Back to the touring

Well it's been a fascinating three days on tour with Hatstand Opera. We were expecting to perform the same programme each night, but when you make a living singing live, you have to deal with the joys and the pitfalls. Both the soprano and the mezzo started with colds last week, and the soprano's has travelled onto her chest and voice. Fortunately the hall we were in had a kind acoustic. So on Thursday we rearranged the normal programme and replaced the songs most affected with items from the mezzo and from me (I am happy to sing Flanders and Swann at the drop of any headgear you may care to mention). Colds affect singers in different ways – with some it’s the lower register and with others it’s the high notes. Fortunately, the soprano's high notes are both easy and indestructible. Since the show is scripted, she gave most of her lines speaking a full octave higher than normal (around the C/D an octave above middle C, and made it work. It amazes me how flexible the human vocal instrument is.