Placido Domingo at work 1

[decatlon14]

I wish that could be transalated to English

[lawrence18uk]

Er - how do you sit down, and play the piano, and sing high notes - so well!

It's difficult enough to do them standing up...

[Villazonlover1]

How can 2 people NOT like this?! :O

[MangoPowuh]

Question: So, basically the point of the excercises that Domingo is using in this video is endurance or high-note "consistency," right?

Now is that a mental and/or physical benefit, in terms of how it can help the voice?

[holograficbrilliant]

I love Placido!!!!

[sarahbobsezzive]

this is so interesting to see how one of the most famous tenors in the world warms up and gets ready to work. in the other video you can see him learning a role and that to me is an amazing oppurtunity.

[durommel03]

Es una figura internacional y que voz tan fina.

Felicidades Placido !

Y de los mejores intérpretes de Wagner dicho por los mismos alemanes.

Vamos ni los mismos alemanes tienen tenores como él.

Solo Pavarotti y Carreras tienen ese nivel y don.

Bravo Placido!! por darnos magnificas interprestaciones.

Dios te bendiga!

[Fehlzeiten]

Thanks for posting, I don't think that he looks "tense" in doing his preparations, to me he looks concentrated, I'd rather say "focussed" on what he'll be going to do later. He's always a very serious artist and worker!

[OperaBaritoneJoe]

he looks tense when he warms up. yes or no.

[Webarton]

sometimes, you gotta work, no one has a good day everyday.. sometimes you gotta work at the warmup stage, take a break for a while, then restart...it could be a way he hypes himself up.

[leadoffeohippus]

People do get a bit tense without noticing it. Warming up is a little stressful when you think about it. :)

[bchainz]

Singing opera is like the Olympics of singing. It takes a lot of internal support to hit such notes consistantly, especially the way Placido is vocalizing them in this video. Like any other olympic athlete, they naturally look tense because they are using all of their strength and concentration to execute with precision. If you are singing and not getting a work out, then sorry to say, you are not singing with correct support.

[OperaBaritoneJoe]

You are flat out wrong. It should be very easy to sing and there should be no tension, Just like any classical insturment.

[bchainz]

Well if that is the case. Then how do you explain Placido Domingo, one of the greatest tenors of all time, having that "tense" face? I was just trying to answer your question buddy. I've seen singers with opera training not have a tense face, but my instructor (who studied in Italy for 29 years) told me that these people are not using enough support and relying on microphones and other means of projection. Placido was probabaly warming up while visualizing a full theater in his head with no mic

[bigus]

i agree partially with what you are saying. muscles are indeed involved and yes there will be tension as a result of supporting but it will all be in the form of resistance during support. as far as the face you do want involvement in the diction because if not the tongue will have to compensate which is bad. placido's style of singing is to push. the higher he goes the harder he pushes. it works for him but its not the optimal technique. pavarotti on the other hand does it correctly and easily.

[Tralfamadoro]

@bigus

they are completely different tenors, but thanks for not taking that into consideration, as is usually the case when someone comes onto a Domingo video to trumpet Pavarotti.

[bigus]

i realize they are completely different tenors, but while physically we are all made differently, mechanically we are all the same, ie we all have lungs, diaphram, nasal pharengeal cavaties etc. just because 2 people are different doesnt mean they are both doing things correctly they are just different. musically is a different matter im just speaking of technical mastery.

[bchainz]

Placido has been know to really get himself into character, even during warm up

[Webarton]

@bchainz yeah but you never support by squeezing.

[bchainz]

@Webarton: Who said anything about sqeezing??? Placido supports how he supports, whatever his facial expression is, who gives a hoot, he is one of the most successfull and famous tenors of all time, so none of us can really say anything about it period...I have been studying Bel Canto long enough to finally understand that each and every singer has to make the "magic" of the voice work for him or her in their own way. No two singers have the same sensastions of support or placement

[bchainz]

@Webarton: and if you take 100 lessons from 100 teachers, you'll get 100 diffrent ideas. Bottom line, what works for you works for you, what works for Placido works for Placido, Luciano, Caballe, etc! My teacher who is 80 years old, who sang at Scala and all over Europe and sand along side Pavarotti, Caballe, Horne and more, she finally admitted to me after years of training that I have my instrument and only I can make it work. Sure there are basic fundamental ideas, but unltimately, its you

[bchainz]

@Webarton Look up Franco Tenelli and his YouTube videos....the first half of his videos, he stresses so much on Appogio, and open throat, and dropped larinx, but in his later videos he underlines that it is up to the student to master this in his or her own way. and if that means having some "tense" looking facial expressions time to time, then so be it! Because those singers are laughing to the bank! not that this business is about money, but we all gotta eat right!

[Darkel1992]

@bchainz You are surely correct. I am a classically trained singer and I can assure anyone that it takes a lot of sensoral and aural training to understand the true "art of singing."

[bchainz]

@Darkel1992 Exactly, when I vocalise or sing in the opera chorus Im pushing really hard to support, I just hide it well with my face, I guess Placido cant really hide his intensity as well as some of us. It does look like he uses a lot of jaw though, there is a constant with all bel canto coaches to relax the jaw. I always get busted for using my jaw, and when I do use my jaw I go off pitch, so I really gotta learn to relax it more.

[bchainz]

@Darkel1992 Check out my short video "Vocalizo", I use my jaw and my Maestra scolds me and you can hear me off pitch when I use it lol

[shun78shun78]

wonderfull!!!!

[kosmanumut]

great

[rodypiccolino]

hehehe, nice vocalises!

[suseth10]

the best of my maester =)