I've deliberately avoided this thread so far as I suspected an outbreak of pedantry in the early stages. I'm certainly not a singer but did engage over 15 years on the boards as a thesp!
'Communication' instantly speaks to me, alongside an indication of the composer's 'intention' but principally a personal sense of emotional truth is also paramount in performance. I've just been listening to the recent release of Winterreise with Jonas Kaufmann/Helmut Deutsch, Sony, and need time to savour such a nuanced performance, not in the sense of BAL but measured alongside the recordings on my shelves: DF-D, and two Peter's, Schreier and Pears, and I've long possessed the Jon Vickers 'experience' on LP and CD!
The CD liner notes, translated by Stewart Spencer, include an interview between Thomas Voigt and Messrs Kaufmann and Deutsch, headed "You can't simply carry on as usual afterwards".
J K "...But when I'm standing onstage in the evening and slip into a role
every kind of rationality vanishes. I immerse myself in this alternative
world to such an extent that I think I am the person in question and that
this is my situation and my feelings. Performing Winterreise isn't so very
different from singing an operatic role. I know that in this context people
always ask the question whether lieder singing isn't about observing and
reporting things objectively rather than feeling and sharing an emotion
subjectively. This may be true of many works, but as far as Schubert is
concerned, I continue to hold the view that it is quite simply impossible to
provide an objective account. Anyone who claims to be able to sing this cycle
objectively is deluding himself. It's like the Evangelist in the St John Passion:
Bach has written it in such a way that the singer simply has to nail his colours
to the mast and reveal his own feelings..."
Quite. I was stimulated by Kaufmann's thoughts and recall the wind of change, re performance, as long ago as the 1960s when, as the new kids on the block, we began to investigate a change to plasticity in performance v stand and deliver normality. Yes, I simplify, of course. In short, for the first time ever, I was intrigued by the merger between the Lied and Opera performances at this year's Cardiff Singer of the World, a dovetailing towards refinement. I've subsequently checked a DVD recording of the Finals and a new dawn is evident. I hope I'm on the right track but sense that a fundamental change is already in the offing. It's certainly bearing fruit in the theatre and cinema. Only a theory but perhaps, in the early 1950s, the arrival and development of TV technique with its need for intimacy and 'less is more' may provide a few clues in this quest.
'Communication' instantly speaks to me, alongside an indication of the composer's 'intention' but principally a personal sense of emotional truth is also paramount in performance. I've just been listening to the recent release of Winterreise with Jonas Kaufmann/Helmut Deutsch, Sony, and need time to savour such a nuanced performance, not in the sense of BAL but measured alongside the recordings on my shelves: DF-D, and two Peter's, Schreier and Pears, and I've long possessed the Jon Vickers 'experience' on LP and CD!
The CD liner notes, translated by Stewart Spencer, include an interview between Thomas Voigt and Messrs Kaufmann and Deutsch, headed "You can't simply carry on as usual afterwards".
J K "...But when I'm standing onstage in the evening and slip into a role
every kind of rationality vanishes. I immerse myself in this alternative
world to such an extent that I think I am the person in question and that
this is my situation and my feelings. Performing Winterreise isn't so very
different from singing an operatic role. I know that in this context people
always ask the question whether lieder singing isn't about observing and
reporting things objectively rather than feeling and sharing an emotion
subjectively. This may be true of many works, but as far as Schubert is
concerned, I continue to hold the view that it is quite simply impossible to
provide an objective account. Anyone who claims to be able to sing this cycle
objectively is deluding himself. It's like the Evangelist in the St John Passion:
Bach has written it in such a way that the singer simply has to nail his colours
to the mast and reveal his own feelings..."
Quite. I was stimulated by Kaufmann's thoughts and recall the wind of change, re performance, as long ago as the 1960s when, as the new kids on the block, we began to investigate a change to plasticity in performance v stand and deliver normality. Yes, I simplify, of course. In short, for the first time ever, I was intrigued by the merger between the Lied and Opera performances at this year's Cardiff Singer of the World, a dovetailing towards refinement. I've subsequently checked a DVD recording of the Finals and a new dawn is evident. I hope I'm on the right track but sense that a fundamental change is already in the offing. It's certainly bearing fruit in the theatre and cinema. Only a theory but perhaps, in the early 1950s, the arrival and development of TV technique with its need for intimacy and 'less is more' may provide a few clues in this quest.
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