Some of our favorites

The inspiration behind this show is a question we often get asked as musicians. “What’s your favorite song?” For most of us, it is hard to pick just one. Not just because there are so many good songs (though that is a factor), but because music is so complex. Vocal music in particular has so many elements all woven together to make the piece that it can be hard to pick apart a favorite. Some songs have a beautiful melody but the words maybe aren’t my favorite. Some songs have a fabulous vocal part but a really difficult or boring piano part. Then Elizabeth and I fight over it. Some songs make me feel something in the depths of my soul when I perform them but I don’t enjoy listening to others perform it as much. And all these traits can be reversed as well! And then there are those songs where the memory attached to the song is the most potent thing about it. Sharing our passion for music is what Overdressed is built on and it seems to be something that draws people in. So this week, let me take a moment to tell you about a few of my favorite songs.

Caro nome from Verdi’s Rigoletto

Caro nome (Dear Name in English) is not technically one of my favorite arias in the operatic repertoire. I actually have quite a complicated history with this piece. But it is one of Elizabeth’s favorites so it makes the list. If you have been to our shows before and heard us talk, you might remember us mentioning Verdi’s prowess for writing operatic music. His music really has all the best elements of Italian opera. He has compelling storylines, though if you watch Don Carlo, it maybe gets too into the weeds about politics. But it still has excellent music. Verdi came just on the heels of the bel canto era, where singing was all about a beautiful line. He took this compositional technique and pushed it a degree further. He kept the coloratura (all the fast notes in a row) and added a level of dynamic excitement to his writing. I was never great at writing theory papers, so I won’t try to explain the elements of his writing that lead to this new sound, but it’s there. And you can definitely hear it!

Rigoletto itself is a fascinating show centering around the titular court jester, his daughter Gilda, the lecherous Duke of Mantua (Rigoletto’s employer) and a curse. In this show, curses carry real world consequences that affect more than just the cursed one. Caro nome happens early in the opera, when things are still going alright for our characters. The Duke has introduced himself to Gilda using a fake name, Gualtier Malde. He knows how to lay on the charm and Gilda is extremely innocent of the world, having spent her life largely in her home, hidden away from the world by Rigoletto. The aria is sung just after the Duke leaves their first meeting and Gilda is awestruck, giddy with the first feelings of love and trying out the name of her new crush alone in her room. In music school, this aria is often taught to young coloratura sopranos as a teaching tool. It has all different types of coloratura in it and Gilda’s innocence lends itself to a young, not yet fully matured voice. Musically, it is a fun challenge. When I sing this piece, I think back to how difficult it was to learn my first unaccompanied cadenzas and try to figure out what my teacher meant when she said “You need legato through the rests.” (For those who don’t know, legato is smoothness of sound and a rest is silence, so continuing to produce a smooth sound while also stopping said sound was quite the puzzle.) A trip down memory lane with this aria brings me back to one of the music rooms in school. I was attempting to make some of my first audition recordings and feeling all the nerves. Audition recordings have to be PERFECT. And this song is HARD. In the warm up, I could nail it. But as soon as the recording device switched on, I would switch the words on the last two lines. Every. Single. Take. Camera off= perfect words. Camera on=switched words. It drove me nuts! To this day, I am hesitant to sing this aria without music for fear of switching those words (even though now I have learned that people care much less about the exact words that I thought at the time). I was a completely different person those 10 or so years ago when I first learned this aria. I am thankful to Elizabeth for pushing me to dust it off and add it back to our repertoire as it gives a chance to remember how far I have come!

