Vocalist.org archive

From: Ernie Valenzuela <erniev@2...>
Ernie Valenzuela <erniev@2...>
Date: Wed Oct 4, 2000 7:12 pm
Subject: RE: [vocalist-temporary] Re: mike likes opera (HELP!) but, not th e way its sung

Mike posted: ----Original Message----- >From: RALUCOB@a... <RALUCOB@a... < but, not the way its sung >Date: Wednesday, October 04, 2000 9:55 AM > >dear list, > > after listening to all kinds of rock music in jr. high school, i >returned to listening to classical music (the music i grew up with). i >became interested in opera. what bothered me, at the time, was the sound of >the voices. what hooked me was fischer-dieskau's dutchman. he didn't have >that operatic sound. i know people have problems with him but, their >objections amount to being no more than a school of thought within the genre. > I am curious to hear F-D's interpretation of the Hollaender...I am partial to beefier sounds such as Ferdinand Frantz (not to be confused with Franz Ferdinand Nentwig) & George London (but I have a suspicion that you might not like their renditions). I heard the American Robert Hale in Munchen & he kicked tail! But F-D? That's an interesting concept...I imagine he would cut a most sympathetic sojourner. > i did get more used to the more operatic sounds of men's voices but not >to women's. when i was a senior in high school, my favorite opera was >'billy budd' partly due to the absence of women's voices. since then, i >have found women's voices that i love- mirella freni, teresa stratas, college >friend gui ping deng, my wife kim mccullough and my sister rebecca o'brien >(can't say i'm very open minded about the last two but, others like them too). When referring to your previous post regarding opera's excesses... ...I wish you had/have a chance to see the Met's offering of Billy Budd. In a word: stupifying! The Man o' War - Rights of Man - literally rises out of the stage through the use of the theater's elevators/lifts. These excesses are what makes the Met the best theater in the world. One of the most natural voiced baritones acquitted himself admirably as the innocent sailor Budd: Richard Stillwell. And James Morris showed real menace as Claggart (to my way of thinking - the only role I've ever liked the way he sang). > > to illustrate my problem (to the three of you still reading), let me >call your attention to the end of roderigo's death in verdi's 'don carlo'. >as fischer-dieskau performs it, he literally sounds like someone dying >whereas everyone else, singing way too @#$%&*' loud, sounds like they are >singing an oddly written passage. fischer-dieskau, in creating this effect >sings those notes exactly as verdi wrote them. and, i might add, is exactly >what lloyd was talking about as a marriage of text and music. Gobbi's autobiography goes into detail as to how he handled this scene. His manner of thinking was considering what was happening to the human body after being mortally wounded in the back: the internal bleeding, the lungs filling with fluid, the body's organs shutting down. You're drowning, suffocating, asphyxiating & you're desperate to tell your life's friend everything you can in a few short moments. Perhaps Gobbi & F-D were both on the same page when it came to thinking how Posa's departure was to be interpreted. I would pursue this manner of thinking as well when considering Valentin's farewell to the extent that the body is failing. > > i don't have an answer to my problems with the way opera is sung these >days. i know there are examples of it being better (see following >paragraph). i like the idea of michael bolton's opera disc. although the >tone is a little rough, he certainly nails the high notes better than any >tenor i went to school with. he also sings with passion that doesn't sound >goofy. (that reminds me, i still haven't heard pat boone's 'metal' disc.) > I enjoy listening to Hercules' theme song from the Walt Disney film; Bolton does a nice job of that song. I've heard the "metal" disc...skip it. > i prefer siegfried jerusalem, and sometimes rene kollo, to all other >wagner tenors (except alberto remedios). i can't stand ben heppner. i >like thierry dran in 'fortunio'. i like marni nixon but, i can't stand dawn >upshaw. i think the young dick van dyke would have been the best papageno >ever (well i'd be better but, i mean besides me). i'd like to hear julia >migenes sing opera with her cross-over voice(s) instead of her opera sound. >i'd probably like sarah brightman if she actually were bright...does anybody >see a pattern here? I like Gosta Winbergh. My former voice teacher was a damn good Siegfried! I'd like to hear Jon Frederic West & I've heard enough of Peter Hoffmann. I think a living, breathing Ray Bolger could give Dick van Dyke a run for his money. E.V. (a third of the three).... ;^)