Saturday morning I made the ultimate sacrifice for my treasured friend Karim. I must really love him to skip my two favorite classes at Equinox to take the A train on the weekend all the way up to Washington Heights to brunch with him. I was happy to spend the time with him since he really lives in Toronto most of the year and is only in NYC now for specific auditions or performances. But, I missed my classes for the second week in a row, and also my new friend Gail.
The A train was a total nightmare. They are doing construction on the C train on the weekends so all the trains are running local and you're required to take a shuttle at the last leg of the trip. Craziness. All in all, it took about an hour to get to Karim's house on 184th. His apartment is really nice with tons of space and great high ceilings. We went to a really cheap and somewhat craptastic diner on 181st. Our waitress was a total space cadet and brought our food at different times and then made us ask for the check three times. My favorite moment was watching her read the NY Post as we sat and waited for her to deliver our check. Awesome. I helped Karim pack and then we got on the A train and relived all that madness.
I came home, took a quick shower and headed off to my friend David's concert at a church nearby. He's doing a series of Schubert's "Die Schone Mullerin" in Florida and Minnesota with this one NYC concert. It was such a treat to hear him sing again and see all his growth from CCM days. He's always been one of my favorite baritones. I saw his parents and loved watching their pride swell from across the aisle. I unfortunately didn't get to stay too long to celebrate him as my Opera North audtition was scheduled an hour later in Midtown.
On the subway I met an adorable two-year-old boy named Micah who was all smiles and a huge flirt. He was trying to ride the pole that you hold onto for dear life as though he was a fireman. I really enjoyed playing hide and seek with him and told his dad that he made me miss Char. Aw. It was my most joyful subway ride yet.
My audition was in NOLA studios, a very popular venue for December opera auditions. I hardly recognized the place without the hundreds of singers pouring through the halls. It was so mellow with only one audition happening instead of the usual five or six. I had plenty of time to get warmed up and ready and then entered the room, with the attitude of knowing all my French wouldn't be perfect but wanting to be in the moment and enter in the space that God has already prepared for me. Yesterday when I was practicing I realized that I hold onto the singing as though it is mine and only mine when really it is the place where God allows me to enter into his work. That thought brought so much joy and relieved so much pressure in my practicing and I wanted to bring that into the audition as well. I have to say the auditor threw me off a little bit. He stood up and paced through my entire audition, very rarely actually looking at me. I started with "Du gai soleil" which went well. He said it was charming and sweet, refreshing after so many Turandots in a row. (Turandot is one of the operas they are doing this summer and it has a honkin soprano role that I guess a bunch of girls were aiming for!) He asked for "Deh vieni" one of my all-time favorites to sing. It was okay, but unfortunately not much better than that. I couldn't get my breath under me and because of that couldn't stay in the moment as well as I would have liked. It wasn't a bad audition by any means but not great enough to get a job, I think. I guess I am always learning....
I had to call Charlie after that and got to hear him say, "HI Kithy" for the first time. Amazing. I miss him so much and loved hearing him say, "yeah" so casually. Aw. I always love talking to my best sister, of course.
Adrienne and I went to the movie theatre down the street for "Catch and Release." We smuggled in some Tasty-Delite and homemade popcorn for a snack-tastic experience. The movie was pretty good but kind of all over the place. I was soooo tired after the two late nights in a row and was happy to settle to sleep before midnight.
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