Ian Bostridge - Dalla sua pace

Dalla sua pace from Don Giovanni - Mozart
Ian Bostridge - conductor Roger Norrington
BBC Proms Royal Albert Hall 2006

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Bostridge
• Don
• Giovanni
• Mozart
• Norrington

[minkamagalah]

He should, and I mean this seriously, just do recordings. Too bad. He is a handsome dude.

[jaketaz]

@krossk424

Just because his flaws are glaring doesn't mean he's projecting well.

You're being critical, but stopping before you find something wrong with a singer you like. His head is cocked down (limiting space and airflow in the trachea) for the vast majority of the aria.

So he's making a dramatic choice to sway constantly through an aria about "peace"? I'm not sure he's brilliant enough to have figured out some way in which this aria actually means the opposite of its text.

[krossk424]

@jaketaz removing vibrato is often another musical tool in the Baroque and Classical eras to highlight certain words or musical idioms. He uses it more often than i like, but again, he being a singer with an impressive ability in my opinion for lighter repertoire, i'm not willing to get on my high horse and tell him how to sing Mozart just like he shouldn't tell me how to sing the heavier stuff. I could make him louder in lessons, but i wouldn't want to for this intimate and delicate piece.

[krossk424]

@jaketaz ...And you can hear him quite well obviously, since you can point all all the details you believe to be flaws. He has that ability... He's just no Jonas Kaufman.

Swaying around like a maniac/poor posture is definitely a problem, especially for young singers. Strong singers (i believe Bostridge to be one) however often use gesture or bad vocal posture to forward a point (Callas is a perfect example.) I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that he is making that choice.

[jaketaz]

@krossk424

I don't want everything louder than it ought to be, I want music intended to be well-projected without amplification in a large hall to be performed by performers that have that ability.

You seem to know singing, so tell me what happens when you sway around like a maniac & have poor posture. Tell me what causes his lack of vibrato in the soft sections, & erratic vibrato in the loud sections. Diagnose it as if he were your student, & tell me you couldn't improve his projection.

[krossk424]

@jaketaz a singer can definitely change air flow and placement to appear louder. I'm telling you that Bostridge naturally has a very small voice. He's classified as a leggiero tenor. Additionally, Dalla sua pace is not the sort of song where you'd add extra air to appear louder. It's supposed to sound easy and light... It's easy to fall into the trap of making everything louder than it ought to be. "Pav" fell into this trap. I'm sorry... he's a small voice.

[jaketaz]

@krossk424

I don't believe he has a small voice, I believe it appears that way because of his choices. Sung volume is created through breath pressure and resonance, something Pav Domingo Gigli and Caruso were aware of and exploited to great effect, and Bostridge doesn't. My comments have nothing to do with voice size, I dislike him because of the conscious choices he makes, NOT because of his biological assets - that would be unfair.

[krossk424]

@jaketaz This piece was not done with amplification. You can check if you like, but all speakers in the PROMS house were off for this performance. That mic is for the radio, as several other people seem to have tried to impress on you. Having been at the performance, i can attest to this.

[krossk424]

@jaketaz Wow.... yes, Bostridge has a small voice. I will never understand why people hate small-voiced singers so much. Hell, Pavarotti had a small voice, when comparing to Domingo, Gigli, Caruso, and more recently Jonas Kaufman. We need to get over this. Yes, Bostridge has some odd performance habits, but his voice is very pretty... more flush with the english aesthetic than the Italian or German one, but still beautiful! referring to his voice as wimpy highlights the bias.

[caralcindo]

not every tenor has a voice like wunderlich gedda, dermota etc. but mr bestrides behaving on stage is against the words and the music he is singing. also his italian is not good enough, better he should sing other music. or he should try to sing it in english and for sure he would realize, that his stage manners are not adequate to dalla sue pace