The People's Tenor Pits the Sniffles Against the Sniffs

From The New York Times

June 24, 2007

The People's Tenor Pits the Sniffles Against the Sniffs

By DANIEL J. WAKIN

A 36-YEAR-OLD dentally challenged cellphone salesman wins a nationally
televised talent contest in Britain, and suddenly, all sorts of questions
are raised about the role of classical music in our world.

That is because the winner, Paul Potts, from Wales, triumphed with a
rendition of "Nessun dorma," the tenor aria from Puccini's "Turandot," at a
contest with the trappings and audience - seemingly - of the mass
entertainment world.

By the standards of music critics who ply their trade in opera houses and
concert halls, it wasn't a particularly earth-shaking performance.

"Mr. Potts is the sort of bog-standard tenor to be found in any amateur
opera company in any corner of the country," wrote Philip Hensher in The
Independent of London. "His tuning was all over the place; his voice sounded
strained and uncontrolled; his phrasing was stubby and lumpy; he made a
constipated approximation only of the fluid sound of the Italianate tenor."

Ouch, or eye-yo, as an "Italianate tenor" might say.

But in some circles, Mr. Potts struck a chord. Video of the "Nessun dorma"
performance in a preliminary round of the reality television show, "Britain's
Got Talent," was on the "most viewed," "top favorites" and "most discussed"
lists on YouTube last week. Whatever one thought of the singing, it was
great theater. His victory brought a $200,000 prize, a chance to sing for
the queen, an appearance in New York on NBC's "Today" show and a record
deal.

Mr. Potts, nervous and nerdy, took the stage before a seemingly dubious
panel à la "American Idol," including Simon Cowell. Launching into the
soaring tones, he quickly had the audience on its feet cheering, tears in
the eyes of some. Mr. Cowell cocked a brow, awakening from his habitual
ennui.

Entertainment blogs were quickly abuzz. "Must have played this half a dozen
times," Wood4me wrote on VIPGlamour.net. "Then compared it to the 'pros.' I
cannot say if Paul has talent. All I can say is that I was enthralled by his
performance." The poster added: "Soul piercing song. Goosebumps raising.
Absolutely delightful."

So the masses were delighted. The experts, not so much. But was it that
simple? Other themes were at play here.

Singers with trained operatic voices have become icons, usually pushed by
record companies releasing crossover music. They include Andrea Bocelli and
Il Divo, a group formed by Mr. Cowell. Then, there are the larger-than-life
figures like Luciano Pavarotti, products of the opera world who reach big
audiences, usually through promotions like the Three Tenors.

What was that audience in the broadcast reacting to? Packaging played a
role: the doleful, hard-luck contestant with debts and health woes who
unexpectedly pours out beautiful song. (A contestant who has had opera
training and some experience with a local company. And he is, after all,
from Wales, which has a great singing tradition.)

"At first you think he's going to make a fool of himself," said Melissa
Lonner, a senior producer for "Today." "So many of these people go on
contests - it's funny. Some of them are a little ridiculous.

"Then he opens his mouth. You hear the voice, and the voice is mesmerizing.
You close your eyes and you feel the voice is very accessible. He could be
your next-door neighbor."

More prosaically, the audience may have been programmed to react. "Nessun
dorma" was a Pavarotti signature aria. The thrill of recognition, one can
speculate, may have triggered the enthusiasm.

"Nobody can sing 'Nessun dorma' and really do it justice unless with it they
have 5, 10 years of experience," said Herbert Breslin, Mr. Pavarotti's
former longtime manager. "If they want to have a totally inexperienced,
untrained voice sing 'Nessun dorma' and the audience is going to fall off
its feet, it's ridiculous. But that's the way things are in the modern age."

He dismissed TV as a serious forum for opera. For all he cares, Mr. Breslin
said, "they can shoot a tenor out of a cannon."

On the blogs, many comments seemed to reflect resentment that the "snobs" of
the opera world would look down on their swoon for Mr. Potts. On
freerepublic.com, a conservative forum, dougfromupland addressed "all you
opera snobs."

"He may not be the greatest opera singer. But we who don't know dip about
opera like him and can't wait to see him perform. We know what uplifts us
and makes us feel good. Go away, snobs."

Actually, many of those snobs, and others in the classical music world, are
delighted that their field has managed to garner some attention in mass
culture. It is a major theme in an industry that feels more and more
irrelevant to current society: do whatever you can to reach people; they may
get hooked and buy our tickets.

Other reasons for Mr. Potts's triumph may very well lie with the material he
worked with. Classical music can really be pretty good. And Puccini could
write a melody. One wonders whether the enthusiastic YouTube and television
audiences would love opera and classical music if they just heard more of
it.

Mr. Hensher of The Independent was not convinced. How about terrific
performances of an entire "Parsifal" or "Salome," he wondered. "They wouldn't
care for it at all," he wrote. "Two minutes of 'Nessun dorma,' not very well
sung, is as much as most people can endure."

And if the Potts partisans had simply heard the music, without knowledge of
his story or a different context, would they have been so stirred?

"Picture yourself alone in a room listening to Paul on your stereo," said a
post to a blog called Drew's Marketing Minute by one Ryan Karpeles. "Would
that give you chills? Probably not."

But the fact remains that mass media, like radio and TV, has enormous
influence on the music people hear. For classical musicians, those realms
have become deserts.

"People in that audience probably never ever had heard someone open their
mouth and sing an aria," said Eugenia Zukerman, a flutist and director of
the Vail Valley Music Festival. "Could they also have been responding to,
'Finally we're hearing something that has meaning, something really special,'
instead of what's being churned out to them?" The audience, she said, "got
it right away."

_________________________

Thanks to The New York Times and Daniel J. Wakin

On Jun 30, 12:13 am, Mark <mark.clave... RemoveThis @gmail.com> wrote:
> On Jun 29, 9:38 pm, Ortrud Jones <ortrudjo... RemoveThis @yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > On Jun 29, 9:24 pm, "ljo" <seniorcubrepor... RemoveThis @earthlink.net> wrote:> From The New York Times
>
> > > June 24, 2007
>
> > Anyone hear Mr. Potts sing on the Today show earlier this week? He
> > sang Nessun Dorma. At BEST he has the heft of a light lirico. Think a
> > Ferrando from Cosi singing Nessun Dorma. Odd. Horrible technique,
> > gasping for air, poor Italian diction. This guy has a great career as
> > a comprimario in the provinces. But of course he'll make more money
> > than God because he won this "talent" show and because he has some
> > fairy tale story behind him.
>
> > -Ortrud Jones
>
> Ortie, I saw the original contest performance. It was amazing to se
> this totally nerdy guy open his mouth and start singing. I won't say I
> thought it was the best Nessun dorma I've ever heard, because it
> wasn't. To see the look on that horrible creep Simon Cowell's face was
> worth everything. He was speechless. The guy sang the hell out of the
> piece for people who had most likely never heard it before. It was
> pretty cool.

Mark,
I didn't see the program, I just saw him sing on the Today show. Based
off of what I saw, I'm wondering if the amazement in people's faces
was not from the music of Puccini rather than the person singing the
music? Remember, even Aretha Franklin wowed audiences singing
something that was vaguely remeniscent of Nessun Dorma, haha :)

big hug,
Ortie