HN0001 – Cantate versus Cantatore

In the wonderful book written about Naples by Marius Kociejowski, in which he interviews contemporary Neapolitans in a quest to delve deeply into their city and culture, he discusses with a contemporary street performer, the difference between a cantate and a cantatore. Kociejowski writes, “‘There is a difference between the cantante and the cantatore,’ Marcello continued. ‘The cantante is simply a singer whereas the cantatore improvises or. rather, creates the lyrics and music, telling stories that come from real life.” The English language lacks a word for such a difference.

How does the performance of opera relate to this difference? Coloratura would be one place to start. Embellishment of the arias and songs. Live theatre as we know, allows the performers to reference contemporary events by altering the words but not the story. The street is not so far from the theatre as one might suppose, nor is opera so far removed from daily life and the hopes and fears of ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances. Bringing an opera to life through performance makes a classical singer de facto into a cantatore. When an audience is profoundly moved it is the performer that creates that response.

Episode 6 Part 1 of The Voice Detective Show with James Lloyd-Wyatt: Sound Engineering and James’ Background

James Lloyd-Wyatt is a musician, producer, owner operator, and chief engineer at Ginger Studios in Melbourne, Australia – a world class recording studio capable of delivering the highest level of music production. 

 Drawing on 20 years of experience, James has worked with many big name international  recording artists such as Justin Bieber, Wu Tang Clan and Flume. But his real passion is working with artists at the beginning of their journey, at the start of their recording career, where he can affect a positive change in them and give them a great first experience.  

 James’ primary focus has been harnessing and showcasing the best features in artists’ music. His primary tuition in mixing came from the watchful eye of the legendary Mike Shipley, known for recording and mixing Australian and international artists such as Alison Krauss, Maroon 5, Def Leppard, Joni Mitchell, and Greenday. Michael passed the secrets of his trade to James, who has taken those special skills and integrated them into a modern workflow. In 2008-2009, James also worked with Jonathan Burnside whose studio is known for his recordings of the Australian groups Sleepy Jackson, Dallas Crane and  Grinspoon. 

 In Part One of a two part interview, Voice Detective is very pleased to speak and learn from James about what is Sound  Engineering, Mixing, and how James got into music producing… 

In next month’s Part 2,  we will explore further the intricacies of  the set up – in particular the various approaches for  capturing the best vocal performance and sound replication for singers both in the popular and classical genres – the recording process and the aftermath. 

SHORT003 POURQUOI VISITER BIARRITZ?

M. L’inspecteur Voix, alias Gyaan Lyon, vous explique pourquoi visiter Biarritz…

GIUSEPPE DI STEFANO, TENOR, JULY 24TH, 1921

The golden voice of Giuseppe di Stefano, so admired and hero-worshipped by his tenor successors such as Luciano Pavarotti, and Jose Carreras, was born in the little village of Motte Sant’Anastasia on the outskirts of Catania in Sicily.

His family moved to Milan when Giuseppe was six years old. Here, he spent his formative years, and even for a brief period of time, he considered entering the priesthood whilst he was being educated in a Jesuit College.

It was during a card game at age 16, when Giuseppe spontaneously burst into song after losing, that his opponent commented that he should get his voice trained. It took two years before his vocal training started in earnest, but his two teachers both baritones Luigi Montesanto and Mariano Stabile instilled in him the importance of clear diction. The clarity these teachers emphasised, became a hallmark of di Stefano’s singing throughout his career. This clear diction combined with the beautiful vocal sweetness, his natural musicality and a generous interpretative style, ensured that di Stefano enraptured fans. As a singer, Di Stefano was admired for his excellent diction, unique timbre, passionate delivery and, in particular, for the sweetness of his soft singing. He was considered the natural successor to Beniamino Gigli, who was Giuseppe’s favourite tenor growing up .

