Well, I suppose it's time for me to jump back on the blogging wagon. It's been a few weeks since I last posted. I've been in Verona, Italy since my last post, attending an opera workshop here. Most of each day has been devoted to Italian class, private lessons and coachings, opera scene rehearsals, and a variety of classes including recitative, acting, movement, repertoire, and master classes.

In the evenings, sometimes we went out and explored Verona, or found a charming restaurant for dinner. Other evenings we gave concerts, and we also had the opportunity to go to three operas in the Verona Arena. The Arena was completed by the Romans in 10 A.D. Thankfully, the Arena is no longer used for gladiatorial fights or christian slaughter. So instead of watching murder and gore in real time, we can watch glorious operatic representations of murder and gore, as well as infidelity, suicide, greed, and all the other human vices! We saw Nabucco, Aida, and Tosca. Out of the three, I must say that Aida was my favorite—it was magnificently done, and had many moments in which I completely lost all sense of self because I was so engulfed in the music. However, Va, pensiero from Nabucco was so stunning that the audience demanded that it be sung again. I recorded it, but my internet right now is so patchy. I'll have to try to upload it later.


I mentioned that we had Italian class every day. Unfortunately for me, it was a beginning class, and I was hoping for more of a conversational class. So I thought I should try to find someone with whom I could speak Italian. On my first Sunday in Italy I went to church in Bergamo, which is around an hour and a half train ride out of Verona. I met a very lovely lady there who actually is from Verona. I consider her my tender mercy here in Italy. She and her husband very kindly offered me a ride into Verona. She has become my good friend. I see her each week in church, and she came to one of my concerts. She also helped me find someone to help me more with my Italian! My last week here, I met with another church member nearly every day. I offered from the beginning to pay, but he declined. I was really shocked, but very touched. He was incredibly generous, taking the time to meet with me each day. I felt like it was very helpful for my Italian, and I made a new friend.

A large part of the program was our performing opportunities. I have recordings uploaded for the first three of our concerts so far. I'm having problems with the fourth one. Honestly, I didn't feel it went as well for me, so I'm not too disappointed if I don't upload it.

Our first concert was in the Sant Anastasia cathedral in Verona. I sang Ave Maria by Michał Lorenc. I felt like the performance went pretty well.

Our second concert was in the old officers' club of the Castel Vecchio. I sang Vorrei vendicarmi from Alcina by Handel. Right before the performance, one of the coaches asked if I could sing it any faster. I said yes, and so she had us take the piece faster than I ever have before. There are a couple of glitches in the voice because I had never practiced it that way, but overall, it felt like a successful performance.

Our third concert was my favorite. We had the option of singing whatever we wanted, even if it was not opera. I decided to sing Halichah l'Qesaria, which is one of my favorite Hebrew folk songs. I chose this song because it is a very touching song to me, and I hoped to share that with the audience. I said a little prayer beforehand to that effect, and then went and did my best. I got a lot of comments from the people in the audience saying how they were touched and were taken to a different place. So this was a very special concert to me. 

Oh, and here are the bells of Notre Dame, as promised in my last post:

I know that this has been a patchy post--I certainly haven't written about everything that we did. So I'll try to write another post about some of the other adventures I had in Italy.