home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- Newsgroups: rec.music.classical
- Path: sparky!uunet!usc!rpi!ees1a0.engr.ccny.cuny.edu!sci.ccny.cuny.edu!eleni.gc.cuny.edu!timessqr.gc.cuny.edu!cunyvms1.gc.cuny.edu!KOS
- From: kos@cunyvms1.gc.cuny.edu (Bob Kosovsky)
- Subject: Re: Hildegard Behrens vocal collapse?
- Message-ID: <1992Dec25.032007.21019@timessqr.gc.cuny.edu>
- Sender: news@timessqr.gc.cuny.edu (USENET News System)
- Reply-To: kos@cunyvms1.gc.cuny.edu
- Organization: Computer Center, CUNY Graduate School, New York NY 10036
- References: <1992Dec21.172249.13631@visual.com>,<BzMJzE.HAx@news.udel.edu>
- Date: Fri, 25 Dec 1992 03:20:07 GMT
- Lines: 32
-
- In article <BzMJzE.HAx@news.udel.edu>, conrad@brahms.udel.edu (Jon Conrad) writes:
- [Concerning Gwyneth Jones, who is singing Bruenhilde at the MET; responding
- to a thought of Jones' poor vocal state:]
-
- >Your friend must be out of touch. Jones sings regularly all over, and
- >though her voice is in, shall we say, variable shape and has been for
- >some time now, it's no more so than it was (say) 10 years ago. She sang
- >one of the cycles the last time the Met did the RING (3 years ago). Her
- >"prime," if one wants to use the word with her, ended around 1972,
- >whereupon she developed the wobble/straight-tone/unwieldy singing mode
- >that she retains still. AND I should add, still so loud, sometimes with
- >laser-precise climactic high notes, personally radiant, dramatically
- >incisive, that she can still cast a spell over (some of) an audience and
- >make them buy what she does. She may be excruciating to listen to 90%
- >of the time, but she's still a canny pro, and very active. I wonder
- >where your friend's been hiding. :-)
-
- Jon, this must the be first time I'm totally disagreeing with you. I saw
- the Walkuere of Dec. 21 -- and she was atrocious!!! Ok, she has the
- stamina to dance around the stage and last the whole night through, but
- she is close to unlistenable!! The woman cannot sustain one tone without
- vibrating so much that it wavers close to a half tone in either direction.
- What's the point of being able to sing loud if you can't sing ONE SINGLE
- NOTE in a proper manner? I'm sure she must have paid the Met to sing there.
-
- Oh well, I'm sure we'll agree on something in the future.
-
- Bob Kosovsky
- Graduate Center -- Ph.D. Program in Music(student)/ City University of New York
- New York Public Library -- Music Division
- bitnet: kos@cunyvms1.bitnet internet: kos@cunyvms1.gc.cuny.edu
- Disclaimer: My opinions do not necessarily represent those of my institutions.
-