Klarinet Archive - Posting 000359.txt from 2003/09

From: "Matthew Lloyd" <Matthew@-----.uk>
Subj: RE: [kl] Clarinetist/Musician
Date: Sun, 14 Sep 2003 15:04:20 -0400

With all due respect, how can one compare Pavarotti with Domingo, let
alone Caruso? I admit that I have only, of these three, heard Domingo,
but I cannot recall any evidence that I have heard that would tend to
suggest that Pavarotti was a good singer let alone a great one. He is
vulgar in the worst sense - Caruso was vulgar in the best sense.

I don't see that being unable to read music makes you a priori
unmusical. Pavarotti is unmusical because he is too hung up on the idea
that he is a great singer to bother listening to, and reacting to, the
music he sings.

Matthew

-----Original Message-----
From: Ken Wolman [mailto:kwolman@-----.com]
Subject: Re: [kl] Clarinetist/Musician

Ormondtoby Montoya wrote:

> ....is a conductor who can neither play nor compose a "good" musician?
>
> <sorry!>

The world of classical singing, especially opera, has been replete with
people with wonderful voices who nevertheless could not read a note of
music. Enrico Caruso was one. More recently Franco Corelli and Luciano
Pavarotti were and are part of this contingent. They had to be taught
their roles by a coach and learn them by ear. They played no instrument
(piano is usually the obvious choice). I don't know about Caruso, but
Pavarotti and Corelli both commit unmusical errors: missing entrances,
screwing up dynamic markings, stepping on another singer's lines because
the only music they've committed to memory is their own, and that by
rote. Great voices or not, these are not musicians--they're simply
great
instruments. By comparison, Placido Domingo is transitioning as his
voice
fades into a conductor because he studied conducting and piano at the
conservatory in Mexico City years ago.

Ken
--
Kenneth Wolman
Proposal Development Department
Room SW334
Sarnoff Corporation
609-734-2538

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