Tip of the Month

JULY 2014

RUNNING THE REPERTOIRE GAMUT WITH BUT ONE VOICE …

Recently, my good friend and sometimes student Todd Buchholz asked if I would do a piece on “the difference between singing opera and musical theater.” (Todd is a REALLY BRILLIANT guy, so when he speaks/asks, I really pay attention. In addition to being an author of some consequence, he graduated Harvard and then taught Economics for them before doing a few other odd jobs, none the least of which was as Economics Advisor to President George Bush, the elder and …he possesses a really fine baritone voice.)

While I have written previously on the subject and having given it a new look, I may just have a fresh perspective on the subject.

 

The first thing that jumps right out at me is what Johnny Carson asked me during the commercial break, after I had sung my second song at my first appearance on the Tonight Show. I had sung Granada, a powerful piece with a solid high G at the end. The audience reacted well so ... Johnny held me over for another segment, virtually unheard of for a first appearance on his show. After some light exchange, he asked me if I would “favor” him with another number. I then sang Spring is Here, a Rodgers and Hart song from I Married and Angel. While the audience was showing its appreciation, we “went to black” and Johnny excitedly asked “How did you do that? You started with that big voice for Granada and then sang Spring is Here, the way I sing it!”

Since we only had a minute or so, I summed up my repertoire philosophy by saying, “I allow my voice to assume the characteristics of the repertoire, rather than imposing upon the repertoire my concept of my sound, Simply put ... when I sing opera, I make a “full-out operatic sound, but mentally shift gears when the lyrics of a song demand simplicity and a more personal intensity, as a for-instance.”

 Boy ... that would really sound pretentious if I read it written by someone else, but I know how I “feel” about singing songs of a great variety, sometime in one venue; in my Community Concert program, I sing Art songs in Italian, German, Spanish, and French, an aria or two and finish with the Soliloquy from Carousel, by Rodgers and Hammerstein. My first encore piece is Old Mother Hubbard, in the style of Handel followed by my medley from Oklahoma and ... if demanded, Mattinata by Leoncavallo.

As I recall, the last time I wrote about this ... I had missed the most obvious way for me to demonstrate what the previous words I have just written were meant to convey; my readily accessible, archived Audio/Video pages!!! You might want to print this out-for reference-if you choose you go there now!

 Please go first to the Tonight Show Granada, with Johnny. While it is certainly no operatic aria, per se, it is definitely in the genre; big, full, focused ... and loud enough to be heard over the pit orchestra at the Met ... without the use of a microphone (that’s the important part!).

Now, play Spring is Here and notice how I am essentially just using supported speech to convey the pain this fella is feeling in his loneliness.

While there, you might enjoy the Figaro Aria, again on the Tonight Show.

 Scroll down a bit and play my aria from Manon ... bearing in mind that the performance is miked ONLY for the television cameras ... not the 3000 seat theater! O Rosalinde is a fairly light aria of flirtation.

 Now, for contrast, go back up to the Rigoletto scenes-the greatest baritone role ever written, to my way of thinking-and play the Duet with Gilda and specifically, the Cortigianni scene, if you want to see and hear some of the greatest music ever written. Bear in mind, this is a dress rehearsal, in theater ... no mikes for the house! What you hear on the camera is what the audience hears.

 Now, for contrast, a concert one evening in Benton Harbor, MI, in a convention center, everything miked. Here ya get more contrast.

I had a two-hour rehearsal before this concert at 2:00 in the afternoon. Neither the orchestra nor the conductor had ever played any of the pieces ... so I had to sing-70/80%-into the orchestra and cue the conductor, singing through each piece ... at least twice. That night, I had to then sing it for the audience. The orchestra would play a piece, I would come out and sing. (I must have been nuts when I put this concert together, with about ten high G’s, three high A’s ... but I only had it dropped into my lap on Tuesday when my friend Don Stewart called me from Guam, where he was filming American Ninja, whose filming had been rained out and he couldn’t make his concert.)

