Cute clip from Prairie Home Companion. My only question is, why settle for baritone when you could be a bass?

I am fascinated by the voice of Feodor Chaliapin and I look forward to learning more about him over the course of my life and career. I stumbled upon Chaliapin's version of "The Blind Plowman" recently and enjoyed hearing him sing in English. Apparently, Nelson Eddy liked that song in particular and in the following radio clip, Eddy sings his rendition of the same. I listened to it back to back with the Chaliapin recording.

Now I have a better sense of who this man is. Here's New York Times music critic Anthony Tommasini discussing a topic that's very important to me.

Getting a cold always takes the wind out of my sails. But it's almost over!

It's time to do so.

Having spent seven months singing Garcia exercises with my teacher and training to be an opera singer, I'm now spending some quality time with songs by Irving Berlin and Cole Porter. Who would have thought? I would have guessed that training in opera would take me further and further away from these composers, but I was wrong.

Singing in English is automatic and easy for me as an American. I play with the delivery, making some words longer, some words shorter, some more sung and some less. Right now, when I sing in English I make better use of my voice than when I sing in Italian.

Here's a great example of what I'm talking about: this is my favorite clip of Dmitri Hvorostovsky. Notice how freely he plays with the words and how he delivers the refrain a little differently each time.

There's a certain joy getting dressed in the morning knowing I'm proud of the clothes I own and that I feel good wearing them.

There's a certain joy making breakfast knowing I'm eating healthy and I enjoy cooking my eggs "just so."

There's a certain joy coming home knowing that my apartment is pretty, clean, and comfortable.

New recordings are up on my audio page.

Yes, maestro.

Went to see Bodies: The Exhibition with a few singing colleagues the other day. Invaluable. Especially useful to see the diaphragm. I now have much more detailed imagery to draw on while singing.