On Fri, 29 Sep 2000, Caio Rossi wrote:
> what tells exactly what's opera singing and what's not? Only
> the 'ping'? Are stylistic ways of using the voice necessarily part of the
> opera-singing kit or are they a matter of personal taste?
Here is my simplistic answer: Opera singers sing opera. Church,
Bocelli, et al don't, so they aren't.
Which means technically, the guys in The Who are opera singers, btw.
Opera is a medium, not a style, nor a vocal technique.
To say "real" opera singing is the technique of singing in 19th century
opera houses is to erase the hundreds of years of evolution of this form.
We must continue to allow it to grow and represent us, or opera will
certainly become a museum item. Purism is often a euphemism for
narrow-mindedness.
We need to wake up and realize 22nd century historians will judge us by
Philip Glass, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Meredith Monk, and other late *20th
Century* composers that are rarely mentioned on our list. They won't be
interested in how historically informed we were while performing Handel,
Rossini, Wagner, or whoever, except on a sociological level.
Not that there's anything inherently wrong with singing Puccini - there
isn't. It's just a bit much to act like opera ended there, and that all
standards for operatic singing were frozen at that moment.
rant over :)
Tako
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