sweet nymph

There's this duet near the beginning of the second act - two women sing Sweet Nymph, Come to Thy Lover. During the intermission of the first show today, E.My realized she had no voice. There's some nasty laryngitis going around, and today was her day.

So in the first show, a musician played one part on recorder while reading music taped to R.Carl's back. And for the second show? I learned it. Yes, in a hall with about 1,000 people in it, on a nearly empty stage, I sang a duet by reading my part off someone's back. And if I do say so myself, I rocked it. E.My and R.Carl were both really great - E.My passed on her voice teacher's coaching during intermission, and R.Carl followed my tempo and my pauses, and, gosh, it just worked. It probably went better than any solo I've ever done.

I got a tiny bit nervous during the song, but basically it was ok. Keys to my success included: I was in costume, so it wasn't *really* me; nobody else has fainted from terror during the Christmas show, so I figured I probably wouldn't, either; and when we were in the wings waiting to go on, I kept myself occupied by making R.Carl laugh, rather than being nervous/terrified. Fortunately, she is a nice girl and laughs at everything.

And for the rest of the show, I was basically in shock. In fact, I'm not sure I will ever get over this.

ADDING, later in the week: This was me on Monday.