Election Flashback

The presidential election election on Tuesday, November 4th marks the fourth anniversary of another important event, my senior recital. It was my very first full-length vocal recital, given in order to graduate with my bachelor's degree. Since the it was around the time of the previous presidential election, I decided that I wanted to promote the recital with a mock political poster campaign.

My sister Amy is a graduate of BYU in graphic design and she designed a brilliant series of posters for all of my recitals and all of the Zero Budget Production shows that I directed and/or produced while at the University of Utah. For this poster, I told her a couple of elements that I wanted: red, white, and blue color palette with lots of stars and stripes, generic political catchphrases, and an Uncle Sam-style photo of yours truly. I was thrilled with what she came up with:

Amy's political soundbites sound especially prescient of this year's election - "It's Time for a Change" and talk of building bridges (Bridge to Nowhere, anyone?). I have to claim the credit for the line "An Evening of Non-Partisan Music" - that just killed me when I thought of it.

In retrospect, this was an important recital for me. Aside from the opening Bach cantata (which was way beyond me at that point and probably still is) I felt like I sang very well and chose really interesting repertoire that you don't get to hear that often: Milhaud's Trois Chansons de Troubadour (in French), Villa-Lobo's Modinhas e Canções (Brazilian songs in Portuguese), and Menotti's Five Songs (in English). I ended the evening with a fully-staged performance of "The Most Lamentable Tragedy and Most Cruel Death of Pyramus and Thisby," a short mini-opera within the opera A Midsummer Night's Dream by Benjamin Britten. I sang the part of Thisby, but I also directed the show, and it was the first time that I had directed anything. It was a smashing success, and it went so well at my recital that we were invited to give a repeat performance at the opera workshop's scenes concert, where it completely stole the show. And I had a great time coming up with the name for the group that performed it The Royal Shakespearean Opera Society of the Wasatch Front - I wanted something that sounded ridiculously pretentious and hopelessly amateur at the same time, just like the Tragedy of Pyramus and Thisby itself.

So mad props to my sister Amy again for a great poster, and in case you haven't heard, there is a presidential election on Tuesday, so go out and build those proverbial bridges to a better future.

P.S. - As the authority on getting free stuff I feel compelled to tell you that selected Ben & Jerry's locations are giving away free scoops of ice cream on election day from 5:00 - 8:00 p.m. Isn't America a great country?