Katherine Jenkins

[psychochicken]

Talent show winner, yet seemingly genuinely talented opera singer type Katherine Jenkins. What excatly was wrong with opera? What's with the covering pop songs now? I heard the Evanessence song first a while back. Since the original featured a rock singer overstretching herself ridiculously anyway it wasn't that bad to hear it being done opera-

Comments

[nicnac]

She is appalling at covers - dunno what her actual opera is like since I don't listen to it, but her operatic versions of contemporary music are dire.

[a_pawson]

She is apparently not an opera singer, but a classical singer. I wasn't even aware of the difference until I heard an interview she did on Radio 3. Apparently women don't usually sing proper opera until their 30's as their vocals have not developed sufficiently until middle age.

As for her album, I'm sure it's all about the cash. She will sell a zillion times more records recording terrible cover versions than if she released an album of arias or some such. It's illegal not to own a copy in Wales I hear.

[psychochicken]

The age thing seems a bit odd. I'm sure I've seen operas with women under 30 performing in them. That, by my perhaps unofficial definition, makes them opera singers.

[unblinkered]

To the best of my knowledge, she has never sung opera. She might have recorded the odd singalonga-aria, but that's about it.

The fact that the likes of Jenkins and Andrea Bocelli have the general populace thinking that opera consists of belting out Nessun Dorma at a rugby match (or, indeed, committing easy listening travesty and calling it "art") pisses me off no end. Charlotte Church, voice of an angel and alleged "opera singer" has apparently never actually been to the opera, for fuck's sake.

And the age thing is a much a myth as the "you need to be fat to sing Wagner" thing - Callas started her career in her early 20s, Angela Gheorghiu debuted at the Royal Opera when she was 27 and there were certainly plenty of young singers at ScotOp back in the day.

Grrrrr argh. /rant

[psychochicken]

Obviously I misused the term opera. She sings normally in that style and I genuinely thought she had performed in operas but a quick wikipedia search does indeed suggest otherwise. My bad. Apparently she is officially a "Welsh light classical-popular crossover singer". I'd never have worked that out in a million years (apart from the Welsh bit), but I perhaps could have used the term 'operatic' rather than 'opera'. Charlotte Church I wouldn't have given even that title to but at least when she did pop she did her own

[unblinkered]

I get your point about introducing people to opera proper, but I'm fairly sure that for every person who develops a serious Wagner habit after wondering else is out there, there are several hundred who are convinced that what's their names off the X-Factor (or Britain's Got Talent, or whichever spawned the mock-opera band) are the ultimate in opera. Or light classical-pop-crossover (who comes up with this shit?). And that's a huge disservice to more serious singers and musicians who have slogged hard at their craft for years and years only to find that the general public couldn't care less about their incredible talent for singing Janacek and would rather listen to them "do" Danny Boy...

[psychochicken]

You are, of course, absolutely right. Sadly some people are beyond help and nothing we do or say will convince them that owning a copy of an Andrew Lloyd Webber musical and "The Best Classical Album in the World Eva OMG vol. 4" doesn't make them cultured.

Fact is the general public wouldn't care more about those serious musicians if the less serious ones weren't there, but fewer people would find the good stuff.

This, I believe is true of just about everything. There is always The Real Thing and The Lite (sic) Version. Sometimes The Lite Version leads us to The Real Thing and sometimes it is sufficient in itself.

Om.

[zantic]

He was listening to Radio 2. It's a thing I make him do in the mornings, for I am evil.

[dalg]

I quite liked the cover of the Evanescence song, and as for the original, Amy Lee has a pretty damn good voice. I don't see how it was overstretched, it's not like she's struggling to hit the notes.

As always YMMV :-D