Opera Singing in Germany and other adventures....

I think it's safe to say that all of us Singers will have to sing a Solo Recital at some point or another. Which, just to be specific, is a concert where the singer performs a bunch of songs with piano accompaniment for about an hour to an hour and a half, max. That's the traditional Solo Recital, hence calling it "Solo", because the Singer is the main performer and it's basically a showcase of their singing abilities.There are, of course, other variations on the traditional Recital theme, where you collaborate with other Musicians- either Instrumentalists or Singers or both- and one singer is not the sole focus of the event. This is sometimes called a Collaborative Recital (but some people refer to a Solo Recital as a Collaborative Recital too- so just note, these terms are flexible), and is also a common type of performance which you'll see just as often as Solo Recitals. Which brings me to the reason for this blog post, and the most exciting part of any ...

An exciting thing happened recently to me: I performed a Solo Recital here in Reading, PA, and I didn't (for once) walk away from it feeling like I could have done it better.  Sure, there were small things that went awry, as with any live performance, but there was nothing that I really felt needed a little more polishing before it went out there to the audience.  All in all, I was pleasantly surprised that it turned out so well.  (Please, those of you who don't know me and might at this juncture think that I'm a bit self-absorbed, know that I normally am my most harsh critic, and have a tendency to undercut even my most impressive successes, so the fact that this particular recital elicited a response such as this from ME, is pretty huge, I have to say.) And, as if my own happiness with my singing wasn't enough, I found out after the recital was finished that a lovely woman named Gale Martin, who is the author of the wonderfully written and very informative Opera blo...

Okay, I am FINALLY posting dress pictures on here so that I can benefit from your collective fashion advice.  As you can remember, your votes will determine which dresses I will be wearing for my upcoming recitals!!!  So, thanks in advance for your help and your opinions! ;) A few notes before you vote: 1. Disregard my hairdo in these pictures.  My hair will be in an up-do of some sort for the recitals, so take that into consideration when thinking of the dresses that you like. 2. Consider these dresses numbered from top to bottom as 1 through 10--that way then you comment, you can say, I like dress # 4 the best, etc.. So, thanks for your thoughts and for taking the time to vote in the comments section of this post! :)

Since many of you probably follow my performance schedule on my website  www.juliakatherinewalsh.com  I am guessing that you then also know that I have two important solo concert performances coming up: on May 27th in Reading, PA at Trinity Lutheran Church, and on June 5th in Rockledge, PA at Holy Nativity Episcopal Church.  Therefore, since I am interested in making these two performances as interactive as possible, both during and after the concert, as well as before the concert, I realized that I could enlist all of you readers for your opinions and thoughts on what I should be wearing at these important performances. It will be a sort-of "Recital Dress Elimination", if you will.  I will take pictures of myself modeling each dress that I am considering (complete with jewelry and makeup, of course) and then you will vote in the comments section of this post, for the dress (or dresses) that you like best. Then, after the top three dresses have clearly been s...