Song Fiction No. 2

Paris, 1883

The two friends looked up the grand staircase and watched as Vergine descended.  As she walked down the stairs, the room was hushed.  The hostess certainly new how to make an entrance.  Vergine's eyes swept to the right and then the left, searching for her husband.

Meanwhile the two men, captivated, observed her in two very different ways.  Pierre's eyes captured the mathematics of her profile.  He saw the angle of her face as it was positioned away from shoulder.  He thought the proportions of her features absolutely perfect in every way.  If the crowd of tuxedos and ball-gowns around him could read his mind, they might think his love for her a sterile, scientific thing.  His love for her was measured and quantified in every way.

For John, time stopped.  He saw the light shining on her pale skin and the way her hand clutched her dress.  The image seared into his mind and he took a small step back.  There was only raw frenzy of the folds of her black dress as she raised it slightly to descend the staircase.  For him, he saw no numbers or measurements, he only felt the vertiginous feeling of her descent and the almost haughty look over the crowd.  As Vergine reached out her hand, he wanted to reach out to take it.

Instead, he raised his hand and grabbed a glass of champagne off of a silver tray that was passing by.  He watched Pierre's white gloved hand take his wife away to circulate amongst the guests.

Paris, 1916

The old man hobbled into the John's studio.  It had been years since the frenzy of the 1884 Exhibition.  Pierre had stood by his wife stoically, knowing that nothing untoward had happened.  He had been amused by the portrait had taken the supposed disgrace in stride.

Vergine had been broken hearted when her friends had shunned her for her supposed indiscretions.  She removed herself from the receptions and galas for what seemed like years.  She swore that she would never again pose for another one of those "god-damned" painters.  She changed her mind.  The flattery of the artists was too much to resist and Vergine had the curious American ability to forgive and forget.  It was that virtue that had attracted Pierre in the first place.  Holding a grudge seemed so boring and, heaven knows, he had needed her forgiveness on several occasions.

Now old, Pierre looked at the door to the studio and rapped his cane against the door.  There had never truly been any bad blood between the two men and when they had embraced outside of the studio, the felt the connection of two soldiers who had weathered a particularly bad battle together.

As Pierre's near-sighted eyes focused in on the painting, he became acutely aware of the sound of his cane on the wood floor.  He felt a pain in his chest as he saw the painting.  As he slowed down his pace to take it in, he inhaled sharply.

The strap was gone.  The table was missing.  It was not his Vergine as he had remembered her.  The clarity of the portrait was gone and the rougher hews of line and texture of the study added an almost imperceptible undercurrent of lust that had been absent in the portrait that he had seen in 1884.  Pierre still knew every angle and curve of his wife and he held his breath for a moment.  His free hand searched for a chair and he sat down.

"Pierre, old friend," said John, "We must talk."



"Study of Mme Gautreau by John Singer Sargent c1884" by John Singer Sargent - [1]. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

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Find out more about #yearofplay by reading the text of this song.  This little piece of fiction is one of the stories that runs through my head as I'm working on the first part of my upcoming work with the "Denver Art Song Project".

The Random Top 10 for 2014

So since I found the 2013 post, I thought I would do the 2014 post now as well.  Talk about cleaning up my to-do list!

As always, these items are in no particular order and really don't have a whole lot in common.  They are just things that happened to my family and I in 2014.

10.  The Mustache Moves In

My opera career sometimes takes me well outside my comfort zone.  Take for example my experience with Encompass Opera's "A Wake or a Wedding."  My director and I had a meeting early on in the production of this new work where we talked about our goals for my character, Raimondo Vecchiofaraone.  In collaboration with our outstanding costume designer, we looked at the text of the show, my characters motivations and tried on potential costumes.  The character was a romantic lead in terms of the music but as a character he was definitely "buffo".  Raimondo was a wanna-be suave lover who was mostly infatuated with being the greatest operatic tenor in the world.

We decided that he should have the look of a faux-exotic Clark Gable.  In other words, I grew a pencil-thin mustache!  Additionally, Raimondo dresses up as Cupid during the opera within an opera. At that point, we went with some truly bold costume choices that directly contradicted the suave, mustached man.

