I both agree and disagree with Mike. First of all, I think that maybe if your
emotional state is focused on the right things, it can be a great resource.
But, that requires that you tame the beast and learn to accept more about
yourself . . . something that I think many level-headed people must do. Having
many emotional experiences to draw from can be helpful. If you perform any of
the 20th centuries operas or musical theatre, you must really feel that you are
that character . . . feel any/all emotions directly as the character does.
Other eras of music have allowed for a sort of telling of emotion. But, in a
day and age when we are accustomed to seeing movies and tv shows where real
people seem to become very different real people right before our eyes,
audiences expect this reality of other forms of performing art. And why
shouldn't they? More often than not, in opera and musical theatre (and most art
song) you haven't just tasted (in which case, yes, you would tell) but are
tasting for the first time on the stage. And, in that case, those things must
feel for the singer as though they are real and are happening for the first
time. The audience will then feel as though they are tasting for the first time
with you. This style is becoming much more popular and we have directors like
Peter Sellars who are updating and making a 'reality' of the Mozart operas.
Life itself is what keeps an audience interested. I believe this is possible in
the singing art. It takes a great deal of preparation (clarified technique and
lots of practice with a coach, so that your singing can stay almost constant
throughout an emotional cycle, not to mention a thorough understanding of the
character of the peice and an understood progression of how things should work).
I mean, singing isn't in itself a totally natural phenomenon and we don't
normally sing as a form of regular communication in our daily lives. Under most
performing circumstances, the singer should be 99% with the character and 1%
listening to a little voice which guides us vocally and may even go away in the
spots we've pre-determined as vocally unchallenging. Its all a matter of
working in a partnership with the beautiful music the composer has written. In
some preforming circumstances, the singer should throw all care to the wind and
let things happen as they will. Sometimes ugly sounds, if heart-felt, are the
most beaufitul sounds of an opera. I can't help but think of Callas. We all
know she made some ugly sounds, but even on recording she can move me to tears.
I guess this opens an entirely different arguement altogether and if I keep
talking about all the varying aspects of it I'd be off on tangents 20K at a
time. :) Anyway, lol, I hope this helps.
Mandi
Greypins@a... wrote: when you are singing, you are making sound.
particularly in
classical singing, you are creating a specific sound. many singers make the
mistake of assuming that, if they feel it, those feelings will automatically
be converted into a sound that's appropriate. often, those physical
sensations of feeling will turn into something quite else, in terms of sound.
most people who feel very emotional while they are singing, just end up
sounding frantic and/or hysterical because that's how the voice reacts to
those kind of feelings.
instead of trying to convey what you are feeling, you should be
presenting the material that caused you to feel that way, allowing the
audience to react freely which, may or may not be the same as you reacted.
think of it this way: if you just tasted a wonderful dessert that you wished
to share with a friend, you would give them a piece of the dessert, not one
of your taste buds.
in the performance of a piece of music, it is what the audience feels
that is important, not what you feel. you already had those feelings when
you first heard the piece. you are telling of the feelings, not
experiencing them now. in the telling, it matters not whether or not you
feel anything. you remember how it feels and you can still describe it.
another analogy: if you were giving someone a massage, you should not be the
one saying "ah, that feels great!", you should be the one doing the work so
the receiver of the massage says "ah, that feels great!"
mike
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