After a wonderful day yesterday in Buxton and a fantastic concert I woke to see that we'd had great reviews from the Festival critics. I'm over the moon with how it all went.  I had the usual, fantastic support from my family and from the lovely people I sing with in COMO. It was a day I'll remember for a long time to come!


CARMEN - CONCERT VERSION - City of Manchester Opera

What Bizet wanted to do with Carmen was introduce Parisian audiences to the exotic world of gypsies,. their unconventional lives and independence of spirit. I wondered if a concert performance could adequately convey Bizet's intentions. I need not have worried. City of Manchester Opera gave a sparkling performance which effortlessly communicated the contrasts between free thinking Carmen and her co-workers from the cigar factory on the one hand and the conventional Don Jose torn between his obsession with Carmen and his mother's hope that he might marry Micaela.

The company had elected to sing in French and had thoughtfully provided a large screen for sur titles in English. When not being used for that, various pictures of Seville or the smugglers hideout were projected which was a clever way of helping to create the appropriate backdrop to the action.

There were so many good moments in this performance but for me I was particularly moved by the Don Jose's (John Elliot) duet with Micaela (Rachel van Heel) in Act 1 and by the splendidly powerful singing of Helen Gregory whose rich tones were perfectly suited to the role of Carmen,

Chris Gill encouraged the chorus to sing with infectious gusto while Johnathan Ellis performed wonders on the piano. Altogether a magical evening.

Peter Low

 
Carmen the Gift 07/08/2010
 
In August/September last year I auditioned for the role of Carmen for City of Manchester Opera. Carmen is my dream role. In 2006 I auditioned for Preston Opera for the first time for their production of Carmen. My teacher Robert recommended that I join them. I auditioned with the Seguidilla aria, Carmen's aria, but I explained to the panel that I was auditioning for the role of Mercedes. Despite Roberts confidence I knew I wasn't really vocally ready for Carmen.  I got the role of Mercedes. My first proper main principle role in an opera since university and I had some great singers around me to look up to.  When City of Manchester Opera said they were doing Carmen this time, I knew it was my time. 

I got the role this time and 2 days later I got an email from North Star Opera offering me the role of Carmen for their summer 2010 tour. Like with buses, you wait what seems like a lifetime for your dream role and then 2 come along at once.
 
I've just finished my run with North Star Opera and have had an amazing time. I've had the chance to act this role, to feel the passion, the energy and the fear she feels. I've felt her submit herself to her fate and to face it with courage. I've sung that last act duet with adrenalin flowing and felt breathless with emotion. The run was in English which made it more accessible to the audiences we aimed to reach but on Saturday my next challenge is to sing the whole role, in French with City of Manchester and Saturday can't come soon enough. I found the French harder than I anticipated but have been lucky to meet a new friend who has tutored me so my pronunciation is feeling much more natural. I feel prepared vocally and emotionally and on Saturday at Buxton Fringe Festival it's my day! 

I know that me and Carmen will cross paths again in the future, I feel blessed to have been given a dramatic mezzo voice because this role really is a gift. 


BBC Advertise the Buxton Festival
 
 
Whilst working towards becoming a singer I've realised that to be successful in this career you need a lot more than a voice, carrisma, stage presence, and nerves of steel. You also need to be fit! To get through a full operatic role on stage, or to sing solidly for over an hour in a solo recital you need a lot of stamina. I've always been blessed with a very resilient voice (touch wood) that can withstand most anything but physically I knew I could do more to keep in shape.

 I got married several years back and as most of you will know, you can lose huge amounts of weight in order to fit in to your dream dress. I know I managed to drop nearly 2.5 stones to fit in to mine. In order to achieve this I thought nothing of swimming 40 lengths of the local gym pool in my lunch hour, then doing 3 sessions in the gym a week on treadmills and rowing machines but whenever I've tried to muster this sort of enthusiasm since it's just not happened. In the past few years I've tried hiring a personal trainer, which was great but expensive and not really sustainable financially for any length of time, I tried going it alone on a standard gym membership but used to find myself after a few weeks sitting on the exercise cycles reading OK magazine or watching coronation street rather than pushing myself to new physical limits. I knew then that my self motivation when it came to fitness was not the greatest. Andy would complain that I'd find it so easy if I just applied some of the passion I put in to my music/singing, but there in lay the issue... I feel passionately about NOT slogging myself to death in a gym. I then discovered Body Pump classes which were a great when I actually managed to get my ass to the classes and I even went to the occasional Spinning class (which is evil but VERY good for you) but again my enthusiasm waned and soon found myself accidentally pulling in to my road and on to my drive instead of driving straight to the gym after work. 

Having tried to analyse my disdain for all things sweat inducing I realised that the gym was just too uninspiring a venue for me. I needed something different. I needed something stricter and something that wouldn't let me opt out of going. Naturally I didn't try to hard to look for such a solution but luckily for me, my fitness freak of a husband discovered the next big thing and began pestering me to come with him. The future was painful, the future was British Military Fitness!

