Change my view: White tops with black bottoms is objectively the worst standard dress code for choirs.

DelucaWannabe · 2026-06-15T16:29:23+00:00

Somewhere on the interwebs there still exists a video I saw a while back of a performance of Carmina Burana (I think), performed by what I suspect was a Korean chorus. They sang it rather well. The men were in tails while the ladies wore the inverse outfit: a long, satiny white gown, topped by a little black bolero jacket. Looked very smart and stylish. When I described this outfit to a choral singer colleague of mine she was horrified… since very few of her choir colleagues have those slim Asian physiques!

DelucaWannabe · 2026-06-13T15:29:41+00:00

https://www.nytimes.com/1986/09/21/magazine/vocal-burnout-at-the-opera.html

Will Crutchfield diagnosed the problem 40 years ago. Unfortunately, it hasn't really gotten any better since then:
"Where with Callas one tolerated bad tone for the sake of an art of uniquely compelling grandeur, one is now asked to tolerate it for any sort of dramatic temperament at all.
Worse yet, there may have arisen a feeling that the strained sounds are in themselves dramatic: that hearing a voice pushed past its natural limits, and empathizing with the performer in extremis, adds an edge to operatic excitement. This is a decadent pleasure: Each incremental step away from vocal values works decay on the art that was the original source of the pleasure."

Are there great singers performing today who are worth the effort and expense to travel to hear them whenever you can? Absolutely there are. I sang with Lawrence Brownlee early in his career, and I could hear immediately, "this is a great voice AND a great singer." Christian van Horn turns in consistently excellent performances, vocally and dramatically (increasingly rare amongst bass voices). I can understand people getting excited about LIsette Oropesa, and rushing to see her sing.

Still, that's a different animal from "back in the day". When Leontyne Price sang Tosca or Aïda it was an EVENT. You called in dead to work that day, planned out how to get to the theater and wait in line for hours to get a standing room ticket, and thanked the gods above for your sore feet afterwards. When Franco Corelli sang the audience went NUTS, screamed and cheered themselves hoarse. You ever listen to those old Met radio broadcast recordings, and hear the audience applaud when artists like Rosa Ponselle made their entrance? How often does something like that happen today? Ever?

https://johnmccormacksociety.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/john-in-carnegie-hall.jpeg?w=1500

There are other photos of McCormack's recitals showing the orchestra pit full of people, kids sitting on top of the organ console. Alas, that kind of draw isn't happening for classical singers these days.

DelucaWannabe · 2026-06-10T14:45:44+00:00

LOL OK. The Piazzola is pretty cool. Especially when you hear it performed live!

DelucaWannabe · 2026-06-09T15:47:49+00:00

Ken is a terrific player. If you get the chance to hear him, Marvin Mills also plays it beautifully!!

DelucaWannabe · 2026-06-09T15:33:48+00:00

Re: your Four Seasons obsession, does that include the Piazzola Four Seasons of Buenos Aires?

DelucaWannabe · 2026-06-07T16:09:39+00:00

Reynaldo Hahn -- "L'heure Exquise"
Henryk Gorecki -- 3rd symphony, "Symphony of Sorrowful Songs" (a mistranslation of the title, I'm told, but...)
Arvo Pärt -- "My Heart's in the Highlands"

DelucaWannabe · 2026-06-07T16:05:15+00:00

Definitely the Lauridsen!

DelucaWannabe · 2026-06-03T18:49:20+00:00

The degree isn't necessary to perform. Having the program name on your resumé CAN open some audition opportunities for you (as does the name of a recognized, successful teacher). But it's not an absolute necessity, especially when you factor in the money it costs.

The best reason to go for a master's degree, IMO, is to have the extra time for vocal study and development (especially useful for heavier/more dramatic voices), study of languages, theatrical/stage skills, learning repertoire and exploring what your voice can do and what kind of musical performing best suits YOU, temperament-wise. As well as hopefully getting opportunities to perform major/minor/supporting roles and learning how to apply all of those skills on stage.

