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From:  Margaret Harrison <peggyh@i...>
Margaret Harrison <peggyh@i...>
Date:  Fri Jun 1, 2001  1:36 am
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] Least admired singers


Karen Mercedes wrote:
>
> I also heard both his SAMSON and his OTELLO, and both only go to show how
> a singer can affect two different audience members differently.

It's also nowhere near a dramatic voice
> in size, and if anything kills his vocal career

I don't necessarily disagree with you in terms of the
"fach" of his voice. But like Maria Callas, he's an opera
performer who MAKES me not care about the perfection of his
vocal technique or the beauty of his tone, or whether his
voice is "right" for the role he's chosen to present. When
he's onstage, he gives the audience everything he's got. If
he bares his chest, it's because he thinks the audience will
like it (and I'm not complaining--though his fully clothed
Samson/Dalila duet with Denyce Graves was tons more erotic
than any of those explicit sex scenes they put in movies
nowadays at the drop of a hat).

And if his career is shorter for it, as Callas's was, he's
taken that risk to give us, the audience, a singular
experience. Like Callas, or Pantinkin, I think some folks
are put off by the unusual intensity of the performer. I
can't say that they, like you, are "wrong" not to like what
he has to offer. But I would ask that those folks attempt
to at least understand (if not accept for themselves) what
the rest of us (and our numbers are legion) see that's
unique and valuable, even if it's not their preference in a
performer.

Peggy

--
Margaret Harrison, Alexandria, Virginia, USA
"Music for a While Shall All Your Cares Beguile"
mailto:peggyh@i...


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