The embonpoint to become a queen of song
Serious “opera singer” Katherine Jenkins says her greatest wish is to sing Carmen or Cherubino at La Scala.
According to the Corriere della Sera:
The 29 year old Welsh mezzo-soprano and crossover singer known for her nine CDs (over 4 million copies sold) and three DVDs already released, a best-selling autobiography, a controversial TV show, a debut recording contract worth 1 million dollars (a record), renewed for 10 million dollars (another record), for selling more records than Maria Callas, for refusing one million dollars offered by Playboy to pose nude, and for her patriotic world tours for the British army [not pictured] Yes, Katherine Jenkins has a dream (for the moment) unfulfilled: to sing at La Scala.
And did she mention that her mentor (and vocal teacher) is Placido Domingo, her idol is Andrea Bocelli and her best friend is Rolando Villazon?
Here she sings O mio babbino caro, in the version Puccini wrote for a contralto -- one third down -- and where she shows her perfect Italian diction
(I am joking, of course)
There is the new Malibran! Belini transposed Norma to mezzo-soprano voice for her. Would have Puccini transposed this aria for KJ? God forbid, no!
Oh my god give me a break- KJ is not really an opera singer, she has not sung or been hired by the major opera houses.. So her 1 million contract is not a Record, because it’s not really a classical deal- it’s a crossover deal! ugh I’m having trouble breathing just thinking about the fact the people might be out there in the world thinking that KJ is an example of a real opera singer!
As a reply to Ms. Jenkins’ wish to divulge opera among young people, Enrico Stinchelli (co-host of the wildly popular Italian radio program “La barcaccia”) has invented this brilliant neologism: to diVULVe opera.
Oh goody, acronyms! I suggest The Welsh Artistic Triumph.
good lord! I don’t know whether to laugh or hold my ears in pain! Having said that, I am sure she has no idea how bad she is, nor do the audience, bless ‘em. Which makes me ponder our distress that such as she is able to outsell decent singers. Perhaps rather than grumbling at her and her audience, who really don’t know any better, we should turn our baleful glares at the managers and publicists. I wonder if those representing actual opera singers are too imbued with the non-profit spirit, and just don’t know how to sell the better singers to the unwashed masses – or to the recording companies that sell to the unwashed masses.
I mean, if people are willing to buy the bleatings of Il Divo, why not slather the much hotter and more talented Jonas Kaufmann up with oil (I volunteer to be the slatherer) and sell him as the representative of all things operatic?
Good Lord, Jenny, are you BEGGING for Armageddon? Read the recent skirmishes in the Great Renee War to see what greets the slightest departure from strict orthodoxy, and we’re talking scoop rather than slather. What you suggest goes headfirst against the “ME against the Masses” mentality which drew 99 per cent of us to opera in the first place. There are some posters here who are only now able to mouth the word “barihunk” without cringing. I am all in favior of what you propose, but then I love the smell of napalm in the morning.
Lil ol’ me? Triggering Armageddon? Oops! Sorry! To further elucidate my point, which (besides giving me a frisson of something or other from imagining rubbing oil all over Jonas Kaufmann… mmm… there it is again) was really to say we really shouldn’t castigate people who have never been exposed to anything better. Particularly when the actually good singers and their managers are not doing much to expose themselves. In a manner of speaking.
Well, the audience for Jenkins and Paul Potts and Il divo, anyway… the actual singers – go ahead and castigate liberally.