 Mattinata is first, essentially an aria, written for Enrico Caruso.

Avant de quitter ... from Faust

Largo al factotum ... Barber of Seville

They were three arias, with three to five minutes in between, a whole bunch of high notes and then, shifting gears to;

Where is the Life that Late I Led, from Kiss Me Kate, by Cole Porter

I had to “unload the fullness, less room in the mouth” my voice and put on my musical comedy head. Listen to the difference in the voice and how it is more conversational, not as full or heavy, dark, whatever.

And then ... listen to how I had to pull back from the almost too loud start to sing Johnny Green’s great arrangement of Easy to Remember-I had sung that with Johnny in the Hollywood Bowl-by Rodgers and Hart. Crooning at its best, a great song.

Then the great Cole Porter’s one of a kind song, Begin the Beguine, big high G on the end! It is a full-out romantic ballad and a joy to sing. (I had sung it with Arthur Fiedler and the Boston Pops on an All Cole Porter Night. They paid me extra for the recording but somehow screwed up the sound and it was never released

Then, I had to open up the lower voice and shift gears to sing Ol’ Man River, Kern and Hammerstein. It was another of Johnny’s arrangements, which he gave me, written up a full-tone, in D with all them high notes ...

Finishing with the Soliloquy and that last high G. I had essentially sung the concert three times ... I was one tired puppy ...

Finally, for some other contrast, try the Cabin Scene from Unsinkable Molly Brown (I suspect you’ll enjoy the dialogue between Ruta Lee and myself), Colorado My Home, If I Knew, The Girl that I Marry, My Defenses are Down, all kinds of fun things ...

And … the Lerner and Loewe Concert is terrific!!! Johnny arranged the original concert with four shows … and then Lerner and Loewe had the effrontery to write another show, Camelot … that had to be included for the Hollywood Bowl. It was too late for Johnny to arrange all of the numbers, so he had to use the Robert Russell Bennett arrangements (not a bad arranger ;-)) and add concert endings to them.

The best song on the program is Gigi, which Johnny used to end the first half of the program, when we sang it at the Bowl. We had the Roger Wagner Chorale, with Roger still at the helm. Listen to what happens after I sing the whole first chorus; the chorale comes in softly, adding voices and harmony until the crescendo and the word … GIGI!!! It was my first concert at the Bowl and when the chorale sang that crescendo … it was so gorgeous, I couldn’t sing!!! Johnny did a bit, laughing and falling off the piano bench saying, “Earl Wrightson and Bob Merrill did exactly the same thing the first time they heard it. Tweak your speakers and give it a magical listen …

I hope this was helpful for you ...



CLICK LINKS BELOW TO VIEW PREVIOUS TIPS...

MARCH 14 -
MY VOCAL CREDO

JANUARY 14 -
A THE FIVE C'S REVISITED

DECEMBER 13 -
A CHALLENGE FOR SERIOUS SINGERS 

OCTOBER 13 -
WLARYNGITIS, ANYONE?

SEPTEMBER 13 -
WHAT TO WITE.... RENATA SCOTTO?

AUGUST 13 -
HOW TO FIX YOUR “WOBBLE” AND SINGING UNDER PITCH!

JULY 13 -
FROM THE LIPS OF OPERA GREATS OF THE PAST

JUNE 13 -
ROTATING EVERY HIGH NOTE

APRIL 13 - MY HIATUS

OCTOBER 12 - BACKWARD BREATHING (CONTINUED)

SEPTEMBER 12
-
BACKWARD BREATHING

MAY 12- WHY GOOD SINGERS GET INTO TROUBLE (And retire early!)

