<p><a href=“http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21904047-2,00.html[/url]”>http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21904047-2,00.html</a></p>
<p>I don’t have much of an ear, but I thought the buffs might enjoy weighing in.</p>
<p>He sang Nessun Dorma. This is a contestant on a British show like American Idol. They’re competing for cash and a performance before the Queen.</p>
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<p>I heard it on YoutTube and I thought he was great. He certainly hit the high notes very well!
Simon Covell looked bored at the beginning, but was soon wowed. But Paul has a real hangdog look about him. Not yet competition for Luciano Pavarotti who always seems like he loves singing.</p>
<p>Thanks, marite. Good to know that there’s some substance to the hype. I hope he gets to sing for the Queen.</p>
<p>Watch Paul Potts in an encore performance - without the cheap Walmart suit:</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDB9zwlXrB8[/url]”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDB9zwlXrB8</a></p>
<p>Pretty darn amazing!</p>
<p>I’m glad to see that Paul Potts can smile and that he has more than one aria in his repertoire. He does have an amazing voice! Thanks for posting the link, Xiggi, that was also my very first exposure to the dreaded Simon Covell. He was a real ■■■■■ cat both times!</p>
<p>I had my daughter (a vocal student) listen to the first aria to get her reaction. She felt he was very good, but like any singer, he had some flaws that would require work, e.g. breath support (pushing too hard which actually tends to restrict breath flow) and straining for the upper notes. But for someone who likely isn’t training on a regular basis, she felt his performance fell into the “amazing” category, particularly given the difficulty of “Nessun Dorma”.</p>
<p>Agree, mezzomom. I’ve been wondering whom he’s been studying opera with (and on his cell phone salesman salary!).</p>
<p>Marite, I wondered too (it’s was very clear that he hasn’t just been singing in his shower!); here’s one bio I found through Google: <a href=“http://www.bathopera.co.uk/Past%20Productions/Aida/aida_biographies.htm[/url]”>http://www.bathopera.co.uk/Past%20Productions/Aida/aida_biographies.htm</a></p>
<p>I also love the fact that his presence on the British show is causing a stir; I adore opera and appreciate the fact that he’s making it less mysterious to a whole bunch of television viewers. I think it would be wonderful if people decided they just have to see Turandot after hearing “Nessun Dorma.”</p>
<p>Thanks, mezzomom. He’s not such a neophyte, after all, and has even attended master classes with Pavarotti. He does have quite a repertoire!</p>
<p>I have to say that opera and the British version of Idol are a weird combination!</p>
<p>The link from mezzomom is interesting - Guess they didn’t mention his experience because it doesn’t make as good press? I also think it’s interesting because I thought: once he “makes it” the first thing they will do is make him get his teeth fixed. Appearance matters in performance. In the photo on that page, he looks younger and thinner.</p>
<p>I wonder if this Bath opera is a local “community theater” kind of group that doesn’t pay, or doesn’t pay enough? I had a little trouble with the site, so I couldn’t find how recent it was.</p>
<p>All that said, the videos are fun to watch, and are very moving.</p>
<p>I think he is wonderful to listen to and exceptionally talented.</p>
<p>I agree with Binx about the teeth though…I see him on one of those Makeover shows, coming out looking quite a bit more fetching…with white veneers to boot!</p>
<p>I have never been much of an opera fan but his performance made me cry.</p>
<p>Guess it’s time I actually go to one–perhaps I’m a closet fan and it’s time I come out. Thanks for posting this.</p>
<p>I heard an interview with him this morning on NPR. He said he has not have voice training in six years after running into financial trouble after some health crisis. He was sweet and unasssuming. I’ll be rooting for him on Sunday!</p>
<p>Apparently the bookies are betting he’ll win. If he does, he gets to sing before the Queen and receives 100,000 pounds sterling, nearly $200,000. Definitely enough to fix his teeth, even if it’s on the NHS, and buys some sharp suits.</p>
<p>Curiouser, I do hope you’ll check out an opera sometime. The first time I attended an opera (when I was in my early 40s…not THAT long ago), I was nervous because I thought I wouldn’t understand what was going on. We walked into the opera house, and I discovered that the opera house had a small screen above the stage which provided translations of the libretti. I had never known that and had stayed away from opera solely because I’m not multi-lingual. </p>
