My Wonderful teacher Vera Rozsa who taught for many long years several
singers who achieved operatic stardom (such as Kiri Te Kanawa, Sarah Walker,
Iliana Cotroubas, Karita Mattila, Ann Sophie Von Otter to name but a few) was
once asked in a documentary to make a list of all the qualities which make a
singer a true star.
She was without a doubt a person with the right kind of experience to
answer this question. I have taken the
liberty to write here a little “map” so to speak of this list, and I hope some
of you will find it interesting and even helpful.
Vera was of the opinion (which I agree with completely) that a good
voice is just an instrument, and only the very basic material which a singer
needs, like needing wool to make a sweater. The rest of which this list is full
is what matters, in some cases much more than the actual voice. Operatic
history is full of such example. (Maria Callas is maybe the most obvious). Vera
was a wise and experienced woman and a star herself before she has to give up
her career for health reasons, after half her diaphragm became paralyzed,
hiding in the woods from the Nazism in war-torn Hungary during the Second World
War.
The unique position of a singer in the world of
music stems from two main reasons:
1:The singer has no other instrument but himself to use in order to
interpret and express. His instrument is not outside him/herself and is not
manmade; it is a natural one, so in other words a singer must understand his
own nature, and have to imagination and ability of internal coordination.
He/she needs
to know everything the body is capable of doing in order to do well – that is
to project the voice.
To best achieve that he must have the two
first items on the list -
Good health
Knowledge of an instrument apart from the voice
I think that by that she meant one must have the patience to learn how
an instrument works in order to operate it. One cannot “see” one’s own voice,
since the sound one make is not the voice; it is only the sound the voice
makes. One has to use perceptive powers on order to develop the capacity of
internal coordination to start off with. An individual’s mental powers come
into this later in the game, and are what allows this ability to become a
reliable tool.
All this physical understanding gets it true meaning through, and only
through the second part of our mission as singers
2: Not only does a singer haves to understand the langue of music, in
general terms and in particular terms to each period of music and composer he/she
is dealing with, but one must have a relationship with the text – i.e. the
words.
So here we have the second difficulty – the musical text and the actual
text, and the relationship between them.
Music in this case also takes on
the part of interpreting the words in itself, so deep understanding of text means
to know what the composer meant to say about them.
So first let’s examine what from our list goes to help here, with our
capacity for words and music.
To understand music as a singer, in other words to become a not only a singer –
but an actor, means to be able to read/hear
, interpret , express it and communicate both the musical text and the word/written
text.
Reading/Hearing:
In order for the reading or hearing a text to be effective one must have
a good knowledge of the language he/she is dealing with.
Hence the next items on the list:
Musicianship – language of music
Knowledge of at least 2 languages (reading, writing and pronunciation)
Powers of concentration
Interpretation:
In order to be able to interpret this knowledge – which is only a sort
of guide, as music does not exist on a page, and neither do the words in some
way. We need to have the ability to interpret it. So we need to understand
through and with what in us as singers we interpret.
Again, the list a great help –
A good sensitive musical ear
Imagination
Insight
Intuition
Artistic temperament
Powers of concentration
Good taste
In order to be able to develop what is good taste with regards to interpretation you need to have all the
above.
Expression:
What does it mean to express? Again, through what do we express?
Powers of concentration
Artistic temperament
Personality
To be an extravert, not necessarily in life, but on stage
Communication:
What does it mean and what is the difference between to express and to
communicate? Well, to express one can alone in a room. One can to one person.
But to communicate is a much larger thing in the context of performance – it is
to reach out to an audience in such a way the person who sits in the last row
in any opera house, theatre or concert hall will receive your message.
So again:
Artistic temperament
No stage fright or good control of it
Powers of concentration
Dramatic Ability
Magnetism
Good nerves to face the possible failure and critique
This seems like quite a lot to ask of one person
and without this person having an abundance of:
Will power
Total devotion to the profession
Without the last two no true success is possible.
Hence Vera’s favorite proverb
“To be an artist one needs a
heart of fire and a brain of ice.”
I Hope you enjoyed this little
offering. If you did, I recommend highly the film on her life and work: Vera
Rozsa, mother of the Stars.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DuZLKZ1Ck8
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