This is Bostridge's iconic sound. I am a fan, because he sings with mystery. What I mean is that his unpredictability in phrasing makes each performance sound unique and demands a higher level of attention whether "good" or "bad."
I think, Mozart would have liked him very much. What I like about Bostridge is his singularity, he´s unique and a singers singer, not a mainstream product.
I think bostridge sang this more with a "Lieder-ish" genre in mind and not in the operatic sense (since he sings more in the art song genre), its a wonderful new perspective, and I think he did it well...Prost!
It's a terrible shame that the people who put together the BBC Proms concerts don't read the comments left by so many brilliant RU-vid critics. They would have learned that this highly respected and acclaimed singer is in actuality really awful and should never be allowed to sing in public again.
Thank you Dr. Oporto. Your comments are truly enlightening, particularly considering that: (a) Mozart is not a baroque composer; (b) Bostridge doesn't advertise himself as a "baroque soloist" or as a "lied specialist" but rather often is limited to singing that repertoire; (c) He has sung several operas at Covent Garden, including the title role of IDOMENEO, one of the most demanding -and sturdiest- Mozart roles; (d) "operatic" mezzos do exceed at singing Bach: ever heard of Julia Hammari?!
@jaketaz I guess I don't understand what someone could mean by saying, "music is not a subjective art." The most accurate rendition of a text is NOT necessarily the best. But since you asked, the answer is that IB has the facial expressions and twitches of a highly intelligent sensitive person. Its the look in the eyes and in the way he moves. When he was younger he also had that "choir boy" churchy quality too which evoked the adolescent boys in "Winterreise" and "Die Schone Mullerin."
@jaketaz This piece was not done with amplification. You can check if you like, but all speakers in the PROMS house were off for this performance. That mic is for the radio, as several other people seem to have tried to impress on you. Having been at the performance, i can attest to this.
@glister80 "Promising with his mannerisms what he can't do with his instrument" - I'm stealing that quote. I was trash talking another famous bad singer on RU-vid (probably Villazon) and somebody said "His personality is too big for his instrument"... I thought that was another funny way of putting it. But yeah, I'm stealing that from you.
@jaketaz Foolish comment; the MET singers have microphones clipped to their costumes; how would you else record a performance? Also, our Symphony Orchestra here in town regularly has a dozen of microphones placed on stage, some of them just in front of the brass. Is that because the trumpets (and the whole orchestra) cannot project sound enough so that we can hear it in our brand new hall, or simply because they are broadcasting the concert on radio?
@jaketaz You realise that this is at the proms, so microphones would be necessary, as the performance would be simultaneously broadcast live on Radio 3?
Sorry to disappoint some of the eminent music critics in this post. In my opinion: certainly this is not the best Ottavio of this century... but it's far from being a bad/mediocre one. Although Ottavio demands a darker, richer sound, Bostridge's singing is beautiful, elegant, moving (isn't that what Mozart is about?), and I understood every word. Some very minor diction mistakes but let's see how an Italian would sound singing in English, eh? And BTW: "tenori leggeri" (e.g. Almaviva)also sing opera and are suitable for Mozart.
Tony Bittar Sayegh Always a very stylish and musical singer and each singer can only interpret as themselves...true. I've sung this aria many times and I know not everyone will enjoy "my" Ottavio... I can't watch Bostridge as he sings though, I only listen
@jaketaz removing vibrato is often another musical tool in the Baroque and Classical eras to highlight certain words or musical idioms. He uses it more often than i like, but again, he being a singer with an impressive ability in my opinion for lighter repertoire, i'm not willing to get on my high horse and tell him how to sing Mozart just like he shouldn't tell me how to sing the heavier stuff. I could make him louder in lessons, but i wouldn't want to for this intimate and delicate piece.
I really enjoyed this. While he's not often heard in this kind of repertoire I found his interpretation to be quite refreshing (language issues aside). In any case, the comments on this post....most of them probably not from professional singers...are just so nasty. I love Maestro Pavarotti as much as the next opera fan...but come on folks there's more than one standard against which to judge a tenor voice.
