Sweet Masterclass

So after I left the costume shop, I made my way over to the first day of the Sharon Sweet Masterclasses. We do a whole bunch of masterclasses over the next 7 or 8 weeks with a variety of presenters - most of these masterclasses are in July, but we've decided to open our rehearsal process with a series of Masterclasses with Sharon Sweet, international soprano (no mystery, though).

If you've never been to a masterclass, they're really interesting. Basically, the teacher will work with a series of students individually. The singer will sing their chosen, prepared song through first then the teacher will work on certain items with the singer to improve their performance. Those "certain items" depend on the teacher's particular angle or expertise; it may be interpretation, acting, ornamentation or, as in Sharon's case, technique.

I used to study voice myself for a while a few years ago, so the process is pretty familiar to me. But I imagine that to a non-singer, it must look really bizarre. For example, yesterday, Sharon was trying to get one singer to relax her neck and drop her jaw while singing high notes. In order to get the singer to understand how that should feel, Sharon was grasping her belly and shaking it while the singer sang with 4 fingers in her mouth. It was amazing because the singer - who was great to begin with - really sounded so much better.

NJOpera's masterclasses are free and open to the public. The schedule is available online.