Decrease your word power
La Cieca is starting a new series of Words Critics Need to Stop Using. The word of the day is “shambolic,” much beloved of British critics, and more or less meaningless, as in “[Les Contes d'Hoffmann] is an extraordinary and rather shambolic work based on three stories by the 19th century German writer of fantasies ETA Hoffmann, who is also the main character in the opera.” (The fact that the writer uses the more mundane and precise word “muddled” later in his review demonstrates that “shambolic” is just so much posing.)
Some of the clichéd words help: Velvety (I always liked for Leontyne Price’s mid-high range); others are just drek -- “a heartfelt interpretation.” The last thing I need to know is what’s going on in Thomas Hampson’s heart. “Burnished” is good for early Domingo; it’s just right, as is “silver” if referring to say, Gundula Janowitz. I wish critics could be more honest in negative language: “Unconvincing” should be “boring;” “mediocre,” (not used nearly enough) should be “craptacular.” “Singing through his nose” should be far more widely appreciated (heard Giordani’s Ernani this season?.
I have this idea that singers’ voices and styles should be compared to wines and should be described with the terminology used in characterizing wines. This terminology is complex, but quite subtle and well-defined when people know what they are talking about.
acetic -- acid(ity) -- aftertaste -- age(d) -- alcohol -- angular -- appley -- aroma -- ascescence -- astringent -- attack -- attractive -- austere
[B] backbone -- balance -- berrylike -- big -- bitter -- body -- botrytis -- bouquet -- brawny -- breathe/breathing -- breed -- briary -- brilliant -- brix -- browning -- buttery
[C] candylike -- cedar(wood) -- charming -- chewy -- cigarbox -- citrusy -- closed-in -- cloudy -- cloying -- complex -- creamy -- crisp
[D] decanting -- delicate -- depth -- dessert wine -- direct -- dirty -- dry -- dumb
[E] earthy -- easy -- elegant -- essence -- ethyl acetate
[F] fat -- filtered -- fined -- finish -- firm -- flat -- fleshy -- flint(y) -- floral -- forward -- foxy -- fresh -- fruity -- full-bodied -- funky
[G] gamey/gamelike -- glycerin/glycerol -- grapefruity -- grapey -- grassy -- green
[H] hard -- harsh -- hazy -- hearty -- herbaceous -- hollow -- hot
[J] jamlike/jammy
[L] leafy -- lean -- lees -- legs -- lemony -- length -- light -- lingering -- lively -- lush
[M] maderized -- malolactic fermentation -- matchstick -- meager -- meaty -- mouth-filling -- musty
[N] nose -- nouveau -- nutty
[O] oaky -- oily -- open-up -- overipe -- oxidized
[P] peppery -- perfumed -- plump -- ponderous -- powerful -- pruney -- puckery
[R] racking -- raisiny -- refined -- residual sugar -- rich -- rim -- ripe -- robust -- rotten egg -- rough -- round -- rustic
[S] salty -- sharp -- simple -- smoky -- soft -- sour -- spicy -- spritzy -- stale -- stoney/stonelike -- structure -- sturdy -- stylish -- supple -- sweet
[T] tanky -- tannin -- tarry/tarlike -- tart -- taste -- tears -- thin (bodied) -- tight -- toasty -- tobacco
[U] underipe -- unfiltered -- unfined
[V] vanilla -- vanillin -- varietal character -- vegetal -- vinous -- vitis labrusca -- vitis vinifera -- volatile
[W] warm -- watery -- weighty -- well-balanced -- woody
[Y] yeasty/yeastlike
Yes, guess which soprano sounds raisiny and stone like?
I don’t know. But I can think of a few that once had a good bouquet and were full-bodied, but by now have become maderized…
Seeing “perfumed” on Clita’s list — I’d like to see it dropped when referring to the operas of Jules Massenet. Just about every critic, even the really good ones, that
precious few, use perfumed in that way. WTF does it mean? At one point in Thais the title soprano offers up an incense homage to Venus or Eros or some such — a funny campy moment, a touch of the exotic in Massenet’s time — and I guess you could say that was perfumed Massenet.
Otherwise, where is he ‘perfumed?’ And while I am on it, poor Massenet used to get skewered by Harold Schoenberg, who seemingly did not like him, who referred to the “fake religiosity” of Massenet in the Saint-Sulpice scene of Manon. Talk about redundancies! But, seriously, Massenet was quite the craftsman and quite a man of the theatre; in other words, he knew what he was doing. Let us forswear perfumed henceforth!
Oh, an on French opera at the Met, I think if they would cast for Marguerite a
soprano other than La Pops, a lot of folks here who eschew the Faust would find
they like it much better. Faust is a SINGERS opera!! Big time.
I vote to ban forever two words.
Stentorian and Venerable
Stentorian usually means louder than hell, wobbly, ugly and inappropriate.
Venerable refers to anyone over 40 these days. It usually really means older than dirt and wrong for the part…but trying like hell to keep playing with the young ones. Hummmm
Yep…take those two out of the lexicon of review terms.
“Orchestra” or “band”? At least you can’t turn a band into a carthorse.