# Baritone React



## PaulFranz (May 7, 2019)

Tell me you guys have seen this, LMAO. Confirms everything I've always been saying about the clowns working in the business. A high-profile working baritone has no idea who some of the most famous baritones of all time are. He thought Herlea was unknown. He thought Ruffo's first name was Titto. Has no ability to listen to acoustic recordings, focusing on Ruffo's diction and Battistini's "mask" singing. Listen to when he imitates Battistini with a tense, spread shout. No worthwhile technical insight whatsoever. Basically damns both of them with faint praise, like a catty high-school girl saying that they're so brave for not being technical singers and just acting instead of "thinking." You can tell he thinks modern baritones have better technique and musicianship than the two most highly regarded baritones in recorded history. He thought Urbano's aria wasn't heroic, and I can just tell that he thought Herlea was bigger, which is pretty much insane, but to be fair he doesn't outright say that, I don't think. Anyway, he definitely wasn't acting like he'd heard one of the most astounding feats of vocal pyrotechnics on record, which he had. He comments on Urbano's "climb" to the top and completely ignores Herlea's identical move, as he is completely deceived by recording quality. He even seemed astounded at the fact that he was listening to a recording without video...

He furthermore does not seem to know Si può at all, singing a wrong note AND consonant to "correct" Battistini on scusatemi, and then is baffled by the traditional melody after the first interpolated high note. He also is apparently hearing an old-school Largo for the first time, flummoxed as he is by some of the choices there as well. He also does not seem familiar with the traditional ornament on favelli in Il balen. And he doesn't know what pizzicato means.

He's 44. This is new to him, after presumably a quarter-century in this field.

Guys, singers nowadays are too dumb to be good.


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## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

You might not like Marina Rebeka, if you dislike contemporary singers, but at minimum, she is nerdy.

I liked Urbano on the one recording I have noticed here on Talk classical, and I was determined to date him, if Stracciari turns me down ;-) . So this young barritone should know better, too.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

BBSVK said:


> You might not like Marina Rebeka, if you dislike contemporary singers, but at minimum, she is nerdy.
> 
> I liked Urbano on the one recording I have noticed here on Talk classical, and I was determined to date him, if Stracciari turns me down ;-) . So this young barritone should know better, too.


Rebeka has been added to a couple of contests lately.


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## PaulFranz (May 7, 2019)

BBSVK said:


> So this young barritone should know better, too.


Mid-40s is only young in graveyards.


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## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

Also, I wonder, if the lack of education is specific for USA, (or even certain schools only.) @Op.123 complained elsewhere, that the students of singing he had met had a very limited scope not only about singers but also composers and broader opera repertoire, mostly mentioning La Boheme. I know that at least the lessons on opera composers and repertoire are solid in Slovakia.
I ended up taking lectures on opera history by the same lecturer, who teaches this to young singers. His basic overview takes several semesters. I have no idea, if somebody else teaches Slovak singers about Urbano, Tetrazzini and some such. But I would be surprised if they didn't know what pizzicato was.


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

I think this is fairly normal sadly. Most singers don't have a sense of tradition anymore and when they're singing like they are it must be hard to take that they are significantly less talented than past generations. Refusing to look beyond recording quality and making incorrect assumptions about singers techniques is more reflexive self-defense than anything else no doubt. It's also quite probable that many do not love opera. At the conservatoire some students transferred from the musical theatre course to the classical singing course, not because they had any idea about opera but just because their voice was deemed good enough. As I have mentioned before many seemed to like to sing, liked Lieder, some loved Schubert, some Debussy, others might have liked Le Nozze di Figaro or La Boheme. Some students who really loved opera might have wanted to sing Norma in the future but very rarely were students familiar with Medea, Elektra, La Fanciulla del West, Maria Stuarda etc. operas which are still core repertory if not hugely popular. And when it comes to singers, everyone knows Callas, Sutherland and Pavarotti, but they seem to take those as exceptions as if there wasn't whole generations of singers equally talented that you can listen to. The best you could hope was to find students interested in contemporary music actively looking for new music to sing and engaging with the composition students. They were always more valuable than the rest who treated opera as glorified musical theatre with a history of 'popular hits'.


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## Shaughnessy (Dec 31, 2020)

BBSVK said:


> *You might not like Marina Rebeka*, if you dislike contemporary singers, *but at minimum, she is nerdy.*












Nerdy?


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## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

Shaughnessy said:


> Nerdy?


You need to listen to an interview to notice.

But be careful about her facebook page, I suspect an agent is posting there sometimes.


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