Are we set? We have a mezzo now! Kaylee!
You look fabulous. Tell us what you're going to sing. I will be singing Ombra Mai Foo. Yay! I don't know how to do it.
I know the piece but I'm still gonna bring the music but you never know. Now is this new for you too? Is this a new piece as well? Yes. Yeah you brought a lot of new repertoire which is, I love that.
Again so brave. One thing I just love about this is this is wonderful simplicity and you're just letting the voice come out you're not trying to make it into something that it's not which is wonderful. That's a wonderful thing to strive for, and especially in this kind of piece of Handel, where it just needs to sort of unfold. It's wonderful. But it's a fine line between that...
and appearing uninvolved. Yeah. You know?
Tell me what you're thinking about subtext wise and things like that in this piece, which admittedly is tricky. It's a tree. Well I have this kind of backstory about the tree and how it... saved him in a battle or was like faithful to him in some some way that he needed the tree and it was always faithful to him and so in that way he's singing to the tree and being thankful for the tree and it's interesting at the end of the opera because he is the one who is unfaithful and I think it's interesting that he's professing his love.
Oh I love the backstory. That's super cool but it didn't come across at all. Yeah, yeah.
I know. Which is funny because our lives as singers, right? I'd say 97% of the time we come off stage like, oh that went really well and the teacher's like what were you doing or you come off you're like that was the worst performance of my life and the audience is like crazy people like you sounded so free and you're like what our perception is so Misguided.
It's so weird to be the producer of all this stuff, and yet you cannot count at all on what you think, or how you think it's going. You have to literally fly off the cliff, basically without a parachute. Say, well I hope there's soft sand down there.
Or you know, a deep... ravine that is not, you know, that is, it's crazy. You have to just let it go. Again, I go back to the word process. You cannot monitor.
You cannot play for an outcome. You cannot play for an outcome. play for effect because that will land hollow and superficial every time. You have to at the same time be free enough so that what your story is is actually a ride. and that you're not sabotaging yourself.
Okay? I'll tell you how I think you were sabotaging. You're a little bit too rigid in the body and the tree was right down there.
If it's a Charlie Brown Christmas tree, that could work. My food. De vegetabile. I need that one little ornament.
Careful. Okay. I imagine, especially because this is of the period that it was written, and it was probably the most amazing... backdrop painted tree it's that kind of tree that's not necessarily tall but super wide and the roots go as far as the umbrella branches go and what I want to feel is is that energy, that gratitude you're saying from that tree.
If it's a life force tree, saved your life, faithful there, that you actually command the energy of those roots. And it comes up through you, and you become the branches. And your roots are going, going, going, going, going, going.
And the branches are reaching without any fear. And they know that they're supported, and they have lush, fabulous... water and nutrition and it's been there for a thousand years and it always will be unlike you but that tree will be there and it's this sense of wonder astonishment wishing you could be that tree probably fancying yourself that you are a little bit Xerxes you know and then again there's stillness but in that stillness is this thousand year old behind and and going forward eternal energy. It's still going.
Di vegetabile Going. Cara ed amabile Soave più This aria could be an hour long, singing the same, like a mantra, over and over. And at that same time... It's slowly growing deeper, it's slowly branching out, it's drinking up more water, it's sending more chlorophyll. I mean that's where you have to be.
This is life force. Okay? Can we just start on the aria and then we're going back to the recit of course.
I'm a recit fiend. Okay, can you just give us like let's say sort of a half of the play in and I want you to actually, would you mind to take your shoes off? They're super cute. And I want you to really, I want that you're going down into the ground, but it's coming up through you at the same time, and it's going three-dimensional, 360, all around you, down, down, down, up, every direction, okay? And as we were talking about with Debra, right?
It's growing. Reach, reach, reach, down, up. It's in your spine, it's in your spine.
The breath is there. Go. Yeah. Look. It's feeding you.
Drink it up. Drink, drink, drink, drink. Drink, go.
Go up. Drink, drink, drink, drink, drink. Yeah. And it's soak it up.
