Saturday 2 October 2010

Journeys in a Small World





Long journey, but I am finally home, and now will just rest up in readiness for the onslaught of Monday, and my own pupil paragons, who will sing just as beautifully, and with never a 'questioning' or a 'comment' - in my dreams !

Back to reality !

It will be great to be back to actual repertoire however, sometimes I just crave to listen to some Lieder or Purcell.

I have a young lady arriving tomorrow evening from Nottingham. She comes every 3 weeks or so, although this will be her first lesson since the end of the summer term. She is a most interesting, and very talented, bright and full mezzo soprano who has sung since she was very young.

The lovely thing about L is that she started at school with a former pupil, who students are those I masterclass in Durham, then she entered the JRAM and studied with my daughter for 3 or 4 years, so she is a true Betty Middleton product by 3 generations. How amazing is that, and how proud would Middy be to know that her tremendous talent and style are timeless and stand today as effectively and brilliantly as they did in 1965 ( and before that of course, just not for me!!)

I took L on, and she took on the challenge of the long travel to Paradise, after a non productive and dismal first year at university, where there was no singing teacher of the quality she needed.

She is bright eyed, ambitious and so musical, and soaks up what I give her. She is, however, one of those youngsters who seem to ooze confidence superficially, but infact is rather lacking in core confidence, and her ebullient 'front' is exactly that: a front. Scratch the surface and there is something of a marshmallow hiding underneath. (but don't let on I said!)

One of the reasons I love teaching her is that I can give her all the repertoire which I sang 30 years ago, I had a bright and high mezzo with a decent top A/B, and not too much growling chest register. So L gets the best music in the whole vocal toolkit !

Both of the fantastic Sextus arias from Clemenzo di Tito by Mozart, a few of the big English Art songs such as La Belle Dame san Merci by Stanford, and some of the Britten smaller arias. Scrumptious......................

She will fly to Glasgow then get on the bus to Paradise and alight at my lane end around 7.30pm.

It is astonishing that one can travel so far and then stroll 100 metres down the lane to 'home'. I once came from New York to my lane end in just 2 steps.

Small world. I am always shocked how small a world it is when I look and see that kind people are reading my ramblings from all corners of the globe.

It really is a small world, and thank you, all my global readers for your interest. Let me know who you are. Please!

2 comments:

  1. Nice to be home :) And nice to travel too sometimes.

    I hang out at Kneedly knots blogspot but I'm also part of Artfibredunedin.blogspot. I'm getting well into the fibre arts these days and have decided that that is where I belong despite my rather varied background. I do teach craft at the local Steiner school too. I like teaching those children in the things my grandmother and mother taught me.

    viv in nz

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  2. Great to hear L is getting some decent repertoire. Wish I was there to hear it, get some of that wonderful Skye nature and share a decent meal together again. Definitely feel I'm missing out!

    Best wishes

    L's Dad!

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