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Was Rent ever intended as a gateway to opera?  I’m inclined not to think so.

I haven't read that it was. But if I knew nothing of opera and loved "Rent" that's where it would lead me. It was popular with young people, after all, with people who tend to be curious and relatively openminded.

I loved your Blue Oyster Cult reference. Once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away I had one of their records, and once I saw them play, opening for another band I can't remember now. It was probably some vulgar blues rock band, the type that eventually led me (to simplify a not quite so straightforward story) to straight Chicago blues, which led to jazz, which made me think I could learn to love classical music, which eventually made me curious about opera.

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More on crossing over, or trying to: the New York Times today has an article entitled When Rockers Show Classsical Chops, ocassioned by an opera from Roger Waters of Pink Floyd fame.

rock stars who become interested in classical music are bizarrely conservative. They may play the most electrifying, guitar-thrashing, edge-of-the-seat stuff with their own bands, but when they decide to write classical music, or what they think of as classical music, they reach for a quill instead of a pen. With the notable exception of Frank Zappa, whose reams of classical music reflect his fascination with Edgard Varèse and other modernists, rock musicians seem to think that the conventions of the 19th century are classical music's current language.
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Koznin's piece mentions McCartney's "Liverpool Oratorio," which had its own tv feature tracing its genesis. This is a work that explores every possible apect of insipidity.

On the other hand, what was that awards ceremony when Aretha Franklin, stepping in for an ailing Pavarotti, gave her own delicious spin on "Nessun Dorma"? I doubt it drew the opera lovers to soul or R&B, nor vice versa, but it was a wonderful fun.

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I find that pop singers attempting to do opera usually sound ridiculous or even hilarious (Michael Bolton's album of arias, for instance), whereas opera singers doing pop usually just sound awkward and overscaled and unstylish--and boring. I recently caught on TV a bit of Fleming (whom I usually adore) doing "Hello, Young Lovers," and I wondered how her blowsy, charmless rendition could possibly give anybody any pleasure. But I don't know--I mean, it doesn't HURT anybody, so if singers want to try it, why not humor them? Maybe we'll get lucky. There's at least one opera singer I know who was really successful doing jazz, and that was Eileen Farrell. Somehow she had the secret of adapting her voice to the material (with great diction!) but without hiding its huge operatic dimensions. What made her so irresistable was she sounded like she was having the time of her life, whatever she was singing. Whereas if Millo really doesn't want to do this, would she likely be any good at it? So I say good for her for declining.

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Koznin's piece mentions McCartney's "Liverpool Oratorio," which had its own tv feature tracing its genesis. This is a work that explores every possible apect of insipidity.

I thought it was a decent attempt for a middle aged artist in alien territory.  Had he tried it twenty years earlier.......
There's at least one opera singer I know who was really successful doing jazz, and that was Eileen Farrell.

She definitely had a right to sing the blues. :)

A long time ago Streisand made an interesting crossover attempt with an album called Classical Barbra. Some of it was a trifle Mermanish, but it was a gallant try, as I remember, haven't listened to it for some years and don't have a copy handy.

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I'd argue that "crossover" started when the very first '78 recordings were made.

Prior to recordings, there was no such thing as singing for one ear only. Singers had to fill the muisic halls with sound, which meant an operatically trained voice. You could say that music halls back then were often smaller, but still.

But with the first '78, singers had to make the distinction between singing for thousands of people and singing into a big horn. The technique was different -- that's why the "first generation" of '78 singers often sound dreadful. Marcella Sembrich, for instance. Huge opera star, critically acclaimed everywhere, but the recordings are pretty excruciating to listen to. You could say she was past her prime, or that her technique was faulty, but I'd venture to guess that she simply could not scale down her voice for the big horn.

As the Victors and Gramophone industries grew, there began a breed of singer that was completely absent pre-78s: operatically trained singers whose recordings showed a real affinity with "pop" music. As a rule these singers tended to have small voices, and were famous for their recitals. Tito Schipa, John McCormack, Amelita Galli-Curci, Lily Pons. They were probably the first real cross-over artists. They couldnt match a Caruso or a Ponselle in the opera house, but they sounded lovely on a Victor.

