Sidenote: A much more detailed account of my rehearsal can now be found here.
As you can plainly see (or rather, as I am about to tell you), I have managed a decent web connection from the Eisteddfod grounds. Hurrah!
And while I don’t think it’s quite in my power at the moment to catch us entirely up to date, I can tell you about today — and later, or next week, or whatever seems appropriate considering the intensity of my snowballing schedule, we’ll fill in the gaps.
It’s raining today, but Marty and I found our way to the Maes as planned (and almost on time, but for being held up a bit at the ticket counter on the way in). We picked our way through the mud — it’s really not bad — and met Gareth, the very excellent pianist who will accompany me for preliminaries, the mainstage, and so on. The three of us found an empty rehearsal space that looked quite a lot like a shipping container, and did some running through.
I did have some nerves to contend with, but everything went quite well. Gareth sounded quite pleased, enough that he insisted I have another piece prepared for the scenario in which I win my division and go on to the David Ellis. Gulp.
The David Ellis — the Blue Riband — is something I have daydreamed about, but not really expected to get to. Of course, I found out too late that its expected for each competitor to sing a separate piece originally in Welsh for the David Ellis. I was waffling about trying to have something else prepared; I do have Min y Mor, which is the second piece I sang in Pittsburgh last fall. And if i can get a hold of Joan I might even be able to memorize the Welsh again… Do I dare?
It is in fact this tiny shred of hope which has brought back my nerves, and getting back into my original state of sleepy calm may take some doing. Perhaps it doesn’t matter, and I’ll just do my best; if I get to the David Ellis I’ll have won first place for the mezzo-soprano and that all by itself will be a gloriously acceptable outcome for this trip!
Let’s play with Min y Mor. Why not? It will be fun to pick it up again! Yes? Right? Ha!
Marty is waiting on me and we’re going to buy an umbrella. So I’m going to scoot. Thanks for listening, guys. :}