I remember one dark and stormy night at Wolf Trap Farm, in Vienna, Va-the temperature and humidity were about 90-with the New York City Opera on tour, singing  “Lucia di Lammermoor.” with Beverly Sills and Michele Molese. Michele, a wonderful guy and fine tenor, was not feeling his usual vocal balance and had been working, trying t find it during the day. At the theater he grew increasingly frustrated and then wandered into woods behind the shell ... trying to scream (for wont of a better word) his voice into shape-I guess he couldn’t find a whip and chair. This is the extreme when vocalizing; “when it don’t work, don’t just stand there, get a bigger hammer!” Michele lasted through one and a half acts. On a normal day, it was one of his finest roles, particularly since Charlie Wilson, the conductor, had included the Wolf’s Crag scene/duet that most tenors eschewed, feeling it wore them out for the final scene. (It actually kept them vocalized, instead of trying to keep the voice going for the hour and a half in the dressing room, worrying about “Fra poco a me recovero ...” For Michele and I, it was a great vocalise.

I had a dozen or so lessons with Beverly Johnson, after I had been singing as a leading baritone with NYCO, for a few years. She really had little concept of where the high voice lay, which I finally worked out for myself, after I began teaching, again. But, she gave me one of the best exercises for massaging the edema outta the cords when they are swollen and don’t want to work.

Many nights over the years I would even have liked to even be in Philadelphia, rather than on that stage. But, my technique was strong. My great friend, the wonderful baritone William Chapman used to say, “Dickie Bird, you are the only singer I have ever heard who, with a cold, could go out on the stage and no one would know you were sick!” Well, that was mostly true but, there were times ...

Like-for instance, a Rigoletto I had to sing on an autumn Sunday night at City Opera. In my usual routine, I arose about seven, putting on my running garb and walked down to the 72^nd Street Oval, at the Westside Highway. I did my usual calisthenics and then my two mile run. Just a normal day, the sun was shining, I felt great. Per my routine, I lay down at three and went sound asleep until the alarm went off at four.

I then started my usual “checking out to see how the voice is today ...” To my utter dismay, where my speaking voice had given no hint of a problem, I had to really “work” to make any singing sound at all! Ohhhh boy ... four thirty ... and I only had three and a half hours before I had to walk/limp on stage and sing one of the hardest roles in the baritone repertoire; all them damn high notes, ya know ... and those long, high tessitura phrases ... Aaaaugh! Adding to the pressure was the fact that I had NO cover! Oh, and did I mention that thirty-one friends of mine had bought tickets to that performance? I thought of calling the Office and telling them ... but that would just put the place in an uproar, because they had NO COVER for me ... and finding someone to sing Rigoletto in three and a half hours was impossible. Well ... there was no place to hide. OK, mechanic ... heal thyself!

Then by pure luck, I remembered that fateful lesson where Beverly Johnson had almost arbitrarily mentioned, “I you ever have a problem with your cords and there is no hint of sickness, they may just be swollen ... and here’s what you do to make it better.”

She suggest the two vowels E and OO strung together, sin a line, time after time, flowing seamlessly in the honk (her word was masque) ... starting on the highest note that is relatively comfortable, swollen cords notwithstanding. In my case it was about a B, below middle C. (I already sing/spin every note in my “honk”-the nasal pharynx.) The job was to keep the sound spinning in that position for as long as I could do it–in my case about fifteen seconds-as easily as I could do it ... NO volume, piano, piano ... After each one of these I would take about a thirty second pause ... and then do it again, and again. Then I would knock-off for ten minutes or so ... and start it all over again.

THE BIG CAUTION: THE VOWELS MUST BE AS FAR FORWARD, TIGHT AND BRIGHT, SPINNING IN THE HONK ... OR YOU CAN ADVERSELY WORK YOUR THROAT !!!

I did this off and on, for several hours, never prematurely trying to sing the bigger, higher notes ... until I began to feel everything was getting better.

I am rarely nervous when on stage, but this one was a biggie! I determined to keep the pure vowels really spinning ... volume, no more that eighty to ninety percent of what I normally do. The first act went surprisingly well, including the Pari siamo and duet. The rest of the evening was a joy.

Now here’s the kicker ... I sang well within the percentage parameters I had set for my volume ... and lost nothing for it, only gained. I remembered a night when I had just come back from a huge cold and my first performance was Escamillo in Carmen. Well ... I owned that role, so out I went with great authority. When I got to the end of the first verse and chorus ... ding ding ding ... my singing muscles hadn’t been used for three weeks and I was runnin’ out of steam. On the next verse, I went to tight focus, less volume. I got through the aria to a grand applause. My then wife Judith came back and immediately asked, “What happened in the second verse and chorus ...” I started to explain what I did, thinking she had noticed the diminished volume and she said, “Ooohh no ... It was much better, more focused.” Of course that pissed me off ... but, when I thought it through later I realized that I have to keep in mind that focus in a three thousand seat theater, over a sixty piece orchestra, with no microphone-unlike Broadway-is better that trying to make the “biggest” sound! Thimpk on it! RF

(Beverly Johnson also gave me the concept of kicking the belly-button in to start the tone, while making an tightening the lips-like spitting a hair off your lips- to give the diaphragm a back pressure consistent with what is needed to keep the tone flowing. I took that ... and added to it, coming up with a really neat concept.)


 

SEPTEMBER 11 - HELLO FROM CRESTON, BC, CANADA

AUGUST 11 - PERSEVERANCE THE OTHER SIDE-(RESPONSE)

JULY 11 - PERSEVERANCE THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN

JUNE 11 - PERSEVERANCE

MAY 11 - ENERGY!

APRIL 11 - EXTERNALIZING SUPPORT

MARCH 11 - THE IMPORTANCE OF DICTION

FEBRUARY 11 - RESPONSE TO LAST MONTHS TIP

JANUARY 11 - LET'S TRY THIS

DECEMBER 10 - THE FUNCTION OF THE MOUTH... IN SINGING

NOVEMBER 10 - BOY SOPRANO TO YOUNG MAN’S VOICE

OCTOBER 10 - TOOLS OF THE TRADE (i.e. LEARNING REPERTOIRE)

SEPTEMBER 10 - TOOLS OF THE TRADE

AUGUST 10 - JOIN A CHORUS (Addendum)

JULY 10 - JOIN A CHORUS

JUNE 10 - HI THERE SINGERS!