OperaBloke

I don't listen to opera because it is elitist.

2009-11-10T00:12:00.000-08:00

I don't enjoy it because it is one of the high arts.

Not because its synonymous with the upper-middle class.

Or in a bid to seem like more of an intellectual.

If those are one's reasons for adoring anything, then that is a vacuous passion indeed.

I listen because I love and am moved by the beautiful music.

Isn't that reason enough?

Renee Fleming....

2009-09-06T15:33:00.000-07:00

and Handel do not mix.

Renee Fleming and Bel Canto do not mix.

Renee Fleming and Verismo combine to form operatic magic. Well, most of the time.

Dear lord, I don't know what I was thinking. Please take my two Renee Fleming mistakes (albums is a little too kind) and substitute them with a DVD of Eugene Onegin and perhaps a (no Handel or Bel Canto arias included) recital CD.

Thank you.

Jessye Norman

2009-06-18T00:57:00.000-07:00

One cannot discuss late 20th century opera music without mentioning Jessye Norman. One of the most prominent American opera singers of the last 25 years, Jessye combines a rich, expressive voice with incredible artistry and an understanding of the music. Born in 1945 in the USA, Jessye has a unique singing voice that combines the dark timbre of a lower Mezzo-Soprano with the range of a 'higher' Dramatic Soprano hence her ability to sing roles that lie within the spectrum of these two vocal types. Like I mentioned, she's famous for her understanding of the music and artistry. To quote a prominent reviewer at a past recital of hers "If one added up all the things that Jessye Norman does well as a singer, the total would assuredly exceed that of any other soprano before the public. At Miss Norman's recital ... tones were produced, colors manipulated, words projected and interpretive points made—all with fanatic finesse."

Sadly, due to aging and (especially) her 'intensely muscular' form of singing, she has currently lost most of her upper register and, as of the mid-90's, has been singing more opera roles and recitals from the mezzo-soprano repertoire.

Here's a sample of Jessye Norman's singing:

The aria 'Mon Coeur S'ouvre a ta Voix' from the opera 'Samson and Delilah'. This opera is based on the biblical story.

Maria Callas

2009-05-16T01:13:00.000-07:00

Her voice was wild and wobbly, it lacked velvet, had an almost gratingly metallic tone and, in the middle of her range, she sang with a ‘hooty’ vocal quality.

Yet, for all its flaws, Callas’ voice was arguably the most exciting to come out of the opera world in the past century. She had marvellous technique, had a mesmerising stage presence and gave the most beautiful interpretations. Callas had an electrifying voice; it was dark like molasses and, yet, had an excellent top. This is a woman that would sing a mezzo low note and, in the same breath, trill on a soprano E flat. Her Manon Lescaut is chilling, her Norma poignant, her Turandot electrifying, her Elvira delightfully light and beautiful. She was a most prolific interpreter singing roles from literally every composer from a MASSIVELY HEAVY Isolde to a light, vocally acrobatic Gilda. Her voice had none of the homogenous quality of some of today’s opera singers; it had an instantly recognisable tone and she had the ability to ‘color’ it according to the role she was singing.

She lived as tragic a life as the roles she sang (she lost her husband Aristotle Onassis to JFK’s widow then lost her singing voice at a relatively young age) and that undoubtedly fuelled her excellent interpretations.

A YouTube commenter stated that the (almost half a millennium) opera world should be divided into two eras: pre-Callas and post-Callas. Regardless of the fact that she’s not even my favourite singer (and has as many detractors as she has fans), I entirely agree. Callas brought the drama into opera and revolutionised audiences expectations.

Singing Delilah’s aria of seduction ‘Mon Coeur Souvre a’ta voix’

Singing Gilda’s ‘Caro Nome’ (compare the light voice here with the vocal color she sang with in above video!)

In her signature role as the conflicted Celtic Druid High Priestess. Singing ‘Casta Diva’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmN8YT9Avg4

Pavarotti

2008-11-10T04:49:00.000-08:00

How incredibly cliche.