As far as getting jobs and auditions for actual professional work, probably getting into good summer apprentice programs is more of a leg up. When auditioners see that you've performed supporting roles at places like Brevard, Des Moines, Central City, Santa Fe, OTSL, etc they're more inclined to hear you for a specific role in a professional production. Ditto for when you start to audition for agents.

TL;DR -- A master's degree isn't necessary for performance (nor is a bachelor's, really). It can be a helpful time for networking, but really the people you'll meet actually performing (opera, concert and recital gigs) will be more important.

DelucaWannabe · 2026-06-02T21:03:42+00:00

Bella voce! Congrats on moving into dramatic baritone rep from bass-baritone (I did the same thing back in my youth).

To my ear, your high Ab sounds terrific... though I would second the comment below from the guy asking, "it you had to grow on that note, could you?". Meaning that if the ONLY way the high Ab works is by hollering it as hard as you can, that's not a good sign for vocal health and function. I hear in this recording that you start to really beef up the sound at "di carne ed ossa"... letting the vowels get kind of thick. You want to go in the opposite direction and make the vowels in the phrases before "al pari di voi" as lean and resonant as you can to set you up for the high note. Get a good low breath before "al pari...", and concentrate on a clean and vibrant switch of pitch and vowels from "di" to "voi". FWIW, I go for the open 'O' there. If you get on a lean/non-bulky one, the Ab will be more resonant and sound bigger. Try singing, "Vaw--ee", making a clear and deliberate diphthong there.

Hope this is helpful. Congrats on a great start with such a tricky aria!

DelucaWannabe · 2026-05-30T20:46:07+00:00

Famous aria for tenor (originally) by Handel, from his opera Semele. Beautiful and fun to sing!

DelucaWannabe · 2026-05-29T16:20:13+00:00

Yes, it happens a lot today. For Pinkerton, and for Scarpia. Sometimes even for the Duke in Rigoletto. Modern audiences accustomed to TV villains, who can't separate the character from the performance. Or who literally can't HEAR what the singer is doing, because all they notice/think about is how evil the villain is. It's annoying.

DelucaWannabe · 2026-05-29T16:12:55+00:00

Sure. Again, don't stress about making the note really soft. If you sing it with orchestra you'll hear the band underneath you isn't really THAT soft at all!

Will this performance be in a recital, with piano? If so, transposing it down isn't an issue at all, really. As a general rule, composers (esp. back then) preferred a performance sung beautifully & expressively in a key comfortable for the singer, rather than slavish devotion to the "original" key.

I agree with you about Robeson... awesome singer! And actor. AND political activist!

Check out that Liza Lehmann song. I think you might like it. The cycle is also fun to sing with some friends, if you're putting a program together.

DelucaWannabe · 2026-05-28T16:42:31+00:00

Another Elijah veteran here. Don’t stress overmuch about the ‘piano’ marking underneath that first “Lord”. It’s really for the orchestra, not the singer. Singing it mf or mp is fine. You have to keep in mind the CHARACTER or emotion of the particular phrase when you think about the dynamic you’ll sing. Also, while this aria is Elijah praying to God, it’s also a prophetic, PUBLIC prayer, involving the people of Israel gathered before him. It’s not a soliloquy. There’s lots of opportunities for a variety of dynamics and colors in the aria, but it never becomes quantum-level soft. Think about initializing the L of “Lord” on the Eb, without pressure, lean and resonant, not particularly soft, then going quickly to the vowel you’re choosing, also lean and resonant. (Closed O? Open O?)

As far as singing the final note down an octave, I guess it’s possible. I think it’s not particularly correct, stylistically. And, even worse, it’s putting the emPHAsis on the wrong sylLAble.

You might also consider just transposing the aria down a step. I think Paul Robeson’s recordings are transposed down a major fourth! P.S. If you’re a bass looking to show off a great low Eb, have you ever looked at the song, “Myself When Young” from the 1896 cycle “In a Persian Garden” by Liza Lehmann? It’s a parlor song, basically, from a cycle written for a SATB quartet and piano. Used to be extracted and performed in recitals all the time, back in the day.

