Friday June 17th, 2005

This morning we had a master class with Richard Gordon from New York City, who is a coach, pianist, music arranger... he basically does it all. He's coached for many opera companies around the U.S. I was first up, so i was singing while many of you were sound asleep at the wee hours of 2 am. Can you imagine? It went really well. I worked very well with him and made many revelations in my singing and breathing. He said that because of my scoliosis, my ribs had not been expanding properly in the back. So, we mainly worked on that and it was AMAZING! I was able to record the session on my camera, so some o fyou will have the oppurtunity to watch it if you want to.
After the master class, we went and toured Santa Croce, where Rossini is buried among many other significant people in Italian and music history. It was very beautiful and there is a chapel in Santa Croce called the Pazzi Chapel that has a 10 second reverb. So, we harmonized with ourselves. It was so cool. It was the longest reverb I had heard. The second longest was when I was in England at the Ely Cathedral Lady Chapel and it had a 7 second reverb.
That evening, a few of the girls had a party at their apartment, so everyone went to that but a bunch of us missed the last bus of the night, but there was rather large group of us, so we just walked. It was a nice night anyway. Stonehenge (where Francesco works) was on the way home, so I said good night to everyone and dropped in to see Francesco. Also, we're all spending so much time together that I just wanted some time with Italians to work on my Italian and learn about their culture. Plus, I don't think it hurts to make some friends while I'm here (in case I ever move here!). I paid enough to be here, I want to get the most out of my experience and spending my entire free time with Americans, speaking English isn't going to allow me to do that. I had a blast there. I sat and talked with Francesco as he worked (and he made me free drinks) and his friend that frequents Stonehenge and works at Beccofino, a restaurant just around the corner from my apartment. And I spoke about 90% in Italian and Francesco was proud of me! He helps me a lot with my grammar and vocabulary. We've become really good friends since we met two weeks ago. And he's not creepy like most of the Italian guys here. It's just cool. hmm... I'm having deja vù... Did I tell you about him already??? Okay, well then... I'll just stop. If I haven't, you'll be left in suspense and be forced to contact me out of curiosity, or if I have... then I should stop anyway.
Ciao e baci! Vi amo!