But Mr Pav is one of those rare performers that manage to combine mainstream popularity with major critic-loving (for the most part). It's his idiosyncratic voice; not a large voice but very clearly heard in the opera house due to how it's perfectly focused and its clean, Italianate ping. Plus the man has seemingly no passagio! Much copied but never replicated, this is a lyric tenor for the ages.

Overplayed doesn't come close to describing how I feel about the following aria. It isn't difficult though to see why it really propelled Pav into the mainstream.

A Ramses rivalled only by Corelli. That "un trono vicino al sol" at the end is incredible.

Birgit Nilsson

2008-11-02T01:22:00.000-07:00

In the beginning, I wasn't too fond of this woman due the steely cold quality of her top notes and the immense volume. But an acquired taste she is and now that I have learnt to appreciate her, I do realise why they say that few other sopranos come close in most of the Wagner and Strauss (and one Puccini) operas.

1. The Liebestod (love-death). Arguably the most famous love song in opera. So much pathos conveyed so subtly.

2. Birgit as the fearsome Princess Turandot. I love the laser-like high C that shoots out bright and clear at 3:00

3. As the utterly mental Princess (she sang a lot of conflicted princesses) Salome in a concert performance.

So,

2008-10-24T07:02:00.000-07:00

What does a strapping young man in France, the land of romance do?

Of course, he goes to the opera!

I caught a performance of Verdi's Rigoletto in Paris; the Gilda was a lovely Russian soprano named Ekaterina Syurina. She had a light beautiful leggiero soprano voice that, for me, was reminiscent of Kathleen Battle's (although it had a little more heft). THe characterisation was perfect and the Caro Nome made me fall in love. The Italian tenor (I forget his name) that sang the Duke of Mantua had some beautiful tender piano notes but apart from that, he was standard Italianate tenor. The Rigoletto had great characterisation. The only problem I had was the woody, rather small-voiced Spafarucile they chose.

In Toulouse, as one must, I sauntered by the Theatre du Capitole for a staging of Enescu's little performed Oedipe. It's a comparatively smaller theatre so all the singer's voices carried pretty nicely through the opera house and the Oedipe, although a bit stilted in acting, was amazing in the Corelli-esque forceful, declamatory singing which Act II demands. Was wonderful to watch but I made the mistake of bringing a total opera novice along which turned out to be a bit of a mistake. Perhaps the equivalent of reading books for the first time ever and starting with Homer's Lliad. My enjoyment of the performance was a little tempered by the whining from my right but to be fair though, the pacing of the performance was very slow and required a great deal of concentration which we were ill-suited to provide due to our having just come off a rather tiring day.

There you have it, my French jaunt. Though I'm a little pooped about having missed Christine Brewer's Wagner recital in Kuala Lumpur while I was away.

Turandot!

2008-09-25T11:21:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I managed to amble down south and see Turandot!

I was blown away by the live orchestra, by the stage settings, by (most) of the principal singers and by the overall 'live-ness' of it all. I have listened to thousands of recorded arias & excerpts and many recorded full operas by now but to experience it live was beyond anything I could have imagined.

The Calaf had waves and waves of a spinto sound that was strong in it's upper extension, the Liu had a beautiful silvery timbre and amazing technique, the Timur was a good actor and the ministerial trio of Ping, Pang and Pong were hilarious. Sadly, the singer singing the principal character for whom the opera is named was miscast (as I predicted here). She simply didn't have enough sound and her big aria lacked the desired punch. I'm simple unable to believe that Jessica Chen has the gall to have Turandot in her repertoire let alone Brunhilde which she apparently sang in Bangkok two years ago! This is a woman that could comfortably sing and probably excel in spinto roles yet she believes herself to be a dramatic.

Regardless, I loved it and can't wait for my next live performance!

I've been posting great aria/duet renditions so far...

2008-08-18T05:07:00.000-07:00

And it is now time for a HORRIBLE one. Simply the worst Mira O Norma in recording history. No wonder Netrebko wore that dress; cause she wanted them to concentrate on something other than her singing. I posted more comments on the comment section of the video (Youtube SN is Liwah. My views were not very popular with her rabid fans).

