Saturday, April 05, 2008

Bad Verdi

The reason for so much bad Verdi is:

1. idea that voices have to be quite heavy to sing Verdi
2. fact that casts are arranged 5 years in advance
3. fact that 5 years of singing that heavy probably will give you a wobble.
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1 comment:

Paul said...

One other factor -- Verdi leaves his singers generally unsupported by the music during arias. [My wife calls it his "hung out to dry" mode.] A quick listen to any of those "Music Minus One" CDs provides all the illustration you might need. I have a "Canto L'Opera" disc of bass arias that includes "O tu Palermo" from "Siciliani" and "Il lacerato spiritu" from "Macbeth." Without exaggerating there are times when the orchestra "chimes in" with a chord or two once per bar. For an opera singer, the positive side is that you don't have to strain to be heard over the music -- such as it is. On the down side, it makes a singer FAR more conscious of the naked exposure to the audience. I'm sure that can be very debilitating over time.

3:00 PM

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