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From:  sopran@a...
sopran@a...
Date:  Tue Jan 16, 2001  3:46 pm
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] 'All music is about sex' and other quotes from Barbara Bonney's lessons for amateur singers


While in some respects I think that it's unfair to comment on a few remarks
taken out of context, I think that perhaps what Ms. Bonney meant to say is
that all singing has a sexual component. Obviously, it's not all about sex,
but we are such sexual animals and that fact influences so much of how we
experience and respond to the world. I also believe that sex is so primal a
force that it energizes singing, adds a dimension of excitement to the
voice--even in music that is not, in and of itself, sexual. The comment
reminds me of advice from Maria Callas--"you must make love to the music."

Oddly, though, I do not consider Ms. Bonney's singing (at least in art song
literature) to be very highly sexual. I've only heard her live once, at
Carnegie Hall when she sang Schumann's Frauenliebe und leben, Barber's Hermit
Songs and some Britten and some Scandanavian songs, with Schumann's Mondnacht
(a favorite of mine) and Morgen by Strauss as encores.

To my ears, her voice fully blossomed only in the Scandanavian songs, when it
took on a wonderful full and vibrant golden qualilty that was quite stunning.
The rest of the singing (particularly the German) I found to be oddly
constricted and what may have been intended as virginal seemed downright
sexless. There were also strange tempo choices (An meinem herzen was taken at
a frenetic gallop that would have made any infant spit up immediately). She
may be very different in operatic repertoire. I heard her Nannetta on the
radio and thought it was lovely. But I've not heard much from this singer
that I would consider highly charged sexually. Just my opinion!

Judy

emusic.com