Wednesday, April 11, 2007

Moments (Struggles) with Béla


"To win one's joy through struggle is better than to yield to melancholy." - Andre Gide


I came acorss that tonight as I was reading Julia Cameron's latest book, Finding Water. The timing was apt, as I had my first rehearsal with the St. Louis Symphony tonight (ah, synchronicity...). The Bartok piece that we are performing this week - his Cantata Profana - is one of the most difficult pieces I have ever encountered. I've sweat blood and tears prerparing for this piece these past few months. It is fairly thick in orchestration, quite extreme in range, harmonically difficult, and - to add insult to injury, so to speak - in Hungarian. It is also incredibly beautiful music and a profound and moving story.

Our rehearsal went decently well, despite my sheer terror as we read through it with the orchestra and the chorus for the first time today. It's an incredible group (I am so grateful to be singing with them), and as my intimidation gives way to my admiration for the piece, I think we will have a lovely weekend of music-making ahead of us.

Photo by unknown - taken from the internet.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

An old, experienced and dear friend who sings in the SLSO chorus, commented late on Thursday evening--

"...he sure can sing! And he is as cute as a bug! The Bartok piece was one of the most difficult we've had to learn but it came together well at the end. The tenor part is ridiculously high but Nicholas did a fabulous job. Was perfect in the two dress rehearsals and again tonight!

Then there's Voight....I stayed for the two orchestral rehearsals and for the opening performance tonight....for the final Salome scene she came out with a red dress--cut very low with a diamond pendant--in full character, full of hate looking for revenge--a woman scorned in stark contrast to the Elektra. Fabulous. And over a 110 orchestra playing full out

A wonderful evening! Talent everywhere!"


Seems like you all did very well in St. Louis. Post Dispatch will take days to get a review published.

I'm from St. Louis but have lived in the Houston area for years. You and your other half should stay. We can use cute and talent and then there's the possibility of a red dress for a complete package.