Incontra la donna

Welcome to my new blog, "la donna e la voce". Italian for "the woman and the voice". The woman, being me, Virginia Lee Buckner and the voice being, well...a work in progress. This blog is dedicated to my process in becoming an established classical vocalist. What established means, I'm not sure yet. I'm not aiming for the Met or Munich or...who knows. I could very well live in Carrboro, NC until I'm 30. But maybe not.

I've always loved to sing and sing high and beautifully. Even though that often contrasted with my personality which is funny, silly, brash, abrasive, clumsy. This lead to many hilarious character roles in musicals and plays, but not so much in recitals. At age 24 (YIKES!) I've found enough poise to keep me going.

I've keep/kept a livejournal before...since high school, mostly to whine about how I'll never be good enough, I never get this role my voice won't do what I tell it. This that and the other. But I'm done trying to beat the world. I finished college. I have a BFA in acting, because frankly almost no one believed in me as a vocalist in college and I have always been bored by choir singing, and I have had massive amounts of stage fright in the past.

But then there was Florence. A whole city who didn't know my insecurities and I could sing in the classroom in the evening with the windows open and it didn't matter. I'm not sure if my arias ("Batti, batti O bel Masetto" by Mozart and "O Mio Babbino Caro" by Puccini) were anything that impressive. But on that day nearly a year ago...I finally conquered my soprano performance anxiety.

And I realized...I can really do this. I can really sing exquisitely and be a woman with a voice. Not just a little girl pretending to be a star. So I am. No more school (for now...), just me and the world and my music and the journey.

This is really for me...to learn about opera. It fascinates me, this art of beautiful voices, and how people achieve success. How do I learn all the notes, the colors, the rhythms, the meaning, the diction, the acting. It's like climbing Mt. Everest. But it's stimulating! Through each rehearsal I learn something more.

I would like to elaborate all this further, but I have rehearsal. A Christmas Carol in Sanford. New musical...I am one of the society women, and also, a Cockney chambermaid in Scrooge's future. It's all very comedic and great fun and I think I will steal the show.

Tomorrow: more on the arias I am working on in my voice lessons. With the fabulous though somewhat intimidating Rebecca Myers.