Here's something you might be interested in.
I've been rehearsing for a small concert of selections from Mozart's Don Giovanni. That's pronounced Joh-van-nee, not Geo-van-nee. Please, let's be a tad bit refined.
I'm singing three pieces as the tenor Don Ottavio. In learning some of the sung dialogue, I'm getting pissed off at Mozart. There are passages that can be nothing other than sloppy or lazy on his part.
There is one passage that puts the word, "qualche" on one 16th note. Another section has the syllables, "-te agli-" on one 16th. In order to get the words out, I have to ignore the note and add beats or observe the note and drop syllables.
Mozart says: Quit whining and sing it the way I wrote it, Harris!
Part of this is that he was writing in Italian for a German audience and one can only guess at how comprehensive their Italian was. Theoretically the audience was nobility and was familiar with Italian. How careful was he being with the text? I'm not sure.
Granted, these sections are sung in a spoken style and there's a great deal of liberty to be taken. In the music itself, things are much better but I have to admit Mozart's writing for tenor doesn't make as much sense to my brain as his writting for all the other voice types.
It could just be me but his music for tenor seems to be in a distant fourth place versus his soprano, mezzo-soprano and baritone music. There's nothing wrong with this, it's just an observation.
Of course, other composers also have their preferences. With Puccini, there is almost nothing for baritone and mezzo, it's all soprano and tenor.
Perhaps Verdi is the most balanced composer for the voice types. Interestingly he also likes to jam a bunch of syllables onto one short note.
If anyone wants to go to this Don Giovanni concert, it's Saturday the 26th at St. Peter's in Del Mar at 7:00pm. It'll be about an hour long.
I've been rehearsing for a small concert of selections from Mozart's Don Giovanni. That's pronounced Joh-van-nee, not Geo-van-nee. Please, let's be a tad bit refined.
I'm singing three pieces as the tenor Don Ottavio. In learning some of the sung dialogue, I'm getting pissed off at Mozart. There are passages that can be nothing other than sloppy or lazy on his part.
There is one passage that puts the word, "qualche" on one 16th note. Another section has the syllables, "-te agli-" on one 16th. In order to get the words out, I have to ignore the note and add beats or observe the note and drop syllables.
Mozart says: Quit whining and sing it the way I wrote it, Harris!
Part of this is that he was writing in Italian for a German audience and one can only guess at how comprehensive their Italian was. Theoretically the audience was nobility and was familiar with Italian. How careful was he being with the text? I'm not sure.
Granted, these sections are sung in a spoken style and there's a great deal of liberty to be taken. In the music itself, things are much better but I have to admit Mozart's writing for tenor doesn't make as much sense to my brain as his writting for all the other voice types.
It could just be me but his music for tenor seems to be in a distant fourth place versus his soprano, mezzo-soprano and baritone music. There's nothing wrong with this, it's just an observation.
Of course, other composers also have their preferences. With Puccini, there is almost nothing for baritone and mezzo, it's all soprano and tenor.
Perhaps Verdi is the most balanced composer for the voice types. Interestingly he also likes to jam a bunch of syllables onto one short note.
If anyone wants to go to this Don Giovanni concert, it's Saturday the 26th at St. Peter's in Del Mar at 7:00pm. It'll be about an hour long.