Fate stepped in once again as di Stefano was drafted into the army during the second world war. His commanding officer declared him the worst soldier ever, but recognised the great singer within him. Not wanting to deprive the world of this great gift, the officer decided he would better serve his country by leaving the forces and singing.This scenario may have been the inspiration, or at least is similar to that in the Mario Lanza film ‘Because You Are Mine,’ where Lanza encounters an opera loving army commander who helps the famous ‘operatic soldier’ sing rather than do his training when he is drafted into the army.
During the war years di Stefano performed under the name of Nino Florio. When Italy was defeated he was able flee to Switzerland. After a period of internment he was eventually allowed to perform on Radio Lausanne. He gave the first of many Nemorinos in l’elisir d’amore in a broadcast from Lausanne. His voice was also captured on recordings with interpretations of his native Sicilian songs which began to arouse the attention of discerning ears from outside of Italy in the late 1940s.

His official debut was in Reggio Emilia in 1946 as Des Grieux in Massenet’s Manon. The following year he repeated the role at the Rome Opera. A major recording contract with EMI was forthcoming.

In 1948 he made his Metropolitan Opera debut as the Duke in Rigoletto, and he subsequently captured the hearts of the Met audience with his beautiful tone, musicality and exuberance in the roles of Faust, Alfredo, Nemorino, Des Grieux and later Cavaradossi and Rodolfo.

In his Metropolitan debut in Faust, he attacked the high C forte and then softened to pianissimo. Sir Rudolf Bing said in his memoirs, “The most spectacular single moment in my observation year had come when I heard his diminuendo on the high C in “Salut! demeure” in Faust: I shall never as long as I live forget the beauty of that sound”.

His recording with Maria Callas in the 1953 Tosca with Victor de Sabato conducting, has become a benchmark interpretation. The 1955 live recording in Berlin of Lucia di Lammermoor with Herbert von Karajan conducting captured both artists at the peak of their powers.

Ten complete operas with Maria Callas were recorded for EMI between1953 and 1957 and they were the other dream team of the time to rival Renate Tebaldi and Mario Del Monaco on the stage, in fame as celebrities, and in recording sales.

Di Stefano certainly lived life to the fullest. Just as in his roles, he didn’t hold back his generosity, warm-heartedness and zest for life. He was seen as maybe enjoying the finer things of life a little too much, and later his voice lost some of its glory. Di Stefano insisted this was because his vocal cords were being damaged and inflamed due to an allergy to synthetic fibres.

In later years he lived in Kenya. During an attempted robbery he was badly bloodied, battered and left unconscious by the assailants, as he was defiant in not releasing the medal he wore around his neck given to him by Arturo Toscanini in appreciation for his talent.

“He adored me,” says the tenor without a trace of pomposity. “His supposed rigidity was nonsense. He told me once, ‘I’ll follow you, but you’d better sing well.’ And I did.”
The injuries proved to be far worse than originally thought and despite three operations, being transferred to Milan and eventually waking up from a coma, his health never recovered and he died three months after the attack.
But to help us recover from and dispel this horrible story of the end of such a great man and singer we leave you with a few quotes from the man himself from the LA Times interview of 1988 with Walter Price.

‘Asked which singers he admired, he smiles with a wicked charm that has surely gotten him into trouble in the past and replies, “Only the great ones.”
In the same interview asked if he would retire, he responded, ‘I don’t know. I told you I have never made plans. Del Monaco told me once he would kill himself when he couldn’t sing anymore. I told him I’d kill myself if I couldn’t stop.’
Grazie Giuseppe!

