"Lloyd W. Hanson" wrote:
>
> Dear Randy and Karen and Vocalisters:
>
> Lets assume
<snip for brevity>
I wasn't sure, even on a third reading, whether this meant you were
agreeing or disagreeing with Randy's descriptions of the operatic
voice. The early tone of this sounded as though you felt it was in
doubt, but then you appeared to lend support to those singers who
exactly match his description. Please, which was it?
> What place have such singers in a style of singing that, by some sort of
> definition, either through the writing of earlier opera composers or
> through the performance practices as they developed, does not seek a
> voweling that resemble the voweling of speech.
Do we have any documentary evidence that this was the case at the time
these works were written and has not been superimposed on it since?
>
> Perhaps opera singing has sought to create an emotional quality of tone
> that, in some sense, supersedes the immediate understanding of the words
> being sung. Not in all cases nor even at all times but yet as an accepted
> and even sought after tonal coloration that is essential to the role being
> performed or the aria being sung. If artists of the recent past are guilty
> of this coloration it was certainly not a personality development but more
> likely a stylistic demand that either was taught, or absorbed or expected
> by the opera genre.
> Much of contemporary opera is completely different in singing style and
> lyric sense from opera prior to the 20th Century. With no need to evaluate
> which is better there is a need to understand the performance practices
> that made any genre work and to maintain an integrity to the demands of
> that genre.
>
> To summarize it simply and, perhaps, offensively, Dawn Upshaw does not
> belong in a lot of opera created prior to the 20the century except is
> special roles that fit her singing style.
I'm interested to read that your restrictions on her - and many others
like her, presumably - work only in one time-direction. I first heard
her in Mozart, a stunning and much acclaimed Pamina. My partner heard
her recently in Handel at Glyndebourne, and was similarly overwhelmed. I
can understand your possibly feeling that maybe Handel "doesn't count"
in a discussion of operatic style, but Mozart? Are we actually
discussing _all_ mainstream opera writing, thus do you feel her
technique has no place in Mozart either, or is this much debated issue
in fact all about 19th-century style only?
> I consider her an artist and I
> admire her technique for what she does but her technique is not that of
> Price or Tebaldi, etc
and, by corollary, theirs is not that of Dawn Upshaw
I am enjoying this discussion a lot, and thank you for your brilliantly
laid-out working through of the arguments from both sides.
The reason why I feel slightly differently about it from you is that
besides teaching voice I have also spent years teaching music -
musicianship - musicality - music appreciation - call it what you will -
to enthusiastic people, both adults and children, who have no background
in classical music, however knowledgeable they may be about other
styles. This is why I ran a chamber opera company for seven years; many
people experience their first opera through groups such as this, and I
feel I have the task of making it, and many other kinds of "good" music
- approachable for those who have never known it. I really don't think
this is the same thing as dumbing down. My father had been a
music teacher (though a very duff singer) and many people have told me
that they owe their deep life-long love of music to him. It would be
nice to know such things might be said about me some time.
>From those I have met who have misgivings about opera style, two things
arise again and again. One is the fact of it being in a foreign
language, which is why I devoted time to producing singing
translations; the other is that they often simply _do_ _not_ _like_ the
tone of the "operatic" voice, and in particular the 19th-century style
we have been discussing, and, interestingly, this dislike is nearly
always applied only to the female voice. Tenors in particular they seem
to have no problem with (my ex-husband, a fine tenor, gets paid huge
sums of money to sing Nessun Dorma at midnight on New Year's Eve every
year in a notorious night-club in Liverpool - he takes the money and
runs afterwards :o)
My own problem with it is that although I feel the expression in the
music, I feel in many cases that the tone used is _not_ appropriate to
the character, particularly if she is young, or flirtatious. When I was
very young I always associated this sound with older women, and to hear
it used for a character such as Lauretta or Musetta rather jars. What is
often missing is the sweetness in the tone. Now, I'm not talking in
terms of Hallmark cards, as I understand it this is an expression
sometimes used in discussions of timbre.
It's strange that those who will appreciate a world-class pianist or a
virtuoso clarinettist, and admire the years of work that has brought
these performers to this peak of excellence, will complain that a voice
- and here again, I only _ever_ hear this about female voices - sounds
"too trained"!
cheers,
Linda
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