Prague, Marcelo Alvarez, canto…

Hi there! I hope you are well. This week was really intense in a good way. I decided to go for second time to Prague to have some coachings with Tenor Marcelo Alvarez.

To work with him is really intense and it really challenges me to give all the best I can. I brought the arias that I still find really challenging and also repertoire I want to put again on my voice. He comes from a very Italian way of singing and, you have to be really open and sing “sul fiato”. We were working on arias from the Duke in Rigoletto, Romeo, and Edgardo. Yes, we worked musically but the main focus was on the cadenzas and passaggio part of these arias. I would love to go into detail about the lessons and maybe one day I will, I am still processing the 4 days of intense singing. But I can say that I really enjoyed the fact that he challenged me and that because of his advice and what he talk about the voice, made also question and reconsider my own way of producing sounds. I could spend hours talking about what he mentioned and also my own way of thinking, at the end it counts how one sings, and what it works for ones own voice. I think applying what he suggested is very much in the line that other people like Kunde and Javier Camarena advised me, so I agree with the 3 of them. Marcelo because I have multiple sessions, was the one who was able to know my instrument better and really dig into the core of my sound and what he believes I most work on, in order to bring out all of my voice. He was really encouraging. Also, it has been such a wonderful experience, just to hear all the stories, anecdotes, situations he share with me, about his life, the stage, technique. Definitely, I take his passion and driving force, his innate quality to share, to express, is contagious, and definitely I learnt a lot from him and from now on, I will work even harder on getting the best out of my instrument with love and care, persistence and patience.

This year I had the chance to see again Javier Camarena, Gregory Kunde, Roberto Alagna, and Marcelo Alvarez both on stage and off stage. This journey would have been not possible if I was still working in Wuerzburg, because I would have had not time to go to see them and to take the time to meet them. So I gave up my comfortable position in the ensemble, in order to find more inspiration and to discover myself how this great singers do what they do, to do my own research all in the clear mind of finding my best way possible to sing and to interpret and to expresss through my voice. I gave up my stable situation in order to create a better future for myself, and the only way for me, was giving up the job at the theatre in Wuerzburg. I am doing all I can and lets see if I can get where I want, but I will die knowing I did the best with what I had. I am not giving up my dream and I will try all in my power and leave the rest to God. It has been a dream of mine to meet these tenors for such a long time. To know the person behind the artist and to exchange life and knowledge, and all I can say is that these humans are driven by a very strong confidence, persistence, and a very strong energy you sense the moment to talk to them, how they talk about music, the way they speak, and express, all of them have above the average energy levels. One feels a very strong aura coming from them. Some are more explosive and some more centered but all share this incredible amount of energy. That is why these guy are not normal, I guess like every elite athlete or artist, you sense and feel they are just different from the rest.

Being in Prague again was really nice and to walk its beautiful streets and book shops. Or course I went again to my best coffee spots. Prague is such a nice place, retro, charming, full of beautiful buildings and many, many nice coffee shops. I also found  a very special book shop where they also sell Vinyl Records, and I am hunting always for  nice records. I found this time few amazing recording, from Pertile, Calas, Di Steffano, Pavaroti, etc..

I keep doing my morning pages, daily reading and exercise routine. I hope you are well and see you next week. Take care.