Vocalist.org archive


From:  Karen <kjensen@c...>
Karen <kjensen@c...>
Date:  Sat Oct 21, 2000  12:44 pm
Subject:  Re: [vocalist-temporary] Re: The Vowel Line


Lloyd wrote:
>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 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, therefore, not appropriate for the demands of
>roles these singers created with integrity and artistry. To use Upshaw
>technique voices in these roles is to deny the basic concepts of what these
>roles are about. And, most interestingly, though we hear so much today
>about the size of voices and the need for big voices, the fact of the
>matter is that voice size is much less important than meeting the technical
>demands of the performance practices of a genre.

Dear Lloyd and All,
In my opinion, your analysis very clearly explores the
implications and confusion which might arise from more speech-linked lower
range colourations (such as Dawn Upshaw) with other artists following a
tradition of operatic performance practice which assumes that the desired
colour in the lower range for the female voice should be different. I
wouldn't have identified Dawn Upshaw as representing tradition-based
operatic performance practice, but didn't get into this at all in my
response. I was thinking more about how, from the singer's point of view,
people can have a negative and even unfair response to a voice colour
without realizing why. The surprisingly visceral dislike for operatic
singing (in the tradition of Leontine Price, Tebaldi etc.) can have
extra-musical associations and symbolic meanings. A listener may read into
it some kind of class-related symbolism, or some other reason why the sound
is offensive to their ears. I had a friend in England whose contralto voice
was naturally extremely dark, and she had a lot of trouble getting work. I
thought this was terribly unfair and that she could have had a huge career,
but it didn't work out that way. I think the reason was that people just
couldn't handle the voluminous richness of this sound in a young person's
body.
Best, Karen Jensen





  Replies Name/Email Yahoo! ID Date Size
5817 Re: The Vowel Line Lloyd W. Hanson   Sat  10/21/2000   8 KB
5825 Re: The Vowel Line Karen   Sat  10/21/2000   5 KB
5828 Re: The Vowel Line Lloyd W. Hanson   Sun  10/22/2000   4 KB

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