“Back in Action” meets Eugene Onegin
What do you do if you can’t do what you’re passionate about?
Today I’m going to tell you about myself and what I do when I’m not helping people with bad backs. Next week we will use what I’m telling you now to help you. You’ll see how it can help you with your own challenges.
So here goes.
For almost my whole life, I’ve yearned to sing. Unfortunately, my voice was always very strained and usually badly out of tune. I was good at helping other people free up their voices and sing out clearly and resonantly.
Even though I was very good at helping other people sing, I myself, alas, could not sing for toffee. That was despite having had weekly singing lessons for about seven years.
Singing, especially opera, is my passion. It’s what I live for — but I couldn’t do it. Sad isn’t it?
Finally, I took the bull by the horns
Three and a half years ago, I did something about it. I asked Colin Iveson, a retired singer who has performed at leading opera houses around the world, including London’s Covent Garden and the Bayreuth Festival, to teach me how to sing. (By the way, Bayreuth is the place to go for the operas of Wagner. Did you know that, to get tickets to the Bayreuth Festival, you have to pay for your tickets ten years in advance?)
Colin was kind, and brave, enough to take me on as a singing pupil. Gradually, my voice began to open out — slowly at first but, lately, increasingly quickly. So much so that, last August, Colin told me I was good enough to join the chorus at the excellent Una Voce Opera Company, based in Crosby, Liverpool.
At Christmas, we performed the show “Chu Chin Chow”. This week, yours truly is, in between giving Alexander Technique lessons, performing in Tchaikovsky’s opera “Eugene Onegin”. It’s a great honour to sing in the chorus alongside such great voices and it’s even my hope that, in a while, I’ll be good enough to perform as a principal myself. We shall see.
Every Wednesday evening since mid January, Una Voce Opera Company have been rehearsing for this week’s performances of Eugene Onegin at the Southport Arts Centre. (Southport is just a short bus ride from where I live in Liverpool).
I have taken some video footage of the Eugene Onegin dress rehearsals and I’d love for you to see the excerpts I have posted on the web. I want you to appreciate how good Una Voce Opera really are. All the video is posted at http://unavoce.tv
If you live close enough to come to see us in Southport, I’d really like that — and I’m sure you will enjoy it too — even if you’ve never seen an opera before in your whole life. Do give it a try. The performances are Thursday, Friday and Saturday evenings. There is also a matinee performance on Saturday. Booking details are also posted at http://unavoce.tv
One more thing.
Can you do me a very big favour?
Are you on Facebook, Twitter, or any social media site? If you are, would you post about this week’s performance of Eugene Onegin? — and include the link to http://unavoce.tv
I’m on both Facebook and Twitter. If you follow me, I’d love to follow you, my readers, right back. (I’m “Backmagician” on Twitter and “Philip Pawley” on Facebook).
If you use a different social media site, please let me know that you posted there (as I’d never know if you don’t tell me).
I hope to see you on Facebook or Twitter — or, better still, see you in Southport.
Remember my excuse for going on about me and my passion: having watched me follow my passion and achieve the seemingly impossible, it will be easier for you to believe you too can follow your own passion and really go places. All it requires is a combination of hard work and going about it in a way that works.
If you will do the hard work, I will help you succeed.
That’s a promise.
Personal Coaching by Philip Pawley
If you want to get the best kind of help, come to me for an introductory lesson in Liverpool.
If you’re too far away, then the next best thing is to get personal lessons and advice from me online at Repoise.com, my on-line school. (Both far-away and local pupils use Repoise).
In more detail:–
If you’re in Liverpool (or can get to Liverpool)
- There’s nothing better than individual lessons. My practice is at 37 Hope Street, Liverpool L1. Ring me on 0151 708 6172 to book an initial consultation and first lesson. (Leave your number so I can get back to you).
-
If you’re short of funds, you can still have first class training from me — though it will require a little more work on your part.
The thing to do is have an individual, in-person lesson just once a month. That will entitle you to also get regular on-line lessons from me through Repoise. That way, you have the best of both worlds: in-person lessons and very regular, even daily, on-line Personal Coaching by Philip Pawley from me. That’s a real bargain because Repoise costs the equivalent of three lessons a year to everyone else.
Ring me on 0151 708 6172 if you want to arrange this.
- I occasionally run group lessons. If you’re interested in these, go here for details.
If you’re further away and can’t get to Liverpool
- There’s still nothing better than individual lessons. Here’s where you can find a teacher near you in the UK or elsewhere
- I suggest you also get direct day-to-day guidance from me by joining Repoise.
If you’re having plain Alexander Technique lessons from someone else, you still need to discover the Smiling Back Method of the Alexander Technique. You’ll get a lot more out of your lessons when you do.
37 Hope Street, Liverpool, Merseyside L1 9EA, England
Telephone: +44 151 708 6172 Mobile: +44 7872 905 154
Copyright © 2007-2012 Philip Pawley
SmilingBackMethod.com
