Support

No, people, I am NOT talking about bras here.  I'm talking about people.

This weekend, CU Opera put on Carousel by Rogers and Hammerstein. I was in the chorus for the show, and had a very small solo in the second act, but was on stage for a pretty decent amount of time.

The show was great.  The cast was amazing.  I had a really good time (most of the time).  Those things aren't really a big deal to me right now, though.  The most amazing part of it for me was the fact that it reinforced something that I already knew:  I have an amazing support group.

My parents drove all the way to CO from ND to see me perform my 3-bar solo, stayed for a day, and drove the 15 hours back.  Friends and bosses and parents of friends and all sorts of other people came to see the show for my benefit, and they did it willingly.  And excitedly.  And I know there are even more people who wanted to come, but couldn't.

And of course, everyone gave very good feedback about the whole show.  And my "aria" (as my voice teacher called it).  I got an email from someone I hardly know that said that my hip-shaking shook the whole theatre, and I'm pretty sure it wasn't a comment about my weight.  haha.  Just kidding, I know it wasn't. 

It's just really helpful to have people who are just as excited as me, if not more so, to see me doing something that I really enjoy.  It's a vote of confidence, and I like it.  

Thanks, supporters.  I appreciate you!

Life Update (It's a doozy)...

A few strange things happened this week.

Okay, a lot of strange things...  The strangest of them all, though, are as follows:

• I didn't blog for over a week. Shame on me.
• People still checked out my blog to see if I had written.  Go you!!!

However, those are minor things in comparison to the roller coaster that has been Raissa's life recently.  I'll do my best to sum them up below.

Last week brought a lot of hype with the much-anticipated and yet much-dreaded Holiday Festival.  I had (obviously) never been in the Holiday Festival, but had heard a lot of bad things about it from upperclassmen.  Thinking about it, I mean, what good could possibly come from 300-400 musicians in the same room, at the same time, putting on the same concert 4 times?

I thought that the JC Christmas Concert was a hassle and time-consuming, what with a dress rehearsal filmed by PBS crews and having to do your hair and makeup the same way two days in a row so that they could take cuts from the rehearsal and the live performance.  Ha!  Not even.

The HF involved one 3 1/2-hour rehearsal on Thursday night, which was awful.  Standing for almost the whole time, rehearsing instead of running pieces, people not paying attention, dealing with "Betelehemu..."  It was awful.  We performed on Friday night, which was pretty bad again, but it was nice to sing for a sold-out crowd of 2000.  We performed Saturday afternoon to yet another sold-out crowd.  (Guess who forgot to put their phone on silent and received a phone call during the concert.  If you guess me, you're right.)  They fed us, we drank a little, and had a Saturday evening concert, which was also sold out.  Then, we had a sold-out Sunday afternoon concert. In all, we performed to over 8,000 people. 

It really wasn't as bad as people made it out to be.  There was a great variety of music, what with an orchestra, brass band, percussion piece, monster choir, small choir, and a few soloists.  My riser buddies made life interesting, and there was never a dull moment on the risers.  Sure, it sucked to stand for an hour and a half without moving, but whatever.  That happens.  And we didn't even have to sing well half of the time because of the audience sing-alongs. The audience loves the show and come back year after year.  I love watching crazies in the audience.  It's highly entertaining.

What did suck about it, though, was how gosh darn much of my time it wasted.  I was in the monster choir, composed of like 200 students, so really, I was useless.  No one would have noticed if I wasn't there, and I wasn't really necessary.  Not that I'm saying I want to stand out, but it makes one feel unimportant in a choir of that size.  And I got absolutely no homework done.  At least it was the weekend before the week before finals week instead of the weekend before finals week.

In addition to HF, I had to attend orientation at BR, where I was hired as a shift leader at a new store that is opening in Superior.  This job, even though I haven't actually started yet, has been a run-around ever since the interview, and as soon as I find something better, I will snatch it up.  I had the interview in October and the owner-manager told me that I was a top candidate.  I expected to start working within a few weeks.  A few weeks went by, and I heard nothing, so I emailed and still heard nothing.  I did another job search.

