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.
Thank Goodness Matthew Horner understands what is going on. The agents are just as frustrated as we are.
A dear Friend works at a major agency in New York who recently auditioned an enormously talented and formidably sized soprano. They confessed after her audition they thought she had a shot to be the next “Voigt” trype soprano. However, They passed on her…the actuality is for the immediate future they would be unable to get her hired at her current weight at the houses that could help her get her experience and ascend to where she belongs. They could not invest any more time, energy, or effort, on an artist who could not be reasonably cast.
A Sad story but this is the state of the Opera world today.
We need great voices that don’t depend on weight for volume. Ponselle was thin in her early years; so was Raisa and so was Flagstad. Neither Martinelli nor Lauri-Volpi was overweight. The same is true of Ruffo and he probably had the largest baritone voice of all time. And remember that Nilsson and Sutherland were not obese. Weight has nothing to do with a voice that’s inherently great. The problem is that such voices have mysteriously disappeared.
There is no question that the voice is the goddess of opera. On the other hand, opera was created by adding music to the theater in order to enhance dramatic or comedic expression and action. The chorus in opera is a copy of the chorus from the Greek theater. Theatricality- appearance and acting- makes opera a thrilling experience. Let’s be honest you purists: a 300-pound Mimi with a formidable voice won’t do in any opera house. A new generation of singers for the best or the worst- Voigt, Netrebko, Fleming, Dessay, just to name a few- combining voice and acting- have created a new paradigm that brings opera back to its roots-theater. If we care only about voices, the opera houses would be empty, and we’d all be listening to celestial voices on CDs and old 33-vinyl records in our high-end-home-theater stereos. BTW, I have at least 50 comlete operas, in 33s, with all the golden voices that I play. My turntable works fine, and needles are easy to find.
a “new generation” the good Papas tells us, in his cute way of lecturing to the unwashed masses as if we know nothing, as if the merry group he mentions are so exemplary.
Corelli looked every inch his pirate status, Olivero WAS whatever she played, Callas, Rsyenak, Stratas, . Acting didn’t just become important and these hacks you mention are anything but real or great. In opera in every season that comes, they advertise their strengths. Right now it ain’t about vocal glamour, it is all about bells and whistles.
Voigt is thin now, and sorru folks, I was never a fan, Dessay’s best years’ are way back in the early 90′s, Fleming is always Fleming, with or without a scent, and Netty, well, we’ll always have her throwing her hair over the stage apron, now that is great acting.
Certain operas rise and fall on having the requisite vocal chops
I think he means “Certain operas succeed or fail at a particular performance based on having the requisite vocal chops” but I spin it as “Operas come and go in the repetory based on whether there’s singers around at any one time period that can do them acceptably”. It’s amazing to me, given how popular they are now, that a good portion of Handel’s works disappeared off the face of the earth for about 150 years or more. I was listening to Faure’s fabboo Penelope the other day, but who has that French style any more? etc. etc.
Voigt is thin now, and sorru folks, I was never a fan, Dessay’s best years’ are way back in the early 90’s, Fleming is always Fleming, with or without a scent, and Netty, well, we’ll always have her throwing her hair over the stage apron, now that is great acting
I read stuff like that and I sit here thinking “If they are so poor in the Top 40 opera stuff they primarily sing, could you please convince them to sing stuff *I* care about like Schreker, Korngold, Zemlinsky and the Italian verismo stuff that’s not Cav/Pag, where if those operas are done, they *never* get major voices to do them, because they’re too busy singing their umpteenth Ariadne”. I’d *love* to hear Voigt sing Els in Der Schatzgraber rather than *shudder* Gabriele Schnaut, Heppner sing Paul in Die Tote Stadt, Fleming sing Heliane in Das Wunder der Heliane etc.
If their voices are too worn to sing Verdi or whoever anymore, send them on to the Birtwistle/Reimann/Second Viennese School rep, where vocal beauty takes a back seat to being able to sing 12-tone coloratura accurately and meeting all the quirky vocal demands like leaps of minor 11ths, like Chris Merritt has done by making a specialty of Aron in Schoenberg’s opera. Oh well….
so much to look forward to…..snort
Mr. Papas blathered:
“A new generation of singers for the best or the worst- Voigt, Netrebko, Fleming, Dessay, just to name a few- combining voice and acting- have created a new paradigm that brings opera back to its roots-theater.”
I am not given to such statements, but anyone who seriously believes this knows nothing about opera or theater and is merely advancing the bromide that the opera “industry” is asking us to swallow.
Miss Voigt has damaged her voice by becoming thinner and her earnest work, even when good, has never had any relation to “theater”. Miss Fleming can play one thing- vulnerable”- which holds her in good stead in 6 or 7 roles but makes her a substandard actress at best in anything else. Miss Dessay , though a very talented comedienne, cannot play pathos without commenting somehow on how hip she in fact is. and her voice is nowhere near its zenith. Miss Netrebko is a stunning woman with a beautiful sound who when enthusiastic can be exciting in the right role but who cannot do justice to thee bel cant op roles she undertakes.
Don’t give us that “new paradigm” baloney the Gelbsters are shoveling. There were many singers in previous generations who could act- 20 years ago, 40 years ago, 60 years ago…
I read stuff like that and I sit here thinking “If they are so poor in the Top 40 opera stuff they primarily sing, could you please convince them to sing stuff *I* care about like Schreker, Korngold, Zemlinsky and the Italian verismo stuff that’s not Cav/Pag…
If only it were so easy. That stuff has the same vocal requirements as the Puccini and Strauss stuff in the Top 40 repertoire that we already lack singers for. The truth is, there aren’t enough big voices to go around; otherwise, the likes of Gabriele Schnaut wouldn’t have the career that they do.
The answer, of course, might be to emphasize repertory that flatters the good lighter-voiced singers that we do have. Then again, if you don’t like Handel or Rossini, that might be a problem.
Weight has nothing to do with a voice that’s inherently great. The problem is that such voices have mysteriously disappeared.
I think, however, that we’ve become too picky about body size in the last twenty years. In an environment in which people can pick on Kate Winslet (!) for being too fat, whatever would they make of a Birgit Nilsson?
Quite. I’m told that Marilyn Monroe was a UK size 16 at the height of her fame. Winslet has probably never been above a 12 in the ordinary course of events.