There has been a huge amount of buzz and hype about a young girl they are calling the next Susan Boyle… it comes in the form of a 10 year old Pittsburghican Jackie Evancho.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiFZcu9UsIk
We find her singing “O mio babbino caro” from Puccini’s Gianni Schicci on America’s Got Talent… and well… she got talent. She is 10, and as a 10 year old girl she sings it very well. I was happy that American audiences were having such a strong reaction to this music, especially when Glenn Beck is railing against about cities spending money on “snotty opera houses.”
Then I got a link from www.worldrecordsacademy.org in which they called her the world’s youngest opera singer…. this gave me pause.
There was some controversy about wether she is really singing or not. She is. She sounds to me like a good 10 year old girl singing. Plus, I can hear her breathing in the clip and face and neck actually doing the work of singing. There are many voice that develop young, and with a little of the right guidance, a young singer can have sound far better than those with out teacher. It is similar to hearing a 10 year old violinist or pianist, while remarkable, is not necessarily a fraud. Nether is she… but is she an opera singer?
In a word…no.
To my knowledge she has never sung an opera.
There are (for the uninitiated) several roles in the standard operatic literature that are written specifically for young voices: The 3 spirits in Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte (though usually sung by 3 adults these days), Gherarindo in Gianni Schicci, and Benjamin Britten particularly loved the treble and wrote four of the faries in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, almost all the roles in Noye’s Fludde, and the distrubing role of Miles in Turn of The Screw for just such a voices.
If we are to follow along on the belief that one does not need to actually sing an entire operatic role, but merely selections from an opera to be considered an opera singer… then who would be the most successful opera singer in recent times? Barbara Streisand for her classical album: Classical Barbara:
or would it be Michael Bolton’s My Secret Passion
I don’t think anyone with a clue about the this music would argue that Michael Bolton or Barbara Streisand are great opera singers, as much as they might like or dislike the albums. So what is this girl then?
We come to this idea of cross over. It is a buzz word, a marketing idea. What it is, is ill defined. It music that bridges the gap between traditional/classical music and something that isn’t considered so snotty (read Glenn Beck), so elitist, that is accessible, and is focused on being as easily consumable by anyone.
She would fall into this category of a cross over artist. It is a category that many opera and classical people despise, while others embrace. Renee Fleming’s new album Dark Hope is a perfect example of this.
So what makes someone an opera singer? Ultimately, lets look at wikipedia
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text (called a libretto) andmusical score.[1] Opera is part of the Western classical music tradition.[2] Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance. The performance is typically given in an opera house, accompanied by an orchestra or smaller musical ensemble.
An opera singer is someone one of the singers who does that. Little Jackie, as talented and lovely as she is, doesn’t. At least not yet.
