While I cannot fault Mr Norton's advice vis. the Neapolitan songs, I can't
help but take exception to his suggestions for the "classical song".
I strongly doubt that any vocal competition or audition that is asking for
a classical song has in mind popular songs from American operettas or
musicals. Thus I suggest that for this event you forget the suggestions of
the Romberg, Brodsky, or Wright/Forrest songs, and stick with something
that is indisputably "classical".
The most obvious choice for a classical song will come from art song
literature - either a German Lied, a French chanson or melodie, or an
English-language art song. Of course, if you speak Russian or Danish you
will have even more options, but I will stick here with suggestions in the
three "major" languages of Western art song repertoire.
Franz Schubert wrote literally hundreds of Lieder. You might look at his
song "Die Forelle" D.550, "An die Musik" D.547, "Heidenroeslein" D.257,
"An Silvia" D.891 - just as a very few examples. Schubert songs are
usually available in high-voice and low-voice editions, so you need to
find the high-voice version. Or you might do one of the songs from
Schubert's cycle "Die Schoene Muellerin" D.795.
If you prefer Lieder by Robert Schumann, you could do one of the Lieder
from his his cycle "Dicterliebe" Op. 48. I'm particularly fond of "Im
wunderschoenin Monat Mai".
The song "Ich liebe dich" by Grieg (also sung in Danish as "Jeg elsker
dig") is quite lovely too, and a perennial favourite.
If you're more comfortable with the idea of singing in French, you could
look at one of the many French melodies by Gabriel Faure, such as one of
the three songs in his Op. 5 - "Chant d'automne", "Reve d'amour", or
"L'absent", or one of his Op. 7 - "Apres le reve", "Hymne", or
"Barcarolle" - or indeed one of his dozens of other songs. Or perhaps one
of the many songs by Charles Gounod, esp. those in his "Biondina" cycle.
In English art song repertoire, you might consider a song by Peter
Warlock, or one of the songs from the cycles "Along the Field" and "On
Wenlock Edge" by Ralph Vaughan Williams.
You might also consider singing a tenor solo from an oratorio, like the
song "Where e'er you walk" from Handel's secular oratorio SEMELE, or "Be
thou faithful" from Mendelssohn's ST PAUL, or one of the tenor arias from
his ELIJAH.
Or you might consider doing a solo sacred song, such as "O Divine
Redeemer" or "Ave Maria" by Gounod, or "Panis Angelicus" by Cesar Franck.
If you did want to sing something from operetta, I think you'd be safer
with a song from one of the operettas by Offenbach (in French), Johann
Strauss Jr, Franz Lehar, or Emmerich Kalman (in German). For whatever
reason, these operetta composers are considered more "classical" than
Romberg. In English, you might be able to get away with something from the
operettas by Victor Herbert or Gilbert & Sullivan - but frankly, I've gone
to very few competitions in which such songs were presented.
As for the Neapolitan songs, you might also consider doing "O sole mio"
(by Di Capua), "Santa Lucia" (by Gordigiani), "Mattinata" (by
Leoncavallo), or "Funiculi Funicula" (by Denza), or "Non ti scordard di
me" (by Curtis).
Karen Mercedes
http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html
________________________________
One must be something if one
wishes to put on appearances.
- Ludwig von Beethoven
On Fri, 17 Jan 2003, Edward Norton wrote:
>
> Dear Adri:
>
> I knew a tenor who always won auditions with:
>
> Mattinata, Leoncavallo (although the Tosti rendition is lovely, too)
>
> Serenade from "Student Prince", Romberg-Donnelly
>
> You might also try:
>
> Maria, Mari, Di Capua
>
> 'A vucchella, Tosti
>
> Non ti scordar di me, de Curtis
>
> Torna a Surriento, de Curtis
>
> O sole mio, di Capua
>
> And This Is My Beloved from "Kismet", Forrest-Wright
>
> Be My Love from "The Toast of New Orleans", Brodzky-Cahn
>
>
>
> Hope these work for you!
>
> Ed
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