Sunday

As one sibling says, Sundays are for resting, reflecting, and relaxing!  It's nice to be home after a hectic week of work and treacherous driving.  We have about three feet of snow on the ground people are reporting and the plows have not been able to keep up with it, creating icy, slippery conditions.  The lad shovelled paths in the back yard first for the cat, but now for the dog as well!

There is a watery sun shining on the white snow this afternoon.  I am making the peel for the Christmas Cake, desiging the Thanksgiving menu, and putting together the ingredients for hash made out of leftover beef, onions, and potato.  The lad made a pork pie; it came out really well. 

There was a huge storm out in the Bering Sea this week which coincided with the full moon, creating huge tides.  There was a lot of damage in Nome.  Unalakleet was fine, but most people evacuated to their cabins or to the school which is on higher ground.  It could have been much much worse.
http://www.nnvl.noaa.gov/images/high_resolution/885_AlaskaStormNov08.jpg

HP; Deathly Hallows, Part 2 was released Friday.  We tried twice to find it at Fred Meyer and Carr's.  It is advertised in today's paper as being available at both places, but I do not want to drive today and the lad is sleeping.

Am preparing for recital Dec 4.  It will be a big one with about 25 performers and I think some guitar students as well.  I take it as a point of pride that not one child is singing classical music, although every one of them is being trained classically!  The pedagogy is Italian with a German spin on it.  Thank you Mrs. Phinney!  I do not think there will be room/time for me to sing although I will be playing quite a few pieces, some very, very challenging.  Defying Gravity from Wicked; Lithium by Evanescence; Rolling in the Deep, sung by Adele; You Held MeUp, sung by Jennifer Hudson; God on High from Les Mis (yes, I know that's not the title but that's how I think of all songs); plus all the usual other favorites. 

My hands and fingers have a touch of arthur-itis not to be confused with author-itis from years playing piano and transcribing.  It's hereditary and was especially bothersome this past week with the full moon and low barometric pressure.

Ariadne auf Naxos is going well.  I am building up my stamina and managed to sing it through yesterday once.  It is over ten minutes long with a very high tessitura and it was my 6th day of work. I have not done much with Four Last Songs yet except to run through it a couple of times.  I have to translate it soon and I won't listen to any interpretation of it now that I am working on it.  That's the biggest problem I find with many of my students:  they learn the piece by playing the recording over and over again and unconsciously imitate up the recording artist's interpretation.  I read an interview with Tony Bennett last week and remember he was told to make the song his own, otherwise he would just be a member of the choir.  Amen!

Not my choir of course.  In three short weeks both choirs have learned solfegge, made up their own songs, performed them, and yesterday I had them give them to their neighbor to practice this week and perform next Saturday.  They are singing Dona nobis pacem, Rockin' Around the Xmas Tree in two parts, and The Little Drummer Boy.  I think I am going to have them open and close the recital.

So lots going on with no time to spare to think that 11/11 was our one-year anniversary arriving in ANC.  And the lad and I do not share any days off at all.  Looking forward to the four-day weekend at Thanksgiving.

Pictures to follow.

Strauss

Four Last Songs has arrived.  I have been carrying the score in my pack from one job to another as if I will learn it  by osmosis as I have had little (actually no) time to sing through it.  I hope my voice is heavy enough.


I also sang through Zerbinetta's glittering take on her philosophy of love from Ariadne auf Naxos four or five times.  Boy, could he (Strauss) write for the soprano voice.  Wow!  I can't wait to perform it.  Zerbinetta attempts to raise Ariadne's spirits by singing and dancing.  I wonder if my voice is light and agile enough and high enough.  At the end of the week I don't have my High F's or E's.

It is time to find a professional accompanist.  I miss Michael Dewart.