Since then I think it's been a crapshoot, who can do the crossover stuff and who can't. For instance Giuseppe di Stefano remains a gold-standard for Italian and Neapolitan songs. Especially his recordings when he sang as "Nino Florio" -- you can hear his young tenor voice enchantingly caress the catchy and often sad little songs. Renee Fleming can't.

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I forgot to mention: another successful crossover artist was the incomparable Ezio Pinza. I still think his "Some Enchanted Evening" is the loveliest version ever recorded. (Pinza is an artist I have conflicted feelings about. I think he had the most beautiful basso voice ever and used it in the most musical way. OTOH I read his autobiography and he sounds like an arrogant SOB who trashes his first wife in a way I really found distasteful. Oh well. No saying that great artists have to be great people.)

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You can see lots of those embarrassing cross-overs in the videos released from Voice of Firestone.  :P

A lot of American singers started out doing other types of singing before they became interested in opera or in their teens and twenties while they waited for their voices to bloom. Richard Tucker was a cantor; Marilyn Horne had an act with her sister Gloria as a child, and she sang in film -- one performances was as the singing voice for Dorothy Dandridge in Carmen Jones) -- and in pirated recordings as a young adult; Leonard Warren spent years trying to rise from the Radio City Music Hall chorus; Robert Merrill played the Borscht Belt, before being "discovered" and offered a gig with Radio City Music Hall.

On the opposite side of the coin, the Georgia Straight (Vancouver, BC) did a short interview with Cecilia Bartoli in anticipation of this afternoon's recital at the Orpheum Theatre. Wrote Bill Richardson,

She has never charted the Billboard-courting crossover course latterly so favoured by so many opera stars. Bartoli Sings Cole Porter is nothing to look for anytime soon.  You can imagine the looks the A&R execs trade around the boardroom table when they learn that she’s been off again, sucking back the dust of various European archives, and is now intent on recording little-known arias from oratorios by George Frederick Handel, Alessandro Scarlatti, and Antonio Caldara. This is the repertoire on her new CD, Opera Proibita.

http://www.straight.com/content.cfm?id=13101

After Leila Getz, the Artistic Director of the Vancouver Recital Society, announced that Bartoli was suffering from a very bad cold that caused her to cancel her Toronto recital, Bartoli proceeded to sing those arias by Handel, Scarlatti, and Caldara, as well as three encores (one from Giulio Cesare) with the agility, sweetness of voice, and preternatural breath control for which she is renowned. Listening to Bartoli was the vocal equivalent of watching a master Chinese calligrapher create a manuscript with a combination of delicacy and strength.

Lots of singers can sing Cole Porter. But it is a great privilege that Bartoli is the musician she is, finding neglected works and breathing life into each one of them.

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Helene, but don't you find Cecilia Bartoli's method of singing Handel and Vivaldi and Scarlatti very distracting? For me those pieces need absolutely even, perfectly articulated scale-work. Bartoli's vocal method includes a lot of fast aspirating to get through any scale-work, and although I enjoy the lovely richness of her voice, as well as her effervescent stage presence, the aspirates get less and less tolerable, IMO.

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Helene, but don't you find Cecilia Bartoli's method of singing Handel and Vivaldi and Scarlatti very distracting? For me those pieces need absolutely even, perfectly articulated scale-work. Bartoli's vocal method includes a lot of fast aspirating to get through any scale-work, and although I enjoy the lovely richness of her voice, as well as her effervescent stage presence, the aspirates get less and less tolerable, IMO.

I didn't find that, at least live. (I was about 2/3 up in the house.) I prefer her in slower pieces; she sang Lascia la spina, the only work in the printed program against which her interpretation could be compared to recordings and performances over the last 100+ years, like a prayer. She was terrific in the Giulio Cesare encore, also relatively well known and recorded.

