Es scheint, dass ich Micaela zu langsam singe.

There is a choir rehearsal tonight, as well as a concert, so my dinner cooking group is taking the night off, and I'm having rice cakes with cream cheese (I actually thought it was something else when I bought it), tomatos, and avocados (leave it to me to find avocados in Austria). For dessert: granola and yoghurt with peaches.

Highlights from today:
** Some early hour in the morning, when I got up to go to the WC, and it was still dark... I opened the first door (our rooms have two) to walk into the hall... and walked smack into the second... I'm pretty shocked I don't have a bruise and a bump on my forehead.

** Deutschklasse um 8 Uhr, wie immer. Much new vocabulary to study. "The verb is the heart of the German language" says our teacher, a native Grazer, which correllates with what Lockermann, our crazy poetry/diction professor said... that the emphasis of a German sentence generally falls on the last word, which is quite often a verb. (More than in Romance languages, anyway.)

** Audition Training Seminar... those who are auditioning for agents and/or the Intendent of the Wiener Staatsoper get to practice auditioning first. I have decided, upon arriving here, that I am nowhere near ready for that business. They talked about the importance of introducing yourself and shaking everyone's hand, and not showing them your backside, while talking to the accompanist. They said: "You are the most important person in the room at that time, because without you, they don't have anyone to fill the part." It's kind of a lie, but if it gets me through the audition withoug breaking into uncontrollable shakes, I'll take it.

** Voice Lesson: Yes. Making sense. Thank God. He said my high notes are spectacular right now, and the placement is just right, and we need to bring that into the middle and bottom. I have ignored that part of my range for too long, and it's biting me in the ass now. My words, not his. But seriously: he does not let me get away with anything, and while it's a little unnerving at first, it's also so refreshing. Because I hear great thing happening already.

** Vocal Coaching: Speaking of people who don't let you get away with anything... Semyon Rozin's comment about a couple of measures of recitative from Micaela's aria: "You make this phrase so slow, everyone will die... a\nd then before the next, you take an incredible coffee break!!" He's so thorough, and it's wonderful. Making pretty sounds is only half the battle... getting into the rest of the nuances is really the most fulfilling part.

** Special seminar on early 20th century Italian singers... listened to a recording from 1909. I felt like I was in a time machine... what the woman singing's (Geraldine Ferrar) life was like... the world she lived in. How Graz looked back then... probably not incredibly different from how it looks today, except that people lived in the palazzos, and not grocery stores. On the bus on the way home, I talked to Beaumont and Evangeline Glass, this beautiful old couple who are coaching... they have such presence. Maybe I can work with them, too- I have this funny feeling that if I don't, I'll really regret it.

And that's all from my corner of the world today. Bis bald!