I finally got an email saying they would like to hire me, but that the store where I would be working wasn't even built yet, and that we would be training soon.  Well, here it is, 2 months (almost) after my interview, and we finally started training last weekend.  Saturday morning, I had to be in Longmont (a 20-minute drive) by 8:30 am.  I got there to find that my co-workers are literally all high-schoolers (except one).  F. M. L.  I was talked to as if I was one of them: slow, stupid, and shy.  I'm not any of those things.  Well, slow sometimes.

We did the same thing on Sunday at 8:30 am.  I was told we would be working store hours during this week in the Longmont store, but when I asked her when and gave her my schedule, she said we wouldn't be working because of the weather.  When a schedule was finally made, I was scheduled to work during a time I specifically told her I couldn't work because of final exams starting THIS Saturday.  It's not been fun. 

Monday brought a surprise of its own.  I came home to a very upset roommate.  Her department had randomly decided that hall directors with roommates had to get rid of the roommates.  Presently, there is no rule against it, and they have known that I have been living here since August, but it only became a problem this week.  Why?  I don't know.  If the department had their way, I would be out on the street right now.  I apparently pose a security risk or something.

Surprisingly, I wasn't freaking out about it.  My dear friend Kenny recently broke up with his boyfriend and has been looking for a roommate, so I knew that I had that option.  Christina told me to wait until Thursday (today), so that they could make a definite decision.

I waited.  Today came, and they have decided to write a new policy for hall directors that requires that their roommates be either family members or domestic partners. Because I'm not Christina's domestic partner and because I have no desire to turn lesbian in order to stay in this apartment, I have to move out.  The department wants me out as soon as possible, but Christina said I could stay until after Christmas break.  I'll probably move out at the end of next week.

Kenny is staying in a condo in Broomfield, which is about 10 miles from Boulder.  It's not nearly as convenient for many reasons:

• I'll be commuting to Boulder daily (but we plan on carpooling).
• It's an unfurnished place, so I'll have to buy some furniture (unless anyone has anything they'd be willing to donate and deliver to CO for me).
• It's not nearly as convenient as living on campus because I'll have to get everything done during the day and won't be able to make random trips to the music building or library.
• My house was very centrally located for my friends, and a great meeting point.
• It was nice not to have to drive home after a night of too many teas.
  

However, I do think it will be awesome to live with Kenny.

• He's from SD, and we get along splendidly.  We already know where each other is every minute of every day, so this won't be weird at all.
• Rent will be about the same.
• I get to park right by my building instead of a 10-minute walk away.
• Broomfield is closer to work (if I keep my job at BR).

It's been pretty stressful, what with finals next week (starting Saturday) and random tests and recitations this week.  But there is never a dull moment in CO.  I hope to continue to update all of you more regularly this week, because there are some exciting things ahead!!!

Thanks for reading during my hiatus!

The Performance

I love live theatre.  One never really knows what exactly is going to happen, no matter how well-prepared things are before the performance.

For the performance of Hansel and Gretel, things did not go as they were supposed to go. In an ideal world, Hansel and Gretel would be dancing and playing instead of working.  Their mother would come home and see that they haven't finished their chores, and would punish them by hitting their fingers with a broom.  In the process, the milk jug containing their supper would fall onto the ground and smash, causing the mother to be angry to say the least.

In the real life performance of Hansel and Gretel last night, Hansel and Gretel were playing and knocked the milk jug onto the floor before I even came in.  Doesn't seem like a huge deal, except that it totally changes why I'm mad and my reaction and the words that I say...  Thank goodness that the stage manager told me before I went on that it had broken and I had time to figure out how to react and what to say.

That's the beauty of live performances: the ability to think on our feet is essential, and one may as well not even try to be in this business if they can't.  It makes performances interesting, fun, and unpredictable for everyone.

