<p>nymom-
Shirley Bassay is a classic. From newer generations there are other gems like Eva Cassidy <a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGE_Fd9B6-4[/url]”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGE_Fd9B6-4</a> and Laura Nyro <a href=“http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKJ4R87q6lU&mode=related&search=[/url]”>http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKJ4R87q6lU&mode=related&search=</a></p>
<p>I went to iTunes to purchase a rendition of Nessun Dorma, and noted they had one version featuring Michael Bolton…</p>
<p>Just saw Brian Williams on NBC News announcing that Paul Potts would be appearing on the Thursday morning edition of Today.</p>
<p>I read this thread, then went on the net to hear the two appearances. I don’t know anything about opera, other than that my H listens to it all the time. Just never been my thing. To me it has always sounded like the famous Disney cartoon of the singing chickens, with the hens puffing out their chests “bwaah bwaaack”. It always seems too “can I hit this high note” and in Italian too. Singers who break out into song because they hit their cue, and do it beautifully and proficiently. But as a total ignorant, I have to say that listening to this guy seemed like a real person saying goodbye, a real person so emotional that the only way to communicate was to have the song break out of him, rather than an “opera singer”. But that’s just me and how I reacted to his performance.</p>
<p>I can relate to Drosselmaier’s comments but somehow they are not the whole story. I may have listened to too much opera to understand what exactly goes on, but try throw a technically perfect version of Nessun Dorma at your aunt or neighbor (if they haven’t heard Pott’s version yet) and they will fall asleep, while they will like and be moved by Potts’ version - even if they don’t know the cell phone story.</p>
<p>Drosselmeier,
Thank you so much for your insightful comments. I am gratified to learn that someone else agrees with my assessment of Mr. Potts. I do not hear greatness. He does not have good control of his instrument, especially in his lower register. While he is a talented amateur, I do not believe he has the makings of an artist. As you said, it would seem that the difference between Potts and a truly great singer such as Corelli or Bjorling would be obvious, but I have lived long enough to learn that it is not to the average listener. I do sometimes wonder if an amateur such as Potts or even an acclaimed, but, in my opinion, not very good singer such as Andrea Boccelli were pitted head to head against a truly great singer if the average listener could appreciate the difference.</p>
<p>I have not heard Paul Potts’ back story; I’ve only listened to one clip of him singing on youtube. I wish him well. As many posters have said, if his performance touches people, that’s a good thing. If hearing him inspires people to attend an opera production or purchase a recording by a real artist, that too is a good thing. I’ll be surprised if 15 years from now people are talking about Mr. Potts. Remember the Charlotte Church phenomena? She turned 21 in February. When is the last time her name was mentioned?</p>
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Funny you should ask, dancersmom. I heard her name in the news just the other day. Apparently she is 6 mos pregnant out of wedlock. <a href=“http://www.celebrity-babies.com/2007/06/pregnant_charlo.html[/url]”>http://www.celebrity-babies.com/2007/06/pregnant_charlo.html</a></p>
<p>I don’t get it!</p>
<p>What could anyone expect from a person who competes in what appears to be a glorified Karaoke contest. This is an amateur (arned with a bit of experience) who is facing a national TV audience, has to sing without any props, and has to overcome the screams of a wild group of fans and not much of help from the music source. Yes, Paul Potts might not sound like Pavarotti or the other “known” tenors mentioned in this thread, but one should remember that he won because of the votes of people who do NOT know much about opera, probably have similar bad teeth, but know what does touch their heart. Do those people care about Jussi Bjorling or even Enrico Caruso? Nope, but the cell phone salesman won their heart … imperfect as it was. </p>
<p>Fwiw, I’d hope that the experts would realize that common people do not expect the elusive perfection --whatever that is supposed to be. I’d also hope that the experts or wannabe “smarter-than-thou” would realize how off-putting the commentaries and all that snobbery truly are to the … uneducated public. Wonder why people yawn at non-commercial productions of the great operas? </p>
<p>I have songs by Pavarotti on my I-Pod, but I enjoyed the performance of Paul Potts, and could not help comparing his performance to the atrocious “singers” who emerge from the US versions of the same shows. </p>
<p>By the way, what do you think of the aptitude with the lower registers of Blake Lewis from American Idol. :)</p>
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<p>dancersmom, if you visit the UK you will hear her name a lot. Charlotte Church grew up from the cute little phenom. She hosts her own TV show in Britain, is incredibly popular, and is doing quite well. Retains her voice, and sings on her show between interviewing guests. Kind of like Oprah but with more of a sense of humor.</p>
