From: Erik Johanson
Subject: Domingo
To: VOCALIST <vocalist>
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

I am quoting extensively because I hope that anyone who missed Prof. LaFond
post will notice this. At 11:53 PM 12/16/99 +0200, Prof. LaFond wrote:
>
>Karen's statements are not as presumptuous as you would think. They are in
>fact dead on. I have heard Domingo warm-up for concerts and singing ringing
>C's, and then go out and crack a Bb in the concert. YOu only need to
>compare early Domingo with what he's been doing the past decade or so, to
>hear the amount of tension that has built up over the years.
>
>We enjoy singers because of their emotional spiritual commitment to the
>music they sing as much as to the sounds they make with their voices.
>There are several teachers on this list with the expertise to be able to
>teach Domingo something about a balanced tone. This does not mean that we
>have thecombination of charisma, daring, vocal gift, and luck to be where he
>is.
>
>An aspiring singer, even a seasoned professional, listens to great singers
>to learn what to do as much as to learn what not to do. If perfect
>technique were required for stardom, I dare say most of our current stars
>would not be up there. What makes stars is the ability to move the audience
>with the thing that is singular about them. The better the technique, the
>better the inate gift is amplified. Domingo is an inspired, gifted singer
>with such an unusually potent talent, that his technical deficiencies are
>not enough to hamper his ability to thrill us. Like any teacher of voice,
>a part of me will always wonder how much more thrilling it might be if he
>did not have so much tension (in the body, the tongue, the jaw, the throat).
>In her own way, I sense that Karen is saying the same thing.
>
We have many singers around today who have strange-defective techniques who
are making bushels of dough, not to mention becoming extremely famous. Who?
One of my favorite singer/actors, Domingo; Ms. Bartoli; Ms. Battle; to
name the most prominent Why? Maybe because of what Prof. LaFond has said
or maybe because the beauty of the voice is independent of the technique.

At the same time there are many of us out here who have excellent
technique, voices that are just as beautiful as the big stars, and high C's
which are better, who do not get the right breaks, or lack that one mentor
needed to kick off a career, or sing well in a competition which has its
winner pre-determined, or win the wrong competition, or butt heads with
those that hire for opera companies who insist upon a physical ideal (the
perfect height, weight, build, etc).

So much of what happens is simply luck, as the late tenor John Alexander
told me once. He also told me that I really did not have the voice to make
it. I guess he was sort of right, but I wish he could have heard me after
my nasal surgery.

We continually must evaluate what our success is. Mine is doing my very
best to teach good vocal habits, to help people get out of their own ways,
and teaching myself so that at 52, I am singing a hell of a lot better than
I did at 32. I had some very fine teachers; this statement does nothing to
demean their efforts, for they helped me to learn to become my own best
teacher and to teach others.

I still audition. My friend and guiding light, the late Richard Versalle,
who died on the stage of the Met, was still doing auditions for backwater
opera companies in the United States after he had sung Tannhaeuser at
Bayreuth. Sure, somewhat humiliating, but a living must be made. One
hopes that someday those that hire for concerts with orchestras will
realize that they do not always have to get the same ten singers from the
same managements to have a successful program.

Until then, we press on.

Thanks for another year of interesting vocal conversation. I wish all a
successful new year and please remember that you can design your success.

Pax,

Erik Johanson, tenor
Associate professor of music (voice)
The University of Toledo
http:/www.rram.com/johanson.htm
http:/www.utoledo.edu/colleges/arts-and-sciences/music/johanson.html