Popstar to Opera Star = Bathroom Divas + Dancing With the StarsThere's more! Myleene Klass (previously featured here) will be one of the hosts! Here is KJ on today's T4 discussing physical contact, sexy positions for singing, and the experience of being targeted by a missile launcher in Iraq:
(Via Opera Chic)
What a great idea! I think it will be quite enlightening to the public to see how little actual vocal technique most pop stars have. Should be quite entertaining for classical vocalists to watch.
ReplyDeleteDreadful, just dreadful. I remember hearing one critic describe her as "Looks good in a dress; Is quite pretty; Can sing.", and emphasised that those were her qualities in strength order.
ReplyDeleteAnd it is laughable to hear that twonk Rick James describe her as "the sexiest lady in opera". Firstly, could he name more than five contemporary female classical singers (hugely doubtful), and how has sexual desirability been propelled beyond virtuosity in importance?
(Then again, the fact that Katherine Jenkins is wearing porn-scene-shoes is indicative of how she markets herself when she is not turning up to every event from the opening of an envelope upwards.)
There ARE other female vocalists, but Classic FM (amongst others) has all but forgotten this fact.
As for Pop-Star to Opera-Star itself, what a diabolical insult. Alex James CAN'T READ MUSIC (but has a programme on Classic FM - huh??). They will only sing the most popular works, and expect a tawdry album to be rushed out.
And I can't really agree with Kristen's comment. Most "classical" vocalists only have to listen to a single live performance of the average pop singer to realise A) what poor technique they have, and B) the extraordinarily low standards that are accepted by the audience of such a live performance.
Katherine Jenkins can't even sing opera. Her technique is dreadful: wobbly vibrato, forcing out a darker sound to try to sound like a mezzo when she's really a soprano with no top notes, audibly gulping for air every few notes, not supporting the tone, screeching on the high notes, sloppy coloratura. To paraphrase Dorothy Parker, she runs the gamut of musical abilities from C cup to D cup. How on earth can this ghastly singer even think about teaching other singers how to sing opera when she can't even sing it herself. Oh yes, I forgot, she has an enormous ego and is delusional about her operatic abilities (She has stated that opera companies won't hire her because she's too pretty an all female oepra singers are fat and ugly). Katherine Jenkins needs a reality check.
ReplyDeleteAt first I liked her and thought she was the best thing ever, but after reading this I've always faced prejudice,' she says. 'I'm a working-class girl from Wales. I have blonde hair and wear pretty dresses. There are a lot of people in the classical music world who absolutely loathe me. The critics slate me because I'm not what they consider the real thing.
ReplyDelete'People expect a classical singer to be big and fat with Wagnerian horns on her head. Sorry, that's not me. It never was and I always knew my looks would be my advantage.
'I'm totally aware of how to market myself, totally aware of the effect of the way I look. And personally I'd rather see an attractive man playing Romeo than a big fat old man. Why can't opera singers look good? I don't get it."
I honestly thought she was pretty great, but after reading that I pretty much lost respect for her. She's great and what not, but that comment was very shallow and vain. I know a lot of "attractive" opera singers. Let's get real here, it's about TALENT and ABILITY, not LOOKS.