Vocalist.org archive


From: Isabelle Bracamonte
Subject: re: Renee Fleming and her bright/darkness
To: vocalist
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>


I think Fleming's quote reflects the fact that she was
trained (as my friend Mary's research has taught me,
Fleming's teacher being one of the ones she is
considering studying with) in a tradition founded upon
the relaxed, bright, forward [i] ("eeee" for the
IPA-wary) position. You often hear this ring ("ping,"
she calls it) live in the theater when she performs.
In her recordings, however, she darkens and covers her
sound, for a more round, plummy (opulant?) tone. Her
comment seemed to indicate that audiences prefer this
rounded tone (very much like Hong, Swenson, Jo, and
other coloraturas of the moment) to the one with more
bite/point/edge/ping in it. Old recordings rarely
display the plumminess and breathiness of our warm,
rounded singers today, even taking into account the
acoustical differences in the recording technology.
Coloraturas of the past -- Erna Berger, Roberta
Peters, etc. -- sound overly-bright and childlike when
our ears are used to Swenson and Hong. Just a change
in tastes.

If you saw her segment on 60 Minutes, the scales she
sang demonstrating "ping" sounded much different than
her "whooshy," plummy recorded tone.

My experience from hearing her live, which I've only
done three times, is that she creates the covered
warmth when she can afford to in the middle voice, but
for extreme top and bottom notes, she puts more of
that bite into the tone. This is in accord with her
comment in Opera News that the forward ping is truly
the health of the instrument, and (therefore I imply)
the artificial darkness is a trick that can be used
effectively from time to time.

Isabelle B.

=====
Isabelle Bracamonte
San Francisco, CA
ibracamonte-at-yahoo.com



__________________________________________________
http://im.yahoo.com