KIRSTEN FLAGSTAD, SOPRANO, JULY 12, 1895

Kirsten Flagstad was born in Hamar, Norway. Like so many outstanding singers, she grew up in a musically gifted family and indeed this soprano would be hailed the ‘voice of the century.’ Raised and nurtured in Oslo by her father Michael a conductor, her mother Maja a pianist and with her future musician siblings, brothers Ole a conductor and Lasse a pianist and her sister Karen- Marie also a Wagnerian soprano.
Flagstad made her debut in 1913 as Nuri in Eugen d’Albert’s Tiefland at the National Theatre in Oslo. Early recordings of her voice were taken at this young age between 1913 and 1915.
After singing opera and operetta at the Opera Comique for over a decade, which interestingly was co-directed by Alexander Varnay, the father of another Wagnerian soprano Astrid Varnay. It is also worth noting that at this time, Flagstad sang Desdemona to Leo Slezak’s Otello. As her career progressed she gravitated towards the heavier more dramatic soprano roles. Apparently it was the role of Aïda that unleashed the potential to ultimately find her true calling when she took on the role of Isolde in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde in 1932.
A fellow Scandinavian soprano Ellen Gulbranson brought Flagstad’s voice to the attention of Winifred Wagner who hired Flagstad to initially sing minor roles at Bayreuth in 1933. In the following season she sang Sieglinde in Die Walküre and Gutrune in Die Götterdammerung opposite Frida Leider as Brünnhilde.
A year later she was auditioned and engaged immediately by the Metropolitan Opera in New York who were looking for a replacement to sing the same repertoire as Frida Leider. Her svelte youthful appearance was an added bonus to her obvious vocal abilities and talent.
Her Metropolitan debut was a sensation, and almost overnight she had established herself as the pre-eminent Wagnerian soprano of the era. Her sometimes three or four performances a week in early days at the Met sold out weeks in advance and donations from her nationwide radio appeals during the intermission at Saturday matinees helped the Metropolitan Opera coffers from impending bankruptcy at this time. In 1935 she performed the three Brünnhildes in the Ring Cycle for San Francisco Opera. In 1936 and 1937 she performed the Wagnerian roles of Senta, Isolde and Brünnhilde at Covent Garden where she achieved the same fame and respect as she did in New York
Despite advice from friends and colleagues and even pleas from former President Herbert Hoover she returned to German occupied Norway in 1941 before the United States entered World War Two. TShe took this step to be reunited with her husband. The decision was certainly made more difficult as her 20 year old daughter was married to an American and living in Montana.
During this time she only sang in the non-occupied countries of Switzerland and Sweden. But the tide of public opinion damaged her reputation and she fell out of favour with the public.
After it reopened in 1947, Covent Garden despite being in dire financial straits, hired Flagstad for four consecutive seasons from 1948 to 1952, where she performed her Wagnerian roles, including Kundry and Sieglinde.
Back in America, public sentiment had not changed towards her. The new director of the Met, Rudolf Bing was lambasted for his decision to re-hire Flagstad in for the 1950-1951 season: “The greatest soprano of this century must sing in the world’s greatest opera house”, he retorted.
Well into her fifties, and feeling that she no longer possessed her previous stamina or health for the arduous Wagnerian roles, these appearances at the Met were to be her last. She gave her farewell performance at the Met in April 1952, though not as a Wagnerian heroine, but in the title role of Gluck’s Alceste. Her final public performance in the role of Purcell’s Dido from Dido and Aeneas was in London on the 5 July 1953.
She was a guest on the BBC’s radio show Desert Island Discs in 1952 and chose knitting needles and wool as her luxury items. Not dissimilar to another grand voice prima donna, Joan Sutherland who occupied herself with embroidery backstage.
Kirsten Flagstad’s vast recording catalogue and existing live recordings from the Metropolitan continue to be classic benchmarks and pay tribute to her greatest roles, even though some of her most enduring recordings were recorded after her prime. She immortalised Richard Strauß’ Vier Letzte Lieder (Four Last Songs) which Strauß himself had intended her to premiere, although he did not live long enough to hear the performance.
The recording label Decca had plans to record her singing the mezzo-soprano Wagnerian repertoire of both Fricka roles in Das Rheingold and Die Götterdämmerung. Brahms Alto Rhapsody and Vier Ernste Lieder (Four Serious Songs) were also planned to be recorded, before she died in 1962, giving testament to her recording company’s respect for her and quality of a still consistent and extraordinary voice.
In his obituary, the New York Times opera critic, Harold C. Schonberg, wrote, “That voice! How can one describe it?” “It was enormous, but did not sound enormous because it was never pushed or out of placement. It had a rather cool silvery quality, and was handled instrumentally, almost as though a huge violin was emitting legato phrases.”
Incredibly, Flagstad sang the role of Isolde 70 times on the Met stage from 1935 to 1941, making Tristan and Isolde one of the greatest box office attractions in Metropolitan Opera history .
( Nine of those performances were Saturday matinee radio broadcasts.not cited)

