Wigmore Hall

It's about a month since I last wrote. Laryngitis, cancellation of two concerts, one concert and one broadcast which I SHOULD have cancelled and finally tonight I have the Wigmore debut that I have looked forward to.
Now, thanks to the work of two extraordinary medical men, I hope to be fine. I sang (rather as I did several years ago) on Thursday night on In Tune on Radio 3, fumbled my way through the interviews and dropped my music all over the floor and clearly should not have been singing anything at all. What a nightmare. I was on the point of cancellation for the Wigmore the following day when things were no better, so the band looked for a standby, and I managed to get an appointment with Mr Rubin, a top consultant who regularly deals with singers. He in turn referred me to the man he referred to as the best physio in the world, Ed Blake, who saw me yesterday, and was quite wonderful. The larynx had been pulled back and up by the swollend and tight muscles and he just gently released it all and got it back into place. Just like that. I left with twice the voice I went in with. This year I have had so many terrible viruses, that I think it had been quite tight for quite a while. That's having small children though. Goes with the territory.
It left me thinking, if he can make such a difference so easily, why on earth don't we avail ourselves of more of that kind of treatment? After all , athletes travel with physios and have all the help they need during and after an injury or illness, and would have massage after long races etc, while what do we do? We run a four hour marathon opera, and then go and have some pasta and a glass of wine and go to bed. Fine for a while, but with all the travel and the stresses, it's inevitable that one will get tired and things will not be at their best. This time Ed rescued me from an emergency cancellation, but actually, it would be great to have just some gentle muscle release kind of massage after nasty colds or long and tiring tours etc.
The upshot is, I'm looking forward to tonight, despite the fact we've had so little rehearsal time.
And I am determined to do the best job I possibly can!