We just started getting Ovation TV recently and for the first time, I tuned in. Great Tenor Performances is on. I had to mute the system when I first tuned in because the ghastly José Carreras was on, doing what too many Italianate singers do, scooping all over the place (actually, what Carreras does can’t even be called scooping — slopping is more like it). Please. I realize it’s more “expressive” to screw the damned notes and slide up and down, but it sounds like shit. Can we have some musicality? Some indication that you can, in fact, read music? And you wonder why I prefer singers who specialize in German repertoire?
Ah, but the amazing Jon Vickers is now on, singing Vois ma misère, hélas! from Samson et Delilah. Astounding.
joubertconlon says:
I won’t argue with your opinion of Carreras and understand why you “prefer singers who specialize in German repertoire.” Too many singers of Italian opera are indeed sloppy - better suited to singing “O sole mio” or even “That’s amore.” As for Eva Marton - fine if you like your high notes screeched.
June 25, 2007, 11:32 amrightwingprof says:
Singing like they’re calling hogs is a relatively recent phenomenon, though. Mario del Monaco. Giuseppe di Stefano. Caruso. Beniamino Gigli. None of them scooped. And the best Italian tenors still don’t. Domingto. Pavarotti. I’ve never heard either of them sing like Carreras (who too frequently hits sour notes, too). Scooping (portamento, my ass) shows a disrespect for the music and the composer. It’s self-indulgent, messy, and unprofessional.
June 25, 2007, 4:57 pmJeffrey Quick says:
It’s an old tradition though. Listen to Alessandro Moreschi, the last of the castrati, recorded in 1903.
I like Italian-tradition vocal production better than German, but one seldom gets the impression that Italian singers THINK. It took freaking forever to get Italian vocal groups who could do justice to the Italian madrigal instead of cranking through it like the sextet from Lucia. But now we have La Venexiana and others.
June 26, 2007, 1:20 pm