100% and other thoughts

When you have been doing anything for a long time, you develop a list of sayings, some borrowed and some original. Here are a few:

Never, ever feel like you are giving 100%; always keep something in reserve.

The voice is shaped like a lily; pointy on the bottom, ringy and ungy in the middle, and bloomy over the top.

There will always be someone with a bigger voice.

Legato singing is loitering while sliding.

The English language is made up of sausages; consonant-vowel-consonant, consonant-vowel-consonant. Just like the best sausage links are the ones that are tied together, so is the best legato singing.

Belting as people think they understand it is a unicorn; it doesn’t exist that way.

You have got to work on your technique like you work on your repertoire. I could throw this score out the window and hit the soprano on the head who knows the role, in the right language, with the right cuts, with the correct translation. The difference will be how compelling the singing is.

Music is the language of emotion.

More next time…