A Valentine's Day treat.

So the Grammys were last night. I watched a bit of it, including the overly-hyped Gaga song "Born This Way" that was supposed to be the new gay anthem. Um... no. I don't think Madonna needs to worry about any of that this year. Neither do Streisand, Garland, or any of the others whose "gay anthems" have stood the test of time. Besides, do we really still need a gay anthem? Maybe it's me, but I don't see the same need for it. Or maybe we need it more than ever. I don't know. All I know is that Gaga's attempt was ham-handed and missed the mark.

There was also a whole bunch of Bieber. Now don't get me wrong... I'm okay with the Bieber. There's always someone in the pop music genre filling the always-in-demand 13-year-old pre-pubescent female niche market. I remain unimpressed. Take away the auto-tuning and then maybe I'll pay a little more notice. I suggest that Mr. Bieber invest his earnings well. Once his fans begin to menstruate regularly, they'll likely move on to more interesting music.

One bright spot was the Best New Artist category, won by Esperanza Spalding who bested the Bieber for the title, and rightly so. What a talent. It's nice to see the best new artist award go to an actual artist, rather than some publicity-driven hack. In this clip, you see Spalding performing at the White House with Tony Bennett. Speaking of artistry, watch and listen and learn as Bennett, with his clearly aging voice, show that the clarity of the vocal signal is not a necessary ingredient in the creation of a great performance.

Same song, different singer.

I was just noticing this lovely old song... Skylark was one of the most popular songs of its day, and of course almost no one remembers it now. I first heard it on Linda Ronstadt's album, "What's New?" in which she revived many of those great old standards from the 40s. I've mentioned before that a talented singer can take a corny old warhorse of a song and turn it into something touching and special through sheer interpretation and performance practice, and this is a good example of how different singers can make the same old song seem brand new.

Here, we have Helen Forrest, Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Shore, and kd lang. Enjoy.

Lena Horne, 92.

The incomparable Lena Horne, 1917-2010.

We've lost so many of the great interpreters of the American songbook that I fear we'll lose our connection to that great music. I hope one of the younger jazz singers takes up the mantle and keeps these wonderful old songs alive. Gays can't do it all by themselves, can we?

Good genes.

Enrique Iglesias is officially the hottest man in the world. Or maybe at least tied for hottest status.

David Archuleta is like a little pile of Skittles.

I just adore this kid. I'm not a crazy fan... I don't camp out for his concert appearances or freak out over his recordings. I just know that every time I hear him sing, it's probably going to be really great. He has such a wonderfully gentle and natural approach to singing. I'm especially impressed given his history of partial vocal fold paralysis, for which he refused surgery and chose to work on vocal technique instead. The results are obvious. He's still so young... he was born in 1990 for pete's sake... but he has such a pretty voice and an easy way about him. I hope he hangs on to those things as his career moves forward.

Oui, c'est elle, c'est la déesse

This is a great clip on a number of levels. Here we see baritone Nathan Gunn and tenor William Burden at the Philadelphia Opera singing the beautiful duet from Bizet's The Pearl Fishers.

The music is lovely, and this is really the most impressive and beautiful part of the entire opera. It's what people wait for, and the audience is usually pretty hushed during it. It's a little gem of a duet. I sang it with a tenor colleague at a research meeting last year. Everbody always loves this duet.

We also see two other things... first, the obvious hunkiness of the singers. This is how opera is changing... the super obese stereotype of opera singers just isn't true anymore. I suppose you can get fat once you have already established yourself internationally, but even that has its limits.

There's also the ability to watch Nathan Gunn breathe during his performance. With his shirt off, you can see how low his breath is centered. The ability to work the lower abdominals like crazy while maintaining a very quiet and still upper chest and neck musculature is a tricky thing, and it takes much practice over many years to develop. I love these rare opportunities to peek into the technical aspect of operatic singing while still being able to enjoy the artistry that the technique creates.

Bettye LaVette conquers Washington

In December 2008, Bettye LaVette had the honor of singing "Love Reign Over Me" at the Kennedy Center Honors concert in Washington, DC. It was part of the tribute to The Who, one of last year's recipients.

Oh honey. Miss Bet-TAY reached waaay down deep and pulled out some guts for this one. Get ready to be dazzled.

So different now from what it seemed.

Today I'd like to feature unemployed church volunteer Susan Boyle, the most recent pseudo-celebrity to emerge from the "Britain's Got Talent" franchise since opera singing warehouse manager Paul Potts reminded everyone about how beautiful Puccini's Nessun dorma is. Wearing what appeared to be a mother of the bride frock, Boyle sang I Dreamed a Dream from Les Miserables in a confident medium-belt that would have done Elaine Paige proud. The three judges, including Simon Cowell, drooled with voluminous praise... and the never-married never-kissed Boyle became an instant 15 minute celebrity thanks to YouTube.

