N’est-ce plus Manon?
La Cieca hears that Natalie Dessay has walked out of the current Liceu production of Manon, leaving Inva Mula to sing the company’s new production of the Massenet opera. (Given the tight stagione scheduling, though, surely they will need another soprano to alternate.) Our insider whispers that la Dessay found Rolando Villazon (Des Grieux) something less than sympathique, in the sense of “it’s either him or me.”
Dear Mrs. John Claggart. I enjoyed your comments, and I’ve been called worst names than ‘delusional.’ I love it! By the way is Mr. Papas not Ms. What about the rumor that Domingo is singing in Europe Simon Bocanegra (the title)next year? Is he going back to his roots and he likes to finish his career as a baritone?
Even if he finished up as a bartione (for all we know, his final performance might be Act IV of Otello or Siegmund), he won’t be “going back to his roots”.
That’s true — Domingo recorded a baritone role (Figaro) and has lowered a lot of his roles for more than a decade — but he never studied or sang as a baritone. He studied and debuted as a tenor and fought that fight. It’s simply fiction to pretend otherwise.
In nature there are high and low tenors; Florez as opposed to Vickers for example. Vickers at his best had high notes, but his voice didn’t ‘sit’ in a high tessitura and he would tire out in high lying roles (but he could manage a ringing and loud Radames fairly late in the day). Florez’ voice ‘sits’ in a high tessitura and he can manage higher than average notes (there is recorded evidence of a high E flat in Sonnambula, and it’s something he did at his uneven but finally compelling Carnegie Hall concert.)
Monteverdi used both high and low tenors, in Ulisse, and also in all of his elaborate church music. Villazon’s best recording is the fairly recent Monteverdi album where he is ‘second’ tenor to Lehtipuu’s first tenor — Haim uses the very low tuning that Alessendroni and Curtis now think is ‘authentic’ (sighs and eyebrows everybody) but it makes sense in Monteverdi’s writing. Not needing to strain his voice for high notes or sing with pressure, Villazon has a lovely heady resonance and a persuasive way with the style.
Domingo at first had a small voice and no high notes. The haters at RMO remember his Slitty Opera performances where he’d sing high, not so high and kinda high notes into the wings or upstage in case something went awry. It usually did.
But he was able to build with remarkable success for volume and for high notes. There is a ringing high C on a ’78 L’Africaine, and a resounding ‘O Paradis’. High C’s and B’s were not his forte but it was rare in his hey day for him to crack on the B flat. He changed by working with a Mexican baritone named Iglesias, who helped Domingo with support issues and also gave him exercises for freeing his tongue, so it did not ride up and choke off the tone or the higher notes (this is one of the worst side effects of sensation based teaching, those teachers in my experience NEVER paid attention to the mouth, the tongue and the jaw. They felt if the sensation was ‘right’ then everything followed ‘naturally’.)
Another issue for the young Domingo was covering. Since his background was in popular (though ‘semi-classical) music, clear words were part of his nature. He didn’t cover low enough when he started and didn’t like to cover high, as a result the notes would shatter. Iglesias taught him a cover technique, he began to cover low, and clamped a heavy cover above the F sharp, increasing his support as he did. Though again this didn’t get him a reliable C it did secure the voice as high as the B flat and also aided somewhat in creating a bigger sound (it’s also why the voice sounds ‘dark’.)
Domingo stayed loyal to the sensation based technique of his youth; I had a long talk with him about it and he felt it worked for him. But without Iglesias he would have been a minor tenor.
Many singers adapt the sensation technique. Melba insisted that she survived Marchesi (as many didn’t) because she knew instinctively to drop her jaw and relax her tongue; also she played with covering (covering more than Marchesi liked), doing it in some roles more than others. Nilsson also paid close attention to the freedom of her neck, tongue and jaw, and as she matured she adopted an ‘appogiare’ approach to breathing. She told me she ‘located’ her breath in a sensation in the lower back, but then ‘leaned’ on the breath rather than forcing it (it’s how the very greatest Battistini and Plancon sang but Nilsson had never heard of them, she figured it out for herself).
