On Wed, 11 Oct 2000, Lloyd W. Hanson wrote:
> COMMENT: Most of the singing I hear from more recently touted opera > singers such as Dawn Upshaw, Cecelia Bartolli, Kathleen Battle, and > many crossover singers such as Audra McDonnald do not display a good > vowel line. The seem more concerned with articulation of consonants > and "accurate" rendition of the language as if spoken. This is > especially true in Upshaw's recording of Barber's "Knoxville, Summer > of 1915" in which vowel line is constantly distorted for the sake of > "clarity". Compare this recording to the one by Leontyne Price.
I'm not sure I agree with you re: Cecilia Bartoli, but in premise, I couldn't agree with you more. I find your statement to be a chronic problem in many classical singers today. I think there are several reasons for that. Both Maria Callas and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, two of the most influential singers of the last half of the 20th century, painted with fine brushes, an approach which, to my ears, destroys the vocal line (to my ears, the more of this that crept into their singing, the poorer their singing - harshness in one, resorting to crooning in the other.) Who has not noticed the constant use of straight tone, word-pointing (!) and over-articulated consonants used by many of the singers on today's operatic stages to 'be textually expressive'? With our ears accustomed to radio/microphone presence, the intelligibility of song texts is a problem due to that which we are accustomed to, rather than a failing of good classical singing. Good diction is NOT spitting out the words, a common ailment which distorts the vocal line and pulls the voice out of alignment. Consonants should be 'wet', not hard. I also believe that 20th century pop and rock properties have been assimilated into modern operatic/classical singing. The music tells the story; the text is the vehicle.
Mark Montgomery
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