The Kirsten Flagstad Museum in Hamar, Norway (https://kirsten-flagstad.no/en), contains a private collection of opera artifacts. Her costumes draw special attention, and include several examples on loan from the Metropolitan Opera Archives. Her portrait appeared on the Norwegian 100 kroner bill and on the tail section of Norwegian Air Shuttle planes.

Kirsten Flagstad painted on a Norwegian Air Shuttle airliner.

LUISA TETRAZZINI, SOPRANO, JUNE 29, 1871

Luisa Tetrazzini

Coloratura soprano Luisa Tetrazzini was born on this day in 1871 in Florence. It is a lesser known fact, that she had two older sisters who were also sopranos, albeit they did not achieve her level of celebrity.

After initially studying with her sister Eva, who was nine year’s senior to Luisa, she proceeded to have lessons with Eva’s teacher, Professor Ceccherini at the Instituto Musicale of Florence.

As is the case in so many lives of famous singers, she received her big break making her operatic debut in1890, at the age of only 19 years, by standing in for the prima donna in Meyerbeer’s L’Africaine at the Teatro Paglione in Florence.

In her autobiography, My Life in Song, she recalled that, “The pavements from the theatre to my home were lined, even at that late hour, with large numbers of people, all of whom seemed to be shouting congratulations to me.”

It was just 2 months after that she was engaged to repeat the role in Rome for the King and Queen of Italy.

The tenor Giacomo Lauri Volpi described her as ‘having a scintillating voice with a brilliant timbre and a range and agility well beyond the norm…” Her voice has been described as possessing ‘warm, clarinet-like beauty’.

But it was claimed that her middle voice was rather thin and child like, (though reportedly it grew with maturity in warmth), this aspect of her voice did not please another tenor of renown John McCormack, who compared it to ‘wailing like a cross infant.’ Nevertheless, Tetrazzini herself had only words of praise for McCormack’s ‘God-given gift’, noting generously, ’I found that his rich voice went so well with mine that I took him back with me to America, and he sang with me both in New York and in the other big towns when the Hammerstein company went on tour.’

Later it was written ‘Tetrazzini possessed an extraordinary vocal technique that enabled her to surmount any vocal challenge with joyful ease. She had complete mastery of runs, trills, staccati and vocal ornaments of all kinds.’

She established herself in Latin America and Europe where in St Petersburg she sang her favourite role in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor with Enrico Caruso. This marked the beginning of a firm friendship and later even a collaboration in a book on vocal technique between the two.

Though she was still relatively unknown to English opera audiences. But this was all about to change when the opportunity arose for her to stand in for Nellie Melba as Violetta in La Traviata at Covent Garden. She garnered twenty curtain calls and she was critically acclaimed by E.A. Baugham in the Daily News writing,“I do not think I am exaggerating when I say that Mme Tetrazzini has the voice of the century and stands out from even the great Italian singers we know…”

Her superstardom lay just around the corner when reviews compared her to her idol Adelina Patti. Patti being from the opera generation before, attended a performance and later invited her to lunch. The two sopranos became firm friends and Patti was often seen making a point of clapping loudly at Tetrazzini’s performances. Likewise Tetrazzini wrote about a letter she had received from Patti, “Praise from a mixed audience is very gratifying after one has given it of her best. But, praise, and such praise, from Patti is far more than the passing pleasure of a public ovation.”

