voce, voce, voce
“I think that there will be an increased desire in the future to hear great singing again. Certain operas rise and fall on having the requisite vocal chops, and no degree of theatrical energy or physical glamor can replace this.” So says is IMG Artists Vice President and Artist Manager Matthew A. Horner (known affectionately around these parts as “Little Matthew”) in an interview just published on the arts marketing blog Life’s a Pitch.
Touchy Mr Holland
I’m not being touchy, I’m mocking your changing of the rhetorical goalposts, to be pedantic about it.
I don’t think it’s pedantic to say that a far smaller percentage of the population can afford, or get into, Garsington than they now can to Glyndebourne (where you can stand for a tenner, I think it is, if you’re so keen to see something)
This is getting silly. I was merely mocking the idea that one of the very last operas written in the 20th century that was a box office hit took 89 years (!!) to make it to a British stage while some inferior (in my view) Strauss operas had and for British Straussians to complain about where or how easy it was to get tickets or their price was silly. Even the stodgy Met did Die Tote Stadt 12 times from 1921-23.
Surely ‘changing of the rhetorical goalposts’ is what m/bs are all about. We can none of us stick to our points when others choose to introduce new ideas or lead them onwards/sideways. It’s not a good place for control freaks.
Anyway, I SHALL be glad to see Tote stadt staged in London at last – even with Nadja Michael! – and there’s an end of it.
One of the most shameful losses in all of this is that the classical technique allows the voice to move freely, generally upward, as the singer enters maturity, if that is where it wants to go. So Bastianini started as a bass, the voice rose as it matured and the technique supported its evolution. There is very little effort in his singing as the technique is flawless, the voice is so beautifully placed in the mask, producing that glorious ring and the back of the head and the back kick in with that wonderfully melifluous warmth.
Bergonzi started as a bass-baritone, then sang as a baritone and matured into a tenor. Again, a wonderful, effortless technique. His recording of Ballo shows a voice that moves with ease through the passaggio. I know of very few tenors who can do that today. Perhaps the closest to being able to produce that kind of thrilling noise is Misha Didyk.
We have no decent Verdi baritones – the last, Zancanaro, sings rarely. And very few really good tenors. And what happened to all of the tenore di grazie?!
Browser – interesting about the lack of tenori di grazia. Florez, for instance, completely lacks ‘grazia’ to my ears. Lots of efficiency and inflexible tone, but very little charm and love.
The closest among the major names has to be Calleja. His tone is a bit nasal and his style is in danger of mannerism, but he does have grace and charm in his singing. And the fact that he looks like a rugby player adds to the charm in a funny way!
Calleja has what seems to be a strange (perhaps imposed?) vibrato that I find difficult to listen to. The whole point of grazia singing is that it is lead by the head voice (with the head voice is mixed in quite a long way below the passaggio). The diamphragm only supports, it doesn’t create extra volume, so there should be less vibrato, not more.
A singer sings only while exhaling. During inhaling, the diaphragm moves downward and the lower it goes the more volume of air is stored in the lungs. Then the diaphragm contacts, pushes the air upwards into the larynx and vibrates the vocal cords, as it passes through, thus producing the singing sound. The diaphragm enhances not only volume but also the length of a vocal line.
Anatomy 101 vs. Singing:
There should be no “pushing” of air during singing. When singing, the diaphragm and ribcage do pretty much the opposite and work to *regulate* the air flow. If you’re singing properly, you phrases will be limited not by lung capacity, but by how long before your urge-to-breath occurs. *Then* your diaphragm pushes out all the remaining air, before you inhale.
Re: quiently anonymous: The best way to get a sense of this is to listen to John McCormack sing Il mio tesoro.
No pushing from the diaphragm, onlu support.
Browser, with respect, Bergonzi is not a very strong example of a singer moving upwards during their career, since he said himself in an extensive interview that the reason he sang as a baritone was because he was not singing properly. He stated, quite candidly, that he was singing in an unhealthy way as a baritone. It wasn’t that his voice naturally progressed upwards, it was that he took a short time out to sort himself out, and then relaunched as a tenor – the rest is history.