Don Giovanni, Lucia and Die lustige Witwe...

Hi there! I hope you had a nice week. I was very busy this week singing 3 different operas. It was challenging but everything went really well. Tuesday I had Lucia di Lammermoor, on Thursday I sang Don Ottavio and today (Sunday) I sang Camille. I am glad it was in that order. Singing 3 different Operas from three very different composers is challenging but if one is smart on how to sing and always pacing oneself and being really disciplined, it really makes the difference. I tend to practice everyday, so I have built certain stamina over the years that allows me to sing a lot wihout damaging my voice. Of course I feel the tiredness but mostly of the body. It is not the same practising than being on stage. On stage one has so much adrenaline, which it has to be directed and focused towards the performance. One uses the body in a different way, one needs so much more on a performance than in the practice room, it mostly happens by itself, as you are protraying a character and interpreting. Your body feels different and we, as singers, must learn how to manage it without going crazy but also not to be too relax and doing nothing with our body on stage. There is nothing worse for me than someone just standing (like in a concert) and just singing. We must invest not only time on our voices but also on discovering and really getting deep into the character, and also how to use our bodies without compromising the quality of our voices, and that requires experience and time on stage. You cannot learn that in the school or in the classroom, you can get adviced that such training exists but only when you are on stage during a performance you gain another sense of movement and energy that also has to be trained.

I continue with "The daily stoic", some Seneca and Aurelius reading as well. Plus I just started again to serious studying of Japanese, so I took again the book I was studying for a while before last summer. It really helps to have an idea of what works for you when learning actually anything. I am also working on learning Kanji, so I am learning one Kanji per day. My current aim is that in 80 days I will learn 80 Kanjis, for now.

I keep my 4 time a week routine of exercise and my daily steps count on check. I hope you are well and please take care. See you here next week.