My teacher sang at the Met for 9 years and she has told me many
stories. She's heard sopranos frap many times. It happens. Kiri Te
Kanawa always tried to do the high Eb at the end of Sempre Libera and
always blew it live. Callas, as I saw on interviews with a conductor,
always tried to do the end of Addio, del passato pianissimo. She always
cracked and the conductor asked why she tried to sing it softly every
time and every time she cracked... why doesn't she just sing it louder..
but she insisted that she would keep doing it that way for expressive
purposes. I've heard tenors crack every high note in performance. When
I saw Dayton Opera's Rigoletto in 1984 or 85 the tenor cracked every
high note in La Donna e mobile. Domingo, my favorite tenor, cracks all
the time but he has a gorgeous voice. One crack doesn't matter. It's
the overall vocal production. When I went to the Met this past
November/December I couldn't believe some of the singing I heard because
of obvious vocal faults. I heard wobbles, thinning tops, colorless
singing, swallowed, throat placed singing, straight tone throught entire
pieces... and these were people who are working constantly all over the
world, whose names are known and some are famous. It's interesting just
how little vocal perfection actually seems to matter in relation to
expressing the character and diction and artistry. ( I was thinking how
many people I know that would sing these shows better... why are some of
these other people at the Met now? Oh well!) Long, long ago, I got to
do a special preview for La Boheme and it was for all the donors and
administration of an opera company and I sang Si, mi chiamano. For some
reason all the high A's sounded like a rattle. This had never happened
to me. Never happened since. I think it was dryness and vocal
fatigue. But I kept on going and it hasn't mattered one bit!
Hang in there and try to learn to laugh about things like this. Focus
on what you have accomplished. Don't dwell on this one moment. After
all, in a lesson, you usually get to do a piece or even a note over and
over until it's right but in a recital you have to go straight through,
no going back. That's live performance and it's part of the excitement.
There are some things that you can do to help yourself in the future:
Hydrate well beginning 48 hours before performance. Have sung straight
through your recital a minimum of one times before presenting it in
public. Work out any technical issues in any song before doing it in
public. Don't fatigue yourself before the recital by over
singing/tiring yourself out etc. to the point where you're not fresh.
Rest well and don't talk a lot beforehand. All I do the day of a
performance is sleep, eat, shower and get into makeup and costume, warm
up and perform. Make sure you're connected to your breath by doing
breathing exercises as part of your warm ups.
Have fun,
Gina
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