Queen of Pianissimi

2008-08-16T08:34:00.000-07:00

When listening to Montserrat Caballe, one is astounded by her amazing vocal control and play with dynamics; the woman can segue from a gossamer-thin note to a loud note and back without breaking the vocal line. Of course, the massive support around her diaphragm (e.g. her Rubenesque figure) probably plays a part in that. But still, a marvel, that.

Mother Price!

2008-08-13T06:17:00.000-07:00

Leontyne Price is one of my favourite singers... and with good reason. The woman has the most deliciously velvety Spinto Soprano voice and the breath control of a whale.

I was listening to her (on my MP3 Player which is my new BEST friend) in class today and, when she hit that final 'maledizione!' at 5:16 (curses!), I just about had a mini-orgasm. The almost frantic orchestration at that part is also to be lauded.

Der Erlkönig

2008-05-21T11:01:00.000-07:00

I'm haunted by the following poem; written by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, scored to music ever so fittingly by Franz Schubert and performed here (below. Sung in the original German) by the gifted Jessye Norman. In addition to the meravigliosa singing, notice how she portrays the three personas of father, ailing child and Elf King so fittingly.

Der Erlkonig (The Elf King/The Evil Spirit)

Who rides so late through night and wind?
It is the father with his child.
He has the little one well in the arm
He holds him secure, he holds him warm.

"My son, why hide your face in fear?"
"See you not, Father, the Erlking?
The Erlking with crown and flowing cloak?"
"My son, it is a wisp of fog."

"You sweet child, come along with me!
Such wonderful games I'll play with you;
Many lovely flowers are at the shore,
My mother has many golden garments."

"My father, my father, and do you not hear,
What the Erlking quietly promises to me?"
"Be calm, stay calm, my child;
The wind is rustling the dry leaves."

"Won't you come along with me, my fine boy?
My daughters shall attend to you so nicely;
My daughters do their nightly dance,
And they will rock you and dance you and sing you to sleep."

"My father, my father, do you not see there,
Erlking's daughters in that dark place?"
"My son, my son, I see it definitely:
It is the willow trees looking so grey."

"I love you; I'm charmed by your beautiful shape;
And if you are not willing, then I will use force."
"My father, my father, now he has taken hold of me!
Erlking has hurt me!"

The father shudders, he rides swiftly,
He holds in arm the groaning child,
He reaches the farmhouse with effort and urgency;
In his arms, the child was dead.

So Sensual, So Beautiful, Such Singing...

2008-05-07T16:26:00.000-07:00

I bet many of ya know the biblical story of Samson and Delilah, this opera is based on that story. In the scene below, Delilah oh-so-sexily seduces Samson before she cuts off his hair; the source of his superhuman strength.

Who could resist...

I've recently become entranced with

2008-04-12T11:06:00.000-07:00

Classical choral music and found so many masterpieces out there. Classical choral music is THE every Hollywood-epic-movie-grandiose-moment soundtrack and one of the most used and obscenely overexposed pieces out there is Carl Orf's masterpiece, Carmina Burana.

I've always wanted to see Wagner live

2008-04-12T07:56:00.000-07:00

and hope I get around to it while the spectacular Waltraud Meier is still around. Impressive how someone with a rich Dramatic Mezzo-Soprano voice can still manage to have as pure and clear a high B as she emits at 4:46 - 4:50 (EDIT: I stand to be corrected; not sure if it's high B or C flat but I know it's one of those). Also, she doesn't just sing Isolde; she IS Isolde while on stage. Brava, Madame Meier! Move over mam'selle Voight!

Mira O Norma

2008-04-12T07:53:00.000-07:00

Forget the garish 70's attire and the big hair, this is vocal blending at its finest! They almost sound like it's only one person singing.

WooHoo!

2008-03-10T23:24:00.000-07:00

The Singapore Lyric Opera house is having a performance of one my favourite operas ever. Mighty Turandot ! Also known for this other famous aria

 (song).

It's in end-August to early-September and I'm so excited. Can't wait. Hope the finances will be ok at that time. Of course, it helps that it's just south of the border. WooHoo!

