On Sat, 5 Oct 2002, John Cheshire wrote:
> Dear Vocalisters
>
> This is an exciting proposition for me since I have not been singing
> classical repertoire for too many months. My repertoire is
> limited to Caro Mio Ben, a few english folk songs, and several Vaccaj
> vocalises.
>
> So, my mission, should I choose to accept it, is to decide on 3 contrasting
> songs in 3 languages to perform at audition in early December. My
> teacher has suggested I research anything I can find including; Faure,
> English folk songs, 'Italian songs', Handel - Messiah, Aaron Copland, Barber.
>
> Fach: Baritone
> Preferred languanges: English, Italian, German
What you need are songs that will be easy to learn quickly, which will
show off different aspects of your voice, and which will contrast with
each other.
For the Italian, I'd steer away from "Caro mio ben", and consider doing an
opera aria instead - perhaps the Count's aria from Mozart's LE NOZZE DI
FIGARO - "Hai gia vinta causa" (angry), or - if you've got a good upper
register, "Il balen del suo sorriso", Count di Luna's aria from IL
TROVATORE (lyrical) or Germont's aria, "Di Provenza", from LA TRAVIATA
(also lyrical) - both by Verdi.
If you decide you would prefer to do one of the 26 Italian Songs and
Arias, I'd suggest something a bit more impressive than "Caro mio ben" -
perhaps Marcello's "Quella fiamma che m'accende" or Carissimi's "Vittoria,
vittoria". Or you might do a later Italian song, such as "L'Ultima
canzone" by Tosti.
In the case that you do use an Italian song, vs. an operatic aria, you
might then use a German operatic aria, such as Papageno's aria from
Mozart's DIE ZAUBERFLOETE ("Ein Vogelfaenger bin ich ja"). Or you might do
an aria from one of Bach's many cantatas - for example, the aria "Was des
Hoechsten Glanz erfuellt, from his BWV 194 - or from Brahms "Ein Deutches
Requiem". Or, if you preferred, you
could do a Lied by any number of composers. For a young baritone (which
I'm presuming you are), I'd lean towards Lieder by Loewe, Schumann,
Schubert, Beethoven, or Brahms. Take a look at/listen to "Herr Oluf" by
Carl Loewe, "Erlkoenig", "An die Musik", or any of the literally hundreds
of other Lieder by Schubert, one of the Liederkreis by Schumann, etc.
For the English language piece, I'd suggest something from an
oratorio - or, alternately, a song by Vaughan Williams or Butterworth. For
the former. If you choose MESSIAH as the oratorio, the aria you choose
will depend on how good your coloratura technique is. If you've got great
coloratura, I'd suggest doing "But who shall abide the day of his coming?"
- which is a Da Capo aria with both slow, lyrical and fast, dramatic
coloratura passages. "The people who walk in darkness" (also from Part I)
is probably the least interesting of the bass arias in MESSIAH, so I
wouldn't use it. "Why do the nations so furiously rage together?" from
Part II is another coloratura piece, but not as "bravura" in its demands
as "But who shall abide". "The trumpet shall sound" is very impressive
when done by a baritone with a good ringing high register (the voice needs
to be able to suggest the blare of a trumpet), and is very exciting.
Another possible oratorio to look at is Mendelssohn's ELIJAH: "Lord God of
Abraham, Isaac and Israel", "Is not His word like a fire", "It is enough",
and "For the mountains shall depart" are the four arias for Elijah, the
baritone. The nice thing about Mendelssohn's vocal writing in this
oratorio is that it is not fiendishly difficult, but it does provide
opportunity for pure excellent vocalism. The music can be deceptively
simple, but because of that - because there's not a lot of musical
flourishes - the voice has to be rock-solid, and the singer has to be very
expressive - to bring out this music's full potential.
If you decide instead to go with an art song for your English selection, I
would strongly urge you to consider a song from one of the following
cycles:
Vaughan Williams: The Vagabond; Five Mystical Songs; The House of Life
Butterworth: Six Songs from 'A Shropshire Lad'; Bredon Hill and Other
Songs
Or if you preferred to use a song by Copland or Barber - maybe something
like "I hear an army" by Barber, or "The Dodger" (a real tongue twister)
by Copland.
Anyway, if you feel like it, you might run some of these suggestions by
your voice teacher to get his (her?) opinion.
Karen Mercedes
http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html
________________________________
I want to know God's thoughts...
the rest are details.
- Albert Einstein
|
