As the century and the millennium turn, so do our thoughts to the fabled, and much-discussed Golden Age of Classical Singing. In the coming year, we resolve to open a discussion of golden age values with a view toward ringing in a new age to rival any that has gone before. We have talent, technology and dedication and time on our side. A number of important singers are concerned not only with their own successful careers, but also with paving a path for the singers who are coming up behind them, the singers of the future. As a point of departure for our discourse, we asked these singers the following questions. We share their responses below.
If you had unlimited resources and power, what would you do to help ring in a new Golden Age?
What qualities make it possible to claim that we are now in a Golden Age, and if not, why not?
What programs (government, educational, media, managerial, union, etc.) would you start, end, or restart?
What can be done to inspire emerging singers, or established artists, to become golden age performers?
CHRISTA LUDWIG
Even if I had unlimited resources and power, I don’t believe I could do anything to help create a new golden age, because I think the only ones who can create a golden age are individual singers themselves. They must be prepared to sacrifice everything for their art and be totally dedicated to it. They must also be willing to develop slowly. Today, very talented singers in their early twenties are already asked to sing major roles in large opera houses for very high fees. This robs them of the opportunity to develop themselves, their voices, and their art. A singer’s life is one of constant learning and re-assessment. Singers can never say, “Oh, I know the role of Mimi,” for example. They must study a role again and again as their voices change and mature and as they learn more about their own personalities, and about life.
Singers cannot say “I want to,” but rather “I have to. Yet even that isn’t enough. They must always be self-critical and ask “Am I good enough?“ and “Is this right for me and my voice?” The most wonderful and the most terrible thing about art (and singing) is that there is no magic formula. Every singer must find his or her own individual way. And the way is never easy.
What is the “Golden Age” of singing? Sometimes I think that everyone’s “Golden Age” singers are just those that made the biggest first impression on them when they were young. My mother might say the “Golden Age“ was the time of Maria Jeritza, and my husband and I might say it was the time of Leontyne Price. My accompanist, Charles Spencer, might say the time of Gundula Janowitz and Brigitte Fassbaender. And younger people might say other, newer singers. We are always in a Golden Age.
One’s definition of the “Golden Age” is also very much a matter of personal taste. Some say that Tebaldi was the greatest because they value a beautiful voice the most. And certainly Tebaldi was a great singer. But others, like myself, would value more the artistry of Maria Callas; we would say that Callas was a genius, a fantastic artist and a great actress because we value other qualities more highly than a beautiful voice.
SHERRILL MILNES
I believe that in order to bring about a new golden age of classical singing, singers must stress their kinship with the rest of the world and not their separation from it. That is an outdated and old-fashioned notion. There can be no golden age if we are seen as exotic creatures set apart from real life. Singing is not the only thing we do. Like everyone else, we cook, we ski, we boat, we run, make love, and engage in the million other activities that make up our daily lives. One evening we might even choose not to listen to a symphony or an opera, but to watch Monday Night Football instead.
There is another life out there. We can’t sing about all of life if we don’t live it fully. The classical singer must be modernized. He must embrace sports, many activities and all types of music – jazz, country, pop, to name only three of the possible dozens. Open-mindedness to all of this will encourage a golden age. If we can go to the audience, and not wait for the audience to come to us, our visibility will become much greater. After all, what is the good of a golden age of singing if no one is interested in listening?
FREDERICA VON STADE
The classical music industry is a little like the field of medicine at the moment. The pure form of medicine, the dedicated doctor making house calls with his black bag, is long gone. Now it is the guy with the business background who is on top of the pile. What I see young singers going through is nothing like what I experienced at the beginning of my own career. The heart has gone out of it, and I don’t quite know why. It is time for singers to take back their lead but I’m not sure how this is to be accomplished.
I marvel at your devotion at Classical Singer, and I know that so many people will profit from this kind of thoughtful caring. I think CS might be starting something major: caring. And that is what has gone out of song! That is what a Golden Age would need.
JENNIFER LARMORE
With unlimited resources, I would make sure that each and every opera company in the US need never worry again for its funding. I would launch extensive publicity campaigns so that more and more people could become familiar with opera and classical music. I would put money into educating our children and into “cooperative” programs in the schools so that the education begun in elementary school would continue up through the high school level. “Exposure” is the important word when we’re talking about Americans. Europeans are exposed to classical music from their earliest memories, so it becomes a vital part of their lives. I would work to make that happen for Americans as well.
This is indeed a “Golden Age” for those of us who are optimists by nature. Any time we have great music, great singers and attendance at the opera and classical concerts – when there are so many other diversions competing for attention – the result is good.
