# Eileen Farrell Has Some Serious Competition As A Crossover Artist



## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mwaXbVBvOoUm_zLCn3FPgpODusZrEWNRw
Yesterday on impulse my music buddy and I listened for the first time to an album of Helen Traubel singing popular music on Youtube and were completely blown away. More so than Farrell or Jessye Norman she sings consistently in a deep rich contralto voice with a glorious chest voice in every song. She has a truly magnificent alto voice along the lines of Patsy Cline, KD Lang or Sarah Vaughan. She never over sings and never sounds operatic while still singing in her natural voice. Just the right style, in other words. I think she is just as effective as Farrell in the style of a decade earlier. I think she was a more effective communicator in the popular medium than in a lot of her opera recordings. What most people forget who are blind sighted by how spectacular Farrell was in popular music was that Traubel was the most successful crossover artist of all time ( other than Pav's collaborations with pop artists but never singing in pop style). She made millions singing pop and when she was fired from the Met for singing pop, she made twice her highest salary at the Met in a year of singing night clubs and she was the highest paid operatic soprano in the world at that time.She was even featured in a Hollywood musical, Deep In My Heart. She was a grand, handsome looking woman in film as well and not just a "face made for radio". Check out some of this album. Summertime and Autumn Leaves are exceptional.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

I've never been comfortable with Farrell's pop and jazz stuff. I feel a Brunnhilde working at being jazzy. She does it "correctly" but still doesn't convince me. Traubel doesn't do jazz, but more importantly she doesn't seem to be trying to do anything; she just picks nice ballads, relaxes, and sings in a completely natural voice. It works better for me than Farrell's styling.

But for a "legit" voice in popular music I'll take Jane Froman over either of them. She studied for opera but quickly crossed over into pop and never crossed back.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> I've never been comfortable with Farrell's pop and jazz stuff. I feel a Brunnhilde working at being jazzy. She does it "correctly" but still doesn't convince me. Traubel doesn't do jazz, but more importantly she doesn't seem to be trying to do anything; she just picks nice ballads, relaxes, and sings in a completely natural voice. It works better for me than Farrell's styling.
> 
> But for a "legit" voice in popular music I'll take Jane Froman over either of them. She studied for opera but quickly crossed over into pop and never crossed back.


REALLY!!!!!????? I had no idea Jane Froman had an opera background. I LOVE HER!!!!! My best friend had an album of the biopic movie starring Susan Hayward when I was a teen and I would borrow it and play it to death!!!!! She sounded like a pop version of Kathleen Ferrier to me, who I also loved. I later found the music on Youtube and my music buddy and I listen to her often! My very favorite two songs are Blue Moon and I'll Walk Alone. I cannot listen to anyone else sing Blue Moon. Thanks for Jane and for being the only person on the opera forum who saw this post. Jane Froman, like Traubel, sang in that wonderful, deep alto voice you would never hear in a current singer. Thanks for making me very happy! Jane Froman is one of my favorite pop singers of all time.
As for Farrell, I think her stuff she recorded an octave lower in her seventies worked much better. Here is Black Coffee sung around D2 in a real bluesy voice you might like better:



. Her stuff from the sixties is sung tooo high for the most part. She always had a glorious Marilyn Horne like lower extension to her voice, but didn't really use it much till she was retired from opera.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Rudolf Bing rightly or wrongly didn't think stars of the Metropolitan Opera should waste or risk their voices singing in nightclubs or "lesser" venues. He was a snob, true. When he let Robert Merrill off to do a movie, it turned out to be "_Aaron Slick from Pumpkin Crick_ or something.

Most opera singers, in my opinion and for my ears, simply do not know how to sing pop, or whatever is not opera, with very few exceptions. Some may like the results, as the posters above, or some may not, me included. Bravo to those singers who can successfully "cross over," but you won't find me in the audience.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

MAS said:


> Rudolf Bing rightly or wrongly didn't think stars of the Metropolitan Opera should waste or risk their voices singing in nightclubs or "lesser" venues. He was a snob, true. When he let Robert Merrill off to do a movie, it turned out to be "_Aaron Slick from Pumpkin Crick_ or something.
> 
> Most opera singers, in my opinion and for my ears, simply do not know how to sing pop, or whatever is not opera, with very few exceptions. Some may like the results, as the posters above, or some may not, me included. Bravo to those singers who can successfully "cross over," but you won't find me in the audience.


Most people on this forum agree with you I think.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Happy to have found another Froman lover. Like many people, I first heard her in that Susan Hayward movie. I listen to very little popular music, but Froman sends shivers through me no matter what she's singing, and makes me nostalgic for a time before I was born. Her rich, warm tone, shimmering vibrato and utterly natural portamenti are magic to my ears. I'm not aware that she ever sang opera, but she trained for it. Hearing how perfect she is in popular music - no feeling of "crossover" - I have to approve her choice.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Seattleoperafan said:


> As for Farrell, I think her stuff she recorded an octave lower in her seventies worked much better. Here is Black Coffee sung around D2 in a real bluesy voice you might like better:
> 
> 
> 
> . Her stuff from the sixties is sung tooo high for the most part. She always had a glorious Marilyn Horne like lower extension to her voice, but didn't really use it much till she was retired from opera.


Her bluesy voice sounds excessive and put on to me. Maybe I can't be objective about it because I know her from other kinds of music.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Woodduck said:


> I've never been comfortable with Farrell's pop and jazz stuff. I feel a Brunnhilde working at being jazzy. She does it "correctly" but still doesn't convince me. *Traubel doesn't do jazz, but more importantly she doesn't seem to be trying to do anything; she just picks nice ballads, relaxes, and sings in a completely natural voice. It works better for me than Farrell's styling.*
> 
> But for a "legit" voice in popular music I'll take Jane Froman over either of them. She studied for opera but quickly crossed over into pop and never crossed back.


right. "styling" is overrated. tbh, a nice voice sans any kind of "style" is enough for me to enjoy listening.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Talking about crossover artists, Nana Mouskouri was training to be a classical singer at the Conservatoire in Athens and moonlighting in jazz clubs and tavernas in the evening. She was told to give up the nightclubs or the conservatoire and chose the latter. Considering the career she had, she obviously made a wise choice.


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## Baritenor (Dec 13, 2015)

The thread I made about Farrell last year might interest you (the posters talk about Traubel as well):

https://www.talkclassical.com/66538-eileen-farrell-arguably-best.html?highli


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