The last couple weeks have been very tough. My grandpa passed away about a week and a half ago, and the time since then has been busy and emotional and exhausting. As a result I haven’t done the practicing or studying I should have done. I just finished my first practice session for at least two weeks. It felt good to sing again. I’m not entirely thrilled with everything I did (I’m listening to the recording right now), but it could have been significantly worse. 
I’m particularly annoyed at my vocal stamina, or lack thereof.
I suppose I should cut myself some slack. When I was an undergrad I used to HATE practicing because I would be hoarse after a half hour, whereas if I sang for someone else, like my voice teacher, or even just my accompanist, I could sing for a couple hours. At that time I did not think. I didn’t pay attention to my body or what I was doing with it as I sang, so I couldn’t fix that problem.
I have since learned to be more thoughtful in my practicing and more attentive to how I make my sound. I think teaching voice has helped a lot with that. So I can sing longer, and I am not hoarse, but my voice is noticably fatigued, which annoys me.
Anyhow… I love Reynaldo Hahn. Well, some of his music isn’t all that wonderful, but much of it is simply divine! I’m working on three from his Etude Latines: Vile potabis, Tyndaris, and Pholoe. They are all gorgeous. As I mentioned above, I’m listening to the recording of my practice session right now, and the song that’s on now is Pholoe. The song is simple and beautiful, the text full of sadness and regret. It’s not a polished recording, by any means, and my “accompanist” is my computer playing a midi file, which is a bit restricting, but I still just love the song. Listen: Pholoe, by Reynaldo Hahn. (The original recording was clear, but somehow in the conversion process some funky pops got into it.) I include this recording, not because it’s wonderful (which it’s not – it’s just a practice session), but because it’s a virtually unknown art song by a composer who really deserves more attention. There are other Hahn songs that are more wonderful than this one. Check out Susan Graham’s recording of Hahn’s music. It’s fantastic!
(The title of this blog makes it sound like I care only about opera, but I am a big fan of art song as well. I loved art song before I loved opera, actually.)