One of the problems in talking about the greatest singers is that these people are the singing equivalents of great novelists or poets; they have superb equipment to start with, and then the instincts and imagination to make the most of it.
One alternative to the ‘sensation based’ technique is the Stanley Method (as it is known in America).
In Italy it was taught by Arturo Melocchi who taught (rescued) Del Monaco and also Corelli. This is a mechanistic technique where the larynx is forced as far down as possible, then the breath is ‘forced’ (my word not Mr. Stanley’s) under the tone. Del Monaco couldn’t get arrested until he mastered this technique, suddenly he had a huge voice and a stunning top (though shorter than the fans like to admit, he wasn’t comfortable with the B or C either)unless he could just touch them (“Cortigiana’ in Otello for example). Del Monaco had a very heavy cover and told my grandfather in my presence that he didn’t know how to sing the top without a cover.
Corelli used Melocchi’s method but still lost his high notes until something happened (he said he found them again himself, others say he studied with Lauri-Volpi — there’s a book due which supposedly has lots of documents and eye witness testimony, for the first time Corelli’s true story will be known.) Unlike Del Monaco, Corelli played with ‘placement’ (using his mouth for sensation) and also with covering, he did not clamp a cover on automatically in his maturity but chose depending on the effect he wanted to make (though he never sang as open as De Stefano).
De Stefano never covered and his voice didn’t last; Schipa never covered and refused to teach a cover technique (the reason Valetti broke with him) but Schipa’s voice lasted forever!
Behrens by the way built her voice with the Stanley method as taught her by Jerry Lo Monaco; and she exhibited one of it problems with her ‘coughing’ attack.
But I have bored myself silly and will be run off this blog. I will say that the best teachers I knew (of many I knew), were Benjamen du Loche who I played for at Yale and Beverley Johnson, the first American voice teacher to do physiological research on how ‘the voice’ really works.
A small correction- Domingo did in fact sing baritone, not significant roles, but rather sang
Marullo and a handfull of similiar secondary roles in 1957 at the Bellas Artes in Mexico City. This was confirmed to me by the archivist of the Mexican National Opera, who showed me the playbill when I worked there many years ago. So, it isn’t absolutely correct to state he “never” sang as a baritone, as he certainly did at the beginning of his career. It is correct to state that he never sang principal roles as a baritone.
According to Domingo’s Website, he sang Borsa, not Marullo, as well at the Emperor in Turandot and the Abbe in Chenier.
Mrs J C
You certainly didn’t bore me with your detailed post on tenorial technique. I have to ask, as a singer trying to get *my* technique together, what is your definition of covering? Before actually reading anything on the subject, I used to think it had something to do with making a covered, darker, woofy rather than bright sound. Now, having read texts such as Miller’s The Structure of Singing and having tried to work on his (and my own teacher’s) explanation of the concept of covering, I understand it to simply mean a slight modification of the natural Italian vowels to achieve a more integrated sound as one ascends in one’s particular voice range. Is this what you mean when you discuss what Corelli, Del Monaco et.al. were doing?
I appreciate Mrs Claggett’s comments about vocal technique; there is much truth in what she says. But whoever talked about Villazon lowering pitch “a semi tone,” come on! Then he (?) went on to say Domingo lowered a full half tone. What, pray tell is a “semi” tone if it’s not a half tone? Everyone is singing in C-major and Domingo is singing in C-minor?
Thank God for Mrs Claggett!!!!!!!
That old girl is right on.
I can attest to the fact that Laurent Naouri is a very agreeable and intelligent man; I tried over lunch to get him to talk about Natalie, but he would absolutely not discuss her — very wise!! He is much his own man, and I respect that; only way to be.
I thought Natalie sounded quite OK in the UTube clip of the Saint-Sulpice scene; strong and true. The B-natural in pardonnez-moi was right on and easily achieved. I’ve been worried about her being up to the Met Lucia, but after hearing the Barcelona Manon, I am not so worried. You can sing Lucia with no more than a high-D; godspeed to her; I like her a lot as person and artist. Her voice in person is always stronger than I expect it to be. Why she developed nodes is a mystery to me!
MrMyster/SFE