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Post by skaschep on Jul 7, 2018 12:01:28 GMT -5
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Post by Craazyforadam on Jul 7, 2018 12:05:24 GMT -5
Several days ago red panda posted this: cassie, a technical wondering here.
It seems that he can handle, and handle extraordinarily, anything in the Queen catalog. It has been said that their catalog is extremely difficult, both in range and variety of styles.
What do you think is there out there that would challenge him to the breadth/depth of his abilities?
Would that be opera?
Not suggesting he sing opera, just wondering what you might think would be close to the limits of his abilities, if there is anything.
Yesterday I had a delightful talk with Angelina Kalahari (for new members and guests, she is a well respected opera singer and sought after vocal coach in London, as well as a staunch Adam fan), and we talked about panda's questions. Loved her thoughts and wanted to share them. I asked if there was any genre or song she thought Adam could not handle, or was beyond his abilities. "Absolutely not." She believes he can sing ANYTHING that is within a tenor range and is written for his type of tenor voice. What is the most difficult type of music to sing? Opera. We talked about fans wanting Adam to be a superstar at the top of the heap. She thinks that if Adam had chosen to pursue a career in opera by now he would be a world renowned, MEGA superstar akin to Pavarotti or Caruso. At the very TOP of the top of the field. Of course, Adam wanted fame in a different genre, not caring for opera, even tho' he has studied operatic voice, and performed operatic arias when he was younger. (And we think he is the best of the best in pop and rock.) You know how much I have respect for Angelina Kalahari for both her unending support for Adam, as well as her obvious expertise in the operatic field, but somehow I have to respectfully disagree with her on this a bit, and as you might suspect, the answer has only very little to do with vocals per se.
So let's for a moment assume that Adam would have somehow had had the interest to become an opera singer, while otherwise retaining both the vocal instrument that he has and the personal qualities that are uniquely Adam.
The first thing Adam would have faced is that his tenor voice sits a bit higher than even the highest of the traditional types of tenors taught in the academic world of studying voice. They are typically called 'Fach' (the German word for subject, as in subjects in school, .e. history, geography, chemistry, etc). In tenor, there are these specializations or Faecher (plural of Fach)" Tenor Fächer
3.1 Spieltenor / Tenor buffo 3.2 Charaktertenor 3.3 Lyrischer Tenor 3.4 Jugendlicher Heldentenor 3.5 Heldentenor
None truly fit, even though Adam can range-wise handle all of them, no problem. Fit is not about range alone, but coloring and other qualities, and Adam's voice sits higher than all of them, but he can extend downwards to cover the material just like he presently sings down to reach the lower ranges of the material that was written for Freddie. Being able to reach a low note, does not mean that this is your ideal range or establishes your vocal type.
Yet, Adam would also be mis-classified, if he were to be put into the Counter-tenor Fach.
Not having a Fach available to properly develop your unique voice is a big problem, and it is twofold.
a) the material available is not written for you voice type, in that it under-utilizes talents that you may have and uses the vocal type that you do have in ways that are not optimal for you. In that sense, the ability to do 'anything' can become a curse, because you might be also asked to continuously serve roles that do not showcase what you are best at. Cassie has spoken many times about the tendency for tenor schools to cut off at the high C, and tell students to not sing past that. Imagine Adam had followed their advice? How stunted would his career be? But this topic goes beyond range, it also relates to the coloring or texture of the vocal production.
b) Texture of the sound
Operatic material would not develop the elasticity and cross register jumps to the extent that Adam uses them in every concert, almost every song today. He would not get to develop all his belting styles, his edge, his head voice-chest voice mix, not to speak of his overdrive and other techniques, because they would be considered wrong or inappropriate, and in some cases as even harmful. He would not be allowed to sing round and full or flatter and more nasally or almost spoken, as he wants to, but just within the framework decided upon by the composer.
Not having a Fach that is suited to your voice means that you come out like a bonsai tree. Stunted growth, by design. That does not mean that there are not fans of such stunted trees, it just raises the question whether in that stunted form, Adam would be at the top of the world like Pavarotti. Of course, Adam would be a successful class opera singer. But would he stand out among the 10,000 opera singers out there that perform at level A or B stages around the world, if all he were allowed to sing were lets say the material of the spinto tenore or even a tenore di grazia?
Beyond that there are of course other things to consider:
- the fact that you are allowed zero leeway to sing outside the box, to improvise away from the given score - the fact that you have fans as well as vocal coaches nit-picking every note and debating whether you should have sung that slightly differently, utterly missing your interpretive intent. Just go to tenor voice websites and read a little to see what pedantry you are encountering there.