In the end, I was challenged to play the fool while singing as beautifully as I possibly could.  ] The collaboration of character work was the most intricate and detailed of my career so far and has inspired me to work even harder on creating memorable characters, no matter what the genre.

9.  Going Home to Work

The year started out with a trip to my home town, Rochester, NY.  I had the opportunity to sing with the relatively young company, Rochester Lyric Opera.  I worked with a stellar cast on a one-act opera by Haydn, "Lo Speziale" (the Apothacary).  It was a comedy where I played the assistant pharmacist assistant in love with the Apothacary's ward.  The music was truly delightful and our cast put together a performance that I could share with many of my friends and family from home.

8.  Play Pool
My family and I discovered a recreation center near our house that has the most wonderful swimming pool for kids.  There are nets to climb, water slides and spraying pipes.  It has become one of the highlights of my day to take The Spud, LHB and Baby Maraca out to splash and play.

7.  Public Life
As I look back on 2014, I realize that some of my favorite experiences of the year involve "public" things.  Our public library system is incredible and my family and I can sometimes end up swinging by twice a day to attend activities, pick up and drop off books or just play at the playground.

Likewise, public land such as Central Park, neighborhood parks and playgrounds and open spaces have become a large part of our lives.  I love to experience so many different locales and sights and the variety of our country and the collective commitment to public spaces have a larger influence on my happiness than I've ever realized before this year.

Within those public spaces, I realize that I love the discovery of public art.  You will definitely be hearing more about sculpture and other public arts events as 2015 rolls along.  Keep up at my instagram account where I'll be posting photos of things that make me happy.  www.instagram.com/eapenleubner

6.  The Creation of the Universe

Ever heard Haydn's Creation?  I knew only sections of it when I was contracted to sing it with The Concord Chorale.  What I did not know was that I would grow to love the message and story of this towering piece of music.  Kristofer Johnson elicited a stunning performance from the orchestra and chorus and, as a bonus, I was able to bring the whole family up to the gig.  We spent a fun-filled week in a house by a lake.

5. My Haydn Year

Seeing a trend?  With Lo Speziale and Haydn's Creation as part of my Haydn year, I rounded it out with some good friends in Harrisburgh, PA to sing in Haydn's Theresienmesse. I rejoined some good friends from previous productions and spent a lovely weekend making music with this fine chorus.

Considering I have not sung any Haydn in my career, I was amused to have the chance to discover music that I had only studied briefly in undergrad.  There is so much wit and humanity in all three of these works.

4.  Playing the Circuit

I was surprised to find myself singing at the Metropolitan Room, one of the last and legendary clubs of New York with my friends at Light Opera of New York (aka LOONY).  Our performance of French Operetta was well-received and I had a great time singing new repertoire that fit like a glove. (More on this for 2015!)

3.  Schnitzel at 2 a.m.

The Viennese Opera Ball.  Where do I begin?  I made music with a hugely talented cast.  I chased a horse-drawn carriage through the Waldorf-Astoria. And the opera singers all joined in at the Tanz that followed.  There were three rooms of buffets including Schnitzel and Sausage and cabbage at 2 a.m.  You can see clips of the folk dancing on my facebook fan page.

2. Saying Goodbye

After 9 years of adventure, we learned that life had to move forward.  Our little one bedroom apartment in a brownstone was finally too small for our growing family and sprouting children.  There were countless adventures that we have had:
LHB became the most "liked" member of the family

When the world gets tough, a girl's gotta keep on pushin'.
Posted by Humans of New York on Thursday, May 9, 2013

We became one of the faces of a NYC Health Campaign

Kitty, The Spud and LHB became a face of Fulton Street (can you find them)?

Those are just the iconic photos.  There were so many experiences that could not be captured on film.  You can read about some highlights on the blog.

1. Starting an Adventure

And now, here we are in Colorado.  Say goodbye to the Murphy Bed and hello to a little slice of suburban heaven.  There is a killer rec center nearby (four of them actually).  There is a whole world of exploring ahead of us.  Sometimes our adventures happen in our little back lawn or while walking the Spud to school and sometimes it involves a trip over the mountains.   When I look back a year from now on 2015, I know that the experiences are will be totally unlike those we had in New York City and just as exciting.

