Opera

» Smorg - acting singer vs singing actor

I agree there. Singing has priority over acting.

Though in these days of opera DVD and HD broadcast to the cinema, being able to act matters more than before. In live opera house, unless you're in the orchestra level, you don't get to see the singers/actors very well (if you do get to see them at all). And then when a performance is broadcasted on radio, all the listeners get is the voice.

That said... I would love to have been able to see the likes of Astrid Varnay, Leonie Rysanek, Maria Callas, Martha Moedl, Regine Crespin, Galina Vishnevskaya, Hans Hotter, and the likes live onstage (but being only 32... I missed them all). They say Rysanek just had to be heard in theater because her stage presence was so riveting that it really didn't matter how off-pitch she sang.

I have only seen Vesselina Kasarova live once in a concert performance of Dom Sebastien in NYC last year, and it was remarkable how big her stage presence was even in that setting. She came stalking out and you really couldn't take your eyes off the gal... and it wasn't because of her look (I was at the very back of the balcony and didn't even have a binocular and she was still magnetising from that distance). And then once the last note was played, all the attitudes disappeared into thin air and she was a totally different lady on-stage. Gone all the way from a proud princess to a shy girl next door in a second.

Kasarova is probably not a good example, since she can both sing and act. But perhaps I should cite someone like... Jussi Bjoerling... He is wonderful when I can only hear him, but from all the video clips I've seen, the dude couldn't act to save his life. I wonder how he would do with today's fans, where the visual element matters so much more than just a few decades ago.

So... what do you guys think? Is the extraordinary Ewa Podles not more famous because she isn't very good looking? Is Susan Graham missing out from some great engagements because she is too tall? Would the 5'2" Marilyn Horne do as well in this much more visually oriented audience today as she did in her hay days (would they even dare pair her with Joan Sutherland in a performance of Semiramide if they're both singing today)?

-- posted by Smorg