I'm a classical singer, and I love musical theatre... but I wouldn't call myself a musical theatre queen. What I like most are surprisingly talented people who have the balls to get up and sing in public. Ms. Boyle clearly has a bit of a downtrodden past, which makes her success all the more delicious. Yeah, she needs a singing teacher... she needs to work out the kinks in that vibrato and learn to belt in a vocally safe way... but I'd be willing to be that she'll get as much help as she needs at this point.

I wish for her three things: a good singing teacher, an extensive makeover, and a gay friend. With those three lucky charms, I think she'll go farther than she ever thought she could.

I love it when the big girl wins. Love it.

Here's the link to the clip in case you're the one person who hasn't seen it already.

World, meet Matt Alber.

One of the hardest things for any singer to undertake is the switch from one genre of vocal music to another. It's not hard to recall examples of failed attempts... Sylvia McNair's lifeless Gershwin album... Renee Fleming's stilted "popera" attempts... renditions of Puccini's Nessun dorma by Aretha Franklin and Michael Bolton (both of which were vomitous). The list goes on and on, with the vast majority being disappointing. A good example of a successful crossover might be Linda Ronstadt's collaboration with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra in the 1980s, but hers is an extremely rare exception and doesn't involve classical crossover.

Imagine my surprise and delight when I heard this little gem from Matt Alber. I've been aware of him for some time through his work with the spectacularly gorgeous ensemble Chanticleer, but have never heard him singing non-classical repertoire. JoeMyGod posted comparisons with Rufus Wainwright... this seems appropriate, though I rather think that Matt's voice is so much more pleasant.

It's really interesting to hear Alber switch from serious classical production (as a countertenor, no less) to indie pop. It's easy for classical singers to start pressing their voices in an attempt to tamp down the high-frequency resonant quality that they've worked for years to attain. I can hear that in Alber's performance just a bit, but it seems to work... and with his level of neuromuscular control of his instrument, I think it'll be something he can maintain without injury. And I love the romantic, old-school nature of the video. Very Tom Ford meets Francis Ford Coppola.

I'm buying the album. In the meantime, check out the clips above... quite a contrast, no?

Wake up, Paula. It's David's turn. Paula?

I don't normally watch American Idol. I think that if someone has the guts to get up in front of a group of people and sing anything, then they deserve my support. But this little David Archuleta is soooo adorable that I can't help but post his video clip here. Lovely voice, great energy, and a wonderful story about not letting vocal paralysis get in the way of his dream. I can't say I'll be watching the show, but I'll root for little David.

Diva Thursdays: Renee Fleming

American full-lyric soprano Renee Fleming is arguably the prima donna of the American operatic stage today. Unlike some other singers whose fame is based on demanding behaviors, obesity, or paparazzo-encouraging bacchanals, Ms. Fleming's celebrity rests securely on one simple thing... the utter beauty of her voice. I know, I know. Not too exciting... we'd much rather see her showing us her taco while exiting a cab in midtown. But isn't it refreshing to see someone who is famous for something that is actually related to her talents and profession?


Born in Indiana, Pennsylvania to two singing teachers, she grew up in Rochester, New York (where my grandmother lived for many years).

Fleming's first major break came in 1988 when she sang the Countess in Mozart's La Nozze di Figaro at the Houston Grand Opera, a role she has sung many times since to resounding success. She debuted in 1989 with the NYC Opera and Royal Opera, Covent Garden (London), followed by her Metropolitan Opera debut in 1991.


In addition to the standard operatic repertoire, she performs new music, Broadway show tunes, and other popular genres. Fleming has originated the roles of Rosina, Mme de Tourvel, and Blanche DuBois in, respectively, the world premières of John Corigliano's The Ghosts of Versailles at the Met, Conrad Susa's Dangerous Liaisons with the San Francisco Opers, and Andre Previn's A Streetcar Named Desire (also in San Francisco).


I have friends who have nit-picky thoughts about all the "scooping" that La Fleming does when she sings, but I have to say... with a voice that beautiful, I really don't care about the scooping. If I want crystalline bell-like tones that leave me cold, I'll listen to Sylvia McNair's Gershwin album (I'm not linking to it because I don't want to encourage that sort of thing).


Enjoy this performance of Rusalka's Song to the Moon from Antonin Dvorak's Rusalka. It's one of the arias that is intimately associated with Fleming, and here we see why. Lovely...

