Vocalist.org archive


From:  Margaret Harrison <peggyh@i...>
Margaret Harrison <peggyh@i...>
Date:  Thu Oct 26, 2000  3:40 am
Subject:  Re: [vocalist-temporary] Opera Singing


"Lloyd W. Hanson" wrote:
When Upshaw "futzes
> around" she is abandoning this vowel use requirement for the
> literature she has chosen to sing and I find that unacceptable.

I hear some of this in her singing, but that's not all I mean. I hear effects
with
straight-tone vibrato-control which just make the voice sound not-pretty, when
the music
needs pretty. If you want to call all that "vowels", fine, but I doubt very
much she's
thinking about vowels. She's thinking special effects to try to imitate early
music, or
to give a special "oomph" to a particular word. I also think she lets herself
get off her
breath (do you call that vowels, too?), so the pitch can get weird sometimes,
and she
loses the legato in favor of the effects when I think legato is needed
(especially in
Mozart).

But if the singer emphasizes text above the music that new
> "meaning" is lost and all one can say is that the text has been
> "carried" by the music. For many, I would guess, this is all that
> song is supposed to be; for me it is most unsatisfying.

I'm sure we're saying the same thing with different words. I love good
diction, and the
color and taste of great consonants, and I love it when the singer uses the
voice to get
at the meaning of the text (and subtext), and uses the words to give a phrase
shape and
motion. But I want the singer to do this AND maintain the legato and the line.
It can be
done - I happen to think Renee Fleming and Bryn Terfel do this superbly. And
the marvelous
baritone I heard this evening singing the Carmina Burana solos (rehearsing a
performance
my chorus is singing next Saturday).

Peggy

--
Margaret Harrison, Alexandria, Virginia, USA
"Music for a While Shall All Your Cares Beguile"
mailto:peggyh@i...


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6034 Re: Opera Singing Lloyd W. Hanson   Thu  10/26/2000   4 KB

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