<p>After that, I got season tickets starting with my daughter’s 16th birthday (whereupon she was cast as a supernumerary in “Rigoletto” and received free tickets for that show…); I gave them up last year when she went away to college but will be getting them again this year because I miss it too much. The stereotypes about opera being some sort of “hoity-toity” event are out-of-date (you’ll never see this mom wearing a tiara and a mink!), but the chance to hear beautifully complex music performed still holds true. If you’re serious about checking out an opera, I recommend you start out with something by Verdi, Puccini, or one of the Mozart comedies…they tend to be the most accessible for opera neophytes, and you’re likely to hear an aria or two that you recognize. </p>
<p>My daughter had roles in two operas at college this year (very small roles; one in the chorus and one as a 7-year old boy…ah, the joys of being a mezzo :)), and she has gained a whole new appreciation for opera. She had done musical theatre and straight theatre since she was in elementary school, but she found opera to be the hardest thing she’d ever attempted…but it was also an amazing experience. I hope you have a chance to have one of those “amazing experiences” also.</p>
<p>There are also operas that have been filmed. One of them is Ingmar Bergman’s Magic Flute; another is Zefirelli’s Don Giovanni. </p>
<p>One summer, not long ago we attended a free performance of Carmen on Boston Commons. It was unbelievable. There were 50,000 people on that lawn! It was not the best performance. The acoustics were terrible (what else?) and the singers were acting a bit too broadly for my taste. Worst of all, a young woman next to me never stopped yakking into her cell phone despite pleas and dirty looks from me. Still, it was a great experience. But I prefer Mozart operas.</p>
<p>EDIT: more operas on film (Live from the Met)
<a href=“http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/shows/gpatmet/index.html[/url]”>http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/shows/gpatmet/index.html</a></p>
<p>[Here</a> is the standard](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPEG914GATk]Here”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPEG914GATk) when it comes to extracting from Nessun Dorma all it has to offer. I feel proud to be human when I listen to Bjorling.</p>
<p>Potts has a bright, light, unaffected tenor, but he has no control. He is off the pitch, especially on the B, and he is inconsistent and weak in the lower registers. I don’t see what is “amazing” about his performances, though I guess the cell-phone thing works.</p>
<p>Here is amazing <a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrJC7l5Pn-k[/url]”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrJC7l5Pn-k</a>.</p>
<p>[Nicola</a> Martinucci gives us a masculine Calaf](<a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9lUts3pOvs]Nicola”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9lUts3pOvs) that kinda makes you wanna go out and slaughter a deer. Wow!</p>
<p>Drosselmeier, your observations mirror much of what my daughter had to say (I just gave an overview of her thoughts). However, I do think the first link of his performance probably also reflect the setting…he was competing on national television in a genre that probably isn’t the norm for the show (and then throw Simon Cowell’s renowned nastiness into the mix for good measure). I have to believe nerves caused some loss of breath control (which can lead to pitch problems and the weakness you identified). Obviously, professional performers have to learn to harness that nervous energy and make it work for them, but that involves years of on-going training and continual work that make Mr. Potts achievements, without the training/work, notable. The “cell phone thing” probably comes from the producers anyway; how many so-called hard luck stories do we hear with any competition (the US coverage of Olympians is notorious for this)? Thanks for the additional links; I look forward to listening to them (when I’m at a computer that isn’t dial-up!)</p>
<p>Marite, unbelievable that someone wouldn’t respond to your requests re: the cell phone throughout the performance. I suppose, to some people, a free performance = I can do whatever I want :(</p>
<p>do any of you old-timers like me remember aretha franklin singing this aria at some award show when she filled in for–IIRC Whitney Houston? the press fell all over her praising her awful singing. you could practically hear the cigarettes in the breathing. well, at least she tried but some things are better left undone. and i understand why the press praised her–to my untrained ear she sounded great. to my kid’s ear it was the worst she had ever heard.</p>
<p>Dross:</p>
<p>You are right that this was not the very best performance of Nessun Dorma around, but this was not the best milieu in which to perform it, either in terms of ability to prepare before going on stage, the acoustics, or audience reception, however enthusiastic it was. So I’m evaluating his singing in this context.</p>
<p>Mezzo: It was a free performance, so she must have felt she could do whatever she wanted. But why on earth attend an opera and then spend the whole time yakking away? At least I’m thankful I was not caught in a brawl as the Boston Pops patron was recently!</p>