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Clemency Burton-Hill
Clemency Burton-Hill

Clemency suggests


Car crash singing

Tuesday, 27th May 2008

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Oh my sweet Lord. Please forgive me for inflicting this on you, but I have to share it with someone: Andrea Bocelli and Anna Netrebko at the Classical Brits.

Bocelli - essentially a glorified pub singer with fantastic marketing - sounds as if someone is tightening his throat with string and he's gasping for breath, while Netrebko seems to be trying to show that she, too, can do shrieking rather than singing - and that she is as capable as anyone else at ignoring the conductor's tempo.

Car crash singing (via Opera Chic).

And just to make it worse, there's three seconds of  the awful Mylene Klass to endure at the start.

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Commondog

May 27th, 2008 9:40am

I know next to nothing about opera, but I know ersatz when confronted with it.

This is opera as appears on the juke-box down the Moon Under Water.

Windsor Tripehound

May 27th, 2008 3:14pm

Thank goodness - it isn't just me. I heard him singing with Bryn Terfel and was astounded that Bryn could associate himself with someone so clearly lousy.

Mind you, I'm no criterion. I also think Maria Callas is lousy.

Otepoti

May 28th, 2008 2:52am

Don't be such a crashing snob. This whole performance may not appeal to the cognoscenti, but it clearly isn't aimed at them, either. And it may just get someone interested in opera who otherwise might not be.

A thing worth doing is worth doing badly.

Which Lord, by the way?

Windsor Tripehound

May 28th, 2008 11:58am

To my mind Otepoti, it's snobbish to suggest that the second rate is good enough for the plebs.

Otepoti

May 28th, 2008 10:04pm

"Cognoscenti", not "patricians", the former being a group based on knowledge, not income or birth.

Experts do well not to deride entry-level enthusiasm.

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