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<p>Hmmm. Yeah. I hear Pott’s weaknesses as an operatic tenor quite clearly, but perhaps most people can’t experience them as they are because Potts was mic’d. They perhaps won’t hear it on a CD either because the voice will be masked by mic’s, compression, and other enhancements. A great tenor will need none of this once he steps inside an opera house. I do not wish to put Potts down, but were we to put him against Pavarotti in that sort of setting, everyone would see the truth. He has a sweet little character voice that is nice to hear, but it would become very clear indeed that his is a voice that is fundamentally unfit for something like Calaf or Radames. I guess that is why I am a bit shocked by the comparison between Potts and the great vocalists. I have heard Pavarotti in an opera house. It does something to people that I think is far more profound than the misery vote they are moved to give to Paul Potts. With Potts, people cried because they heard an underdog sound more beautiful than they had ever thought to expect. When Pavarotti sings (or used to sing), they cried because they got a glimpse of why it is so good to be alive. Pavarotti is not just a little character voice. He is one of the greatest Tenore lirico-spintos of all time-- a big bad wolf of tenors, who with one huff and puff can blow the opera house clean down. We ought never confuse the two.</p>
<p>Another thing that bothers me is how we are treating the big works such as Turandot, Aida, Tosca and others. I get the impression that so many of their parts have been removed and showcased on “Greatest Hits” albums that we have forgotten their context. When a tenor stands to sing Nessun Dorma, I am expecting an interpretation of Calaf. I want to see how his Calaf is gonna communicate the libretto. But you know, the arias are now so separate from their original contexts I wonder if they haven’t forever left behind their intended meanings. Do guys like Potts even know what they are saying when they sing the foreign words? I suspect not. So when I hear others claim Potts is “getting people into opera”, I have to wonder if it is true. Are we about to see an increase in people buying tickets to *La boh</p>
<p>Dross-
xiggi’s point is that Paul Potts is, and appeals more to the “common man”, not the opera afficianado. It is his story, perhaps more than his music, that is causing the response he is getting. I am sure you get it.</p>
<p>Dross:
From Wikipedia, Potts did sing Radames for the amateur Bath Opera. How much mic</p>
<p>Jym:
I wasn’t responding to xiggi there. I think xiggi was dealing with a point about perfection, which I have already said a number of times is not really the issue for me here. I don’t know how to make this clearer than I already have.</p>
<p>Marite:</p>
<p>Yes. I’ve heard about his Radames at Bath. I think it was to piano accompaniment, which, while not exactly an orchestra with which the voice must compete, and though it did not take place at La Scala, still demonstrates that Potts is not a rank amateur fresh off the street. So I do not mean to imply the man has no talent at all. It is obvious to me that he quite good at what he does. I’m just kinda scratching my head over this claim that the guy’s voice is amazing, that he is as good as they say—that he is in Pavarotti’s order. That sort of greatness is something I sincerely do not see or hear.</p>
<p>Also, I am completely unconcerned about turning classic music into pop music. I really enjoy this in fact, if it is done well. My concern is all these CD’s with little snips of actual symphonies and operas being grouped together in albums and sold as greatest hits. Listeners, I fear, are losing the meaning behind these pieces because they aren’t hearing them as part of something larger. It is probably the case, for example, that most people think Nessun Dorma ends on that gigantic D major chord we all have grown used to, when in fact it moves right along. Is this treatment enough to cause us to want to see what comes next? I wonder.</p>
<p>Music is so individual. That’s not trite - I mean it in the deepest possible way. Music is a form of expression that hits many of us where words, or at least unaccompanied words, don’t reach. I have listened to every link, and enjoy hearing people’s takes on them. But I don’t necessarily agree. I thought that Shirley Bassay was harsh and brassy. I thought the first Bobby McFerrin doing Bach link was something Simon would have buzzed. It doesn’t matter. I am supremely glad that there are multiple methods of expression in music, and hope that will continue.</p>
<p>I married into a family of classical musicians. I come from a family of singers. The vocal gene passed me by, but I still prefer music with words – songs. I have more training than “average,” but I am wired to respond to different stimuli. I have attended a number of operas, but prefer them live, if at all. I love the emotion, the pagentry, the acting. Even the dressing up the audience gets to do. 
