Spring Chicken!!

"BAWK, BAWK, BAWK!"

Only 6 months old and Julia already has exquisite taste in music. She has taken an immediate liking to Bach . . . . . Okay she likes Bawk, as in chicken not Bach as in Johann Sebastian (one can dream though:). She has this Baby Einstein DVD where a little chicken puppet dances across the screen and sings Bach compositions, chicken style. I don't get it, but Julia laughs when she sees it. So Jen and I have taken it upon ourselves to cluck like chickens to make Julia smile. (It really is amazing what we will do to get a smile or a laugh from our little diva.)

I've been trying out some early childhood music techniques with Julia. It's so great to be able to apply the stuff to an actual baby. There's a lot of clapping, and moving and singing. If I were using proper early childhood methods I should be teaching easy sol fege songs like Mary had a little lamb but I've chosen to modify the methodology a little and teach Julia opera arias instead. For some reason she has really taken a liking to Carmen's Habenera (now that's great taste, even though it is a mezzo soprano aria:) Julia usually smiles when I sing it, but I can't really get a big huge giggle out of her. Last month after another viewing of Baby Bach, I started singing Carmen like a chicken, and Julia just couldn't stop laughing and giggling. It's sooo heart meltingly cute to watch her laugh like that!!! Even on my way out the door when I wasn't being a chicken she'd look at me and laugh. I know she's probably thinking, 'Auntie Diva you're a crazy lady, but your funny hee hee!!'.

Do the Chickens have large talons? :)

Coincidentally the other day I was doing a serious search on i-Tunes for a recording of Caro Nome when I accidentally came across the most amusing recording ever. I found a recording of the aria by a soprano named Orielle Smith. I opened up the file and listened to the sample expecting a lovely rendition of Verdi's classic aria from Rigoletto. I couldn't believe my ears! It appears as though Orielle Smith is a chicken. I died laughing. She has an entire CD called The World's Favorite Cluckoratura Arias. She does all the famous coloratura arias as a chicken. She even does Der Holle Rache (The Queen of the Night aria) chicken style!! It's absolutely Hilarious, especially since I can say from first hand experience that most coloratura sopranos tend to sound like chickens a lot of the time!!!

I just couldn't resist downloading that Queen of the Night aria, since it is my favorite diva role! Achilles can't believe that I paid 0.99 for the chicken version of it. Little does he know that I plan on downloading the entire CD for $6.75 as an Easter gift for Julia. I know she'll love it. It'll be Bawk all the time for Jen, Achilles & Julia. How cultured our little diva will be, tee hee!! :)

I have to be honest, I'm just relieved that I'm not the only diva who has resorted to singing opera "bawk style" to get a laugh. All I have to say is never underestimate the power of an opera singing chicken, cause not only do we have the vocal agility required to sing clukoratura soprano arias, but we also make great eggs :)

http://www.orrielsmith.com/index.htm