Song Fiction No. 1- #yearofplay

Stephen's feet crunched against the light snow.  It seemed to him that he could hear his footsteps echo through the crisp air and come back to him as it echoed off the walls of the campus buildings.  It was cold enough that his classmates stifled themselves with scarves and mittens and there was little chatting as they all walked towards the music building.

The cold was a sharp contrast to the library which had felt unreasonably warm inside.  It always was hot in there and Stephen had passed a couple different study carols where students' heads were slumped lower.  The library felt even warmer when he walked up to the audio desk.  Even after six months, Stephen always felt a warmth when he first caught sight of her.  He was still a freshman and closer to the feelings and passions of high school and seeing her behind the desk, perched on a high stool, made his heart beat a bit faster.

She quietly helped the line of patrons with their recordings until Stephen made it to the front of the queue.

"Oh hey," she said and looked over her shoulder.  Her boss was sitting behind the glass window of his office and he had his back to them.  "I can only talk for a second.  It's been busy and I've got to go into the back... wait a minute."

She walked back to her boss' open door and knocked, "Jim, I need five? Can you cover for me? Thanks."

She strode around the desk with a little more purpose than expected and grabbed Stephen's hand, leading him to the stairwell.

"It's over, Stephen.  I'm sorry, but I'm just not there yet."

At that moment, Stephen had stopped listening.  He'd heard it all before and thought it would be different this time.  His mind immediately went to his upcoming rehearsal and the music he would be working on.

As the cold bit at his face, he remembered a brief embrace of goodbye and saying something stupid like, "It always starts with a kiss and ends with a hug."

He looked up at the entrance to the music school, took a deep breath and walked in.

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Find out more about #yearofplay by reading the text of this song.  This little piece of fiction is one of the stories that runs through my head as I'm working on the first part of my upcoming work with the "Denver Art Song Project".

Song Fiction #yearofplay

My new project is underway for the Year of Play and for some reason, my mind keeps coming back to the idea of "Song Fiction".

What is Song Fiction?

My #YearofPlay starts off with some work in the Art Song genre.  Art Songs are poetry set to music.  In general, I'll be focusing on songs with piano.  These poems can tell a story or set a mood.  In this case, I want to play with the idea of creating a piece of "Song Fiction" that accompanies the song and sets a very specific time and place for the song.  I then imagine that the story becomes the context for the song.

I'm not a terribly good fiction writer, but since this idea keeps coming up in my head, I'm going to play with it as part of my #yearofplay.

The First Game. #YearofPlay

Here we go, gentle readers.  This is the first game of the Year of Play.

I've defined my first project and will announce it soon.  In the meantime, you will see a number of posts here, tweets and Instagrams that will lead up to the announcement.

The Winning Move: Announce my project and launch date.

How to score points:

Eapen will

• Tweet about some aspect of the Project: 1 point
• Post a picture that captures some aspect of the project: 2 points
• Write a blog post about his process: 3 points
• Make a podcast about the Year of Play: 5 points

Here is my question for myself.  If I announce on May 30, 2015, how many points can I score leading up to the date?

Let the game begin!

You can follow along in a number of different spots:

Twitter:

https://twitter.com/eaps

Instagram

https://instagram.com/eapenleubner/

The Tenor Eleven Miles Away Blog

http://tenorelevenmilesaway.blogspot.com/

Podcast details:

Coming Soon!

The Random Top Ten for 2013-- A found post

I never posted this back in 2013.  I'm posting it now. I guess this means I should do a random top 10 for 2014 as well.

Every year, I post a series of reflections on my top ten experiences.  They are in no particular order and they have no thematic similarities except that they happened to my family and I.

And here we go!

Number 10-
The Murphy Bed.  Living in Brooklyn and adding to the family means getting creative with your space.  In this case, we invested in the most awesome Murphy Bed.  For those that may not know, a Murphy bed is one that is installed into the wall and you pull it down every night to sleep.  Keep reading to find out why we made the investment!

Number 9-
The Second Pot.  Every morning, our coffee pot goes off.  This year we switched things up a bit and now, instead of one extra large pot of coffee, we have two very large pots of coffee.  Why?  Keep reading to find out!