La vie en rose

When I first heard this song, it was a very simple rendition accompanied by ukulele. I had recently discovered ukulele and was trying to learn a bit myself. I immediately decided that this was a song for me. A classic jazz standard, this song has been performed by artists from Edith Piaf and Louis Armstrong to Lady Gaga, Tony Bennett, and Michael Buble. The simple melody and sweet text are a potent enough combination to melt even the coldest heart. Its one of those songs that I love singing to myself just as much as I love performing it for others. It feels like being wrapped in a warm fuzzy blanket. Whether I’m sad or happy, I’ll turn to this song, but my favorite time to sing it is late at night when I am alone in the house and can’t sleep. It fits my voice in such a way that I am able to sing it very softly. Like a lullaby, just for me. And sometimes, when Aunty Carole babysits, I’ll treat Elizabeth’s boys to this as a special treat as they drift off to sleep. This song has magic that I can’t describe. I just hope you feel it too.

Waterbird from The Sun is Love, a song cycle by Gwyneth Walker

Waterbird is an example of a piece that makes you feel something. Elizabeth and I were at an event and heard our dear friend Corissa sing this piece. We looked at each other and said “we need to learn this one!”. The cycle was commissioned in 2002 for a couple to be performed at their wedding. The text comes from poetry by Jealuddin Rumi, a fantastic Persian poet from the 13th C. His poetry flows beautifully and envelops the reader in a textual world that feels like swimming underwater. You are engulfed in the words. And the music that Gwyneth Walker composed to match somehow heightens this feeling. The text painting in the piano part is incredible. When I sing about fish, you can hear the fish swimming by in Elizabeth’s piano part. I sing about birds, the piano becomes birds. Its an entire immersive world in one 3 minute song! 

Art songs are like this. Composers aimed to finetune their skills in the short form genre of art song before bringing those skills to the larger scale that is opera. Art songs began as one off pieces, then composers started grouping songs together into song sets. By the 19th century, we achieved song cycles. These groups of art songs have a narrative or some other storytelling aspect running through them. Famous arts song cycles are Schubert’s Winterisse, which tells the story of a man who gets up and leaves his house in the middle of the night and wanders through the woods on a sort of spiritual journey until he freezes to death (presumably) in the winter snow. (It's much more beautiful and deep than my explanation, and if you ever get the chance to see the whole thing performed, it's fantastic.) Waterbird is the final song in the cycle, The Sun is Love. It is our goal to stage this song cycle and perform it in its entirety for you as it is simply stunning. If you know a venue, let us know! It would really be a bucket list accomplishment to get this whole cycle a proper performance.

Sympathique by Pink Martini

This song is a favorite because it takes us back to the early days of Overdressed. Not sure what we wanted to be yet, we attempted to record some music videos and edit them using my nonexistent editing skills and some free software I attempted to master via Youtube tutorials. If you want to watch the creation, I’ll leave a link to our Youtube channel below. I would have loved to keep filming music videos of opera and art song, but my ideas quickly outstripped my abilities to both film and edit and we had neither the contacts nor the budget to hire anyone to help. But man, it was fun while it lasted! This was one of the first non-opera songs I was able to convince Elizabeth to try with any regularity. I’m not even sure what this genre would be. International jazz? French pop? As a jack-of-all trades singer, I’m down for anything fun. And dragging your two friends to the middle of the woods, one to film and the other to dance with you under an umbrella, is definitely my idea of fun!

Video Linked Here: https://youtu.be/QqGaeGvj_xg?si=BfZlKM-_erRsF9sw

Rainbow Connection

Elizabeth and I have an eternal debate about which Rainbow song is better, Rainbow Connection or Somewhere Over the Rainbow. I won this round.