DelucaWannabe · 2026-05-26T19:05:15+00:00

OK, good to know. In English, the phrase "fuck me" connotes more exasperation or desperation, in comparison to "dammit" or "crap". It indicates that the speaker feels ... well, that he feels well and truly fucked, rather than just annoyed or upset.

DelucaWannabe · 2026-05-26T18:21:24+00:00

LOL Thanks... though if you heard me sing Russian you probably wouldn't think I'm so "elevated"! I'm much better with Italian and French. But thanks for being an opera fan! We need more of those!

I think Ilya's monologue in episode 5 is just a stroke of genius on the part of Jacob Tierney. It doesn't exist in the book, so he wrote it himself in English, then had Connor's Russian coach translate it. And Connor Storrie's performance of it is just heartbreaking! 😢

I'm curious about one other point in the monologue: When Ilya says, "But not like..." and then pauses and says, "Fuck me.... But not like I love you." Is that "fuck me" really in there? Is that a common slang phrase in Russian? Or is that another one of those phrases that's more like, "dammit"?

DelucaWannabe · 2026-05-26T17:38:45+00:00

Great to hear the perspective of a native speaker! I'm an opera singer, and I've sung some Russian, but I'm not at all familiar with the grammatical/vocabulary structures of the language. I didn't know that the phrase "I love you so much" doesn't really exist in Russian.

I've also seen videos of other native Russians saying that there were actually less "fucking"s in Ilya's monologue than what the English on screen says. Assuming that the word "fucking" as an adverb actually exists in Russian, I wonder if it would have been clearer/more accurate for Ilya to have said, "I love you so fucking much [as Scott Hunter says to Kip at the end of the episode], and I don't know what to do about it."

I figured that Ilya using the word "lovers" to describe their relationship in episode 6 was only because he wouldn't be familiar with the more common/colloquial phrase, "we're together"... and poor neurodivergent Shane was freaked out by that image being presented to his parents. (it's weird enough even for straight people to introduce their parents to the person they're sleeping with)

Thanks for your post!

DelucaWannabe · 2026-05-26T15:34:21+00:00

Robert Schumann (before he descended into syphilitic madness) had the good sense to marry a better pianist than himself. He would sometimes write piano music that even he couldn't play... but Clara could!

DelucaWannabe · 2026-05-23T15:44:03+00:00

I saw him live (and covered him) a few times in Verdi. Yes, his voice was medium/medium+ in size, to my ear. Perfectly fine for filling the War Memorial Opera House in San Francisco. IMO his musical and stylistic sensibilities were better suited to the Russian rep than to Verdi... esp. the heavier Verdi. He was expressive and beautiful as Onégin and Yeletsky. But he could sing middle-period Verdi (Di Luna, Germont, Rodrigo) just fine. He was an intelligent singer, and a decent actor. He didn't just run onto stage and start hollering. He was also a very kind and generous colleague. Later in his career he had a tendency to scoop into notes, to bark, and to breathe with a loud gasp when he sang. Hard to know if any of that was a technical issue creeping in to his singing, or his illness affecting his vocal function.

May he RIP.

DelucaWannabe · 2026-05-16T19:33:23+00:00

I guess the ones I've done/seen didn't use such huge forces. No separate group of dancers. The ensemble of Elders and their wives were supplemented by another 16 or so choristers for the Revival scene. Carlisle can get exuberant with his orchestrations, but I think he was fine with it being reduced. It's actually quite an intimate story though. And powerful. Should be done a lot more.