Go. It's coming up your... from your ankles... through your femur...
Go, go, go, go, go, go! Through femur, tailbone... tailbone... Oh, there it's the bottom of your spine.
Go, drink, drink it up. It's growing, go, go, go, go, go, go, go! Yeah! Drink up. Drink it, go, from the here, go, go, up, go!
It's coming, it's still coming! Here, go! Go, go, go, go, go, go!
Connecting from under here! It's going, going, going! Go! Go, go, go, go, go! Even deeper, deeper, deeper!
Out, out, out, up! Go, go, go, go. Reach, reach.
Down. And up. Go. Reach. Drink, drink, drink, drink, drink, drink, drink, drink, drink, drink, drink, drink, drink.
Keep going. Keep going. Keep going.
Go. Go, go, go, go. Drink. Drink.
Ah. You can think of this as one phrase. Vroom, vroom, vroom, so until you get to so.
You never let up until then. And actually really until the end of the play out. Do you see that connection?
Do you feel that? You guys sense that direction, direction. You never ever ever let up. Don't let any... Chinks of sunlight go through this immense legato of energy.
The energy is legato, not just the breath and the voice. The energy, boom, boom, boom, boom, and it's in all directions. Then you are...
the tree. You let it come to you and you become it. The circle of life. That reminds me of a song.
How did it feel? A lot better. A lot more free but energized.
I think I confuse sometimes letting go with being kind of ambivalent and hands off and that's where I get in I don't know, in trouble. And I need to find the freeness with energy. Well, that about sums it up. Here's the thing, you guys. Trust your instincts.
You know. You know better than any teacher. You know better than any coach. There might be the odd exception there where a conductor will come and you'll be like, oh, of course, you can still learn.
But that instinctual gut feeling, you know. So how do you get over that? I think ambivalent is a good word for you to say to choose to actually be active.
The difference between saying, okay, I'm not going to be ambivalent. Okay, well, not sure how to do that. I care let's be active but you were right in the sense of of being free and not forcing anything that's that's a good thing but you have to be active it can start here like just what we were doing so the concentration is all about yes yes beauty yeah all this kind of active energy the breath is not ambivalent The text is not ambivalent.
The phrasing is not ambivalent. All of these bar lines are your friend, for example. Just love those bar lines, you guys. That's where life happens in the phrase. Oh, that's where we turn and we melt and we go...
It's fabulous. Love it. Can you play just right where she comes in? Play this chord and just listen.
And stop on that one. Okay, so... You hear how the note changes? You have to sing into the harmony.
It's not the same B flat. Doesn't mean anything. Do you hear that?
Now it's gonna help your breath because the breath is turning, the breath is changing, the breath is alive. This is doing all the stuff that it should do but you're making the harmony change. You wanna try that? Right, just start it yourself. With the roots under it.
Drink it up. It goes so it goes but feel it don't fake it. No don't fake it. Here we go.
Now. Now do it with gratitude. That gratitude, you're saying, Thank you for saving my life.
Thank you for showing me the way. How do I get so lost? Ready?
And thank you, thank you, thank you. Spin, spin. Thank you.
Yeah, cool. Now, one other thing. Let's add the curves that we were talking about today with the breath.
So that the breath is spinning, spinning, spinning, spinning. And I want to come up, see if you can imagine, you remember the LPs? Remember vinyl records? Vinyl? Yeah, that they spin like this.
See, it's down here, down in this. You're fabulous. This is where the breath is coming, right? I want you to imagine it's already spinning and you're going to join. You're going to drop the needle and it's going to continue going around.
Yeah, there's your breath. That's good. Feel it.
Really feel it. And now suck it up. Good. How's that feeling?
A lot better. Mmm. Then it's connected and it's not... I have to put the sound out here.
It's vroom. And this is your generator. Okay. Can we go back to the rest of it just a little bit?
Okay. What I'm not getting the sense of is any words. Okay.
That's all. And you're in a rush. Okay.