Number 8-
Living in Brooklyn.  There are moments when Kitty and I collectively feel like living here is a singular experience.  Example #1- In 2012, I joined composer Andy Laster singing at The Stone.  At the concert, I sang a song called, "The Pressure Zone" with poetry by D. Nurkse.  This summer I went to a poetry reading in the heart of Brooklyn and who was reading at the show?  Mr. Nurkse!  I went a little fan boy.

Number 7-
My solo debut at Carnegie Hall.  A special shout out to my team-- agent, voice teacher and coaches.  After much hard work, I sang my solo debut in Schubert's Mass in G at Carnegie Hall with Mid-American Productions.  It was the realization of a dream, but only the starting point.  My whole part was about 3 minutes of singing.  It was lovely, but over far too soon.  I am inspired to keep at it until I get a five minute solo!

Number 6-
Continuing living in Brooklyn- The List Serv.  Kitty has become enmeshed in following listservs for various neighborhoods in Brooklyn.  On one occasion, a person advertised a carpet for sale that was exactly what we were looking for.  I went out to pick it up and, in the course of conversation, I discovered the man was a musical theater singer. Small world, huh?

Number 5-
We consumed two large bottles of Sri Racha over the year.  We are a quarter into our third bottle.  It is an addiction.

Number 4-
Continuing living in Brooklyn- reading the New York Times.  One Sunday morning we woke up and saw our carpet-selling musical theater friend and his wife in the paper!  Small world, huh?

Number 3-
Going to the theater.  It has changed a bit, though.  What was once "A Chorus Line" and "Avenue Q" has been replaced by "Stuart Little" and "A Charlie Brown Christmas" with my two daughters wearing their ball gowns.

Number 2-
Continuing living in Brooklyn- singing with my good friends at Encompass New Opera Theater on their concert celebrating the life of Sheldon Harnick.  I sang with some of the biggest stars of the musical theater world.  But what does this have to do with living in Brooklyn? Remember the carpet and the musical theater singer and his wife?  Turns out his wife sang at the gala as well!  This is exactly the reason why we live here.

Number 1-
Welcoming Baby Maraca, our new son into the world The Spud and Little Heartbeat were thrilled to have a brother.  We were grateful for a happy healthy child.

Here are some other fun experiences:
January 1, 2013- I make my debut on Albanian National Television as the 2012 Tre Tenoret Concert gets broadcast to an entire nation.

Little Heartbeat is a Human of New York.

Dumplings Continue.  Panda Dumplings briefly eclipse Prosperity as our favorite, but then Panda closes down.

I may end up writing more to this.  It's been hard to compose my thoughts.  2014 musical preparations have already begun and the hour is late.

Happy New Year to you all!
Eapen

The Year of Play Starts Now.

I am not much for New Year's resolutions.  While I have tried them numerous times over the years, it was rare that I ever made one that actually "stuck."

What does he mean, "New Year's Resolution" in April?

Technically, this project began in January with a resolution.  I didn't announce anything because, like most resolutions, I was not sure if I was going to be able to make it stick.  After almost three months of playing around, I'm ready to start sharing my little adventure.

What is the Year of Play?

The Year of Play (YoP) began after a couple of years of very hard work as an opera singer.  I've continued to study with my musical team.  I've spent a good bit of time on stage and I've had some very successful musical experiences.

In January, I looked at my calendar, saw the gigs coming and realized that, while I work a lot, I have not had many musical endeavors that were truly for me and truly for fun.  I wanted to fill the spaces between shows with musical activities that I could share with my friends and family.  These small musical events would be outside of my world of the opera stage and concert hall.

Most importantly, I wanted to have fun with music where it was not necessarily my "job."  I decided to spend a year making something out of nothing, making music with friends and sharing it.  I'm calling this year my "Year of Play".

Why "Play"?

There are a lot of people who have touched my life as a musician and artist that, at the core of their teaching, center the art of making music on play.

Play is a huge part of what teaches us as children and recreation is an integral part of modern life.

Over the Year of Play, I'll be talking to some experts on the subject of Play.  I'll be learning music and infusing the process of learning with the joy and wonder of "play".  There are going to be a number of posts, tweets, instagrams and other surprises in store.

And all of this comes from when a "Serious Opera Singer" walks out on stage, looks at the audience, and says, "Let's have some fun."