lloyd wrote:
<< I look for the opera singers to never let me loose the presence of the
music
even if it is tempting to want to create an "emotional moment". I want to
hear more of Verdi and less of the singer. >>
lloyd,
i couldn't agree with you more (lloyd is now running for the
nitro-glycerin capsules). if singers would just execute the text, all of
it, there are plenty of oppurtunities to make decisions which reflect the
'feelings' of the singer without adding a bunch of cheap crap that doesn't
belong. if the singer would give over to what the music and words say,
they would be caught up in it as one is caught up in passionate debate. in
such cases, anyone is capable of losing oneself to the purpose of the
exposition. it is only vanity, when one seeks to impress, that causes the
composer and librettist to be lost.
the thing i hate about so many opera singers these days is, it seems as
if the most important person in their lives is their voice teacher. they
look as if all they think of is 'support' or some instruction they've been
given that will make them sound better. tito gobbi, obviously, was never
particularly concerned with the flashiness of his voice. i hope peter pears
wasn't trying to show off either. in the case of the latter, he was
provided with almost recitative music by britten. his characters had to be
100%. there was no room for extra junk, no room for vanity. there was
only room for getting the emphasis of each word in each phrase right.
think of how many singers only vocalize legato. do you ever hear many
people vocalizing staccato? why not? is it so easy that it need not be
practiced? how many singers vocalize in minor, for that matter? how many
singers speak the text seperately as a character (and not as a vocal
exercise)?
i hate to keep harping on the example of roderigo's death in 'don carlo'
but, in comparing fischer-dieskau's performance to other recorded
performances (not all), the rest all sound like they are singing while
dieskau sounds like he's dying which is exactly how verdi wrote it.
mike
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