Luna Sings highest note ever at Met;

Sad Music/Creativity link?

It’s “This Week in Classical Music” an update on what’s happening in the classical music world; I’m Randy Kinkel.

the A above high C that the soprano Audrey Luna reaches in Thomas Adès’s new opera, "The Exterminating Angel" is so high, it has never been heard in the 137-year history of the Metropolitan Opera.

High C has been hit by dozens of singers on the Met stage, But a high A is unprecedented according to Met archivists.

Luna had already hit a high G in Ades’s adaption of “The Tempest” a few years back, so he thought of her as he was writing the high A into “The Exterminating Angel”

How Does Audrey Luna Do it?  It’s apparently a combination of genetics, rigorous training and psychological discipline.

She said, “I know it’s in me. But it’s just nothing I’ve performed on any stage before… the G in the tempest was like a dare, she said,  “And this… is a double-dog dare.”

Adding to the excitement of the high A is its placement in the score.— there’s not much time for Audrey to warm up: The A is her very first note, sung before she’s even visible onstage.

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 Ever feel embarrassed to be at a concert, and suddenly realize that your mind has been wandering?

Well, give yourself a break…According to newly published research, that's a perfectly natural occurrence.

"When listening to sad people draw their attention inward, and engage in spontaneous, self-referential cognitive processes," reports a research team led by Liila Taruffi of the Free University of Berlin.

"Our study suggests that the emotional experience underlying sad music shapes mind-wandering in a unique way."

The researchers report that "music evoking sad emotions increased the strength of mind-wandering," while with happy tunes, "listeners are more focused on the music itself, and exhibit reduced mind-wandering."

They speculate that the link between music and mind-wandering "could be harnessed to possibly  improve creativity," So if you find yourself creatively stuck, cue up Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings and see what happens.

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