How Awful Lyrics — Anna Karenina

How to Sing “How Awful” (from Anna Karenina)

Scope: This guidance is derived only from what is visible in the score pages you provided (melody line, phrasing, rests, repetition, and dynamic indications). No recordings or external interpretations are used.

1) Vocal Character & Intention

• Keep it restrained and speech-adjacent.
• The irony should feel internal, not played for laughs.
• Emotional arc: polite panic ? rationalizing ? quiet resignation.

2) Range, Tessitura, and Placement

• Range: moderate overall (no sustained “power” writing visible in your pages).
• Tessitura: mostly mid-range with brief rises.
• Placement: forward and clear; avoid artificially darkening the tone.

Technique cues: narrow vowels on rises (“aw-ful”, “ghast-ly”), clean onsets, minimal weight.

3) Phrasing & Breath Strategy

The writing favors short phrases and meaningful pauses. Use many small, quiet breaths.

Phrase Types

• Enumerative: “How awful. How appalling.” ? crisp separations, clean cut-offs.
• Narrative: “He’ll come here… leave here…” ? one longer arc when possible.
• Reflective: “Why is it I have to lose him?” ? allow slight length at line ends.

4) Dynamics & Expression

• From what’s visible in the pages, the default behavior is contained (mostly p/mp territory).
• When intensity rises, make it tension rather than volume.
• Target lines for controlled intensification:
  • “How painful his suffering will be”
  • “Why is it I have to lose him?”

5) Articulation & Text Clarity

This number lives on diction. Keep the delivery clean and dry rather than lush.

• Land final consonants: thought, distraught, regret.
• Avoid legato blur; think “spoken rhythm with pitch.”
• Avoid operatic portamento; maintain precise pitch-to-pitch motion.

6) Repetition Strategy (“How awful”)

“How awful” repeats with different subtext. Don’t sing it the same way twice.

7) Ending

• Do not build a “big finish.”
• Let the ending feel resigned, not resolved.
• Release gently; no theatrical cutoff.

Common Mistakes

• Overplaying comedy
• Over-singing sustained notes
• Using romantic/operatic vibrato as a default
• Peaking emotionally too early