Diva Thursdays: Dame Joan Sutherland

Austrialian-born Dame Joan Sutherland (b. 1926 in Sydney) has been referred to as La Stupenda, or the stupendous one, since her breakthrough performance at La Fenice (Venice) in 1960. One of her signature recordings, The Art of the Prima Donna, is still studied by singers-in-training today. She remains one of the all-time great coloratura sopranos in the history of recorded opera. Believe me, opera audiences are a savvy bunch with very specific ideas about what the human singing voice should sound like. It's a tough room. But when La Stupenda sang, attention was paid.


Coloratura sopranos are a special and somewhat strange lot. Known primarily for easy virtuosity in the upper register, the coloratura soprano can perform blazingly fast melismata without breaking much of a sweat. Sutherland started her career following the footsteps of her idol, Kirsten Flagstad, hoping to become a dramatic Wagnerian soprano... an unusual starting point for the woman whose work became synonymous with the mid-20th century revival of bel canto opera. It's a lesson for all singers... don't let anyone tell you what your voice type is. Discover it for yourself. When it's right, you'll know it.


The clip below shows La Stupenda on the Ed Sullivan Show in 1964. She was at her finest... singing Ardon gli-incensi from the opera with which she is most often associated, Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor. The camera angles used here tend to downplay Sutherland's enormous jaw, which seemed to become increasingly prominent as she aged.


My voice teacher, Sunny van Eaton, used to offer her students a dubious award called the "Dame Joan Sutherland Mushmouth Award", ostensibly a light-hearted jab at La Stupenda for her less-than-clear articulation. But frankly, with a voice like that, I just don't care.


La Stupenda is still with us as of this posting. Aged 81 years, she retired from singing in 1990. She lives in Montreux, Switzerland, on the shore of Lake Geneva.

Dale Warland Singers

Click this post's headline to hear the DWS perform Pavel Chesnokov's Spaseniye Sodelal (Salvation Is Created), Op. 25, No. 5. I love how the Russian language sounds so different in the setting of a choir and a cathedral. Beautiful.

From Wikipedia:

When communism fell years after his death, and the Russian Orthodox church opened its doors again, Chesnokov's Salvation is Created - a piece he had never heard performed himself - became the unofficial anthem of the church. Salvation is Created is one in a cycle of ten Communion Hymns, Op.25, and is based on a cantus firmus chant taken from Obihod notnago peniya, the codex that contained the major musical components of the Russian Orthodox liturgical repertoire.

The common English translation of the text is:

Salvation is created in the midst of the earth, O God. Alleluia.

Dale Warland Singers

I've always loved singing, but I don't know that I've ever loved it as much as I did when singing with this group.

The Dale Warland Singers, based in Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota, were considered one of the two or three best choral music ensembles in America, if not the world. DWS closed up show when founder and artistic director Dale Warland retired. Much of the personnel of the ensemble moved on to form The Singers: Minnesota Choral Artists.

No matter what you call them, they'll give you an evening of some of the most beautiful and intelligent music you'll ever hear. I miss singing with them.

Click the link on this post's headline to hear our recording of Franz Biebl's Ave Maria. From Wikipedia:

Biebl was born in Pursruck, Germany in 1906. He studied composition at the Musikhochschule in Munich. Biebl served as Choir Director at the Catholic church of St Maria in München-Thalkirchen from 1932 until 1939, and as an assistant professor of choral music at the Mozarteum, an academy of music in Salzburg, Austria, beginning in 1939, where he taught voice and music theory.

Biebl's best-known work is "Ave Maria", written in 1964. The piece was brought to the United States by the Cornell University Glee Club in 1970. The ensemble met Biebl during a recording session in Frankfurt while on a tour of Germany. Conductor Thomas A. Sokol was given a number of Biebl's works, premiering them after returning home. The "Ave Maria" quickly gained popularity, most notably after becoming part of the repertoire of Chanticleer.

Diva Thursdays: La Divina

Gay men use the word "diva" too loosely these days. There really should be more stringent standards for that word.

Greek-born soprano Maria Callas (1923-1977) , known as La Divina, endured tribulations that would have broken most of the contemporary dance-club "divas" in half.

From the bel canto literature of Bellini and Donizetti to the dramatic operas of Verdi to the extravagant masterworks of Wagner, Callas did it all. And she did it with style, even after being dumped by Aristotle Onassis in 1968 so that he could marry Jacqueline Kennedy. (Rumor has it that they continued their relationship through a clandestine affair, but my delicate nature will not allow me to comment further.)

Check out this video of La Divina singing the immortal aria "Casta diva" from Bellini's opera Norma. Never mind the aging opera chorus behind her... they get lost at their first entrance (probably because they were mesmerized by Callas' artistry). I love how Callas' tuning is slightly sharp... helps her carry over the orchestra. Her facial expression throughout the aria shows her fantastic dramatic ability... a mastery of operatic acting that continues to influence the opera singers of today.

If ever there was a Diva...