Well, my second visit to the secret science club was less successful than the first. I actually got there more than a half hour early -- very unusual for me. There was already a huge line. They filled up the back hall rather quickly and then said the rest of us would have to sit in front. We would get audio, but not video. Unfortunately, from what I could tell, a lot of the talk was about how what you perceive with your conscious brain is different from what your eyes see. That involved a lot of images, which those of us out in the front room could not see. Also the front room was very crowded & noisy.
I ended up leaving.
Oh, well, perhaps they should start charging admission.
Thursday, April 26, 2012
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Josh Groban & Renee Fleming Live at Lincoln Center -- review (or ramble?)
I just watched this program, which is available online at the PBS website this week.
I have been sort of intrigued about what makes some people successful in show business and others not -- and also about types of voices..
Renee Fleming is an opera singer. As I understand it, opera fans are looking for very particular qualities of voice in their performers. The successful opera singer has to have a very clean, smooth tone throughout her range, with no hint of being gravelly or strained. The tone can be quite heavy, though we can hear in this performance that Renee can drop that heavy, throaty sound, if she wants to, in a more pop song. Nevertheless, there is a perfect, flawless smoothness to her voice, which an opera fan would love and a pop or rock fan might find dull. Pop and rock fans seem to like when their singers get a rough, catchy sound in their voices, while opera fans do not.
As I understand it, the operatic singing style has been developed over hundreds or thousands of years to protect the singer's voice, while giving maximum strength. The pop singing style does not have this advantage: see e.g. Adele who already blew out her voice once and is only 21 or 22 -- though her smoking obviously contributed to that problem. Adele likes to let her voice go rough -- and her fans love to hear that -- though it did not surprise me to hear that what she does with her voice ended up with her needing rest and surgery.
Josh Groban is a pop singer, though many people feel that his voice is opera-like.
I think, hearing Josh & Renee together, you can hear that Josh's voice is not operatic. It's a beautiful, rich voice, but there is an element of throatiness, which is missing, that makes it not operatic. Part of that is that Josh is younger than Renee, but part of it is that he's a pop singer If you go listen to Jonathan Antoine, who just blew people away on Britain's Got Talent, you can hear a real opera voice in someone who is 17.
Another thing that was interesting to me, when Renee sang some pop or rock-like stuff, was that the register was lower than what she would have used in opera. Popular singing right now seems to prefer that men sing in falsetto and women sing tenor. I notice that Gaga, who has a classically trained voice, has tended to prefer to sing in the lower part of her range. It's an interesting phase of music. It seems like we don't feel so confident being who we are and want to be someone else.
I didn't think Josh & Renee had that great of stage chemistry together. They were singing a love song. Renee started out looking really infatuated with him, but when they started singing they both seemed more focused on producing the sound and on the audience more than on each other.
In general, I thought Renee's performance style was not all that well suited to close-up TV. She's a person who has been trained to produce a huge sound that fills an opera hall without a mike. That means standing stolidly, taking in huge amounts of air, and using a lot of interior muscles to give support. It's not graceful. By contrast, being on a close-up camera is about being more subtle, flexible, quick, and charismatic. Small movements of the face are very important. On TV, making a huge sound is not so important, as the microphone does that for you. Basically I didn't think that she had that great of camera presence.
Josh did sound fairly good with Renee, certainly better than some of other duets I've heard, though I think some of the audience duets that Josh did on this last tour were a better match.
I have been sort of intrigued about what makes some people successful in show business and others not -- and also about types of voices..
Renee Fleming is an opera singer. As I understand it, opera fans are looking for very particular qualities of voice in their performers. The successful opera singer has to have a very clean, smooth tone throughout her range, with no hint of being gravelly or strained. The tone can be quite heavy, though we can hear in this performance that Renee can drop that heavy, throaty sound, if she wants to, in a more pop song. Nevertheless, there is a perfect, flawless smoothness to her voice, which an opera fan would love and a pop or rock fan might find dull. Pop and rock fans seem to like when their singers get a rough, catchy sound in their voices, while opera fans do not.
As I understand it, the operatic singing style has been developed over hundreds or thousands of years to protect the singer's voice, while giving maximum strength. The pop singing style does not have this advantage: see e.g. Adele who already blew out her voice once and is only 21 or 22 -- though her smoking obviously contributed to that problem. Adele likes to let her voice go rough -- and her fans love to hear that -- though it did not surprise me to hear that what she does with her voice ended up with her needing rest and surgery.
Josh Groban is a pop singer, though many people feel that his voice is opera-like.
I think, hearing Josh & Renee together, you can hear that Josh's voice is not operatic. It's a beautiful, rich voice, but there is an element of throatiness, which is missing, that makes it not operatic. Part of that is that Josh is younger than Renee, but part of it is that he's a pop singer If you go listen to Jonathan Antoine, who just blew people away on Britain's Got Talent, you can hear a real opera voice in someone who is 17.
Another thing that was interesting to me, when Renee sang some pop or rock-like stuff, was that the register was lower than what she would have used in opera. Popular singing right now seems to prefer that men sing in falsetto and women sing tenor. I notice that Gaga, who has a classically trained voice, has tended to prefer to sing in the lower part of her range. It's an interesting phase of music. It seems like we don't feel so confident being who we are and want to be someone else.
I didn't think Josh & Renee had that great of stage chemistry together. They were singing a love song. Renee started out looking really infatuated with him, but when they started singing they both seemed more focused on producing the sound and on the audience more than on each other.
