Festival preparation

I will be singing "Che faro senza Euridice" by Gluck and "O rest in the Lord" by Mendelssohn at the Ryton festival next Saturday.

Something I always struggle with is remembering the order of the music, when there are lots of similarities. For example, in Che faro, I sing the "Che faro senza..." part 3 times, as almost a chorus if you will, with little differences each time and with different things to put between. This is probably what I am struggling with most at the moment.

As for "O rest in the Lord", it is getting the brightness in the lower notes. I sometimes struggle to keep my lips and jaw relaxed whilst "pinging" from my cheeks... that is to say, using those muscles at the top of your cheeks that you feel when smiling without actually smiling fully. Breath support and singing through the line is also something I've found that is very important in this piece... some of the lines feel very long, especially when the pinnacle of that phrase comes at the end and you need to have a good supply of breath left to push through it and create an intense sound. Is intense the right word? Maybe not that strong, but leaning towards it.
My pronunciation of some of the words wasn't quite right, either... which considering it is in English, my first language, is slightly worrying! It was with the sustained "And waiiiiit", I think some of my dipthongs were out of place and I needed to keep my tongue up at the back to produce a better sound. So now I think of it as "Wey lad!" to get that tongue up there.
Another problem was that I'm singing on consonants sometimes, for example "O rest innnn the Lord" instead of "O rest iiiin the Lord". I've noticed this is a bad habit of mine and need to be extra careful at the festival.

All in all though, I'm feeling much more confident about it today. Or perhaps it is a surge of energy from the prospect of school holidays... either way, I'm sure I'm going to do well!