As for her stage presence, I saw very little of it. The seats in the Orpheum Theatre are vertebrae crushing and tailbone numbing; a transatlantic flight in the middle seat in coach is more comfortable, and in the OT, there are more of them. Nearly everyone was leaning forward so they could walk afterwards. My impression was based almost entirely on her voice. It was the first time I've heard her live, and I felt I was in the presence of a VOICE.

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I'd argue that "crossover" started when the very first '78 recordings were made.

Prior to recordings, there was no such thing as singing for one ear only. Singers had to fill the muisic halls with sound, which meant an operatically trained voice. You could say that music halls back then were often smaller, but still.

But with the first '78, singers had to make the distinction between singing for thousands of people and singing into a big horn. The technique was different -- that's why the "first generation" of '78 singers often sound dreadful. Marcella Sembrich, for instance. Huge opera star, critically acclaimed everywhere, but the recordings are pretty excruciating to listen to. You could say she was past her prime, or that her technique was faulty, but I'd venture to guess that she simply could not scale down her voice for the big horn.

As the Victors and Gramophone industries grew, there began a breed of singer that was completely absent pre-78s: operatically trained singers whose recordings showed a real affinity with "pop" music. As a rule these singers tended to have small voices, and were famous for their recitals. Tito Schipa, John McCormack, Amelita Galli-Curci, Lily Pons. They were probably the first real cross-over artists. They couldnt match a Caruso or a Ponselle in the opera house, but they sounded lovely on a Victor.

While I wouldn't argue that a Schipa's or a McCormack's voice was a large as a Caruso's or Ponselle's, both were lauded in the opera house. Schipa owned La Scala during his prime, and the knock on McCormack in opera that he lacked passion. (As one of his Santuzza's was reported to have said, "Monsieur McCormack. If you had been Turridu, I would not be in my unfortunate predicament.") I don't think that Schipa's foray into songs like "La Cumparsita" was any more "pop" than Caruso's penchant for Neopolitan songs.

The great Russian singers of the late 19th and early 20th century made masterful recordings that have stood up to any made up to this day. Sobinov sounded as good in his 1901-1911 recordings as Schipa later did. Nikolai and Medea Mei Figner, Dmitri Smirnov (even if I don't like his style), and Eugenia Bronskaya are just some of the pre-Soviet artists who were stellar in the studio.

Among the tenors, in particular, but also among the women, in my opinion, the more successful recording artists in the pre-Victor era were those with the brightest voices, not necessarily the smaller voices.

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Sure, but the huge changes in music styles over the years have made crossover today mean something different than it did in the past. "South Pacific" was written for Ezio Pinza. In fact a lot of the old musicals call for what they used to call "legitimate" voices, so opera singers can sound terrific in them. (Neapolitan songs were also written for operatic voices.) Then came the flood: rock, soul, disco, hiphop, etc.--new styles of music that also required a different style of singing. Mostly, opera singers' attempts to do these things are pretty laughable. We don't know what Millo was asked to sing, but I doubt she would object to singing "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" (which was written for Kirsten Flagstad, actually). Would anybody really want to hear her doing "Stayin' Alive" or "Born to Run," or to attempt some gangsta rap? And does anybody want to hear *anybody* singing Lloyd Webber?

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Mostly, opera singers' attempts to do these things are pretty laughable. We don't know what Millo was asked to sing, but I doubt she would object to singing "Climb Ev'ry Mountain" (which was written for Kirsten Flagstad, actually). Would anybody really want to hear her doing "Stayin' Alive" or "Born to Run," or to attempt some gangsta rap? And does anybody want to hear *anybody* singing Lloyd Webber?

Apparently Millo was indeed planning some Rodgers and Hammerstein for the encores.

In fact a lot of the old musicals call for what they used to call "legitimate" voices, so opera singers can sound terrific in them. (Neapolitan songs were also written for operatic voices.)

