parterre box

67 comments

• Harry says:

  God! To think there are some here that speak of singers and opera and don’t know the progressive technology history of recorded opera that not only accompanied it but in many cases, drove it in the last 50 years..Many times a new record release set off interest in aan opera house using the same cast or perhaps performing it, for the first time. Do they live only ‘in the present second of their existence’…’what’s happening at the Met or Covent Garden next week?’? Perhaps that is why we hear from them, so much about the present scawny bunch of so called ‘stars’ wanting everyone’s attention before their premature demise from lousy technique or vocal ‘over use’ work fatigue.

  In non U.S countries the 7 inch 45 rpm had a ‘normal small spindle hole, not the larger donut hole needing the bung to play them on a turntable. For the dullards, someone please do not mention record changers…it will be too much for them to digest. No one has mentioned yet 78rpm 15 inch discs, or 45 rpm ‘audiophile’ 12 inch discs. On my shelves I have many mint unplayed editions.

  When you think of the cheap minicule sized presentations with digital CDs and DVDs, just think of the lavish almost coffee table books that accompanied some of those releases. Red velvet ‘The Callas Carmen – EMI’ or water marked silk boxes DG’s The Merry Widow’ and librettos that weighted a ‘ton’. I.E Decca / London release of early 70′s Solti’s Der Rosenkavalier with its fully color reproduced original Rollo set designs on heavy Art cardboard( suitable for framing).The recording (70′s- old hat?)no way. It was recorded in analogue BUT in 24 channels for the mix. And they tell us ‘things have progressed’??!! There was an instance recently where one famous sound engineer let out facts about the ‘wonder of digital recording for its splicing possibilities’. A digital piano recording he did, contained over 400 edits. I wonder the number of edits in some of today’s releases of the latest and brightest’in opera?

  on November 27, 2008 at 11:25 AM
• armerjacquino says:

  Have you ever been in an edit suite, harry? Most edits of recordings are to deal with extraneous noise or something untoward like a surpressed cough from one of the second violinists.

  It’s a lot easier to do that on a computer than it is to try and do it with tape, sticky tape and a razor blade.

  on November 27, 2008 at 11:31 AM
• Harry says:

  Well hndymn I willingly join with you on these points. As against opera singers performing 2 or 3 times a week, those doing ‘Broadway’ have to face up to 8 performances a week, every week of the run. Can one imagine the ‘headline tizzes and tiffs’ that say a Angela G. or Robert A. would throw, if they had to face the same workload? They would be looking for respite oxygen tanks to be placed in the wings. Makes many of opera’s ‘difficult things’ look lazy slackers by comparison.

  44. hndymn growled:

  Well, I guess us fags of a certain age come by our love of musicals honestly. It’s in the genes, probably. I stopped making apologies for it years ago. I get the same kind of gooseflesh from Merman singing “Rose’s Turn” as I do from Price singing Lady Macbeth’s Sleepwalking Scene. Both of them fearless, and taking risks…

  on November 27, 2008 at 11:38 AM
• Andy says:

  Ugh, douche alert!

  on November 27, 2008 at 11:49 AM
• NYQOC says:

  I got tired of reading. Did anyone mention to JATM that “rpm” stands for rotations/revolutions per minute?

  on November 27, 2008 at 12:13 PM
• Harry says:

  armerjacquino: Given the above example I gave, the real question is: why does a ‘professional’ artist need massive amounts of edits in a studio recording?
  I remind the distinction between ‘professional’ and ‘proficient’ IS the ‘true professional’: is expected to turn on a first grade performance more times than some artist ‘in decline, average or improving’. As a rule the latter ‘these Susan Alexanders’ are not suitable recording material for posterity. I.E. When people are able to quietly tell you that say soprano X had 18 takes to ‘lay down some aria’…..it says several things ….they are out of their depths and should not be singing it at all, should’nt sing it any longer or their voice is ‘ratshit’ anyway. As for being considered a ‘professional’ for such expected task, they certainly are an artistic fraud on potential consumers, as well. We do not have to look far for examples with some of the present modern releases.

  on November 27, 2008 at 12:14 PM
• DirkVA says:

  “Lydia – the Madrilenos will love you for calling their city a regional capital. The Catalans will be happy, though.”

  Hardly, since calling the ancient nation of Catalonia a “region” is fighting words there. And Barcelona was a world cultural center when Madrid was just a wide place in the road. It was made the “new” capital of Spain only because it was in the middle, and it owes it current size and prominence to Franco.

  on November 27, 2008 at 12:26 PM
• armerjacquino says:

  harry- Or that soprano X was determined that it should be perfect. Just as possible.

  Your idea that retakes automatically equal a lack of professionalism is baffling to me.

  on November 27, 2008 at 1:10 PM
• Browser says:

  To settle the argument between Amer and Harry – the standard practice is to take about three takes of every aria on a recital disc, for example. Remember that quite often the sessions are only set over two to three days – this is pretty pressurised singing… The first take is a dry run. The second two are compare and contrast, bit can be dropped into one from the other and vica versa. The recording industry ahs been working this way for some time. I am in a position to know this very well…

  on November 27, 2008 at 1:22 PM
• jatm2063 says:

  NYQOC: No, I don’t believe that anyone did (until you).

  They mostly just all fell into their personal anecdotes of vinyl bliss, and trying hard to ignore that (ultimately) digital technology is the ONLY way that any of the great recorded legacy that started out on vinyl will survive. That’s right girls. All of that cheap plastic hoarding space on your walls and in your closets and under your beds in your one bedroom walkups in Queens will eventually decay into dust.

  But hopefully, some music lover out there will have a digital copy of all of your faves saved for posterity.

  on November 27, 2008 at 3:29 PM