Ah! non credea and rubato
This is the last line of "Ah! non credea" from La Sonnambula. I don't currently have enough breath to get from the beginning of the line to the breath mark (it looks like an apostrophe above the line) gracefully, so this week's assignment is to do exactly that. Part of the problem is that the singer in my "inspiration" version of this breathes before the A flat, so I'd gotten used to doing it too.
In practice, I'd had a lot of trouble with the first A on this line -- it was breathy and just unattractive. Andrea listened to it, then showed me that I wasn't actually establishing the C well enough to use it as a springboard for the A. Once I fixed that, the A was no problem at all.
At the last lesson, we also looked at what "rubato" means and how to apply it to this line, lingering on the As and then running a little faster down the rest of it.