On Sun, 17 Nov 2002, Jean Marie Henderson wrote:
> My question: Who (other than Dawn Upshaw) does both styles well? Would
This is a really good question, and one I suspect would be answered differently by classical singing fans and pop singing fans. The only people I've heard praise Dawn Upshaw's pop singing are classical singing fans. I've never actually met a pop music fan who though much (or at all) of Upshaw as a pop singer.
Before Upshaw, an artist who DID have a rather successful crossover career (into jazz) was Eileen Farrell. But interestingly, as good as Farrell was at singing jazz, one can still hear a kind of cautiousness and "contrived" quality to her singing, particularly when one listens to the same songs done by Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, etc.
Another singer who manages to crossover very successfully is Ute Lemper - but probably because Lemper's main role model was the uncategorisable Lotte Lenya. The style isn't really classical or pop - it's "Weill-ian" - it suits the music of Kurt Weill perfectly. But I haven't heard Lemper singing much of anything other than Weill, so I don't really know how successful she would be singing "pure" classical or even "pure" pop.
Julia Migenes is another "crossover" singer who has come close to capturing a real "earthy" jazz-pop sound...when she sings in her middle register and chest. Like many other classically-trained "crossover" singers, it's the upper register that gives her away: like Upshaw and Farrell, when she sings in upper middle and upper register, the sound suddenly becomes very Bel Canto. It's that classically-trained singer's caution about not wanting to risk the instrument by blaring out belted top notes using what has been drummed into us is poor technique.
Barbara Cook, interesting, comes much closer to getting crossover "right" than any classical singer crossing in the opposite direction. Cook, the classic "legit" musical theatre soprano, proved her operetta- (if not full-blown opera-) worthiness when she created the role of Cunegonde in CANDIDE. But Cook also knows how to belt, swing, and absolutely let go WITH A MICROPHONE when singing the beltiest and jazziest Sondheim and other non-"legit" musical theatre and pop songs. That "with a microphone" is key (and brings up back to our discussion of amplification "good or bad").
It's a fact that modern "pop" technique absolutely RELIES on use of amplification. It is not possible to do with the voice some of the "effects" that pop singers are expected to do without the aid of amplification. This is because these effects can really only be achieved when the actual singer sings softly. Without a mike, a pop singer's "piano" would be inaudible, and her/his "forte" unamplified would sound like an opera singer's mezzo-piano. Given a mike, however, electronics can compensate, and enable the singer to create a very intense, dramatic forte without actually screaming or shouting (which she/he would have to do if unamplified), and more importantly, can enable the singer to virtually whisper to achieve those sultry, slightly breathy, but "bread and butter" pop vocal effects in the "quiet" range and still be heard by the audience. The microphone also enables the singer to sustain loud notes much longer than would be possible were the singer projecting without amplification, because so much less breath is required because the pop singer is singing, relatively, less loud than the opera singer needs to sing to achieve the same decibel level.
The reason Ethel Merman's belt was so brassy, forward placed, and loud is that she was singing BEFORE amplification, and yet using a purely pop technique. It is a tribute to her as an interpreter that she was able to create an interesting palate from what was essentially a very monochrome sound. It's also interesting to listen to her when she wasn't belting - when she was singing sweet romantic songs, particularly early in her career. Her technique was essentially "legit". And no doubt she realised early on that she sounded like hundreds of other singers, and so she "invented" the Merman belt, and the rest is history.
Me personally, I've always preferred Alice Faye to The Merm - but then, I don't ever kid myself that Faye could have had much or any singing career had she not had the benefit of miking, in nightclubs or on the Hollywood sound stage.
Karen Mercedes http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html ________________________________ That man is the happiest who is most thoroughly deluded. - Erasmus
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