In general, I thought Renee's performance style was not all that well suited to close-up TV. She's a person who has been trained to produce a huge sound that fills an opera hall without a mike. That means standing stolidly, taking in huge amounts of air, and using a lot of interior muscles to give support. It's not graceful. By contrast, being on a close-up camera is about being more subtle, flexible, quick, and charismatic. Small movements of the face are very important. On TV, making a huge sound is not so important, as the microphone does that for you. Basically I didn't think that she had that great of camera presence.
Josh did sound fairly good with Renee, certainly better than some of other duets I've heard, though I think some of the audience duets that Josh did on this last tour were a better match.
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
Concert report
Report on "A Celebration of Paul Newman's Dream" Hosted by Joanne Woodward Newman
Avery Fisher Hall, April 2, 2012
This was a concert to benefit seriousfunnetwork.org aka @SeriousFunCamps on twitter
This group was founded by Paul Newman to allow seriously ill children, children who require continual care by a doctor or nurse, to attend a summer camp and have the sorts of fun that healthy children have at summer camp. They used to be called "Hole in the Wall Camps," but the name has been changed. There are now 28 camps located in many countries and they are continuing to grow. These camps also serve as a respite for families who are caring for sick kids.
I went to this concert, because I am a Grobanite and because Josh Groban was performing there.
This was a truly great concert. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, and, frankly, I don't usually enjoy concerts -- not even all Josh concerts.
The program alternated between celebs and the campers.
The celebs have been mentioned in the press a lot, but some of these kids were really talented. There was a little person named Josh -- introduced by Josh Groban -- who was *so* funny and articulate, even though confined to a motorized wheelchair and on oxygen, that he got a standing ovation. The audience literally leapt to its collective feet. He was amazing.
There was also a young woman who sang a very moving song accompanying herself on the piano. Plus they had some testimonials and some choral numbers. I guess some of these kids have recovered somewhat, as most of them seemed ok on stage, though one talked of a friend of his who had died since camp.
There was a video appearance by Bill Clinton. Joanne Woodward and one of Paul Newman's daughters spoke.
To me, though, NaTasha Yvette Williams really stole the show with her rendition of "Firework" at the end. She just totally killed this song. I had never liked it all that well before tonight, but she really sang it the way it should be sung & now I love it. She's not a huge star, apparently -- doesn't seem to be on twitter -- but *so* talented. I know Katy Perry is a friend of Josh Groban, who is my celebrity obsession, but I've never liked her singing much.
I was very impressed by Elvis Costello. He sings beautifully, and used only the 4 strings players as a sort of classical quartet in the background.
The complete band had about 13 members, including the conductor, of which only two women, and no non-whites. I have been noticing this about the supporting crews in the entertainment industry. While the celebs are becoming more diverse, the backup people are not necessarily following suit. I've noticed on Josh Groban's albums that most of the people listed in small print are men, as well.
Josh sang beautifully -- as always. His piano playing on "Changing Colors" came through much more clearly in Avery Fisher Hall, which has excellent acoustics, than it came through in the other concerts I have heard. That was particularly exquisite. He also sang "Smile." He has sung both of these songs many times before, but it's always a treat to hear him sing, because his voice is so beautiful. "Changing Colors" is about learning to relate to people who are different. "Smile" is about persevering through adversity. I actually don't like "Smile," which both Josh and Michael Jackson have said is their favorite song, as I believe it encourages false cheerfulness. I think people should be able to be honest about they are really feeling. Honesty about feelings is extremely important to good mental health.
Paul Simon's guitar playing was excellent. He changed the tunes to the vocals on some old chestnuts, though, which I wasn't so wild about. Someone I was with speculated that he changed the tunes because of deterioration in his singing voice. I don't know if that is true or not.
Jimmy Fallon did a hilarious bit with one of the campers. The kid was up there nominally as an assistant, handing Jimmy cue cards, but also sort of hamming it up -- and then the cue cards started going off topic & praising the kid, which was very cute. It was also in keeping with the theme of the camp which is that seriously ill kids should be able to "kick back and raise a little hell" -- words of Paul Newman.
Tina Fey read a letter from a mom discussing her experience dropping off her very sick kid, which was very funny.
Jake Gyllenhaal was unfortunately limited to giving a fairly straightforward speech, which was not really exploiting his substantial acting talents, though it was good to see him.
Trisha Yearwood did a very nice job and was very good with the kids. She did a particularly moving rendition of Mylie Cyrus's "The Climb" with the kids.
Christian Hebel, who was on Josh Groban's last tour, played on almost every number. He was very friendly to us on the way out. I hadn't had a chance to meet him before. He's much more handsome in person -- incredibly handsome really -- and looked *so* dashing with his violin slung over his back. re: little Josh -- Oh, and when I say "standing ovation" I mean that the audience literally leapt to their feet. I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing that guy on stage in the future.
i really liked when Elvis Costello left the mike and went over to the other side of the stage, which really showed that the acoustics there were adequate without mikes. I thought he sounded better unamplified and I was in the 3rd tier.
This reminded me of when Josh once put aside the mike in a concert in Germany, which I saw on a video on YouTube. I doubt Josh needed to be miked at Avery Fisher Hall. He's a powerful singer. It would have been nice to hear his natural voice.
Outside, when Josh was signing autographs, one of the back stage people came up to me and said "I'm new here. Who is that?"
I told him. He said he would look Josh up ....
I still have a hard time with people who have not heard of Josh Groban, but, I had to ask who Trisha Yearwood was, so I guess I should not complain.
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