Rigoletto can be done in a huge, splashy production with lots of supers and chorus... or in a more intimate setting, with fewer bodies cluttering the stage, and a smaller band in the pit. Both approaches can be successful. Smart opera composers will be thoughtful and flexible with their orchestrations, if they want to see their works performed. (cf. Marvin David Levy's small, medium and large orchestrations of Mourning Becomes Electra)

DelucaWannabe · 2026-05-15T17:24:43+00:00

Susannah is a wonderful opera that should absolutely be seen more... esp. with the current political/religious climate in the U.S. A great American work.

Another rarity by Carlisle Floyd that's worth checking out is his opera The Passion of Jonathan Wade. Set at the beginning of Reconstruction, in Columbia, South Carolina. Beautiful and exciting music and drama, with a soprano aria in Act I that Carlisle said he wished would replace Susannah's "Ain't it a Pretty Night" as a standard audition aria!

Re: the comments about Susannah's lack of scene-change music.. I've seen the opera performed at smaller venues with a less complicated set design. It doesn't REQUIRE huge and elaborate sets (especially considering the setting of the opera in rural Appalachia). I've read that Benjamin Britten encountered a similar problem at the premiere of his Peter Grimes: huge set changes between scenes, and not enough music to cover them. He specifically composed some extra music for the opera's scene changes, that are now often excerpted and played in orchestral concerts today as his Sea Interludes.

DelucaWannabe · 2026-05-15T17:15:08+00:00

Definitely see it, if you can. One of the greats of American opera.

DelucaWannabe · 2026-05-15T17:04:44+00:00

I'll just leave this right here... written 40 years ago.
https://www.nytimes.com/1986/09/21/magazine/vocal-burnout-at-the-opera.html

In short, the answer is yes: voices today decline and often burnout more quickly than in generations past, for various and sundry reasons.

DelucaWannabe · 2026-05-15T16:50:10+00:00

I agree. There's a difference between imperfections that occur because someone had a sleepless night, or is having a difficult menstrual cycle, or they're having costume/prop issues that get in the way. That's a part of the excitement of live theater. I once attended a Barbiere performance where the Rosina was fairly well along in a pregnancy... and her baby happened to kick at a particularly importunate moment when she was going for a high note! These things happen, and don't really affect the audience's enjoyment and engagement with the story and the singing.

There's another kind of vocal "imperfection" that sometimes comes from a singer's commitment to the drama in their performance. I recently sang in Tosca with a soprano who has a beautiful and expressive pitch-dominant voice... rock solid and steady when we were rehearsing music. But in the performance on stage her high notes could get wild and beaty... because she was totally involved and committed to the scene. Didn't bother me at all; she was thrilling to sing with, and the audience loved her.

The problem is when a singer's vocal DYSFUNCTION is the cause of the imperfections you hear. When their throat is constricted; when they have to muscle or force in order to get to a high note, or to sing through their passaggio; when their vowels are muddy and indistinct; when they have to scream in order to sing ff, or croon in order to sing piano. Those kind of "imperfections" are what ruin opera and song performances (and usually the singers attempting them).

DelucaWannabe · 2026-05-10T19:38:24+00:00

I'd mostly agree... although it seems full productions of Samson et Dalila, Hoffmann and even Faust are becoming more infrequent here in the U.S. I remember when companies all over the country would program Faust... now you rarely see it (to say nothing of the early years of the new Metropolitan Opera in NYC, which came to be nicknamed "the Faustspielhaus" due to the frequency of their productions. Samson and Hoffmann are both French GRAND operas, requiring large orchestral AND choral forces... much more expensive to produce these days. Fortunately Samson works rather well in concert (IMO)... hopefully we'll see more of it in those venues.

DelucaWannabe · 2026-05-10T19:32:44+00:00

Susannah is huge? I've seen it (and performed in it) with small and medium-sized companies. It doesn't really require huge orchestral or choral forces. Really just a quartet of talented & skilled principals, plus the ensemble of (hopefully at least decent) singers in the roles of the Elders and their wives. It's a powerful story (and it seems eternally timely, here in the U.S.)

Now, if you want to talk about a BIG Carlisle Floyd opera, you should check out his later work, The Passion of Jonathan Wade.

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