While I appreciate the talents and abilities of great singers, it doesn’t connect with me the way it does with my mom, who studied opera. I like <gasp> country, or musicals. My tastes are plebian. I spend a lot of time at classical concerts because it is what the rest of my family likes, and I have learned to enjoy it. I study the program notes, and try to figure out what the composer was trying to say, and if I think the performer has captured it. It’s fascinating to me now. But my family knows that after an evening at the symphony, I am probably going to turn country on the radio on the way home. Enough is enough.</gasp></p>
<p>I’m learning. When my S started playing horn, I couldn’t have told you what one sounds like. Now I can pick the horn out of any piece. It is something I have learned to do. My son is also a composer, and something that interests him greatly is the whole concept of “snobbery” in classical music. My S has written some pieces that have gotten positive reception from his peers that leave me cold. He wrote a short opera recently that received good reviews. My mother listened and raved and raved about the tenor. I tried, but I didn’t get it. He is speaking a language I don’t speak. He is concerned about the future of classical music. Does it need to “dumb down” for the untrained like me? Audiences are dwindling. A hundred years ago, when it was the norm for everyone to study music to some extent, there was a different connection with the audience. Because many folk now understand volume and rhythm only, if you can’t dance to it, it has no value. Classical music has become a fine, expensive wine in a world that prefers beer. Or Coke. </p>
<p>Paul Potts made a rare connection, bringing a mostly unfamiliar art form to a point where the masses could touch it. I admit that when I watched his video, I was underwhelmed. (When I watched the competition he faced, I understood a little better.) But I did feel that connection. That bridge that said this highfalutin art stuff might just be attainable. Not by the singer so much as by the listener. Who among us hasn’t wished to be discovered?</p>
<p>I enjoyed the second Bach link. But mostly because I knew the piece. My D on violin plays the Bach while my S on horn plays the Ave Maria (Or maybe I have that backward). Beautiful, stunning, heart-wrenching. I enjoyed the Bobby McFerrin piece because I could relate it in some way to something I already know, understand, and love. </p>
<p>On this thread, those people who have some experience with vocal arts are generally expressing different opinions, or at least more detailed or careful ones, than those who don’t. It is because they can relate this performance to prior “technical” knowledge. Those who are wowed by Paul Potts are also relating the experience to prior knowledge - of a different kind.</p>
<p>Dross:</p>
<p>Chuckle. As a child, I used to sing (off-key) arias from Carmen without realizing they were from an opera. Later on, my introduction to classical music included “greatest hits” such as Maria Callas (it took me a while to realize that Casta Diva came from Norma); Furtwangler’s Overture to Tannhauser (another preposterous opera), and such. </p>
<p>Years ago, the New Yorker ran a cartoon featuring a couple in a museum cafeteria. The wife is eating while listening intensely to music. She nods and says: “Gluck, Gluck.” The husband thinks he’s heard “Yuck, yuck” and asks, “Are you okay, dear?” As the French say, "Chacun </p>
<p>Do we get college credit for this crash course in music history, theory and performance? ;)</p>
<p>oh-- and conversational French too… To each his own, j’accord</p>
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<p>Me, too. It reminded me of Messiah sing-alongs, the way so many people in the audience actually knew the words.</p>
<p>Dross, thanks for the links. I’d never listened to Bobby McFerrin before. Impressive!</p>
<p>Just did an unscientific experiment, and played two Nessun Dormas to a six and seven year old. Both picked the Paul Potts one as better.
Question: suppose we would have had a better tenor than Potts on that show. Would that person have been able to move the audience in the same way, everything else being equal?</p>
<p>Haha, marite:</p>
<p>Ironic you should mention Furtwangler’s Overture to Tannhauser. It was this overture that in fact caused me first to doubt the effects of musical extractions on how people would tend to receive the larger works from which they came. In the Tannhauser extraction there are some enhancements that do not exist in the opera. The voicings exist but are made more dramatic in the extraction. Anyway, I have the overture on CD and played it several times to discuss Tannhauser with my kids. I just didn’t want to deal with taking out the whole opera, finding the overture, etc., etc. The kids loved the big chorale in the brass, especially in the lower brass (some very nice things are going on between the trombones and tuba here that I think would warm anyone), and they noted the intensity of the voicings in the horns toward the end. Well, sometime later one of them decided to play the whole opera. They followed it along until it ended. When I asked their thoughts, they said it was a dumb opera, that Tannhauser was a jerk and that the orchestra didn’t play well at all. Digging further, I discovered they were waiting for the same voicings they had grown used to in the extraction, and when it didn’t show up in the full version of Tannhauser they had tried, they wrote off the whole thing and were even a little angry. I think the extraction sort of poisoned their experience, though I agree with your view of both Norma and Tannhauser on the whole.</p>
<p>Binx. Great comments.</p>
<p>We may disagree with the propriety, the musical style and even the value to us of a certain expression. I, for example, am not very much taken by Fantasia’s performance here on this thread, as you are not taken by Bassey. I hardly think we would agree that either Fantasia or Bassey are hampered by fundamental weaknesses that keep them from expressing themselves exactly as they wish. Both these women are extraordinary, whether we like them or not. When Fantasia looks into the camera and sings that she is somebody, I am not gonna doubt her in the least. She dominates everything, and has such a profound control of her instrument that I am never left wondering if it is gonna get in her way. I don’t have to actually like what I hear to appreciate its nature and inherent power. No one in his right mind would claim McFerrin is in McFerrin’s way as he expresses who and what McFerrin is. Same with Bassey, same with Monk, same with Dylan, with Bjorling, Pavarotti, etc. It is not true of Potts – Potts clunks all over himself, which, though it may be partly to blame for why so many people find him endearing (similarly to how they responded to William Hung) is not a reason to claim him one of the greats.</p>
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LOL. Come now. They are six and seven year olds. They would choose Daffy Duck singing Nessun Dorma over Paul Potts.</p>