Engagements in America ensued and recording contracts with Victor Recording Company captured her voice for posterity between 1904-1920.

One very famous event she is known for, is her defiance against Oscar Hammerstein who held her to her contract not to sing in San Francisco. Hammerstein, was her agent whom she admired for his entrepreneurship and business acumen. She exclaimed ‘I will sing in San Francisco if I have to sing there in the streets, for I know the streets of San Francisco are free.” With this declaration she won her legal case, and her new agent W.H. Leahy announced she would sing in the streets of San Francisco. So on a clear Christmas Eve in 1910,Tetrazzini climbed a stage platform in a sparkling white gown, surrounded by a throng of an estimated two to three hundred thousand San Franciscans, and serenaded the city she loved.

As well as this early taster of coming mega-star’s open air benefit performances, she has also been remembered in the culinary world. Whether it be called Turkey or Chicken Tetrazzini, the dish has worked its way into the ubiquitous list of food favourites.

After the First World War she mainly devoted her work to concerts and recitals. Tetrazzini was married three times and was embroiled in legal battles with her third husband which diminished her enormous wealth. Nevertheless, she was well known for her generosity.

In her retirement she taught in both Rome and Milan and her vocal technique, was apparently stunning and remained so until her end in 1940.

Episode Number Five Of The Voice Detective Show with Kevin Schwager, Chiropractor in Nelson Bay, Port Stephens, New South Wales, Australia

Kevin is not your usual chiropractor. He uses many therapeutic modalities and life skills gleaned over his 37 years of practice. From an early age he has had an interest in physical fitness and health. Growing up near one of Sydney’s southern beaches,surfing and body surfing became a life-long passion as well as other competitive sporting activities where he could test himself against his personal best.

With this background, it is no surprise to learn that he joined a long line with a family tradition practicing as a chiropractor, a profession which his daughter also now continues.

Excelling at everything he put his mind to, Kevin taught himself to speed read and became a voracious reader. He acknowledges that, he has been particularly influenced by Dr John Demartini’s teachings and the mind’s ability to accomplish the heart’s desires.
  
Kevin is a believer in one’s capacity to overcome adversities with our natural innate abilities and the body’s capacity to heal. From the outset, he always sees his patients as being whole and healthy and uses his skills in kinesiology to find the hidden healing paths to unlock the patient’s ability to get into contact with that wholeness themselves. He is very mindful of how non-violent communication with others and within ourselves, combining with the power of a positive thought will forge our daily lives. These attitudes have become the bedrock of his spiritual practices.

On his own healing path, Kevin has forged friendships with Aboriginal Elders and has been a humble student of the ancient Dreamtime ways and practises. He actively participates in passing on the knowledge, or learning down to younger generations in the form of mentoring and teaching.

Looking after younger generations is dear to Kevin’s heart having worked with street children and outback locations in Australia where such help is most needed and in short supply.

Today he divides his time between being with his young family and running the bustling Nelson Bay Chiropractic and Yoga in NSW, Australia with his life partner Maree Frawley, herself, an accomplished yoga master, teacher, author and inspirational coach.

SHORT002 WHAT IS BETTER THAN PISTACHIOS?

Check our The Voice Detective Gyaan Lyon’s latest discovery… 

SNAPSHOT001 WHAT’S THE BEST CHOCOLATE IN THE WORLD?

Check our The Voice Detective Gyaan Lyon’s discovery… 

JOHN MCCORMACK, TENOR, JUNE 14, 1884

John McCormack

Could any singer have ever received so many accolades, titles and fame in their lifetime? Maybe Beniamino Gigli did…

John McCormack’s life seemed charmed being interwoven with fame and fortune from its very beginning. Born in Westmeath, County Athlone in Ireland, his musical leanings were nurtured by singing in the church choir and no doubt also, by his Scottish parents who incidentally possessed fine singing voices.

