It is finished!
Wednesday November 28 2007
My History of Opera Final is finished! I can practice, and sleep, and live a normal life again. Thank God.
And I aced it too.
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Burning the candle on both ends (just like Da Ponte… and Kelly, and Mozart, and Beaumarchais all d
Monday November 26 2007
Last night I:
- studied from 1:00 pm until midnight
- went grocery shopping until 1 am
- went to bed at 1:30 am
- got up at 4:30 am to pick up my wife from work
- got back home around 5:30 am
- tried to fall back asleep but couldn’t so I got up at 6:30 am (but my wife had no problems sleeping. Grr—)
- worked on my paper until 8:30
- went to the post office to send off reeds
- got my back adjusted and finally—
- was in the practice room from 10:30 to 12:00 where I went over to the library to study and work on my paper some more.
- And now it’s midnight. And I’m finally done with my paper. But I have a listening test study guide I’m supposed to write.
- It’s no use. I need to get some sleep.
My wife needs to learn how to drive. Read the Rest
Lost in a world…
Monday November 26 2007
I’ve spent the past 5 days reading up on Da Ponte and his memoirs, the life and times of Beaumarchais, and Michael Kelly’s Reminiscences and it has all come to a point: a 5 page paper of the relevancy of these three men and Mozart’s Operas. And I only had 3 resources available×about 80 pages total of excerpts from three books.
Of course this didn’t stop me from reading further. I enjoyed going back and reading some of Da Ponte’s memoirs not included in my packet of reading (I found it amusing my professor left out the romantic novel-trashy parts and cut right to the chase) and Beaumarchais’ life during and after the Figaro comedies. But after spending so much time reading each detail carefully, I have all of the information floating around in my head (kind of like when you drop a teaspoon of flaky fishfood in the fish bowl), and it’s not settling down to the bottom.
But there are some amazing conclusions that I can deduce:
- The world was a very small place×It is amazing how all of the important artisans of the time (painters, composers, poets, etc) were centrally located, or floated between just a few locations. Reading about Vienna just brings to mind America’s closest parallel: New York City.
- Personal connections and reputation was far more important than any resume×Coming from Korea where the Confucist mindset particularly values one’s own relationship with those around him/her, I can understand this. Usually jobs in Korea are found through a friend of a friend, or by reputation. Da Ponte was fortunate to have the right friend write him a letter of introduction to Salieri, who introduced him to the Emperor, who took favor on him and basically gave him a prosperous career. I think this kind of hiring is a byproduct of a smaller-populated community. (Korea only has 52 million people total, with Seoul being 13 million. The L.A. metropolitan area is close to that size, but the degree of blood relation is much closer in Korea.)
- One must live life like every day was the last×It’s amazing to hear how pissing of the wrong person could end in professional doom. One single person could destroy your reputation, or spread slander of your name and literally blackball you from an entire city or country. You never knew what one day would bring!
Multitasking
Sunday November 25 2007
The quarter is coming down to the line, and I’ve been swamped with readings and projects for “The History of Opera” class that I’m taking. Most students by now have learned the fine art of “skimming”, while I haven’t. In fact, reading comprehension is one of the hardest areas for me, so I have to read very very slowly and very very carefully, which is probably why I was an editor in Korea; I was so meticulous and critically analyzed each and every sentence. So I’ve spent my Thanksgiving vacation (Thursday until today, being Sunday) reading over Da Ponte’s memoirs about his encounters with Mozart and their plans to produce “Le Nozze di Figaro” (i.e. The Marriage of Figaro) and other readings.
Meanwhile, I’ve been catching up on my reed orders (only 2 behind!) and practicing the Strauss Concerto for the concerto competition which is next week. The problem is, I’ve run out of energy.
I’ve experienced practicing/playing burnout, but I haven’t been doing a great deal of practicing nor playing recently. My Zelenka trio folded, and the chamber music recital is being put on hold until January. But I’m tired. It’s an exhaustion that just creeps into all areas of my life from having worked so hard on my academics. My freshman-Junior year, I pretty much blew off my academic classes, but my Senior year I actually started enjoying them, and it showed in my grades×I made the dean’s list for the first time in my life. Coming back to grad school, I again want to do my best in my academics, and do enjoy the readings and having time to critically analyze all of this stuff, but I think I’m having difficulty with the load. Is it possible?
I always thought that people who didn’t take a full course load had some reason such as a part time job, or an internship, or at the very least, were just lazy. But for the first time in my life, I feel like I’m hitting a ceiling; I can’t read much faster without sacrificing the ability to comprehend what I’m reading; I must still make reeds and fill orders to subsidize our minimal income; I must still drive my wife around at odd hours of the night (6:00 am or so) getting her to or from work.
There has to be a better solution. I’m just not sure what. Meanwhile, my health is suffering, as is my emotional state of mind.
Oh yeah, the ducks got whooped by UCLA… to make things worse.