@jaketaz Wow.... yes, Bostridge has a small voice. I will never understand why people hate small-voiced singers so much. Hell, Pavarotti had a small voice, when comparing to Domingo, Gigli, Caruso, and more recently Jonas Kaufman. We need to get over this. Yes, Bostridge has some odd performance habits, but his voice is very pretty... more flush with the english aesthetic than the Italian or German one, but still beautiful! referring to his voice as wimpy highlights the bias.
Agreed. It really kind of killed my self-confidence early on when people referred to my voice as "tiny" or "soft". It's neither of those things, people were just too dumb to understand that I'm a soubrette with a coloratura extension. I can be very loud and resonant and I'm not less than or less of a musician because my voice is very light.
Pavarotti had a very resonant and large voice. Kaufman does not have anywhere near the resonance and size of the late Pavarotti. Kaufman’s voice is quite wooly and dark. Domingo has a thicker voice and it penetrates very strongly in the theatre with a decent level of brightness. That said Domingo does not have the brightness and scale of resonance at the top either compared to Pavarotti who was a human trumpet.
On what planet does Kaufman have a larger voice than Pavarotti? Kaufman has a dark, wooffy voice by carrying too much tilt down into the chest register. But, dark doesn't mean BIG. A BIG voice depends only on the volume produced. You can (as Pavarotti did) have a very bright voice that is also a very big voice. Or, you can have a baritonal quality and a relatively small voice, ie Kaufman. Bostridge has a very light voice in both timbre and volume. More of a tenorino than even a leggiero.
@krossk424 Just because his flaws are glaring doesn't mean he's projecting well. You're being critical, but stopping before you find something wrong with a singer you like. His head is cocked down (limiting space and airflow in the trachea) for the vast majority of the aria. So he's making a dramatic choice to sway constantly through an aria about "peace"? I'm not sure he's brilliant enough to have figured out some way in which this aria actually means the opposite of its text.
@jaketaz You haven't ever listened to him live, have you? Besides, Dalla Sua Pace does not require a heldentenor-type power; listen to the orchestra...piano to mezzo piano.
actually, vibrato was not used in Baroque music as a general rule, and in very early Classical, it is used in modern compositions as you state 'to highlight certain words or musical idioms'. But stylistically speaking here, the use of vibrato would be light to none to be HIP.
Can you then please specify why Renaissance & Baroque era Italian organs have the register "Voce Umana" with an undulating (=vibrato) sound in order to imitate human singing? I agree that a retired wagnerian diva's wobble is not ideal for this repertory, but neither is an English boy chorister's meowing.
@jaketaz a singer can definitely change air flow and placement to appear louder. I'm telling you that Bostridge naturally has a very small voice. He's classified as a leggiero tenor. Additionally, Dalla sua pace is not the sort of song where you'd add extra air to appear louder. It's supposed to sound easy and light... It's easy to fall into the trap of making everything louder than it ought to be. "Pav" fell into this trap. I'm sorry... he's a small voice.
@LordHettrick Huh, I guess that's why when they broadcast operas from the Met, the singers have microphones right in front of them. Oh wait... they don't, because they don't need them, because they can project.
@LordHettrick Berlin Staatsoper, St. Petersburg, Chicago Lyric, La Scala, Indiana University Opera Theater, SFO, ENO, and many other houses record the singers from microphones hung from the ceiling or at the lip of the stage by the monitors, which record the sound as it is heard by an audience with live feedback and ambience, so it's foolish of you to think there's no way to record or broadcast but a mic right in the singer's face.
@krossk424 I don't want everything louder than it ought to be, I want music intended to be well-projected without amplification in a large hall to be performed by performers that have that ability. You seem to know singing, so tell me what happens when you sway around like a maniac & have poor posture. Tell me what causes his lack of vibrato in the soft sections, & erratic vibrato in the loud sections. Diagnose it as if he were your student, & tell me you couldn't improve his projection.
in terms of pronunciation of the text, and interpretation of the music, bostridge is really in his own league. While some might say his tone lacks a fully body, (for the character of this aria its perfect) i guess theres some compromise for the elegance and purity with which he sings
Why does his performance have to be judged negatively because it's not as good as the best-ever one :-/ It's not my favourite of all time either but it's very nice
@jaketaz ...And you can hear him quite well obviously, since you can point all all the details you believe to be flaws. He has that ability... He's just no Jonas Kaufman. Swaying around like a maniac/poor posture is definitely a problem, especially for young singers. Strong singers (i believe Bostridge to be one) however often use gesture or bad vocal posture to forward a point (Callas is a perfect example.) I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt that he is making that choice.