Later when the family moved to Dublin he joined the St. Mary’s Pro Cathedral Choir. There his talent was recognised by the choir master and composer Vincent O’Brien.

One year after training he won the coveted medal Feis Ceoil for his singing. The following year he encouraged his friend, also a tenor who would later be famous in his own right, the author James Joyce, to enter the singing competition. Joyce, received 3rd place. One wonders what career path Joyce may have chosen had he won!

Fund raisers enabled him to train with Vincenzo Sabatini in Milan. Sabatini did not find his voice at all wanting and concentrated on teaching him a breathing technique which was to become a hallmark of McCormack’s singing. Famous for his extraordinary breath control, he could sing sixty four notes on one breath in Mozart’s “Il mio tesoro” from Don Giovanni, and his singing of pieces by Händel was just as impressive in this remarkable ability.

He made his operatic debut under the name of Giovanni Foli in Mascagni’s L’amico Fritz in 1906. Engagements in America followed and at the height of his career he toured Australia as the star tenor for the Melba Grand Opera season of 1911. From 1908 to 1914 he performed regularly at Covent Garden with either NELLIE MELBA or LUISA TETRAZZINI.

From 1912 his interest turned more and more in the direction of concert performances which brought his voice to the masses – and the masses adored him.

He became the Victor Talking Machine Company’s most popular ‘Red Seal’ recording artist after Enrico Caruso. Apropos Caruso, after hearing Caruso’s performance in the front row as Rodolfo in La Boheme at Covent Garden, McCormack said: “It was the best lesson, up to that moment, I had ever received and a stimulus which cannot be described. The sound of Caruso’s voice that night lingered in my ears for months.”

Or from another account, “as to this schooling he was prompted by hearing a Caruso at Covent Garden in 1904. McCormack was twenty then, and just beginning a career as a professional singer. ‘I will never rest’ he said to a friend after that performance.I will work and train and pray and someday there will be two men singing like that. Caruso and me.”

Two years later he was singing in London himself, becoming the Covent Garden’s youngest leading tenor in Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana.

He continued to receive praise as his unstoppable star ascended. The famous violinist, Jan Kubelik, remarked in paying him one of the greatest compliments after hearing him in Prague: “That man must have a Stradivarius in his throat”.

Possibly because he didn’t quite enjoy the acting side of performing opera, or that he realised he could reach more people and make more money from his voice whilst performing with the likes of Fritz Kreisler, he decided to pursue concert performing and the popular music recording artist path. During the catastrophe of the First World War, in 1917, he also decided to become an American citizen. McCormack’s biographer, Gordon Ledbetter, believes the tenor was the last singer to successfully bring together such divergent styles.

Another biographer attempting to convey McCormack’s widespread fan base to contemporary audiences said he was like Pavarotti, Madonna and Johnny Carson all rolled into one!

Certainly his wartime hits appealed greatly to the Irish population in America as they could show pride in both Ireland and the United States. McCormack became a radio megastar and donated to the U.S war effort and catholic charities generously.

Some of his hits at the time were ‘It’s a Long Way to Tipperary’ ‘Mother MacCree’ and for the Hollywood film ‘Song o’My Heart’ where he was paid half a million dollars to sing eleven songs for the soundtrack.

He became a very wealthy man and by all accounts enjoyed his wealth to the fullest, giving back to the public in the form of many benefit concerts and donations.

Not many opera singers are created Papal Counts – not so for John Count McCormack as seen engraved on his headstone where he is buried in his birth country of Ireland. Earlier in his life he had also received three Papal Knighthoods in addition to being a Knight of Malta. He died at the age of 61 of bronchial pneumonia seven years after giving his farewell performance at the Royal Albert Hall. Despite the farewell performance in 1938, during the Second World War, he came out of retirement in support of the Red Cross. Quite a life!