Dear Karena, Mike and Vocalisters:
Karena wrote:
> Do you know the ensemble piece that comes in the 2nd act after Alfredo
> throws the money at her, the dad yells at him, and he expresses his
> remorse, etc. . .that gorgeous, heavenly music that follows, with
> Violetta's line floating and pulling overhead, and the chorus and
> ensemble making this beautiful blanket of sound underneath her, and the
> crescendos and decrescendos building tension to that beautiful release
> toward the end? Well, you can see how I perceive this music
> emotionally, and I listened in vain for any recording to do this
> music justice, to give it the emotional reading it deserved. No matter
> how famous or well-regarded these singers were, I didn't think any of
> them beat out our Violetta in the expression department.
>
> Maybe it was because they were studio recordings, or maybe, as I
> suspect, the whole business of opera can suck the artistic joy right
> out of you, these singers seemed to be singing with themselves in their
> minds rather than with the music in their hearts. That's what made me
> decide that if this is what it means to be at the top of this
> profession, I don't want it. Give me expression, passion, and
> emotional commitment over uninvolved, self-conscious perfection any
> day!!
COMMENT: Here is another possibility and I am not trying to be difficult.
Each generation views emotion on stage in a different way and with differing
degrees of intensity. I believe we now live in an age where emotion is
grossly overdisplayed in all venues of performance, be it theatre, opera,
musicals, or whatever. In my opinion there is little attempt at subtlety
and major attempts to "'show" the audience what is being "acted".
I also believe that the music of opera, Traviata in this instance, has all
the needed emotion within it and it does not benefit from "adding" or
"showing" emotion over and above that found in the music. If this premise
is true then the singer/actors have a most primary responsibility to sing
and act the role well and no responsibility to add non-singing elements or
vocal inadequacies to the music.
I am constantly amazed at the degree of non-singing elements that I find in
most performances today and even more amazed that these non-singing
elements are interpreted as an emotional expression of the music.
By non singing elements I mean things such as clumsily register changes,
call voice instead of head voice, barking instead of singing when the
emotion content is greater, chewed vowels which destroy the vowel line, a
loss of the core voice so the singing no longer has a central focus, an
uneven vowel line such that some vowels are louder than others, a
manufactured tone that is maintained by force rather than finesse, and so
on.
I look for the opera singers to never let me loose the presence of the music
even if it is tempting to want to create an "emotional moment". I want to
hear more of Verdi and less of the singer.
I am most aware that my desires are not necessarily those of others. But as
one who has been around awhile, I think it is safe to say that the
emotional content of today's performances tend to be inflated and, for me,
that inflation often comes at a cost to the music.
All of this may not be the case with your experience in the performances of
Traviata of which you speak. But it did give me the opportunity to define
a strong and not often expressed point of view.
Thanks for you message.
Regards
--
Lloyd W. Hanson, DMA
Professor of Voice, Vocal Pedagogy
School of Performing Arts
Northern Arizona University
Flagstaff, AZ 86011
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