- the fact that you constantly have to sing parts that don't mean much to you - the fact that the opera world is a very small self-contained circle, and overall cultural and social influence is quite low
If you add all this up, I can only gladly say that Adam sorted all this out in time and did not go into this direction, which does not mean, that I don't think that tackling a classic aria sometime and turning it into something that is artistically meaningful to him, could be a very interesting cross-over experiment. But as an overall career, I think, that Adam not only made the right choice, but also that the opera world would have side-lined him as non-fitting just as much, but without the ability for him to fight back.
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Post by adamrocks on Jul 7, 2018 12:07:33 GMT -5
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Post by adamrocks on Jul 7, 2018 12:13:25 GMT -5
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Post by adamrocks on Jul 7, 2018 12:15:21 GMT -5
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happy
Member
Posts: 3,407
Location:
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Post by happy on Jul 7, 2018 12:21:29 GMT -5
I sometimes keep track of Adam's Instagram followers when he doing a tour or a television show. I noted that on June 7 he had 1,138,740 followers and is now at 1,144,682 on July 7. So an increase of 6000 -- I hope some of them become fans for life!
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Post by bamafan on Jul 7, 2018 12:23:17 GMT -5
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Post by bamafan on Jul 7, 2018 12:46:38 GMT -5
Yikes.....note Adam's reply to Beg for Mercy comment
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Post by red panda on Jul 7, 2018 12:57:38 GMT -5
Several days ago red panda posted this: cassie, a technical wondering here.
It seems that he can handle, and handle extraordinarily, anything in the Queen catalog. It has been said that their catalog is extremely difficult, both in range and variety of styles.
What do you think is there out there that would challenge him to the breadth/depth of his abilities?
Would that be opera?
Not suggesting he sing opera, just wondering what you might think would be close to the limits of his abilities, if there is anything.
Yesterday I had a delightful talk with Angelina Kalahari (for new members and guests, she is a well respected opera singer and sought after vocal coach in London, as well as a staunch Adam fan), and we talked about panda's questions. Loved her thoughts and wanted to share them. I asked if there was any genre or song she thought Adam could not handle, or was beyond his abilities. "Absolutely not." She believes he can sing ANYTHING that is within a tenor range and is written for his type of tenor voice. What is the most difficult type of music to sing? Opera. We talked about fans wanting Adam to be a superstar at the top of the heap. She thinks that if Adam had chosen to pursue a career in opera by now he would be a world renowned, MEGA superstar akin to Pavarotti or Caruso. At the very TOP of the top of the field. Of course, Adam wanted fame in a different genre, not caring for opera, even tho' he has studied operatic voice, and performed operatic arias when he was younger. (And we think he is the best of the best in pop and rock.) cassie, wow! I feel flattered to have you and Angelina discussing my wonderings, thanks so much for that to both of you, and especially to you for sharing. You know, one of the questions on my list to ask Adam if I ever happen upon him and we decide to go get coffee....oops, sorry, got carried away for a moment. Anyhoo, I always wanted to ask him how studying opera informed his style and the way he approached singing. Maybe what opera gave him was the knowledge of how limitless his talent/range is. It has to be a confidence builder to know how far you can go. And again, I don't think he is egotistical about the depths and heights of his skill, only realistic. I think the magic of singing is so much a part of him, down to his core and that the important thing to him is the emotion, the expression, conveying the feeling. And he just happens to have the vehicle, innate and honed, to do just that, IMO. Sure, I think he is prideful of what he can do, and sometimes he shows off, because he can. Who wouldn't, with that level of skill? It is, IMO, never done in a flaunting or mean spirited way, in fact just the opposite, I don't think I have ever seen a more generous, loving, joyful stage performer. For me, the epitome of his utter devotion to and understanding of what he does is that jump he sometimes does when he nails the Whyyyyy in Under Pressure. What I see is him so filled with the spirit and truth of what he is doing that it has to manifest physically, like he is so filled with the wonder that it requires release and recognition. That is when I feel him so completely filled with the spirit and primal-ness of music, communication at a level beyond the tangible world. And I hear him. And feel him. And it. Hyperbole, I know, and maybe I'm overreaching, but it's what I see as pure Adam. That boy can give the feels, and I think he experiences them too. And I think that is part of the magic, I feel like I am sharing and living the song with him, not just listening to a good singer. And if I never fell for Adam, I would fall for him just for the experience he has made possible for Roger and Brian. Every time I see and hear those crowds I am moved. Those men are so deserving of that recognition and love, IMO. I know it must be so satisfying and incredible for them to feel that love and see those people singing along en masse to those wonderful lifelong songs. To see those two, smiling, invigorated, appreciative, doing what they love, reaping the rich reward of the lifetime of iconic music they have given us? Priceless. And Adam has such a huge part in that. Plus, of course, as ever, HAWT. And thanks again, adamrocks, for posting that video.
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Post by bamafan on Jul 7, 2018 13:13:03 GMT -5
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