkure) and Eva (Der Meistersinger), as well as Agathe (Weber's Der Freischutz) and Marietta (Korngold's Die Tote Stadt), both of which are regularly sung by women with my type of voice. Of course, it would depend on the director's taste ... sometimes a full dramatic is cast in these roles if there's a Hochdramatischer available for Brunie or Izzie.

Just because I am capable of singing with a lyrical quality doesn't mean I can't also bring enough weight and color to contend with rich orchestration - I did a performance of Madama Butterfly a couple of years ago - while of course it isn't Wagnerian, it's a long m. f. - and I had no trouble with stamina or singing dramatically... I should post the recording I have of my "Tu, tu, piccolo iddio"... :) Blew people's hair back. (giggle) If I can get a good recording off the videotape I'll post it.

I have lately been concentrating on singing with a brighter, more youthful quality, as I had been in the habit of artificially darkening my tone... and as I listen to the recording again, I hear that I'm not giving a great deal of energy to some of the lines, which is resulting in a somewhat breathy, flaccid tone. I did mention I'm a bit insecure with the new technique... give me a week or two & I'll post something to change your mind. ;)

[bbutrosghali]

Fair enough. I was indeed thinking more along the Isolde lines than Sieglinde. Like I said, I only had that one mp3 to work from.

[DarkPadawan]

lapietra - very nicely done. I was impressed, yay verily.

My mother in-law was the youngest lead soprano in the Queen's Light Opera Company in Australia back in the day and she listened as well and complimented your breath control. Her's being a trained ear she heard that you were concentrating more on note placement and diction than you were with dynamics but she said she could hear even the natural placement of appropriate crescendo.

How many octaves do you sing? I'm a budding singer myself with some first time dabbling in songwriting...country mostly with big influences being Nickel Creek, Vince Gill, and Rascal Flatts. I've got a range of about 2.5 octaves but we're pretty sure I can train up to almost 3. I sing true tenor if in a group and float somewhere around low to mid tenor if solo stuff.

Again, really nice voice you have there hun.

[lapietra]

Wow, Dark - I would really love to hear you! You know - if you want to - you should post something here you feel proud of - this doesn't have to just be *my* thread... after all, it's "Wanna hear 'me' sing" not "Wanna hear 'Marianne' sing 'opera'"... :D

I love good country... lean more toward older stuff like Hank Williams, Johnny Cash and western swing... don't own a lot of it but sometimes I switch over to KZLA (the big country station in L.A.) to hear what's going on...

Does your mom still sing? What roles did she do? I would love to hear some stories about what it was like for her...

Well, in warmup, I often sing down to an E below middle C and up to an F above high C (think Queen of the Night - I do, but sadly, it isn't true...) In public, I usually don't go below a Bb or A below middle C (sometimes if I'm doing choral work, I'll grunt down to a G but I'd rather not) and I can manage a pretty good high D, sometimes an Eb if my technique is really working but that's something I have to nurture further... I'm definitely no Constanze! So about 2.5 octaves... 3 (in public, anyway) is out of the question! :D

Guys are so lucky. They've got all that great falsetto to play with after they run out of fundamental tone... That's how you get a Bobby McFerrin and all those wonderful male altos.... I *love* that sound...

[DarkPadawan]

I have some space with my new DSL account and I've been toying with building a page so I might have to build the super-secret-ninja hidden page with audio files. Our church has done some choir cd's in which I solo'd on. One was a strictly worship cd and the other was a christmas one. I'll post them in the next couple of weeks and add the link in here.

I love falsetto. I'm one of the lucky few that doesn't have a register break when going from chest voice to falsetto. Some call it good breath control, I call it good genes as I've not had any real lessons.

Mom-in-law has done some pretty traditional stuff with names I couldn't pronouce much less spell out here. They apparently did some newer stuff too like Annie and Annie Get Your Gun...she has all the newspaper clippings on those because she was the youngest lead in the history of the theater or some such business. She can get on such a roll talking about it that it makes my head spin sometimes. Don't get me wrong, I love to hear them but it's like she has these flash backs and suddenly she's singing in Italian (or something like that) and making the windows rattle. My father-in-law calls her Ol' Leather Lungs.

[Aphrodite]

Wow Looky what I found and I am really impressed.

Lapietra you sound awesome.

I just had to bring this up to the top again for others to hear. Very nice.

[masterofNone]

wow. this is an old'n.

[agentsmith]

woah.

:)

you rock, lala.

[daverbee]

Got no speakers on the 'puter at work so I'll check it out when I get home...

[chuckie egg]

weird, I was only looking at this thread earlier on, Aphro were you stalking me??!!! :D

but thanks, now I have speakers I will listen...

[catbelly]

Wow lala!! I don't know what to say ... I have always been in awe of people who can sing well, that was gorgeous!

[chuckie egg]

WOW!!

That is all.

[funkytuba]

La La... nice recording!

I've been singing in choir for the last year or so. Never had done any organized singing before, but it's interesting how closely the skills of wind instruments (specifically tuba ;-)) translate to choral.

Strange thing is, I only feel comfortable singing out at church in the chapel. Ask me to sing along to a song in the car, and I can't hold pitch... but in the extremely live box that is our chapel, I find I can hear myself and stay on pitch without thinking about it.

good luck! hope you land some cool (and paying gigs soon)

being a transplant from "back east"... well. back southeast, anyway... I've found that with californians, it's useful to be very specific with someone when trying to plan interactions:

instead of "let's do lunch" say "let's eat lunch together at the ramen place at 11:45am on wednesday"

instead of "lets get together soon" say "Come to my house at 10am on saturday and bring your rollerblades"

instead of "see you at the museum" say "I will meet you at the picasso on the second floor of SF MOMA at 2pm on sunday."

usually, the other person will then put up or shut up. If, after making a specific plan they stand you up, then you know that you are dealing with flaky person, and not just into the typical californian non-specificity.

[daverbee]

La La, that was beautiful! We will look forward to hearing more and when you get your first gig at Carnegie Hall, we'd appreciate tickets!
Seriously, you have a wonderful voice and I wish you all the luck in the world in your career!

[lapietra]

:o

You guys are all extremely sweet.

I have been a bad opera singer lately and neglecting my voice... but I've started up again and hopefully I'll have some new stuff to listen to eventually :)

[Audreyvgs]

That was nice, and you hit all those high notes! How come when I sing, it stays the same tone, no vibrato at all. How does that work? It doesnt worry me, its not like i sing anywhere outside the shower. I can't roll my r's either.

[bealeblues]

finally got to d/l it lala andi was blown away.... i should've made you belt one out while we were at that italian place......

but the thing was, i just fininshed loading and listening, and some guys in black suits with sunglasses knocked at my door and asked, so you like downloaded operatic music huh..... they said something about piracy and that they were watching me or something... i hid until they went away...

[lapietra]

hmmmm..... I don't know these guys... Tell them to mind their own business, and that if they're making money off my recordings I'd better get a cut or I'll send ASCAP after them...