Hi, Cindi!
The singer's name WAS Bette or Betty Davis! I kid you not! My voice teacher
used to tell us that we have to bear in mind that the performance can in many
instances be no better than the worst rehearsal. Many times the performances
would be a delight to all because the singer would "finally get the big picture"
and follow thru right there in front of God and everybody. Sometimes, tho, as
in the case with "I know that...", shock is the best description for the
reaction. This is justification for using professional singers on certain
Handel's "Messiah" arias! The alto soloist in that performance was virtually
as bad as this soprano had been. The other soloists came from my choir. The
director explained that politically he couldn't afford to take all the soloists
from one church choir. Valid point.
Back to that day. I arrived 40 minutes before the performance to hear the alto
soloist ask one of my soprano soloists to take her downstairs and coach her thru
"O thou that tellest"!!! At that very moment, I knew we were in for a fiasco!
All things considered, she didn't do as badly as Ms. Davis, but it was by
virtue of the fact that she had a lovely voice to begin with. In yet another
"Messiah" conducted by yet another colleague a few years later, I coached his
alto on "O thou". She pulled it off rather half-baked, even with all the
coaching I could cram into 20 minutes two days prior to the performance, I might
add. This solo in particular (along with "I know") requires the services of a
professional or a very good mezzo-soprano who has thoroughly coached it for some
time prior to the performance! I have had three delightful performances of the
aria by mezzos and a counter-tenor performance that were all excellent! It is
truly written for that extremely rare bird, the contralto and is an example of
an aria that "lies so low" in the voice that mezzos without the deep rich lower
register needn't go there! No "undernourished chest notes" will work on that
one! I won't even mention the time a tenor sang all the BASS solos in yet
another "Messiah"!
There's nothing quite like one Godawful soloist that will virtually ruin an
entire performance! Rest assured that following the performance ever singer
and many of the audience are whispering "Can you believe she sounded like a
chicken clucking on the entire piece!"!!
Ed
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