Adio, Luciano

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070906/ts_nm/italy_pavarotti_dc_9;_ylt=AkV_RoTJmsDMj1Zedm9K8h0E1vAI

That's the Reuter's article on Pavarotti's death.

What an amazing voice! And his technique was flawless! Can you ever remember his sounding being forced or pushed? It always flowed from his mouth like water. There was energy, there was intensity, but at no time did he ever sound like he was out of control.

I remember watching a Met broadcast on PBS. When they cut to a closeup of Pavarotti, something caught my eye: his jaw. I literally looked like his mouth was just hanging open. How many singers can claim that?

In voice lessons, George Bitzas used to make me grab my jaw and move it around while I was singing. I never got good at it. (George, on the other hand, could move his almost halfway to his ears, seemed like.) But, in watching Pavarotti, I realized why I had that tension: lack of breath support. If the breath, the sound is properly supported down in the torso, there's not need to "squeeze out" notes from the mouth. They just flow. (I did get better, BTW. I found out that--and it's a stupid thing that so many of us don't do it--practicing a lot helped develop breath support.)

As singers, we've always heard about the Bel Canto style of singing (I'm speaking of the first Bel Canto school in the Baroque era) and the horror stories about the teaching technique. An examples: students were forced to sing only one tone over and over again for weeks on end until they were able to sing it perfectly before advancing to two notes, three notes, etc. Pretty wild, but I guarantee you that that kind of tedium would motivate you to focus on proper breath support. There's no way around it.

I don't know how Pavarotti learned to sing. According to his bio, both his parents loved to sing, though not professionally. (Did have an autobiography out? Have to check on that.) But somehow he developed a tremendous amount of breath support that allowed him to do amazing things. What was it? Nine high Cs during a performance of Daughter of the Regiment at the Met? Incredible. And I'll bet that none of them sound forced or strained. I can't say that, on the occasions I hear a Met radio broadcast, many singers can claim that kind of sound. You always know when they're pushing like heck to get that note out.



I recall when Joe Wolverton was here doing Tales of Hoffman. That was my first production where I was an actual performer on stage. I had done supertitles for about a year previously, and if memory serves--not that it does so much anymore with me--Joe had done a Pinkerton with us with aplomb. But with Hoffman, it was his first attempt at the role and, as terrific a singer as he was, by the Third Act he was, as Mr. Bitzas used to say, "living on the principal and not the interest." I guess a more well-known addage would be "writing checks his body couldn't cash." But I'm willing to bet that Pavarotti never had a problem. (Though I can't say for certain whether he did the role. Google revealed some arias from the opera on CD but I didn't see a complete work.)



In cielo.