Master class

This evening was the start of Giuseppe's master class for TOR singers.  It's on Tuesdays and Thursdays for the next three weeks.  He's done it for the last two years.  Fortunately, he has Adolfo to play the piano accompaniment.  Two years ago I sang "Le Veau d'Or" from Gounod's FAUST and Schumann's "Widmung"; last year I did "Scintille, Diamant" from TALES OF HOFFMANN and "Bella Sicome un Angelo" from Donizetti's DON PASQUALE.

This year I'm singing "Il Balen di Suo Soriso" from Verdi's IL TROVATORE and "Wohin?" from Schubert's DIE SCHOENE MULLERIN. (Like my earlier songs, these are all numbers I've studied in my singing lessons with Giuseppe.) Half a dozen people came to the first class, and it isn't all opera:  someone sang "I Dreamt I Slept in Marble Halls" from the operetta BOHEMIAN GIRL and someone else did "There Is Nothing Like a Dame" from Rodgers & Hammerstein's Broadway musical SOUTH PACIFIC.

Yesterday I made it to choir practice. (Giuseppe was anxious that I come this week:  I'm an important part of the baritone-bass.) But this week the men got to come late because the first part was just for the women rehearsing the witches' choruses in MACBETH.  Giuseppe turned out to be latest of all:  when Yvette was driving him to rehearsal, they were in an auto accident.  Nobody was hurt, but they had to go make statements.  So Adolfo rehearsed the women on his own.