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Apr. 20th, 2022 09:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
between_time_and_42Not to musicpost twice in one day, but something AMAZING happened last night (in the world of my musical heroes anyway... haha, I feel like it's starting to seem like all I do all day is listen to music and talk about music and write, but I promise I do have a social life lol!). And I have a lot of thoughts and feelings, but first let's set it up with something that didn't happen last night:
In Sparks' movie musical, Annette, Marion Cotillard plays an opera singer. While Marion Cotillard is a lovely singer in real life (and she does sing by herself in the movie), her opera performances were dubbed by the French soprano Catherine Trottman.
Here's what didn't happen last night: Catherine Trottman performs the fake aria that Sparks wrote for the opera-within-a-musical, "The Forest," at a live concert.
And already this is one of my new favorite things- going straight into my Performance Inspiration playlist on YouTube, because not only is her singing absolutely gorgeous (and SO effortless, and how does she do the scream without hurting her voice??), but she's so emotive, with those intense facial expressions and gestures. At one point, I swear I can even see her hands shaking, like she truly is this character who's wandering around in the forest, afraid for her life. (Man I miss singing opera, and being at this level of preparedness and well-trained-ness when it comes to my voice...) I also love this performance because it legitimizes Sparks' composition- a fake aria written for a fake opera but being performed at a genuine concert by a genuine opera singer. (Also, I can't believe I didn't really catch onto this until just now, but the bit of music at the end where the character is supposed to be dying is the same as the piece of music that Ann sings later in the movie called "I Will Haunt You, Henry!" Ahhh, I love recurring musical themes in musicals!!)
Anyway, the thing that happened last night was this:
Sparks performed a Paris (I'm sorry, I can't stop saying that en francais, even when I type it) and Catherine Trottman came out to sing with them. When I first saw the title of this clip, I thought that they had played the love duet, "We Love Each Other So Much," which is on Sparks' current setlist... BUT they went into "The Forest" right after! And this is just blowing my mind so much. It's especially interesting to compare Catherine and Russell's performance styles. As a rock frontman, Russell is playing entirely to the audience and not acknowledging Catherine much. As a trained opera performer (and remember, opera singers aren't JUST singers, operas are narrative art forms and thus the performers must be actors as well!), Catherine is ALL about the facial expressions and acknowledging her duet partner (when she looks over at him on the lines "I don't know him, he is a stranger," it's just... SO good...). Plus... and this is probably why I'm posting this here and not anywhere that it could reach a wider audience, but I'm sorry, Catherine sounds so much better than Russell here. I won't say she sings all over him, but there is definitely one phrase where his intonation is poor (probably because he hit the notes in a chesty, belting way when he really doesn't have the ability to do that anymore and should have approached it in falsetto) and when they sing that phrase together, it's a bit... oof. The falsetto on "We Love Each Other So Much" is still so fucking gorgeous, though. (And I'm not saying he sounds BAD on "The Forest," not at all, it's just that one phrase. Also, the man is 73 and in the middle of a long tour, it's a wonder he even sounds THAT good.)
Actually, I'm going to go ahead and link to the other time Sparks performed with an opera singer, on their song "Life With the Macbeths:"
I. Love. This song, because it feels like such an absolute achievement for the band- marrying Ron's dryly humorous, "who would even think to write about this?" lyrics to the super dramatic music, and then the performances from the two vocalists are just... off the charts, as the song says. But especially on Rebecca Sjowall's part. Look at her, she's standing there leaning back with her hand on her hip as if she's having a casual conversation with a friend instead of, y'know, singing her lungs out onstage with a rock band... Actually, I honestly don't care for her timbre too much, but I'm so impressed by her technique. And Russell holds his own. Gosh his voice is like the 8th wonder of the world. (And imagine if they'd composed this song when he was younger and was at his full vocal power, that would knock me flat.)
In Sparks' movie musical, Annette, Marion Cotillard plays an opera singer. While Marion Cotillard is a lovely singer in real life (and she does sing by herself in the movie), her opera performances were dubbed by the French soprano Catherine Trottman.
Here's what didn't happen last night: Catherine Trottman performs the fake aria that Sparks wrote for the opera-within-a-musical, "The Forest," at a live concert.
And already this is one of my new favorite things- going straight into my Performance Inspiration playlist on YouTube, because not only is her singing absolutely gorgeous (and SO effortless, and how does she do the scream without hurting her voice??), but she's so emotive, with those intense facial expressions and gestures. At one point, I swear I can even see her hands shaking, like she truly is this character who's wandering around in the forest, afraid for her life. (Man I miss singing opera, and being at this level of preparedness and well-trained-ness when it comes to my voice...) I also love this performance because it legitimizes Sparks' composition- a fake aria written for a fake opera but being performed at a genuine concert by a genuine opera singer. (Also, I can't believe I didn't really catch onto this until just now, but the bit of music at the end where the character is supposed to be dying is the same as the piece of music that Ann sings later in the movie called "I Will Haunt You, Henry!" Ahhh, I love recurring musical themes in musicals!!)
Anyway, the thing that happened last night was this:
Sparks performed a Paris (I'm sorry, I can't stop saying that en francais, even when I type it) and Catherine Trottman came out to sing with them. When I first saw the title of this clip, I thought that they had played the love duet, "We Love Each Other So Much," which is on Sparks' current setlist... BUT they went into "The Forest" right after! And this is just blowing my mind so much. It's especially interesting to compare Catherine and Russell's performance styles. As a rock frontman, Russell is playing entirely to the audience and not acknowledging Catherine much. As a trained opera performer (and remember, opera singers aren't JUST singers, operas are narrative art forms and thus the performers must be actors as well!), Catherine is ALL about the facial expressions and acknowledging her duet partner (when she looks over at him on the lines "I don't know him, he is a stranger," it's just... SO good...). Plus... and this is probably why I'm posting this here and not anywhere that it could reach a wider audience, but I'm sorry, Catherine sounds so much better than Russell here. I won't say she sings all over him, but there is definitely one phrase where his intonation is poor (probably because he hit the notes in a chesty, belting way when he really doesn't have the ability to do that anymore and should have approached it in falsetto) and when they sing that phrase together, it's a bit... oof. The falsetto on "We Love Each Other So Much" is still so fucking gorgeous, though. (And I'm not saying he sounds BAD on "The Forest," not at all, it's just that one phrase. Also, the man is 73 and in the middle of a long tour, it's a wonder he even sounds THAT good.)
Actually, I'm going to go ahead and link to the other time Sparks performed with an opera singer, on their song "Life With the Macbeths:"
I. Love. This song, because it feels like such an absolute achievement for the band- marrying Ron's dryly humorous, "who would even think to write about this?" lyrics to the super dramatic music, and then the performances from the two vocalists are just... off the charts, as the song says. But especially on Rebecca Sjowall's part. Look at her, she's standing there leaning back with her hand on her hip as if she's having a casual conversation with a friend instead of, y'know, singing her lungs out onstage with a rock band... Actually, I honestly don't care for her timbre too much, but I'm so impressed by her technique. And Russell holds his own. Gosh his voice is like the 8th wonder of the world. (And imagine if they'd composed this song when he was younger and was at his full vocal power, that would knock me flat.)
