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From:  "Lloyd W. Hanson" <lloyd.hanson@n...>
"Lloyd W. Hanson" <lloyd.hanson@n...>
Date:  Sun Oct 15, 2000  4:30 pm
Subject:  Re: opera and speech


Hello Linda and Vocalisters:

I must jump in here before there is additional misunderstanding of my
comments about the vocal demands of opera.

I was attempting to define what I consider to be the vocal requirements of
the opera genre. I was also expressing concern that not a few of the well
promoted and most successful crop of new opera singers have replaced the
most obvious demands of opera singing with other values. In particular,
the topic revolved around the attempt to improve diction but at the expense
of maintaining a required singing line (which I called a "vowel line")

Nothing in my comments should be taken as a purists view that opera must
only be sung by the best, only that opera should be sung by those who more
accurately attempt to reproduce its intent. This can be done in student
productions as well as professional productions. I have made it very clear
in other posts that I enjoy the work of young professionals in regional
companies for whom the opera performance experience is still exciting and
alive more than the often indifferent performances of established
professionals who have a career to uphold.

I was not even addressing the all too common occurrence of a singer cast in
a role that is "too much" for him/her at their present stage of vocal
development. I was condemning singers who replace the demands of a role
with their personality trademarks, especially if these personality "things"
are an expression of lack of technical proficiency, which is often the case
in recent years.


Regards
--
Lloyd W. Hanson, DMA
Professor of Voice, Vocal Pedagogy
School of Performing Arts
Northern Arizona University
Flagstaff, AZ 86011


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