Brighton…

…Ever since I was a child and my sister married a policeman there, this coastal city attracted me to return. The seagulls are some of the largest and most preternatural I have ever seen. I caught one staring at me like Pinky stared at the waitress in Brighton Rock.
As you exit the railway station, veer right and kitty-corner across the street is a sign above the Grand Central pub, quoting Castiglione: ‘That which we consider to be true art, doesn’t appear to be art at all’.

The Nightingale Theatre group is devoted to the search for truth in theatrical representation. I’ve studied Saviolo’s fencing technique there as well as the Belcanto singing technique; both Elizabethan period inventions. Carol Baggot-Forte is a voice teacher using the Advanced Vocal Instruction devised in its present shape by Cornelius Reid.

The master-class consisted of a half hour with Carol whilst an audience watched. Talk about learning the difference between objective and subjective! She is an amazing teacher and all fears are washed away as you learn to vocalise and energise the chest and head voice to the best of your ability.

The chest is actually full of organs so isn’t really a resonance chamber, except for bone conduction of course. The falsetto or head voice in my case isn’t used enough. The vocal folds are actually what do the work of singing. Once they start vibrating, the rest is in principle easy.

Principles however cannot compensate for the posture, bad habits, and fixed problems most of us exhibit when trying to sing. The work is about learning how you yourself inhibit this most amazing instrument. Now where do i find instruction like that in Amsterdam?

‘For summer and his pleasures wait on thee,
And thou away, the very birds are mute,
Or if they sing, t’is with so dull a cheer,
That leaves look pale, dreading the winter’s near.’ Q97.