Dear Linda and Vocalisters:
You wrote: >I feel Lloyd has been rather backed into a corner to defend his position, >and has taken a rather more extreme line than he may have done >otherwise. There are many times in opera where the minutiae _are_ >important.
COMMENT: Basically I do not feel backed into a corner. I have not taken a position that opera is only music. What I said was that the primary dramatic element in opera is the music. If that is not present the primary drama is missing.
But a primary element, while essential to the existence of the art form, is not the whole of the art form nor have I ever said that either. All of the elements of opera are necessary; some are essential.
But I will argue with the opinion that opera can be sung only well and not excellently and yet retain its hold in the elevated world of art. Opera must, at all times be sung excellently and sung as opera, not as some other form of song. We sometimes like to call this "opera style" but it is more than that. It is singing that allows no quarter but the finest of tone production and intensity done with nuance of phrase and accuracy to the composers intentions (as we can know them) and it all must appear authentic to the art form, real to the emotions and believable within its context. Authentic, Real and BElievable. "AREBE" as Wes Balk would say.
-- Lloyd W. Hanson, DMA Professor of Voice, Pedagogy School of Performing Arts Northern Arizona University Flagstaff, AZ 86011
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