Vocalist.org archive


From:  John Alexander Blyth <BLYTHE@B...>
John Alexander Blyth <BLYTHE@B...>
Date:  Thu Apr 5, 2001  2:54 pm
Subject:  Singing for others/self?


I might have just enough time to write what I think about this:

My best, and most communicative performances need an audience - there are
all sorts of clues that I pick up from the people there - or,
solipsistically, what I imagine to be those people :0)
I'm just not willing to do the incredible work of focusing in the way a
performer needs to without there being something at stake - whether that
may be my reputation in the community and the esteem of my colleagues, or a
more vague, blind fear of public failure - there is also the kind of
material which, if one were to practice exactly as one performs, would wear
one out in no time - I've recently performed the last scene from Rigoletto,
and some of the songs from Winterreise - which require the most appalling
intensity of emotion if they are to be truly convincing.
Convincing to whom? The audience, and the ideal listeners that may be
ensconced within.
But, just for myself, it is very satisfying to do something that requires
so many different parameters to be operational and effective at the same
time. Perhaps the most absorbing thing I can do in my life is to perform,
involving as it does an intellectual awareness of technique, pacing etc.;
an emotional awareness not only of what the character is honestly feeling,
but also what aspects of that can be projected in what way to an audience
whose character changes from moment to moment as they respond to the drama
(and almost all the solo vocal music I have encountered is drama); each
parameter interacts with the others to produce new elements in a rich whole
- even the costume and props are things that interact with and change the
character, and also change the kind of technical issues that may be
foremost in mind.
Perhaps separating the self from the performance situation of composer's
material+staging+performer+audience conceptually is a necessary coping
mechanism for singers, who are doing something *very* personal in public.
john
John Blyth
Baritono robusto e lirico
Brandon, Manitoba, Canada

emusic.com