Why don’t singers learn from the Greats?
If you head over to my Singing Facebook page (https://m.facebook.com/Michael.Dewis.Teacher/?locale2=en_GB) you’ll see I’ve been running a Twelve Days of Singing series of posts. Every day a great performance from YouTube, with an explanation as to why I’ve chosen it. As a young student I was obsessed with going to the opera houses and concert halls of London to see my idols. When I wasn’t doing that, I lived in the Guildhall library, listening to their CDs and vinyls.
I’ve never understood why singers aren’t interested in other singers.
We live in a world where YouTube has opened it all up to us. If you’re a young soprano studying a role or an aria you can now observe how the very greatest perform it. And learn from it. Unless you’re destined to be the Greatest Singer that has Ever Lived, you’ll most likely learn from the experience. In this manner, there’s no such thing as illegal copying in our art form. It’s all a great pit of ideas that get shared and pushed around. When I sing a piece, I want to be the best I can be. So if Dmitri or Bryn or Giorgio can show me a nice accent or effect, and if I nick it for my own, it’ll be ME doing it! And if I get the job or amaze the audience because I’ve absorbed from a singer much better than me-so what?
Is it fear that stops singers following the greats? You often hear after an amazing performance a singer who essays the same rep, “I’m giving up!” That’s daft. Should Pavarotti not have bothered, because of Corelli!?! Bryn is Bryn. Dmitri was Dmitri. I am me. You are you.
Or is it simply they don’t love the art form enough? If that’s true, and if you’re reading this with intent to make it your living then let me advise you-don’t bother! If you’re not obsessed with the music and performing, but rather see this corner of the arts as a chance to push yourself forward then run off to the X-Factor.
Loving opera gives you an amazing library of experiences inside our minds. Us fans can be moved to tears at the thought of this performance or that. My first singing teacher, Mollie Lane used to exhort me to live a life of passion. She would say it matters not what I do-as long as I fill my days with passion. As we age, stress overtakes passion as our dominant emotion. How sad! Opera is all passion. Heaving blossoms, thrilling high notes, extended death scenes. Pure naked passion! Open yourself up to it!
Being a professional solo Opera Singer at any level means that you’re passing this torch from the earliest recorded greats to future stars. Each generation adds to the lustre-or should do. We should find the balance between being our own wonderful selves, and absorbing the best of what has gone on before. So get on YouTube and start sponging it all up!
This will be my last blog until next year. Thanks for all the lovely comments and observations. Have a wonderful Christmas, and see you all in the New Year.
If you head over to my Singing Facebook page (https://m.facebook.com/Michael.Dewis.Teacher/?locale2=en_GB) you’ll see I’ve been running a Twelve Days of Singing series of posts. Every day a great performance from YouTube, with an explanation as to why I’ve chosen it. As a young student I was obsessed with going to the opera houses and concert halls of London to see my idols. When I wasn’t doing that, I lived in the Guildhall library, listening to their CDs and vinyls.
I’ve never understood why singers aren’t interested in other singers.
We live in a world where YouTube has opened it all up to us. If you’re a young soprano studying a role or an aria you can now observe how the very greatest perform it. And learn from it. Unless you’re destined to be the Greatest Singer that has Ever Lived, you’ll most likely learn from the experience. In this manner, there’s no such thing as illegal copying in our art form. It’s all a great pit of ideas that get shared and pushed around. When I sing a piece, I want to be the best I can be. So if Dmitri or Bryn or Giorgio can show me a nice accent or effect, and if I nick it for my own, it’ll be ME doing it! And if I get the job or amaze the audience because I’ve absorbed from a singer much better than me-so what?
Is it fear that stops singers following the greats? You often hear after an amazing performance a singer who essays the same rep, “I’m giving up!” That’s daft. Should Pavarotti not have bothered, because of Corelli!?! Bryn is Bryn. Dmitri was Dmitri. I am me. You are you.
Or is it simply they don’t love the art form enough? If that’s true, and if you’re reading this with intent to make it your living then let me advise you-don’t bother! If you’re not obsessed with the music and performing, but rather see this corner of the arts as a chance to push yourself forward then run off to the X-Factor.
Loving opera gives you an amazing library of experiences inside our minds. Us fans can be moved to tears at the thought of this performance or that. My first singing teacher, Mollie Lane used to exhort me to live a life of passion. She would say it matters not what I do-as long as I fill my days with passion. As we age, stress overtakes passion as our dominant emotion. How sad! Opera is all passion. Heaving blossoms, thrilling high notes, extended death scenes. Pure naked passion! Open yourself up to it!
Being a professional solo Opera Singer at any level means that you’re passing this torch from the earliest recorded greats to future stars. Each generation adds to the lustre-or should do. We should find the balance between being our own wonderful selves, and absorbing the best of what has gone on before. So get on YouTube and start sponging it all up!
This will be my last blog until next year. Thanks for all the lovely comments and observations. Have a wonderful Christmas, and see you all in the New Year.