The Rosebush Der Rosenstock by Friedrich Heinrich Himmel

I would that my love were a rosebush in bloom!
I'd set him so tenderly here in my room;
Where through the wide casement the soft breezes play.
I'd watch him and sing to him all the long day.
Where through the wide casement the soft breezes play,
I'd watch him and sing to him all the long day.

And while in the dawn and the dusk of the hours
I cherished its blossoms with fresh e'ning showers,
A whisper would rise, as I bent o'er my tree,
"I love the, my darling, and dost thou love me?"
A whisper would rise as I bent o'er my tree,
"I love thee, my darling and dost thou love me?"

"My daughter what ails the?" my mother might say,
"Thy cheeks are as red as the rising of day!"
I'd answer, "Dear Mother, the rose is to blame,
He breathed on my cheeks and has left them a flame."
I'd answer, "Dear Mother, the rose is to blame,
He breathed on my cheeks and has left them a flame."

English text by Paul England
Friedrich Heinrich Himmel

Recital April 26, 2014

Sean Mignosa
Bouree in G minor - Stolzel
Sonatina in A minor op. 214 no.4 I - Gurlitt
When Rivers Flowed on Mars - Telfer
Sorrow op.100 no.16 - Burgmuller
Prelude - Kabalevsky

Emily Goes
Come Raggio del Sole - Caldara
My New Philosophy - Lippa

Ritvik Neeratil
French Children's Song - Folk Song
Go Tell Aunt Rhody - Folk Song

Samantha Goes
Pure Imagination - Bricusse & Newly
Family - Newman

Cameron Zell
Mazurka - Agay
Arabesque op.100 no.2 - Burgmuller

Mya Bay
Zipadee Do Da - Gilbert & Wrubel
On Top of Spaghetti - Tom Glazer

Laura Dvorkin
The Echo Song - Albergo, Kolar & Mrozinski
Honeybee - Folk Song

Genevieve Son
The Colorado Trail - Dougherty
Alice Blue Gown - Tierney
Path to the Moon - Thiman

Roger Bumgarner
Little Lopsided Waltz - Gallent
Far Away Regions - Szelenyi

Corinne Young
Kala Kalla - Whitacre
Let It Go - Lopez & Lopez

Kelsea Villanueva
Prelude - Kabalevsky
French Suite Six Minuet - Bach
Waltz - Grieg
Sorrow op.100 no.16 - Burgmuller
Sonatina op.36 no.5 III Rondo - Clementi

Studio Info Spring 2014

Spring break is the week of April 14. There will still be four lessons in the April set. There are nine weeks in April and May.

Get ready for the spring recital on April 26 at 5:00 pm. Make your song commitment at next week's lesson.

Plan to dress in nice concert clothes for performing, video and pictures. For young men: slacks and button-down shirt. For young ladies: clothes nicer than you would wear to school. No jeans, denim, T-shirts, flip-flops, sweats, etc.

Spring evaluations for Music Development Program are coming up in May and June. After this testing session, I will no longer be accompanying voice students above level 7 at the evaluations. I believe singers will grow more learning to work with an accompanist.
Also, tutoring for the academic tests will be at an hourly rate.

Thank you for following the studio policies.

1. Tuition is due first week of the monthly set.
2. Make-up lessons are only for illness of the student.
3. Request lesson reschedule 24 hrs. in advance or forfeit.
4. No refunds.
5. Please do not ask me to make-up lessons for these reasons:

• 1. Stuck in traffic.
• 2. Forgot.
• 3. Medical appointment ran late.
• 4. Sports or other activities ran late.
• 5. The line at the store was slow.
• 6. Car broke down or ran out of gas.

If the student has had a fever a day before the lesson, please reschedule. If the parent has had a fever, please stay in the car. Students performing in shows should not be exposed to more germs.
The Goes sisters made a video that has gotten more than a million hits! See below! Congratulations!

Entre l'amour et le devoir

This is from Berlioz's opera Benvenuto Cellini. Teresa must pick between following her father's expectations or her own desires.

I will be singing the middle section of the full aria.

Entre l'amour et le devoir
Un jeune coeur est bien à plaindre,
Ce qu'il désire il doit le craindre,
Et repousser même l'espoir
Se condamner à toujours feindre,
Avoir des yeux, et ne point voir
Comment le pouvoir?

Between love and duty 
A young heart is challenged, 
What desires to be feared, 
And repel even hope 
Always pretend to judge, 
Have eyes and not see 
How to decide? 

Atchevo eta prezdhe nie znala

This aria from Tchaikovsky's opera Iolanta is sung by the blind princes Iolanta. She wakes up and realizes the world is different from what she thought.

Why have I not known sorrow
or tears till now?
Why have I spent my days
amid heavenly sounds and roses?
Whenever I heard birds twittering,
or distant pine forests warming to life
and everywhere ringing with jubilation,
I felt I was standing in a triumphant choir.
But now every day I feel a mysterious,
deep reproach in everything,
which seems to rebuke fate for sending
the chorus of birds and the rushing stream.
Why are night's stillness and coolness
dearer to me now?
Why do I hear sobbing
whenever the nightingale sings?
Tell me why, Martha?

Alma del core

Imagine yourself in the court of the Ruspoli castle near Rome in 1710. Antonio Caldara is the choir master and he's written an opera, La costanza in amor vince l'inganno (Faithfulness in Love Defeats Treachery.) "Alma del core" is one of the still famous and often sung songs from that opera.

Three hundred years ago, love roused, reigned, ruined and redeemed the lives of men, as it does now and as it did three hundred years before 1710. Most people can relate to three generators of existence: the heart, the soul and the spirit. Heart holds all your emotions, soul sustains your life force, and spirit spins your personality, character and intellect.

What if someone said that each of the three elements than have the three divisions within? That the heart also has it's own mind, life force and emotion? That the spirit contains the inner workings of feelings, reason and drive to exist? That the soul blooms through expressing emotion, learning its value in the universe, and sustaining the heart and spirit in the creation of a human being?

What if you then find another person who through love, becomes part of these elemental, internal components?

The triple turn of this three part Venn diagram goes off in my mind when I sing this song.

Alma del core

Soul of my heart
Alma del core

spirit of my soul
Spirto dell'alma

always constant, I will adore you
Sempre costane t'adorero!

I shall be happy
Saro contento

in my torment
Nel mio tormento

if that beautiful lip to kiss I will be able
Se quel bel labbro baciar potro.

Ebben? ... N'andro lontana

La Wally is short for Walburga, the heroine of this tragic opera. The opera is based on a book that fictionalizes the daring act of the real Anna Stainer-Knittel. She went down a cliff on a rope to take eagle hatchlings in order the raise them so they wouldn't feed on the village lambs.

In this aria, La Wally is threatened by her father to marry a man of his choosing or leave home. La Wally leaves to live far away in the mountains.

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.
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English translation from Cantolopera.

Well? ... I will go far away
Like the echo of the sacred bell ...
There, among the white snows!...
There, among the golden clouds!...
There, where hope
Is regret, is sorrow!...

O happy house of my mother,
Wally is going very far from you,
And perhaps she will never come back to you,
And you will never see her again!...
Never again, never again!
I will go alone and far away
Like the echo of the sacred bell,
There, among the white snows;
I will go alone and far away
And among the golden clouds...!

But firm and pious
I go that long way
I go.

The end of the opera has something to do with an avalanche. But much mischief weaves through the village before this end, so read the synopsis someday and watch or listen to the opera. I love Renata Tebaldi's version of Wally.