Words

I will be asking you more frequently to actually say your words with a degree of sincerity. You would most certainly do so if you were the actual character you are portraying at that time and place in history and at that very moment of his/her life. For it is the combination of time, place and the circumstances that preceded that moment plus the moment itself that will dictate the character's feeling at that very instant. I have asked some of you, in the past, to say your lines and you give me that. Just lines without a whit of feeling. Perhaps you think I expect too much, but I am not doing this for my good. I am doing this for your good - your good as artists. Would you prefer to have a news-caster recite the words of your aria or song in a newscaster's monotone, or a great actor/actress such as Anthony Hopkins or Maria Callas (mind you I did not say great singer)? Can you imagine Anthony Hopkins or Maria Callas ever reciting their lines like a news-caster. Chloe and I both keep hammering away at the importance of your words. You, as individuals, have to give them meaning, sincerity, passion, nuance. Chloe often says "What's the sub-text? What are you saying?". Take note. The Subtext means all to a great actor.

Listen to Vittoria de los Angeles' renditions of "Songs of the Auvergne". Every single word, every phrase is so beautifully thought out and reflected throughout the singer's rendition. If one takes out her interpretive emotions, the voice becomes rather an uninteresting sexless voice that one would expect to find in a boy soprano chorister - expressionless and monotonous within 60 seconds. It is the well felt and thought out rendition that enables Vittoria de los Angeles' voice to overcome what is basically a very ordinary sound. It does not matter if you sing an aria or a pop song, your audience has to feel that you are conveying a message of an individual and unique soul, otherwise you have nothing to say. Believe me, there is no such thing as poetry without emotion and there is no such thing as song without emotion. There is no such thing as music without emotion. All are products of human thought and emotion and if we are to deliver such poetry or words upon a musical stream of melody, we have to be able to conjure up the emotions that the composer intended. Do you think the composers sat in an emotional vacuum while they wrote their music, while they reacted to the libretto in front of them? No, they did not. If they did, their music would not live on after them. So, the old approach, taught in most schools, of learning the tune and fitting the words, is totally wrong. Feel the emotions conveyed by the words and you will be surprised how easy it is to master the music and the vocal line. A vocal line that is devoid of emotion is a very empty vessel indeed and will sound the same in every single song. So, don't be surprised if I ask you to say your lines and be prepared to say them with the sincerity intended by the composer.