Eileen Farrell, the great dramatic soprano, was probably just as well
known for her very classy jazz vocals.
More recently, Julia Migenes has also crossed over in a more dramatic way
than many of the other operatic crossover artists - singing both a
rock/pop fusion style on the soundtrack of her film BERLIN BLUES, and very
slow sweltery jazz style on her SMILE CD. Not too surprising, given
Migenes started her career in musical theatre (she was the original Hodel
in FIDDLER ON THE ROOF, and also in the original cast of Charles Strouse's
RAGS) before going into opera/operetta. Since then, she has also appeared
on several of the Sony Classics studio recordings of famous Broadway
musicals - including KISMET and MAN OF LA MANCHA (the former also
featuring Jerry Hadley, Sam Ramey, and Ruth Ann Swenson, and the latter
featuring Placido Domingo, Hadley, and Ramey, and Rosalind Elias, among
others).
There have been numerous "Broadway Crossover" recordings made by artists
ranging from Robert Merrill, Dorothy Kirsten and Lawrence Tibbett to more
recent releases by Sam Ramey, Ben Heppner, Thomas Hampson, Jerry Hadley,
Bryn Terfel, Placido Domingo - who has also crossed over into pop with his
PERHAPS LOVE album (John Denver wrote the song for him), and very
extensively into Spanish
and Latin American pop music, and most recently Mexican mariachi music -
Kiri Te Kanawa, Dawn Upshaw (who is more successful stylistically than
many others - and actually preferable, to my ears, as a musical
theatre/popular singer than as an opera singer), Angelika Kirschlager,
There have been a lot of studio recordings of classic musicals - not just
the Sony Classics pair I mentioned, but also a SOUND OF MUSIC and SHOWBOAT
featuring Frederica von Stade with other opera singers, and the
controversial Leonard Bernstein-sanctioned West Side Story, with Carreras
and Te Kanawa. Also a MY FAIR LADY with Te Kanawa (and Jeremy Irons!).
And earlier than this, Robert Merrill recorded KISMET, and sang Tevye
onstage after he retired from opera (a recording is available). Rise
Stevens recorded Weill's LADY IN THE DARK. Opera singer and vocal
pedagogue Todd Duncan was also a familiar face on the Broadway stage,
creating the role of the Mfume in Weill's LOST IN THE STARS, and
also taking over the role of Joe in SHOW BOAT from Paul Robeson. More
recently, Anthony Warlow and Marina Prior of the Australian Opera have
become full-time musical theatre artists. A quarter century ago,
Australian operatic/operettic soprano June Bronhill was also heard
frequently in musical theatre, and created the role of Elizabeth Barrett
in ROBERT AND ELIZABETH on the West End.
Teresa Stratas has moulded herself into something of a Kurt Weill
specialist, including Weill's lesser known cabaret/classical songs.
It's not a recent trend at all. John McCormack was probably better known
by most Americans for his many recordings of Irish folk and popular
ballads.
Indeed, there have been so many crossover artists, the question is
probably not which opera singers HAVE crossed over, but which opera
singers HAVEN'T, at least once in their careers.
KM
-----
Ich singe, wie der Vogel singt,
Der in den Zweigen wohnet;
Das Lied, das aus der Kehle dringt,
Ist Lohn, der reichlich lohnet.
-- J.W. von Goethe, WILHELM MEISTER
My NEIL SHICOFF Website:
http://www.radix.net/~dalila/shicoff/shicoff.html
My Website:
http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html
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