Overall, the whole show went very, very well.  We had a packed house: standing room only, people sitting in the aisles, etc., and everyone was very excited.  They laughed and yelled and whooped and whistled.  I personally had a good crowd there, and it was awesome to get feedback from everyone.  I'm still shocked at the level of talent here: I don't think I'll ever stop being impressed with people...

Can't wait to perform again...

My first real performance...

... I'm peeing myself already, and the show doesn't actually happen until 7:30 pm tomorrow night in the music theatre in the basement of the Imig Music Building.  I expect to see you there, even if I do pee my pants.

Suffice it to say that things haven't gone as I had expected in my opera theatre class.  We didn't practice during class time as much as I expected, we had to provide parts of our own costumes, I sometimes stink at learning new music... etc.  I haven't ever really felt fully prepared and comfortable for it, and the performance is less than 24 hours away.

But I realized this morning how actually unprepared I really am.  Rehearsal did not go well.  (Keep in mind that I have ridiculously high standards for myself and that I'm always trying to prove myself to my peers.)  It had been over a week since the last rehearsal, what with Thanksgiving break and all. 

I didn't know my entrances, I didn't get the notes, I forgot some words, I missed some blocking.  Basically, everything that could possibly go wrong (aside from me crying) did.  I was very, very unhappy with my showing.

Dress rehearsal tonight was just as wretched.  We started out by blocking a new scene.  It's very easy, mind you, but still a little chaotic.  Plus, we practiced set changes, which was disastrous.  The lights during nearly every scene were all kinds of messed up.  I have a fast costume change that involves putting tights onto sweaty feet, and I didn't quite get the knee-highs high enough not to be seen from under my dress.

However, I only messed up one part of my scene, and managed my set change well.  I think that tomorrow will be fine, as far as I'm concerned.  And the show is actually pretty fantastic.  There's lots of variety, lots of fun costumes, some raciness, and of course, a ton of great talent.

It is my first solo public performance at CU, though, so I am a little bit nervous.  And my sponsors invited 50 of their friends and asked if they could bring me roses...  So embarrassing.

I'll let you all know how it goes, but if you have free time, be sure to stop by!

So many options...

At Jamestown College, it was quite possible to literally attend every single concert or recital put on by the music department, and still have time to do homework, work, and go to every concert in the community as well.  When it came time for a student recital, everyone involved in the music program attended, along all of their friends and family.  It was a great support system.  When Tab and I gave our recital last year, we almost filled Voorhees Chapel at JC. 

It is physically impossible to attend every music performance at CU.  I'm not kidding you when I say that.  There are undergrad junior recitals, senior recitals, Master of Music recitals, Doctor of Music recitals, faculty recitals, guest recitals, master classes, and ensemble concerts.  And it's not just voice, it's instrumental, too.  There are recitals in the morning, in the afternoon, and in the evening.  There is an entire bulletin board that's completely covered from top to bottom with upcoming concert programs.  It's unbelieveable.

Lately, I've been attending lots and lots of concerts and recitals.  The main reason that I go is to support my friends.  One extra face in the audience is always helpful.  Plus, I hope that when I have recitals they will come to mine.  But there are lots of reasons to attend recitals.  First of all, watching other people perform can help you to learn about recital practices: bowing, recognizing your pianist, where to stand, etc.  That's easy stuff. 

Another advantage to attending lots of recitals is learning from other people's mistakes.  When people do things during their recital that you hate, you can learn to avoid them.  For example, I learned not to wear a dress with a slit up to my waist, because it would make me look trashy. 

One of the best things for me, having no experience in the classical music area, is learning common repertoire.  It's great to become more familiar with frequently-performed music to learn what I like and don't like, and what I want to sing and don't want to sing. 

I'm going to continue to be active in attending music performances, even though it's time-consuming and sometimes not the most fun thing in the world.  I enjoy being busy, and I enjoy hanging out with people at concerts. 

But my favorite part is listening to amazing performers.  There are so so so many talented people that it puts me into my place.  It makes me remember how hard I'll have to work if I really want to make it in this business.  Scary, but a great eye-opener...

Yay for performers.  We're a different breed.