Elijah

It has been quite a week. Sorry, audience of three, that I have let you down and have not done any new posting. Between end of the semester grading, a major production in the auditorium, and the birth of Elijah, I am pooped. Okay.....I didn't actually give birth to Elijah.....but it was a good eye catcher wasn't it?
Elijah is actually the oratorio that I am singing in tomorrow at 3p.m. I decided that since I wasn't busy enough this semester, I needed to branch out and sing in a community group. You know, kind of get my feet wet before I direct one next fall. WHAT WAS I THINKING????

I told my friend Marsha that I would sing with her and it would be fun. Well it has not been fun....at all. I forgot that I don't really like this oratorio and it is high....like REALLY high for the entire 180 pages. I am a mezzo by classification and so I was in quite a predicament when I looked at the score....if I sang alto my voice wouldn't last and if I sang soprano my voice wouldn't last. I looked around at the choir my first night of rehearsal and wondered, "How do these people (mostly gray heads at that!) keep singing page after page?" The answer became very apparent about 35 minutes into the rehearsal.....they really don't. They sing with bad technique and they go more flat with every page turn. So I decided after hearing them that I would just sing soprano....because it obviously didn't need to be perfect or in tune for more than 35 minutes. And I knew I could achieve that.

After my first rehearsal (which BTW I could only attend 4 rehearsals), I was asked by the director to "consider singing the soprano solos for us". It took a week of earnest prayer, but my answer was " absolutely no way" after every single moment with God. I tried to be able to say yes but I knew it wasn't going to be possible. So the director, a few weeks later, asked me to "please sing the "children's part" because it is small and really easy". For the next 2 weeks I searched through my score to find the "children's part" and could not. Goodness, it must be so easy that Mendelsohn forgot to write it! Finally during one rehearsal the director looked at me and said, "Heidi, here's your part" (it was 'YOUTH' BTW not children) and proceeded to tell me to sing it right then. So tell me, fellow musicians, how hard could a YOUTH part be to sightread? No problem.....right?

For those of you who use powerpoint, this would be a wonderful time to insert that sound effect that sounds like a car screeching and then crashing into lots of metal.

Let me just set all three of you readers straight. Mendelsohn's YOUTH must have been a child prodigy that was specifically bred to sing this stuff! I have never seen a vocal part that was so horribly high (F#'s and then a sustained high A!!) and have such ridiculous text to try to sing at the same time. Just try singing the word "iron" from an A to an F# and see how it works! OH, and make sure you are 38 years old, not practicing regularly, and classified as a mezzo....before you try it! So, just to recap this long post I am so far: (1) singing a part that is far too high, (2) not liking this oratorio, and (3) am sitting in a section that is falling flatter by the measure and not seeming to notice.

Now comes the highlight of the Elijah Chronicle! A few days ago I was at church and learned the tragic news that Marsha had, just a few days ago, lost her mom in Florida and then her brother was in a tragic motorcycle accident in California and also died. I was absolutely shocked and saddened beyond words. Marsha was singing the "famous" soprano/alto duet in Elijah and would not be there! The director happened to be at the church and we heard this news together and said, "Well Heidi, I need you to sing Marsha's part because I know that if anyone can pull it off you can with this short notice". What am I supposed to say to him? If I say no, I don't support Marsha, or God, or the director, or Mendelsohn.....so I said "Ok, no problem."
That was Thursday night. It is now Saturday night for the record.

I finally remembered to practice today (insert another car crash sound effect here). I haven't "practiced" for anything in several years. After about 30 minutes, I was absolutely positively exhausted. I needed to nap for ten minutes on the floor just to recover! I can do the duet but it won't be anything "special". I can sing the terribly high and out-of-my-range YOUTH solo but it won't be pretty. I have tried to make this a positive experience but it just isn't working.

And to top it all off....I tried on my long black skirt tonight. It is not flattering at all. In fact, some people might call it "grossly tight". Come to think of it, most people would call it that. After unzipping the zipper halfway down in order to be able to breathe, I figured that I could probably manage for a few hours. Then it occurred to me that "everyone" would probably be able to "see" my zipper malfunction through the white shirt that I needed to wear. I should probably put that white shirt on for myself and see how things looked. So I went to get my long sleeve white shirt only to discover that it was not in the closet, or the dirty clothes pile, or the clean clothes pile or the sewing room closet, or anywhere. Tragic thoughts and panic were starting to build. I was not only going to sound bad, I was going to look bad too! It was now 8:50p.m. I could not make it to the mall before it closed! I finally found an old one in a box labeled, "Donate". There was no way that I would be able to wear that "model" out in public.....it needed to stay in the box from which it came. It seemed to be having the "not flattering" problem as well. So tomorrow between after church and the 2:00 roll call for the concert, I need to go buy a new white shirt. And it needs to be long sleeve (good luck with that one right now in the stores). And the sleeves need to fit a midget.

And finally, I almost forgot to tell you, the other four soloist singers are professional opera singers and then there is me.....lovely.