Trees on the Mountain from Floyd’s Susannah

This song, along with Ain’t It A Pretty Night (the other aria from this show) are steeped with memories for me. This role was my first lead role in an opera. It was the beginnings of my friendship with Elizabeth. And it was the discovery that people did see me. I was what you would call a shy kid. I never really had trouble singing in front of people, but speaking, that was another story all together. Growing up, I got lots of comments about how quiet I was. Some were pretty normal, like “Carole should participate more in class” from teachers. My personal favorite was when a kid at day camp told me that quiet people made him nervous because he was sure they were plotting something against him. (I thought that was pretty funny and let him continue to believe the rest of the week of camp.) I wouldn't say that being quiet bothered me. I thought some people just naturally shone a little brighter and I was more comfortable observing anyway. This pattern continued into grad school despite me entering a major that involved performing on stage. Of course, I wanted the big roles, but I was just happy to be involved really. I like being on stage in any capacity really. I still remember the yearly rumor mill that would start in school when it came time to cast next year’s operas. Everyone had their ideas as to who might get what role. I was going into the second year of my masters when we did Susannah and I was not a front runner for the main role. There were three other women we thought would get it. School shows are double cast when possible so we fully expected 2 out of the 3 women we expected to get the role and one woman would be left out. Boy, was I shocked to open that email and see my name listed as Susannah. I had to ask my professor if there had been a typo. Me? The lead? No way. I was EXTATIC, don’t get me wrong. But I assumed that I was the only one observing. I hadn't realized others had been observing me back. 

It's a lesson I would do well to remember more often. I think we can all feel like the world is rushing by us and leaving us behind. But we all have people in our lives who see us. The good, the bad, the ugly, the glorious. This first lead role taught me many things. I learned how to lead by example, as colleagues tend to look to the lead role to set the tone for the working environment. I learned how to memorize an entire show. I learned how to calm my heart rate using deep breathing after our director staged a sprint to the back of the auditorium (through the audience) about 20 seconds before I had to sing this aria with all its crazy long lines and required breath control. But mostly I learned to believe in myself just a little bit more. It was my first big step towards becoming the person I am today. I am forever grateful for the opportunity to start on this path.

Un bel di vedremo from Puccini’s Madama Butterfly

This one is a favorite for me simply because of how it feels to sing it. In today’s world, Madama Butterfly, is among the more controversial operas in the repertoire. An Italian man may not be the best person to accurately depict Japanese characters and culture. Some people still love this opera for what it is. Some companies are rewriting aspects with input from more knowledgeable colleagues and artists, translating it to be sung in Japanese, and modernizing the show in other really awesome, creative ways. Some people think it should be struck from the repertoire entirely. They feel that it is beyond saving. For me, I don’t have a strong opinion about the opera as a whole, as it's not my culture that is being represented. I’ll let those in the know make the choices here. But, I will say, I have a secret hope that if it does someday get struck from the cannon, that this aria stays behind. There are many operas that are now lost to time or no longer performed (way more than you might think). Occasionally, we have just a single aria left, or an ensemble that people loved enough to keep performing out of context. It’s my selfish wish that this aria meets that fate someday. Because, man, it’s fun to sing! It’s this perfect balance of speech-like and gloriously beautiful. You get to really tell a story without working too hard and then save all your power for the final moments. And let me tell you, the power that you can feel rippling through your body when singing those final notes. It’s what I imagine it might feel like to wield magic or super powers. Because it is such a story, I wanted to include the translation so you can follow along if you like.

 English translation

A good day, we'll see

a little smoke drifting

from the edge of the sea.

And then the ship appears.

Then you see that it is white.

It enters the port,

It rumbles its salute.

You see? He is coming!

I don’t go down to meet him. Not me.

I stand there on the edge of the hill and wait,

and I wait a long time. But do not grow weary

At the long wait

And out of the city crowd

a man, a small point

he goes to the hill.

Who is it? who is it?

And as he arrives

what will he say? what will he say?

He will call Butterfly from far away.

I will not give an answer

I will stay hidden

A little to tease him...

A little as to not die at the first meeting,

troubled, he will call to me,

“little one, dear wife

blossom of orange’,

the names that gave me to his coming

All this will happen, I promise you

Hold back your fear,

With secure faith, I wait for him.

Thank you for coming with me on this little trip down memory lane. I hope you enjoy our favorite Overdressed songs as much as we do!