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From:  Karen Mercedes <dalila@R...>
Karen Mercedes <dalila@R...>
Date:  Sun Nov 26, 2000  3:08 pm
Subject:  What a "budding dramatic" SHOULD sing (was: "voi lo sapete"- too dramatic?)


I can certainly understand your frustration when it comes to being
"slotted" to sing "Vedrai carino" when you feel more like a potential
Tosca or Isolde (or Santuzza).

So at 20, what exactly would be the "right" "baby dramatic" (or even
"embryonic dramatic") repertoire to look at?

Well, not the "full dramatic" stuff, surely. But perhaps some very
judicious forays into heavier lyric repertoire - shorter arias that, while
they challenge you certainly, won't require such sustained vocal effort
that they risk doing damage.

How about one of the more dramatically satisfying lyric soprano arias,
like Micaela's aria from CARMEN (Je dis que rien ne m'epouvante) or "Adieu
notre petite table" from Massenet's MANON, or one of Liu's arias
from TURANDOT? Or "Ach, ich fuehl's, est is verschwunden" (Pamina's aria
from DIE ZAUBERFLOETE)?

With your teacher's guidance, I think you might find that these
arias won't only satisfy you dramatically, but will represent a more
logical "next step" vocally - these are the sort of arias you might
realistically perform in the near future, rather than ten years from now.

I would also suggest that, while the careers of dramatic sopranos (and
other singers) earlier in this century are certainly interesting, the
paths they followed toward their ultimate success aren't particularly
relavant in 2000. For better or worse, there are certain expectations of
young singers these days such that, were a Rosa Ponselle to spring up now,
I suspect her early _fach_ development would be rather different than it
was back in the 1910s. You just don't find many opera houses these days
that will hire a 20-year-old to sing the heaviest Verdi or Puccini roles.
This isn't to say that opera houses (including the top houses like the
Met) don't over-fach singers on a regular basis (just consider the careers
of Robert Alagna and his wife). But over-faching these days seems to be
more a product of market forces: the recognition that somehow heavy
Puccini and Verdi are more saleable, and thus must be the ultimate
objective of EVERY singer - regardless of their True Voice.

The singers for whom I have the greatest respect are those who DON'T allow
themselves to be manipulated or deluded (at least not too often) into
believing they can handle repertoire that is beyond their True Voice.
This doesn't mean that a given lyric soprano absolutely can never sing,
say, Tosca. But it does mean that a WISE lyric soprano will recognise
that while she might at some point sing Tosca in the recording studio, or
in a house that seats no more than 1,000, she will absolutely never sing
Tosca at the Met! I believe Robert Alagna, for example, could do a
bang-up job as Don Jose in the Zurich Opera. But he had no business
singing it at the Met (a house of 2,500+). But Mr. Alagna, sadly, seems
to be the ultimate example of the self-deluded lyric tenor who
opportunistically takes on roles that are absolutely too heavy for him
because the market needs tenors to sing those roles.

I also predict that we won't be hearing anything (or at least nothing
pleasant) from Alagna in another 10 years - i.e., when he's in his early
40s, i.e., exactly the age when a TRUE spinto/dramatic tenor voice would
be at its peak. There's a lesson there for all of us.

Karen Mercedes
=====
My NEIL SHICOFF Website:
http://www.radix.net/~dalila/shicoff/shicoff.html

My Website:
http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html

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