<snip>
I suspect that for Chris and Joanna the problem has more to do with
Ferrier's English language recordings. Chris sites her "When I am laid" as
particularly distressing, tho myself I think it incomparable.
<snip>
There's been a misunderstanding here, I think. Although I referred to
Purcell some time back (in connection with Michael Nyman) the 'memorably
dreadful' Ferrier example I mentioned was actually *Orfeo*.
Given that 'What is life...' for 'Che farņ...'. could have been deployed to
great effect had I been General Noriega, you may well have a point about
Ferrier singing in English.
In this specific example, Janet Baker seems far preferable to me. There's a
transparency here which could be heard as characterlessness but which (for
me) simply doesn't get in the way as Ferrier does. On the other hand, it's a
perfectly tenable argument that voices _should_ get in the way. Indeed a
positive solution to a trouser role such as this might well be real
trousers. Which invites the counter tenor comparison made already by Joanna.
<snip>
Marian Anderson and Ferrier, very different
I wonder if what's at issue is a depiction of britishness
<snip>
Yes. Leaving aside the spirituals altogether for the moment, Anderson would
be 'feral' in my terms: a compliment; though since using it I have wearied
of the word. You hear the tics and hear beyond the tics rather as one might
get beyond surface noise. When the ears lock into it rather as one might
lock eyes unexpectedly and disturbingly, the voice is visceral and luminous.
Because (presumably) of her greater range, the potential for stooping and
soaring is always there, with much less sense of the perch.
But what I don't know is whether and in what way my hearing Anderson as
sounding both American and black (and I'm not, I hope, appearing to say that
she sounds as she does _because_ she is American and black) would be
influenced if I myself were American and/or black. One always listens not
entirely innocently, influenced by externals, whether one likes it or not.
But perhaps I would be even less innocent in those circumstances.
As for the spirituals, what I've heard works splendidly for me, even though
I bring to them the noisy prior baggage of having listened to tin roof
gospel on remastered 78s. I don't expect Anderson to sound like Arizona
Dranes and she doesn't. Instead she brings a different and specific energy,
and her voice quickens.
I do, on the other hand, have a considerable problem with Ferrier (and
Britten) hovering balefully, as I would hear it, over the corpse of English
folksong.
<snip>
it would be more useful if those who find Ferrier problematic for reasons of
gender or "englishness" of a particular kind would let us know if any of
those you [Martin] mention, all great artists, also suffer from the same
faults.
<snip>
I'm hampered here, as elsewhere in this post, by being the merest dabbler.
Quite simply I haven't listened enough, and/or with sufficient care, to give
a proper answer. But Sigrid Onegin is impressive, though I do have to do
some listening through.
CW
__________________________________________
'I might have known you'd choose the easy way'
(Franz Kline's mother)
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