APRIL 12- THE FIVE “C’s!” (REVISITED AND MARGINALLY UPDATED)

MARCH 12- PROACTIVE

FEBRUARY 12- PROACTIVE

JANUARY 12- PROACTIVE

DECEMBER 11 - THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN (Revisited)

NOVEMBER 11 - THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN

OCTOBER 11 -  MY CORDS AREN’T WORKING
 

SEPTEMBER 11 - HELLO FROM CRESTON, BC, CANADA

AUGUST 11 - PERSEVERANCE THE OTHER SIDE-(RESPONSE)

JULY 11 - PERSEVERANCE THE OTHER SIDE OF THE COIN

JUNE 11
- PERSEVERANCE

MAY 11 - ENERGY!

APRIL 11 - EXTERNALIZING SUPPORT

MARCH 11 - THE IMPORTANCE OF DICTION

FEBRUARY 11 - RESPONSE TO LAST MONTHS TIP

JANUARY 11 - LET'S TRY THIS

DECEMBER 10 - THE FUNCTION OF THE MOUTH... IN SINGING

NOVEMBER 10 - BOY SOPRANO TO YOUNG MAN’S VOICE

OCTOBER 10
- TOOLS OF THE TRADE (i.e. LEARNING REPERTOIRE)

SEPTEMBER 10 - TOOLS OF THE TRADE

AUGUST 10 - JOIN A CHORUS (Addendum)

JULY 10 - JOIN A CHORUS

JUNE 10 - HI THERE SINGERS!
 

MAY 10 - SINGING IS WORK

APRIL 10 - THE FIVE “C’s!”

MARCH 10 - LEARNING REPERTOIRE

FEBRUARY 10 - THE TIGHT JAW

JANUARY 10 - BALANCING THE VOICE

DECEMBER 09 - LOVE CAN REIGN - LINK

NOVEMBER 09 - ABSENCE OF EXCESSIVE TENSION

OCTOBER 09 - YOUR OTHER BEST FRIEND - YOUR MIRROR

SEPTEMBER 09 - EVERYONE CAN SING!

AUGUST 09 - LATENT HERNIAS AND OTHER SUPPORT PROBLEMS

JULY 09 - PRINCE IMRAN RAZA STATESMAN/ROCK STAR

JUNE 09 - ANOTHER NATURAL SINGER - DAVID BURKE

MAY 09 -DISCOVERY OF VOIC
E

APRIL 09 - I'M SICK, BUT I HAVE TO PERFORM TONIGHT  Part 2

MARCH 09 - I'M SICK, BUT I HAVE TO PERFORM TONIGHT

FEBRUARY 09 - SINGING IN ENGLISH

JANUARY 09 - GETTING AN AGENT AND/OR MANAGER (Part 4)

DECEMBER 08 - GETTING AN AGENT AND/OR MANAGER (Part 3)

NOVEMBER 08 -
GETTING AN AGENT AND/OR MANAGER (Part 2)

OCTOBER 08 - GETTING AN AGENT AND/OR MANAGER (Part 1)

SEPTEMBER 08 - HEAVY BREATHING ADVISED FOR JOCKS

AUGUST 08 -  THE VAGARIES OF AUDITIONS AND AUDITIONING (Part 3)

JULY 08 -
THE VAGARIES OF AUDITIONS AND AUDITIONING (Part 2)

JUNE 08 -
THE VAGARIES OF AUDITIONS AND AUDITIONING (Part 1)

MAY 08 - ABSENCE OF TENSION

APRIL 08 -
THE FLAT TONGUE TECHNIQUE AND HOW DO YOU MAKE A VOWEL

MARCH 08  - THE VOICE COACHING THAT  MADE MY CAREER

FEBRUARY 08 - WHAT ARE YOU SINGING?

JANUARY 08 -
VIBRATO/WOBBLE

DECEMBER 07 - BREATHING REVISITED

NOVEMBER  07 - HOW TO KILL A COLD IN FIVE DAYS

OCTOBER 07 - A BIT MORE SUPPORT

SEPTEMBER 07 - MORE SUPPORT

AUGUST 07 - INTRO & BREATHING/SUPPORT