British Military Fitness is run by serving or former members of the armed forces with recognised fitness training qualifications. These sessions take place in parks all over the country and just our luck, there was a session in Bolton. They are run 3 times a week and you are put through your paces army style. I was re-assured that they split the people in to levels of fitness and they tailor the sessions to your needs. I agreed to go to a session (mainly to get said husband to stop going on about it) but I also told him that I wouldn't like it and I would most likely die at the session anyway so there would be no fear of me going again. 

The day dawned of our planned first session. I looked out of the window, it was raining, we rolled over and went back to sleep!. British Military Fitness goes on rain, shine, snow, hail or monsoon apparently, but we wanted to try it out in the dry first. We went to the next session and I was terrified. We pulled up in the park car park where an ex-para trouper was standing, handing out bibs and confiscating water, keys, inhailers and jewellry. I wanted to get back in the car. There were about 30 people there by the start of the session, all levels, all abilities, all shapes and sizes. The class rules were explained, we were arranged in to ranks or drills and then we were off running. The rest of the next 60 minutes have been blanked from my memory. The class consisted mainly of running, sit ups, press ups, burpies (look this one up I can't explain) more running, touching trees (another don't ask), some silly team games and more running. At the end of the class I was half dead but I'd never felt more alive. I am fairly massively unfit... this class helped highlight this. I can't run for any length of time without being in severe discomfort. But I discovered that all those years of singing had given me decent stomach muscles and I could cope with the strength exercises. I had muttered and moaned all the way round the park and gasped to Andy on several occasions that I couldn't do this anymore and that I was going home to curl up and die but I didn't. I made it through the class and all the other members were very supportive, cheering us on. Luckily the session leaders have to be encouraging and are NOT allowed to humiliate us... torture by push ups is fine but humiliation is not. I came away feeling so proud of myself for having survived and I was on a high for the rest of the day. We even signed up to join the class (agreeing to do 2 classes a week). And so far I've kept it up! Though it does help going with Andy as he pushes me out of the door when i'm feeling particularly resistant. I never enjoy the drive over there but once I get there and see the familiar faces of my fellow blue bibs, we all get each other through the classes and we all feel so much better for it after. 

I can heartily recommend these classes and there will definitely be a park near you that does them. It doesn't matter if you're an opera singer, a lawyer, a factory worker or a student, it is a great way to get outdoors, push yourself physically and mentally and meet a nice group of people. In life I once decided to adopt the motto - "Do something each day that scares you". And this scares the pants out of me but like that feeling after a big performance or audition that has gone to plan you get a real rush from it and who knows, one day I may be a red or a green bib and actually be able to run!

www.britmilfit.com
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I've been doing lots of listening this weekend so far. I have been listening to this recording of Verdi's Ballo in Maschera. Tomorrow I will be auditioning for the role of Ulrica for Preston Opera's production which will be next April. Ulrica's aria "Re' dell'abisso affretati" is a real tour de force aria but is only short. Perfect for auditions. 



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This week i've been listening to this recording of Fidelio. I have recently been cast as Leonora in an opera exerpts concert with Huddersfield Youth Opera so thought I'd get acquainted with the full opera. I chose this recording as it has Birgit Nilsson singing the title role. 


BEETHOVEN - FIDELIO

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New Start 07/02/2010
 
Welcome to my first blog entry on my new website. 

I'm hoping to update regularly with my personal views and opinions as I progress towards my aim of hopefully making my passion for music in to my full time career. 

I studied music at university in Cardiff and graduated in 2001 but since then i've been working in the real world.  Whilst doing that I've got married, bought a house, adopted a cat and all alongside working really hard on my singing in the little spare time I have in my days. 

Several years ago my singing tutor, Robert Alderson, asked me if I'd thought of going back to college to do a post graduate diploma and about making singing my living.  Of course I'd thought about it. I'd dreamed about it since being a child but I knew it wasn't something I could afford to do. Afterall, I had a mortage and a husband and we didn't make enough money to enable me to leave employment for a year.  It was an unhappy life event that changed things.  My father died and I really had to have a re-think on life.  I felt that my dad had been cheated of his life at too young an age. There were so many things he had planned to do in his retirement years that he never got to pursue.  I realised I had to at least try to achieve my dreams as life all of a sudden seemed so much shorter and more precious.  I went back to Robert and said I wanted to go for it. I wanted to apply to the RNCM and to see if I could make singing (the true passion of my life) something that could also earn me a living.  

In september 2010 I will be starting on that Post Graduate course at the RNCM. I feel that as a slightly older student (at 31), that I'm ready to really embrace everything this course has to offer and that I'm going to take full advantage of every opportunity and every piece of advice offered to me.  Over the years I have had knock backs and set backs and I've always bounced back stronger. Singing is a hard industry to go in to as you inevitably face a lot of rejection along the way but I feel I'm ready to put myself out there. I believe I can make it and I'm ready to prove that. I'd love to live the dream and so this is my blog about me trying my hardest to make it happen!  I know the path won't be smooth but if I share it on here I know I won't be alone on that journey.