From a pessimistic point of view, however, while theater attendance appears to be thriving, the actual percentage of people attending classical performances is shrinking. By this I mean, while three thousand people may attend a given performance from a population base of three million, this is not as good as some years ago when two thousand attended a show from a population base of one and a half million. While the numbers look good superficially, I am sorry to say the classical audience is actually shrinking from an overall standpoint. And this is what we need to change. Once again, the key element is exposure from an early age. The musical programs in the schools must give children the opportunity to hear the classics and/or take part in theatricals from the grade school years up. Lord knows they aren’t hearing classical music at home. If it doesn’t happen in the schools it doesn’t happen at all. A case in point is the fabulous job that Robert Shertzer has done in North Port, Long Island by bringing his entire fifth grade class to Metropolitan opera performances, after preparing them with intensive study and acclimatization in the classroom beforehand. These fifth graders are growing up as opera fanatics all because of the intensive love possessed by their teacher! Of course, such a circumstance is ideal. Teachers like Mr. Shertzer don’t grow on trees, but we should be striving to look for more “leaves” like him!
Finally, I believe that great artists are born not made. You can make a Carl Lewis run more efficiently, but you can’t make him run in the first place. You can make a Placido Domingo sing more lyrically, but you can’t make him sing. The late Jan Peerce, a leading Metropolitan opera tenor of the 40’s, ‘50’s and ‘60’s, made this statement one night to Johnny Carson on the Tonight show: “No great talent ever goes unrecognized.” There’s a lot of truth in this thought.
FABIO ARMILIATO
I would invest the most that I could in education: Everything must start again from the roots. I think there has been a great confusion in the recent past between “popularization” and “vulgarization.” We need to restore to the world the rules of beauty and respect in all art forms, but especially in singing because we have created in today’s world a tendency to forget about these things. The result is total chaos.
In the golden age of singing you could find for each major opera in the repertoire at least five, six, or even more great all-star casts. Today it is difficult to put together even one such cast for a repertory opera; many operas are almost impossible to cast. That’s one reason to affirm that we are not in a Golden Age of Singing. The star system has changed, too: In the golden age, even if with far less media than today, we had a great number of opera stars in all voice registers. Today there is the tendency in the media, and in the mass-marketing system, to create “The Number One,” instead of giving proper credit to each artist and to allow a fair competition.
I’d like to bring people to work together, creating cultural and art centers to exchange and share talents and opinions, involving artists, painters, writers, composers, conductors, singers and students of every kind. This is the way it used to be in the royal courts of the past. We could use the technology and media communications of today to help us know our past and our heritage better in order to create e new renaissance of human values in the arts and also in life in general. The government should help this project in order to create a collaboration between families, schools, and the arts.
Young singers and established performers can be inspired only by things that feed their souls and hearts, things that obey the rules of truth, beauty and harmony. A singer must find this inspiration himself. In order to do it he must put in first place the endless quest to achieve a strong vocal technique. Without this a performer is always going to be a slave to his own body and voice. Consequently, his soul is going to be entangled inside his voice problems too.
Young singers need good examples. It is important to explain how many sacrifices a singer must make in order to achieve and maintain a successful position in this ancient, honored profession. A man like Alfredo Kraus is a great example to hold up to students. Every singer or performer in general must find in himself this balance because success can be a very dangerous companion. In today’s world even success is for sale. But what kind of success is that, and how long can it last?
DOMINIC COSSA
The New York City Opera has always been a stepping stone to other opera houses. Directors could come to this theater, hear a singer, and know if that voice would be appropriate for their particular house. Everyone knew that if a voice could survive the acoustical problems of the old City Center, or the State Theater, for that matter, then that singer might be appropriate for the Met or San Francisco or any other opera house. Conductors were aware of these problems and did what was necessary to present a balanced performance. Sadly, the decision to amplify the State Theater will ultimately hurt the singer. An element of doubt will be present for the listeners who have a right to wonder about the true size of the voice to which they are listening. Besides, with the singers “miked,” why should conductors now worry about such things as balance and blending? Let’s hope that the New York City Opera management is serious about the experimental nature of this venture, and that the theater will be restored to its slightly flawed but eminently workable acoustic environment.
MARK DELAVAN
I feel that this is – and isn’t – a Golden Age. It is because there are many more opera companies doing good work than there ever have been in the history of opera. This brings in more singers, some good, some bad. However, the consistent level of fine singing in productions I’ve been associated with on every level is encouraging. The reason it is not a Golden Age is the emphasis on production, rather than on the voice. There is nothing more moving than the human voice unencumbered. So often singers are asked to do unthinkable things while trying to sing. A singer I know was asked to roll up and down a raked stage while trying to sing a Wagnerian monologue. Directors and designers are the greatest encumbrances to the Golden Age.
In order for performers to become golden age singers, they must be enabled to die to self, that is to escape from the prison of their egos. We must help them to remember that this is not merely an entertainment industry, and its purpose is not for them to enjoy themselves. The word for that starts with an M. This is a service industry and we are doing the audience a service. If a member of the audience leaves the same as they came in, without being transformed in some way, I haven’t done my job.
