Vocalist.org archive


From:  Margaret Harrison <peggyh@i...>
Date:  Fri Apr 14, 2000  2:18 am
Subject:  Re: [vocalist-temporary] The Voice of a (Greedy) Angel



> > I don't think it means people are just stupid, I think true feeling and
> > passion are out of fashion, and are considered corny and overdone nowadays.
> > Therefore, those with the attractive walk and talk get the attention, even
if
> > they don't have much else!
>
> With this I disagree. I think emotional portryal is always in fashion. It's
> just the latest batch of singers don't know or care about putting feelings
into
> singing. As a manager and coach I train children in singing and theatre and I
> demand expression and emotion in singing else I don't sign the kid.

I know we don't "review" singers on this list, but I'd love to know which
current singers
listers believe don't put feeling into their singing. Because I really don't
agree that
all, or even most of the current "batch of singers" are unemotional. I've seen
my share
of the top classical singers live, in recital and in opera, and I can only
think of one or
two current performers who I'd say are "cool" emotionally in performance. And
even those
two have been quoted in interviews as valuing the emotional content of their
performances
(I suspect they haven't mastered converting the intellectual commitment into
something the
consistently communicates strongly to the audience.)

I also suspect that there are always been "cool" performers and "hot"
performers - in
every genre - and they exist in the same proportion now as in ages past -- it's
just the
we remember the past "hot" singers more vividly than the others. For every
emotional-wreck Meatloaf there's a cold-as-a-robot David Bowie!

Peggy

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

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