It’s easy to be swept up in the enthusiasm for a new singer — after all, we all so *want* to be carried away. Then, I found myself so disappointed in “Dido’s Lament” — an utterly ravishing piece in the poetry, emotion, and music. Since it was the piece from her program I knew the best, I wondered whether it was just that performance, or does the singer lack a depth of expression? There’s an advantage to being only an untrained amateur in that the mere beauty of her voice and technique do carry me very far.
On a related note (pun noted) (oops, again), after ten or so years of opera aficionado-ing I’m noticing how much more often I’m disappointed. Is this your experience, too? As a singer, I used to be entranced just with great sound and technique; but now that I’m learning the repertoire, fachs, the poetry behind the words, etc., I find myself expecting more than I did before. I’m a bit nostalgic for when it was all so new and so amazing.
I emerged from the SF symphony concert thinking how happy I’d be to hear the Shostakovich again sometime - it’s fun to listen to something that’s meant to be fun, after all! - and how happy I’d be to never hear the Mahler 7 again, ever. Sigh.
It’s easy to be swept up in the enthusiasm for a new singer — after all, we all so *want* to be carried away. Then, I found myself so disappointed in “Dido’s Lament” — an utterly ravishing piece in the poetry, emotion, and music. Since it was the piece from her program I knew the best, I wondered whether it was just that performance, or does the singer lack a depth of expression? There’s an advantage to being only an untrained amateur in that the mere beauty of her voice and technique do carry me very far.
On a related note (pun noted) (oops, again), after ten or so years of opera aficionado-ing I’m noticing how much more often I’m disappointed. Is this your experience, too? As a singer, I used to be entranced just with great sound and technique; but now that I’m learning the repertoire, fachs, the poetry behind the words, etc., I find myself expecting more than I did before. I’m a bit nostalgic for when it was all so new and so amazing.
I emerged from the SF symphony concert thinking how happy I’d be to hear the Shostakovich again sometime - it’s fun to listen to something that’s meant to be fun, after all! - and how happy I’d be to never hear the Mahler 7 again, ever. Sigh.