Another teaching week flown by, and the weather is really changing now. The wind is gale force, and I woke up this morning to torrential rain, which was so forceful I thought it was hail. I like the winter though, the cosy fires, the soup on the stove and watching the birds almost come to greet me for their daily provender. This morning I was still filling up the sunflower seed holder when a blackbird, usually the most timid of aviators, came down within a metre of me and started on the suet feed. It costs me more to feed the birds than it does to feed me and the dog !
The week continued quite light, due to illness and awayness, so to speak, but my wonderful young mezzo, M transported me with her masterful performance, and resurrection of the Lucretia aria by Britten. She sang it a year or so ago, but it has grown enormously, both in vocal power as well as emotional depth. She seems to really understand the despair, and as the notes are deeply embedded in her brain now, she can almost forget she is singing extremely tricky intervals and odd rhythms. The glory of Britten's speech style comes shining through. When she cries out to the maid Bianca, 'Do you remember yesterday it was a hundred years ago......?' I was covered in goose pimples which took a minute to so to subside when she gradually came back to being Morag ! What a voice and what huge performing power she possesses.
E has now returned after three weeks of travel, looking tanned and refreshed, but it was very heartening to hear her say how much she had missed singing! She is now busily catching up with the other members of the merry concert band, for whom the day is looming ! Her Michael Head song, 'The Little Road to Bethlehem' will be gorgeous, so sensitive and lyrical, and full of the understanding of motherhood. It transports me back to my youth, when I sang it at many and various Christmas concerts.
Off to lunch...........
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