The Opera Singer
DrDivo captures my feelings pretty well on the subject, but in case you're short on time, here's the nutshell version:
As much as I love music across the spectrum, most of my experiences with opera (and classical, for that matter) have left me ice cold. Yes, seeing someone like Pavarotti sing is very beautiful and technically flawless, but there's zero emotion in it for me. You sit there in your tuxedo, listening attentively, and then clapping as politely as you can with that golf clap when he's through, all the time wondering, gee, isn't there somewhere better I could be right now?
It's the complete opposite of being at, say, a rock concert where you've got a band that's all heart and soul. I've seen my favorite live band, Concrete Blonde, multiple times, and each time is an experience of rapt and nearly devout attention, of getting caught up in every note, every breath. No, Johnette Napolitano "technically" isn't a great singer, but frankly, I think she puts more feeling into every song she sings than Pavarotti's put into his entire career.
Enter Paul Potts.
Paul appeared out of nowhere earlier this week on "Britain's Got Talent," the UK version of the show Simon Cowell originally created for the U.S. He's a geeky mobile phone salesman with a bad suit and worse teeth, and he thinks he can sing opera.
Oh, wait--maybe he can.
According to what I've seen on the web about him, he apparently doesn't have the greatest vocal control in the world, though since he has a cleft palate, it's amazing he can sing at all. I don't care--I think he's stellar. And I'm not alone--his initial performance not only brought the 2,000 people in the audience to their feet for a standing ovation and has been viewed over 1,000,000 times on YouTube, but even made typically acerbic Simon Cowell nearly speechless with his jaw hanging open.
Now that's talent.
Edit: Paul's performance below is what got him through to the finals last night with the highest vote total of any contestant. Some new information's come out about him, too: he apparently has had very limited formal training, having only started 8 years ago. Since then, he suffered apendicitis, and during the operation, they discovered a 10 cm benign tumor, which was also removed. Only a week after finally recovering from all that, he was in a motorcycle accident. As such, he hasn't been able to sing much at all in the last 4 years--only once at all in the last year, in fact.
Wow.
As much as I love music across the spectrum, most of my experiences with opera (and classical, for that matter) have left me ice cold. Yes, seeing someone like Pavarotti sing is very beautiful and technically flawless, but there's zero emotion in it for me. You sit there in your tuxedo, listening attentively, and then clapping as politely as you can with that golf clap when he's through, all the time wondering, gee, isn't there somewhere better I could be right now?
It's the complete opposite of being at, say, a rock concert where you've got a band that's all heart and soul. I've seen my favorite live band, Concrete Blonde, multiple times, and each time is an experience of rapt and nearly devout attention, of getting caught up in every note, every breath. No, Johnette Napolitano "technically" isn't a great singer, but frankly, I think she puts more feeling into every song she sings than Pavarotti's put into his entire career.
Enter Paul Potts.
Paul appeared out of nowhere earlier this week on "Britain's Got Talent," the UK version of the show Simon Cowell originally created for the U.S. He's a geeky mobile phone salesman with a bad suit and worse teeth, and he thinks he can sing opera.
Oh, wait--maybe he can.
According to what I've seen on the web about him, he apparently doesn't have the greatest vocal control in the world, though since he has a cleft palate, it's amazing he can sing at all. I don't care--I think he's stellar. And I'm not alone--his initial performance not only brought the 2,000 people in the audience to their feet for a standing ovation and has been viewed over 1,000,000 times on YouTube, but even made typically acerbic Simon Cowell nearly speechless with his jaw hanging open.
Now that's talent.
Click to viewEdit: Paul's performance below is what got him through to the finals last night with the highest vote total of any contestant. Some new information's come out about him, too: he apparently has had very limited formal training, having only started 8 years ago. Since then, he suffered apendicitis, and during the operation, they discovered a 10 cm benign tumor, which was also removed. Only a week after finally recovering from all that, he was in a motorcycle accident. As such, he hasn't been able to sing much at all in the last 4 years--only once at all in the last year, in fact.
Wow.