Good day to you humble reader.
As this is the first blog to be received in the vocal pedagogy class, I wont' pretend I know what I'm doing, instead, I'll assure you I know what I'm doing. Evidently we're supposed to review a singer?
Today has been a particularly stressful piece of a pie belonging to an equally stressful week, the raising of one of Massanet's beloved Operas, "Werther" !
It has been a particularly cultural adventure this week, thus far, finishing listening to the 5-CD Leonard Bernstein recording of Tristan und Isolde, followed by a Jessye Norman/Thomas Allen's recording of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. As I'm well into ACT III, It's guaranteed that I'll have finished Puccini's Turandot with Tebaldi by the end of Friday.
And for a visual treat, how about Austrian painter, Egon Schiele?
While this very blog is being written, I've been diving into the wonderful and tragic world of Shostakovich…
It's a pretty incredible production, performed in Lyon, 8/10/2011. The singer in this fantastic production is none other than Vladimir Samsonov. It's not the full production, but it is definitely a showcase of this man's talent, more than and hour and eighteen minutes worth.
His work is quite incredible, as an actor, and as a performer (at least in this one performance). Now, I can't tell if it's the fact that he's not supposed to have a nose in this production, or he's got a cold, but a lot of his singing seems a little, well, flat. I'm not sure if it's the stress of the performance, though it seems like he has enough support, but his laryngal equation seems a little depressed to my ear. All things considered, his technique (to my ear) is sound. It is certainly consistent. I can't find too much of his work otherwise to discriminate upon or even analyze because there is a Table Tennis player by the same name (unfortunately the table tennis player is much more important to the world than this man).
OK, so maybe this isn't the best review of Samsonov, let's move on to a more well known singer. Two days ago our favorite Mezzo Stephanie Blythe popped up on my Facebook, (my good friend and Soprano was in a masterclass with the famous Mezzo this past week in Toronto)
The first thing that strikes me about Stephanie Bylthe, not having listened to her nearly enough, is the poise and depth for which she pulls each breath. Her shoulders don't seem to raise at all! The following tone that ensues is so even and flowing in that, with this whale of an instrument, her ability to navigate through quickly moving passages is Herculean at the very least. Her tone makes me think that the phonation is akin to hang-gliding, no breaks, not to heavy handed or too light, just simply riding through the skies. (now I'd just love to see Stephanie Blythe hang-gliding)
I'm hoping that with all this explanation, this will stand as a sufficient piece of work to be (graded?) interpreted, and hopefully delighted upon the eye and ear, perhaps even to fascinate the mind… or at least a placeholder until the next blog wherein the writer will understand the necessary requirements of this task.
Sincerely and Gratefully,
John