I do have one reservation though; the soprano's part in Turandot requires  a singer with a

Wagnerian soprano

 voice or at least a Dramatic Soprano. Successful singers of this type are THE opera stereotype. They're almost always large women with a large torso capable of producing the resonance required of such demanding character parts (AKA they're bloody loud. Check out the lady that starts singing at 1:25. Industrial strength lungs on that one!) that require the singer to be heard clearly over an orchestra with 80 instruments. Not to over-generalise but Asian women, even when overweight, tend to be small-boned. There are some fantastic Asian opera singers (Su-Mi Jo,  and Hei-kyung Hong come to mind) but their voices tend to be of the lighter, sweeter-sounding types and their voices would be lost in the huge orchestra that Turandot requires.

I don't know of any globally renowned Asian Dramatic soprano. I seriously hope they don't get someone who's wrong for the part and it will be so disappointing if I go all the way down south for a subpar performance.

My Lullaby

2008-03-07T03:49:00.000-08:00

As performed by the voice of the 20th century.

That kind of breath and vocal control while still managing to sing beautifully is impressive to say the least.

My Happy Song

2008-03-06T23:53:00.000-08:00

In this scene from the opera I Puritani, the character is happy at how she's gonna finally get hitched and...well, you know how them girls get all ecstatic over that.

Her joy comes over so clearly that, even though you dont know what she's singing about, it just puts a smile on your face.

Virgin Post

2008-03-06T00:48:00.000-08:00

Many people ask me how tf did I ever get into opera music. I'm not naming any names (*cough* Paul, AK, Sam, Sofia, Nash, Syafiq...etc*cough*) but these people seem to be under the impression that it's all boring, incomprehensible and filled with excessively corpulent women with all the sex appeal of a Mastiff. Not so.

Opera is basically a play whereby instead of speaking, the performers sing their lines. The music is just as important as the singing. It can go smooth, it can be upbeat, lugubrious, even clangingly clashingly violent...it all depends on the plot and what happens. The orchestra gives the whole performance a gravitas and emotion that could never be conveyed in a normal play. And the singing, oh the singing. Glorious and completely unassisted by artificial means. Almost superhuman. One looks at a room the size of the opera house below and wonders how the the average human can fill the entire hall with sound without the aid of a microphone.

It happens through years and years of intense vocal training (the average opera singer is in their late twenties - early thirties by the time they're ready for the big stage). Choose the contemporary singers with the biggest voices you know and ask them to sing mic-less in a room the size of the one above. They will either (a) not be heard beyond the first five rows or (b) if they do manage to be heard, they will completely and totally tire vocally after an hour. Yet opera singers can go up on stage 3 nights a week during performances and sing a four hour opera and be clearly heard in every corner of the opera and all of the balconies. It's all about technique. There are specific techniques of singing that I cannot cover in a week's worth of blog posts let alone this one.

Each singer has a voice which can be naturally categorised based on how high or low it is. These are from highest to lowest (for men) tenor, baritone and bass and (for women) soprano, mezzo-soprano and alto) and each of those categories can be further split into different vocal types depending on the volume and flexibility of the voice. These categories exist for a reason. One, the composers (Mozart, Verdi, Puccini...) wrote operas whereby each character was of a particular and very specific voice type. Hence, a flexible voiced (vocal flexibility in opera means the ability to sing trills among other vocal ornaments) mezzosoprano will sing a character called Rosina in the opera The Barber of Seville. This kind of voice best potrays the playful and saucy Rosina's character best. And a HUGE-voiced soprano will be required to sing the part of Turandot in the opera Turandot. The character of Turandot is a Chinese princess and that kind of naturally booming voice best potrays an aura of authority and royalty. Also, a singer that sings a character that was written for a voice type other than her own may wreck his/her voice by trying to sing either too high, too low, too loud or too rapidly hence the voice types are rigidly adhered to for the most part. In very, very rare cases such as Maria Callas, there is an almost superhuman singer who can sing almost every character and do it well.

Anyway, the links below explains it in simpler form than I can. Hope at least one person will grow to enjoy this art form as much as I do.

So You Wanna Know About Opera

Voice Classification