Dinnertime conversations

So I went to that dinner yesterday, in an Italian restaurant, with my friends from the acting course. Not all were there, but it was a very nice evening. We barely had time to know each other before and after class, so it was lovely chatting to them and learning more about everyone. And also, of course, making yourself known.

As I was expecting, the staff was mainly Italian, so I did said a few words in Italian, enough to make them believe that I knew much more of the language than I do. So they learned about my Italian experience, they learned about the reasons why I wanted to do acting (which is actually similar to theirs, more on this below) and they even learned that I sang opera. Because, see, the next course will be very voice orientated and it appears that there might be some singing in it. One of them was hesitant about this as he thinks he is not much of a singer and he asked me "Could you sing?". I answered not only that I could, but that I did. It will be great to mix two of my greatest passions.

So it was a great evening. It is strange to discover that your own motivations mirror the ones of my fellow actors. We all wanted a more active social life with people sharing the same interests, we all wanted to express our creativity and many of us wanted to confront some kind of shyness. Oh, and we all feel reinvigorated after a class.

Getting back to singing, I thought I would end this post with an aria. It is one of the few Mozart arias I sang learning with Claudine Côté. It is Non piu andrai from Le Nozze di Figaro. I chose it because I always thought it was a physically demanding aria, that used to leave me breathless and dizzy.There is a physicality in opera just as there is one in acting. I will blog about it one day (if I haven't already and forgotten). Until then, I leave this aria here, as my mind is on Italy, acting and singing.