Magda Olivero at 102: The problem is that there are many singing teachers, but few of any worth

 opera  2 Responses »
Apr 092012
 

 

Magda Olivero 102 years old1 Magda Olivero at 102: The problem is that there are many singing teachers, but few of any worth

Just after Magda Olivero’s 102nd birth­day, (on March 25), the went to visit her. This remark­able woman still has a lot to say. While many of her opin­ions are maybe inev­it­able for someone of such an age (the Mil­anese are no longer well-mannered; mod­ern opera pro­duc­tions have gone down­hill; there are no out­stand­ing sing­ers nowadays), many of her com­ments con­tain an ele­ment of truth, and are not just the rant­ings of a fuddy-duddy.

Here is Olivero on listen­ing to young singers:

So far nobody has left me speech­less. They sing, but without tech­nique. The prob­lem is that there are many teach­ers, but few of any worth. They don’t teach that to sing you must breath and sup­port the voice: a won­der­ful rule that isn’t taught. The found­a­tions are not firmly in place when the singer already starts con­front­ing opera arias. We used to spend years doing vocal exer­cises. Only in this way can a voice become uni­form, smooth and increase its range, and you learn express­ive­ness. Today no-one sings with expres­sion; it seems they don’t under­stand what inter­pret­a­tion means. And every­one imme­di­ately wants to tackle the most dif­fi­cult com­posers, like .

I hope that a young singer man­ages to find someone who knows how to spot defects, and can explain how to inter­vene. And when someone tells them that they have a beau­ti­ful voice to not be big-headed but under­stand that they must con­tinue study­ing, you never stop learn­ing. Today, how­ever, they want to get there fast, which is sad because they end up ruin­ing their voices.

She then she revealed that on the day of her birth­day… she sang!

Photo from the Cor­ri­ere della Sera

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  • wp socializer sprite mask 16px Magda Olivero at 102: The problem is that there are many singing teachers, but few of any worth
  • wp socializer sprite mask 16px Magda Olivero at 102: The problem is that there are many singing teachers, but few of any worth
  • wp socializer sprite mask 16px Magda Olivero at 102: The problem is that there are many singing teachers, but few of any worth
  • wp socializer sprite mask 16px Magda Olivero at 102: The problem is that there are many singing teachers, but few of any worth
  • wp socializer sprite mask 16px Magda Olivero at 102: The problem is that there are many singing teachers, but few of any worth
  • wp socializer sprite mask 16px Magda Olivero at 102: The problem is that there are many singing teachers, but few of any worth
  • wp socializer sprite mask 16px Magda Olivero at 102: The problem is that there are many singing teachers, but few of any worth

Domingo at 70 — Iphigénie en Tauride at the Met, and a serenade in the Crush Bar

 opera  No Responses »
Feb 142011
 

Iphigénie en Tauride. Domingo at 70 Iphigénie en Tauride at the Met, and a serenade in the Crush Bar is not easy. Even here in Milan, for­get that myth that Itali­ans are born sing­ers. Just ask a friend to remind you how that tune goes and you’ll be stop­ping them after a few notes.

That’s not what happened when, years ago, dur­ing a party on ’s Crush Bar, I was try­ing to tell about an opera I had seen but couldn’t remem­ber its title. He star­ted singing, quite loudly, the end of Rinuccio’s aria from “Gianni Schic­chi”. Every head turned, of course, and I turned extremely red,  feel­ing that I had dis­turbed the party. But no-one wanted Domingo to stop. In fact he was urged to con­tinue, though he eleg­antly declined. After more than 60 years of singing (52 pro­fes­sion­ally) still no-one is ask­ing him to stop.… [con­tinue reading]

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Ceclia Bartoli: “I can admit it,” she says, “I am jealous of these singers”

 music  No Responses »
Dec 292010
 

P1240428 428x600 Ceclia Bartoli: I can admit it, she says, I am jealous of these singers
‘I am, yes, I can admit it, quite sad about this,” says gloomily. Out­side, in the gath­er­ing dusk of her adopt­ive city of Zurich, it’s begin­ning to snow. “My career – it could have been dif­fer­ent.” She throws a white scarf over the shoulder of her black polo neck sweater in a slightly irrit­ated gesture.

The world’s most cel­eb­rated is con­fess­ing her frus­tra­tion at hav­ing an extraordin­ary voice for which no ser­i­ous com­poser has writ­ten beau­ti­ful . She would liked to have been a muse, but her des­tiny has been otherwise.“It would be very nice to have a com­poser of today com­pos­ing for the voice of today, but I have not.”

Her great vocal her­oes and heroines of the 18th and 19th cen­tur­ies were more for­tu­nate.… [con­tinue reading]

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