(my only musical endeavors are in the realm of West African percussion).
You and I share an interest there.
I confess that I gathered that from your website.
One of my favorite things to listen to when I listen to music that's not in my head in West African percussion albums. But as an opera singer, and to keep this relevant to the thread, I have noticed that the singing style of singers from Guinee, Burkina Faso, Mali etc. is close to operatic style, necessarily so since the drums are so loud. I think I like the albums of field recordings of this music almost as much for that decibel aspect as for the drumming.
My goodness, can those women project! When I go to Guinea, I stay at the house of my teacher, Mamady Keita. Mamady is a cultural icon in Guinea (in some ways like someone like Michael Jordon would be here) and he is also a decendent of Sundiata Keita, the founder of the Mali Empire. Often Jalis (Griots) would come to his house to pay homage to him and sing to him about his history. When the Jali women would come and start singing, everything in the courtyard would stop.
My question is, was Kaitlynn miked or not?
Yes, I believe she was, if I am remembering correctly.
"Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the seas, and pierce the hidden caverns beneath the world."
Old_Tom_Bombadil wrote:In contrast to Ms. Chenoweth, an apparent vocal chameleon, that "world renowned" blind tenor's vocal technique seems to be pretty consistent regardless of the type of music he's singing. Of course we won't find him performing in an actual opera in an actual opera house any time soon. He's probably raking in more dough-re-mi than most opera singers, though, so I don't think he's too upset about that.
Nor would I be, if I made his money. I'd be buying up pieces of the Shire to protect them from Sharkey's Men who are currently in power.
As I travel around Northern California I'm so thankful that a far-sighted man like John Muir was around 100 years ago, and that a man like Theodore Roosevelt was in office, to see that at least some of our natural wonders were preserved.
I often think upon Elrond's words at the Council--
Time was when a squirrel could go from tree to tree from what is now the Shire to Dunland west of Isengard.
--and try to picture what California must have been like long ago when primeval forests still covered the lands.
Getting back to music...
Voronwë_the_Faithful wrote:
aldaron wrote:My question is, was Kaitlynn miked or not?
Yes, I believe she was, if I am remembering correctly.
The chorus and all of the soloists were miked. Some of the soloists were also members of the chorus.
The performance was held in Davies Hall (c. 1980), as opposed to the venerable War Memorial Opera House (c. 1932), and the hall does not appear to be as accomodating for vocalists. The chorus was above and behind the stage in seats that are normally occupied by members of the audience. (The Side and Center Terraces in the diagram below.) I'm not certain whether Davies was designed with the thought of putting a chorus there, but I'm guessing that if it was it was with the understanding that they would be miked.
You would lose so much with that - only expression added by sound people and and and.... It just seems so sad to me.
I sang with a choir at Carnegie once (Poulenc - Gloria), and whilst the chorus was not miked, the soloists were. On the recordings, the chorus sounded gorgeous, but the soloists sounded overloud, and lacking in vocal emotion.
It's one thing to mic Broadway - a lot of it nowadays has been written with that in mind - but to mic classical...
I just discovered something new at the local cineplex. They just got a digital projector, and now they'll be showing matinees from the New York Metropolitan Opera, live, in HD, every Saturday. Tickets are $18, pricy for a movie theater but very cheap for opera. And you get stadium seating, an excellent view, decent sound, and the opportunity to buy Junior Mints.
I think this is extremely cool.
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
Just watch for theaters advertising digital showings of movies. If they've got a digital projector, they can do this if they want to. And more and more theaters are installing them—it gives them the option of selling tickets to live concert broadcasts and major sporting events as well as opera, for one thing; and for another, it will eventually end the wasteful and expensive business of making thousands of physical prints of movies and shipping them to theaters, where they break and wear out and annoy the patrons.
Movies and other content will arrive by satellite. A theater could have, say, an LotR EE trilogy marathon any time they cared to schedule it; could show classic films with ease; could change films much more easily and often (and bring back old favorites).
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
TheTennisBallKid wrote:Dear Santa,
And a cineplex like the one Prim has.
ttbk
I talked to someone last week who is involved with the broadcasting of Met operas into these HD theaters, and the stats are: this year 56, next year over a hundred. They're reaching out, oh yes they are. So you may get your wish. It's limited to the number of theaters that have the technology.
This will be, of course, totally miked opera, and I'm really curious how they're going to deal with the problem of a reverb-laden hall like the Met sort of is, being miked and broadcast into another reverb-laden (possibly) or at least very big space somewhere else.
In other Met news, I'm kind of disturbed to hear Miss Chenoweth is scheduled for a recital in the Met auditorium. Will she be miked, I wonder.
We are going to put on a concert of Part Two of my opera LEITHIAN, based on the Beren and Lúthien story (based on?? It IS the story, pretty much verbatim), this coming April 14 and 15 at 225 West 99th Street, NYC. I submit this now because if perchance anyone really wanted to attend and airline prices were right, I'd hate not to have done this in time for them to get that Special Price.
(For those who don't know about this, we did Part One last July to a small live crowd and then a huge Internet crowd got the chance to hear the clips of it on my website. It's still there. Listen, put it on your ipod, whatever you want to do.)
Part Two will introduce the characters of Morgoth, Carcharoth and Mandos, and some others. So now you can't say you weren't notified.
Cheers, Aldaron
Thanks for the heads-up, Aldaron. I don't know that Old Tom and his pretty lady will be leaving the West Coast any time soon, our financial resources are tied up in home improvement ventures at the moment, but I'd love to see the conclusion to Leithian live and in-person.
So how's that opera based on "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil" coming along?
Old_Tom_Bombadil wrote:
So how's that opera based on "The Adventures of Tom Bombadil" coming along?
We need a bigger plot, more dialogue, and the RIGHTS.
Since he's in LOTR, he's owned by Saul Zaentz. The HOBBIT opera is not copyrighted by the composer, but by SZ dba Tolkien Enterprises. Dean Burry (composer) said it was the only way he could have ever gotten it produced. Sharkey's Men are in control.
Here's a clip of the Press Launch for our production of Sweeney Todd. It was filmed from a Digital Camera so the quality isn't great. The Press Launch took place in a local Barbers, hence all the mirrors.
Very cool, Al. But remind me to stay on your good side.
"Spirits in the shape of hawks and eagles flew ever to and from his halls; and their eyes could see to the depths of the seas, and pierce the hidden caverns beneath the world."
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
That one looks like what people tend to envision when I mention my "Internet friends."
“There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Return of the King