True – up to a point. Some – by no means all- of Rodgers and Hammerstein can be sung by opera stars with acceptable results, but I wouldn’t want to hear them in most of Rodgers and Hart (Rodgers’ style was much more jazzy when he composed with Hart) or Guys and Dolls. :wub:

Italian pop never cut its ties to opera as completely as other kinds of pop did – hence Andrea Bocelli (and I don’t mean to sneer at Bocelli).

I’m not Lloyd Webber’s biggest fan by any means but on its own terms “The Phantom of the Opera” is a significant work. (Don’t throw stones, but I could make a case for it against, say, “Sweeney Todd.”)

Opera News gave Fleming’s most recent attempt at crossover, “Haunted Heart,” a good review. I plan to check it out and if I do will report back in this space.

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Millo fans will be glad to hear that she gave an outrageously wonderful mini recital for the George London Foundation for Singers on Friday night.

Also, to clarify one thing: the sub-head on this thread refers to the canceled recital as Millo's "Carnegie Hall debut" which it would not have been. She has sung many times at the Hall, This would have been her Carnegie recital debut only.

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There's a good interview with Cecilia Bartoli in The Guardian. And she makes a wonderful comment that reminded me of this discussion:

"The real crossover is to be able to convince people to come to your world, and not the other way around," she says. "So, in this case, I have to bring people to this baroque project. This is the goal - and not to cross the bridge and start to sing Broadway music."
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This came out a few days ago in Playbill. It’s an interview with Millo where she talks about the cancellation and Birgit Nilsson, among other things.

http://www.playbillarts.com/features/article/3779.html

You were scheduled to make your solo recital debut at Carnegie Hall last October, but the concert was canceled because Ron Delsener, the promoter, wanted you to sing a crossover program. What happened?

That was unpleasant and unnecessary, but opera is an entity that needs champions to protect it. Many people are selling out for a quick buck, or being forced to because recording companies are looking for something to compete with modern market. I don’t think anyone in the opera world actually wants it to compete. I was happy to stand up for a little moment. You’d be surprised what a chord it struck; I’ve never been approached so much on the street with people thanking me. It started a trend, because then even Anna Netrebko cancelled. People are speaking about what they give to the public as something really important; you start a ball rolling and others will jump in behind you.

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I'm not sure why Ms. Millo compares her cancellation to that of Ms. Netrebko. According to the letter I got from Carnegie, AN's cancellation was due to her not feeling her recital program was up to snuff for a NY recital debut. There was no crossover situation here. And she plans to re-schedule when she feels ready.

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Millo is getting pathetic. A woman who squandered her voice oversinging AIDA & BALLO, her Met career now relegated to covering and getting one or two second-cast performances a season, her "fame" perpetuated by a small cluster of dizzy opera queens.

Her announced concert sold about 1/3 of the available tickets. She flatters herself thinking Netrebko cancelled HER Carnegie gig after Millo started a trend. Then she tries to frame the incident as a case of preserving the sanctity of opera. Sorry, it's a lame story.

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Seriously, Millo thinks she started a "trend" of cancelling? What a professional she is. Personally, I never got the Millo craze. She always seemed terribly affected -- chest pounding, totally over-the-top gestures, plus this perpetual expression that seems to say, "I am the greatest singer in the world." The fact that she's appointed herself as a "savior" of opera is ridiculous. The people who are saving opera are singing opera consistently, in international opera houses. Millo sings maybe once or twice a year and she's opera's savior? Please.

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The number of tickets sold still hasn't been confirmed officially, and there are two stories, each of which could be considered self-serving, depending on one's point of view. But without official word from the box office or Carnegie Hall management, we won't know if either story or something completely different is the truth.

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This is one step to the side of this topic, but in today's Washington Post, there is a devastating review of Il Divo's concert at DAR Constitution Hall.

It opens:

Il Divo, the vocal quartet whose new album, "Ancora," sailed to the top of the pop charts last week, says it sings popular songs in a classically inspired operatic manner.

If only.

and it ends:

Il Divo? Quattro formaggi.
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