Some comments on several related threads floating around at the moment:
Upshaw as opera singer - her production is compared to Leontyne Price and
Renata Tebaldi
and found wanting. I submit that's comparing apples and oranges as the voices
are alike
only in their being called soprano. Upshaws is a much brighter and lighter
instrument.
While I also am not always a fan of the way she sings, I think she makes
choices based on
a valid esthetic, and which get the most out of her lighter instrument. My main
complaint
about her singing is that she "futzes around" too much - uses too many special
effects
which by their overuse become not only not-special, but annoying. I love her
voice when
she sings a line "straight" (not sans vibrato, but sans affectation). I had
the good
fortune to hear her singing like that very early in her career (at Wolf Trap
Opera) and it
is one of the most beautiful sounds I've ever heard - pure silver.
What's to like about all opera singing? That's strictly a matter of taste, I
think. For
me, there's nothing like it. When it's good, which is very often, it just gets
me in the
gut. Just by the sound and by the empathy I feel in my body when I hear the
sound. I
don't need to know what the words mean, nor do I care whether a vowel is pure
or modified
(if I had been lucky enough to see Joan Sutherland live in opera, I wouldn't
have cared
much about her diction or lack thereof). To me, the impact of the operatic voice
intensifies incredibly the other elements of the musical drama - character,
text, plot,
scenery, orchestra - in a way that no other performing art comes close to. I
have come to
this preference relatively late in my life, but I can assure you, it will
always be there
for me. For those who just don't like the sound of opera singing, I say "that's
cool - to
each his own". They coexist just fine. And some people even like both (I think
the
Wagnerian dramatic soprano Jane Eaglen listens to Metallica or some such groups
in her
spare time, rather than classical music).
Peggy
--
Margaret Harrison, Alexandria, Virginia, USA
"Music for a While Shall All Your Cares Beguile"
mailto:peggyh@i...
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