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Music Lane It's all about the music, dude! Sit down, relax and listen to some tunes. |
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Music Lane It's all about the music, dude! Sit down, relax and listen to some tunes. |
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In Reply to: A silly question about Opera today ... posted by High-end Dreamer on July 14, 2001 at 16:38:18:
You really should go to an opera, you don't know what you're missing.As for the amplification issue, it's still anathema in most houses AFAIK. The band plays in the pit not for sonic reasons but because it would kind of undermine the dramatic effect if they were on stage :-) I believe Wagner even wanted to build a kind of roof to conceal them further in his house in Bayreuth. The balance between singers and orchestra is the responsibility of the conductor, the players themselves and last but not least, the composer. Richard Strauss was particularly scrupulous about it. You shouldn't have to rely on the pit to muffle the band. After all, soloists sing with the orchestra and chorus on stage with them in choral works, and often with very big forces as in the Choral Symphony and Schoenberg's Gurrelieder.
That said, there still aren't that many singers who can project effectively in the largest houses and who have the technique and stamina for the really big roles. There have probably never been more violin and piano virtuosi at any time in history, but the same advances don't seem to have been made in vocal technique, even with so much formal pedagogy and our knowledge of biomechanics. All sorts of explanations are offered for this, such as the effects of jetlag, pollution and air-conditioning which singers of the past did not have to contend with. It is also argued that a lot of young singers are forced to expand their repertoire too early, which can damage the voice and prevent it from developing to its full potential. OTOH, if you look at the careers of great singers of the past, they sang the biggest roles incredibly early, and stretched themselves in ways that would be considered reckless nowadays. Who knows? Every age tends to lament the paucity of great voices, even those ages which subsequently come to be considered golden. You should go and listen for yourself.
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Follow Ups
- Re: A silly question about Opera today ... - yok 06:48:56 07/15/01 (0)
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