Fach me? Fach you!

In operatic repertoire, there isn't just one kind of soprano. There are many different kinds, depending on range, agility, color. Not every opera singer is the big booming Valkyrie kind. It usually takes a while for a voice to settle into a fach that they specialize in...for me I'm settling into "soubrette". It's a light, bright, and sweet and according to Wikipedia, "largely flirtatious and somewhat tweety". Soubrettes are almost always maids or flirty best friends of the main dramatic or lyric soprano.

Which really shouldn't be all that surprising considered I'm spent most of my acting career playing best friends and chambermaids (exhibit A: A Christmas Carol.)

My new voice lessons are more challenging than my high school ones...it's not just that Rebecca constantly throws new exercises and techniques at me. One of my weaknesses is that when I focus, I get tense in my face. Brow, jaw...all of these very bad habits for a singer. But how do you juggle all the things you are supposed to think about...spine on top of the pelvis, not jetting the chin out, lift the sternum up, relax the face. So much to think about, and yet you can't think about any of it. I am noticing changes though...and I've only been with Rebecca for about 3 months. The music comes easier and faster then it did 3 months ago...

Right now I am working on "Kommt ein schlanker Bursch gegangen" from Der Freischütz by Carl Maria Von Weber. It is the character of Annchen. It's about a marksman match in the mythic German woods. Very Robin Hood. And it has a lot of German words. I don't understand how Germans talk...it's like filling your mouth with marshmellows. So many consonents, glottal ones too...I am thinking about investing in Rosetta Stone for German.

Here is a video from a production. Couldn't find any outstandingly famous sopranos singing it...mostly because not a lot of soubrettes are acclaimed and Der Freischütz isn't done very often...