>
>
> > Vocalists have a hard time sometimes reconciling performing while using two
> > languages at the same time. However when they work together the result is
> > powerful. At least that is how I understand it.
>
> Exactly - when they work together. Which I _think_ rather contradicts
> your previous paragraph, though others may disagree (feel free :o) )
> I am surprised that some people involved with singing seem so anxious
> not to corrupt the musical line that they would prefer not to have to
> worry about clarity of words at all. I can't understand why these people
> haven't become instrumentalists instead ;) though in a way, I think
> they're trying to.
Much of life is lived in the grey zones, and not is not purely black or white.
Singing with always perfect diction diction or with keeping a pure muscial
musical
lines doesn't exist. Often one sacrifices one or the other ( I suppose we
could start
a thread featuring major artists who seem to be on one extreme or the other. )
Perhaps something else a dramatic or physical necessity seems to take
precedence over
everything else. I am still convinced that music itself is a type of
communication by
itself, but not of course the sole means, but perhaps the most important means
in some
musical setting. In opera, I think that the recitatives need to be very
clearly
spitted out, but the arias are not meant to be be sung with crystal clear
diction.
The emotions and the music are more important. Moi here even expects it.
Lets' face
it some operatic arias are not very deep, I am not sure that want to pay too
close
attention to the words. (Some operatic plots shouldn't be examined that closely
either--much too melodramatic to be even decent literature.)
Recently, there was a posting on Opera-L about Jose in Carmen. According to
the
thread the in story, a novel by Proper Merimee, on which the opera is based,
Don Jose
had already killed a man. When he met Carmen, he was starting over, Not an
unimportant point since it sheds some light on the unfolding events, but a
point not
mentioned in the operatic version. (I have not personally studied the various
librettos, so I am taking it on faith that it is just not there.) Other grand
operas
have made such drastic cuts that it helps to know the original story in order
to fill
in the gaps. In some cases, the composers relied on the knowledge that the
audince
already knew the enough about basics of the story to fill in such ommisions.
(Opera-L
has had other discussions on plots and omissions.) It seems clear that these
operatic
composers were giving a much higher priority to the music and the dramatics
then a to
a clearly articulated story,
Barbara Roberts
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