On Tue, 7 Aug 2001, stjames wrote:
>
> Obviously, the judges here like light soprano
> > voices...when I am a "baby dramatic".
>
>
> James here....
>
> Could it be they like good singing, not considering range ?
I would tend to take Molly at her word. My own observations here in the
D.C. area is that coloratura and light-lyric sopranos DO tend not only to
win more competitions, but they also get a lot more oratorio solo work -
even in things like Verdi and Beethoven - and even to get cast
inappropriately in opera roles that are much to heavy for their voices.
Part of the problem is that a lot of symphonic/choral music directors in
this area also judge the competitions and hire the oratorio solists,
and also have a decided early music prejudice. I did a competition
recently in a small hall, so I found I didn't have to do much of anything
for my voice to seem VERY BIG (it is big - dramatic contralto - but the
room was really too small for it): the two opera-background judges
apparently recognized this, based on their comments (or lack thereof)
about my voice being "too loud" or "pushed" - but the Bach consort judge
filled his critique sheet with lots of comments about my pushing, and
being too loud, and needing to tone down my dynamics, etc. I discovered
later that he made the same comments on the sheets of all the singers who
weren't small-voiced coloraturas. This is just one example of a prejudice
that I and a number of my spinto and dramatic-voiced friends have had to
butt up against over and over again.
KM
............................
NEIL SHICOFF pages
http://www.radix.net/~dalila/shicoff/shicoff.html
My Own Website
http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+ Singers are often so fired up after a +
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+ - Jilly Cooper, SCORE! +
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