It's a lack of magic
I've been trying to write about Cleo Laine at Ronnie Scott's but I'm not inspired. Because neither was she. She IS 81 years old, and I guess it's enough of a miracle that she's even still singing, but while the pipes are more or less there, not much else is. The phrasing was merely ok, and the disparity between her low and high registers, which seem to be the only ones she has, with nothing in between, make for a kind of disjointed listening experience. Truth is, that's what I've always heard in her recordings. She never was one of the greats to me, and this only confirms it. And to think, I left Wigmore Hall at intermission to make it for Cleo Laine's first set. But then again, Roschmann also lacked a certain... magic. Seeing Graham Johnson live was quite exciting (he looks a lot older now compared to his pictures in the Hyperion Schubert series), but that was about it. Roschmann has a strong lower register for a soprano, and she's obviously an intelligent singer, but nothing to write home, or here, about. But her recital did make me realise what hard work a recital is. To keep focus for those few songs, and to portray a character, tell a story with EVERY song. It's a tough job, and like Dame Cleo singing at 81, a marvel that it is done at all. Still....