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Hi.
Today I have an aria for you. It sounds like this.
Now, I know what you're thinking.
Isn't an aria supposed to have words?
Right you are. A vocal recording is on the way - that's coming in next month. The Twin
Cities chapter of Opera on Tap is going to be recording that, so sit tight and I'll keep
you updated when that comes in. If you're interested in attending the performance then
I put the details in the description below so check it out if you're in the area.
The aria is a song about a dear friend who's traveling. I tracked down our lyricist who
helped me write this one and got her thoughts on the song and the process of writing so
check it out, here it is.
Hi.
Hi.
I'm here with the lovely and talented Magali and our challenge comes from Charlie, who
writes:
"Write a classical aria for the Twin Cities Opera on Tap group to perform. ... You can
write for one to six singers of all vocal ranges from bass to soprano. You can include
a piano accompanient, which will be played on an electronic keyboard. Don't expect the
pianist to use sounds other than the default piano sound. Your aria doesn't need to sound
like it's from the 1700s, but keep in mind your piece will be selected by subjective
human singers with a predisposition for classical opera."
So basically, I wrote this song because I left my native country one year ago and I
tried to put myself in the position of my friends and my family as seeing someone leaving
for new experiments, a new country, a new kind of lifestyle. What would they think about?
What would I think about if I was myself in that position? So we came up with a song called
"Tomorrow," which is like tomorrow you're going to leave. What's going to happen? How
am I going to feel?
I gave you three options, right? The first one was a young lady who's leaving home and
going to see her friend and she sings about all of the lovely things that happen that
she sees along the way. The other one was two lovers who are very angry at each other
but still quite attached and a little bit conflicted. You chose this one, it's about
a friend who's going away.
Yeah, I chose this one because it matched more what was feeling, what I experienced.
I'd rather talk about things that I've experienced or that I could have experienced through another
person than something that I don't really know about. I'm kind of a sad person so I
don't really know about lovely times and I don't really know about anger between lovers,
so the travel story was more for me than the other stories.
Once we got the text, I cornered Magali -- which is apparently not so easy to do -- and I got
her to read that text into a tape recorder for me so that I could give it a setting.
French is not my strongest language, so it was really helpful to have a native accent
reading that to get all of the stresses and intonation and everything in the correct places.
That sounds like this:
Demain, tout recommence et tout s'eteint Tu me lacheras la main
And then later, after I set the text using that recording, I snagged a recording of Magali
singing along to the thing that I had come up with.
Enjoy.
Demain, tout recommence et tout s'eteint Tu me lacheras la main, enfin,
pour embrasser ton destin, Tu sais
So that's going to be performed on September eighth by the Twin Cities chapter of Opera
on Tap. If you're in the neighborhood go and check it out. Anything to add?
No, I think we've said it all. So I hope you all enjoy.
Sound off in the comments below and until next time, bye.