A little bit. And instead, this is summer day. Hard to believe, hard to imagine today. Summer day, wow.
All the time in the world. Life is good. That tree is beautiful.
Ah, the shade, wow. Frondite. What?
It's not Frondi tenere e belle. What's the next thing? Del mio plato? No. Frondi tenere.
What's the right word? E belle. Wow. The most beautiful thing in the world.
And you don't know what it is yet. It's Frondi tenere e belle. Okay, creating.
Let's try it one more time. Take your time. All those consonants, all this swirling air.
Okay. Oh! You saw it! Did you guys see that? You saw it and I didn't even need the word.
You went, oh. Did you feel that? Yes, yes, yes.
Listen, this is your ground zero now. That's starting point for you. Don't ever, ever do the other thing because it's automatic, it's generic, doesn't mean anything. That gives you reason to sing. That if we don't have a reason to sing we're the stupidest people on the face of the planet We're like la la la la la la la la la la Ooh!
What does that mean? It's in anything! Nothing! But if you go From the-even in this gibberish that's Italian From the tenere I- And do you see that? God, it's beautiful.
I want to sing about it. I think I will. Okay?
Because that's, you're in the moment, you're thinking there, you're there, you're questioning, you're seeing. Nothing else is acceptable. Nothing else. Okay. Okay.
See it. If I'm you I want to... what's the important word in that phrase?
Amato. I'd put in a pagetura. Okay, yeah.
I'd be a platano amato. Normal. Platano amo, I love you.
Okay. I'd be a platano amo, I love you. Okay.
I'd be a platano amo, I love you. Okay? Yeah.
And also, if you see the beauty of that, you had better enjoy the beauty of that double L. Breath, phonation, high. And it can turn on the double L. I fato And this is pants roll thing. You get to be very masculine.
You get to say, Don't I look good, as beautiful, as resplendent as you are? Yes. You know you get that to take the stage in that moment? Women don't get to do that. We do it in a different way.
Resplendent What's that? How's it go? Resplendent I fato Boom!
and chain, boom, pow, okay? But really present that. And relish everything. Your Xerxes here.
Okay. Okay? One more time.
But go back to being really organic, not mechanical. Double L, yeah, but it has to be there for a reason. One more time. Yeah, this is another unfolding one, so we get excited.
You hear? Brrrrum! Tuoni, lampi e procelli. Come on!
Non vuol tragino mai la carapace. No matter what. Really, this is all of a sudden thunder will happen, lightning happen, but I will never waver like you. Okay. Except at the end of the opera, but we don't know that.
So this is Man of La Mancha, always, yes, yes, yes, always. So it becomes declamatory. Tuoni, lampi e procelle, non vuol traggino mai la cara pace.
Turn. Give us la cara pace. This, OK?
Tuoni. Tuoni, lampi e procelle, non vuol traggino mai. Ne giunga profanarvi, ostro rapace. Ostro rapace.
Again, turn it on us. Ostro rapace. And now I want soft music. Give me the breeze.
You know, I mean it's that kind of command. Make sense? Let's try the whole recit and then we have to move on. Okay? Go!
Good. Good, yeah. You can finish some of these, I don't know, I imagine with a, you know, your Errol Flynn. You take it, right?
Yeah. So it's a little less. 22-year-old in the dress. You have to be, you know, you lead with this, you lead with this.
And you own the world. You're not apologizing. you're not excuse me I may I do you mind if I sing sorry just excuse me one second just arrest it it'll be fast god you are beautiful Wow look at that okay maybe we try this again tomorrow maybe we look at tenor and platter no we'll see we'll see but are you feeling it's like yeah how you start becoming more active yes yeah I'd say it's about 5% more, and we want 100% more, which is great.
But again, this is process, and it's just going into like, how do I break through some things to let this stuff arrive? Because you have such a solid voice happening here. We're connecting the breath more and more, which is exciting. And we want you to engage and present to us, which is great.
Because you have the stillness, which is something a lot of other people have.