@LordHettrick Why are you even bringing up the mics? My comment was about Bostridge's inadequacies as a singer, and his wimpy instrument that he masks by being a swaying fruitcake onstage. I said to some other replier "find me a clip of him projecting live in an opera to prove me wrong" to no answer. The fact that they're broadcasting doesn't prove he doesn't require microphones to sound good, and he's not even close to the intelligent savior of classical singing people make him out to be.
@LordHettrick I saw him in a recital, about ten rows back in a small hall. This before I had any knowledge of singing, and I thought he was the greatest thing I'd ever seen. I know more now, & am aware of his vocal limitations and shortcuts. The orchestration IS thin, the fact remains that this is an opera aria written to be sung without amplification in an opera house. You're agreeing with me: it requires a small tenor for small orchestration, and he still can't do it without a microphone.
@BernardProfitendieu Wow - you really got me there. I'm completely speechless. I bow down in awe of your originality and surpreme logic. Who do you figure looks like an idiot now? Hint: it ain't me.
@100Singers If he is not a mainstream product, then why are the vast majority of his clips (audio and video) done with microphones and electronic amplification? Mozart always knew the singers he wrote roles for, and wrote for the most virtuosic and impressive singers of his day, people that didn't need the crutch of a microphone, singers that sang opera without gadgets masking their inadequacies. Singers that could actually sing opera live in an opera house.
@coreolis7 No one ever explains to me definitely why they like this. It's always this vague "uniqueness", "interpretation" or "expression". I realize he appeals to people fanatically, and those people always coin it in terms of "PERSONALLY there's just something about him etc etc etc" and I'm not into that. If one doesn't happen to get the whole Bostridge gimmick that doesn't fly. Music is not a subjective art. WHAT is unique about this singer that is definitive or positive? I want to know.
@BernardProfitendieu But it is. If you don't see the mannerisms then I don't know what to say. He and acts & sings in a way that just isn't in line with the meaning of the words. I explained myself earlier, with several arguments to back up my opinion - you still haven't presented anything to strengthen your view. In fact, you don't have one as of yet. I don't argue that one should be entitled to different things. But it is ignorant to not recognize that different genres pose different demands.
Not his cup of tea, but a decent, elegant performance. I just don't like the portamentos and slightly too dramatic interpretation. I think Araiza would have sung this area perfectly, for instance.
@krossk424 I don't believe he has a small voice, I believe it appears that way because of his choices. Sung volume is created through breath pressure and resonance, something Pav Domingo Gigli and Caruso were aware of and exploited to great effect, and Bostridge doesn't. My comments have nothing to do with voice size, I dislike him because of the conscious choices he makes, NOT because of his biological assets - that would be unfair.
@coreolis7 What I mean is that there's no specificity with music, so everyone gets away with being terrible at it. Unlike the sciences, people get around intelligent discourse about music by addressing it without objective criteria. I mean, you are literally telling me that you like this singer because his "twitches" make him seem "highly intelligent" and "sensitive". Sensitive singing makes someone a sensitive singer, and facial expressions are silent. You are saying nothing about his singing.
This guy's voice is perfect for this aria. But does anybody notice how horribly distracting his hands are through the entire performance. Very unprofessional no excuses.
Vai a cantrare tu. Se sei capace... cosi ti giudichiamo come la canti tu. i suoni sono a posto, sulla pronuncia posso capire, ma il resto é perfetto. Tutti bravi a fare i critici.
@BernardProfitendieu I don't consider myself to be either. Please elaborate instead of participating in the general sling-shit mood of YT. I clearly spelled out what I thought, and I expect you do me the courtesy of offering opposing ideas, and if you don't - well, the egg is on your face :) Bostridge has integrity when singing earlier music thanks to his purely beautiful tone and stylistic approach. Operatic singing, in short, requires a darker, more supported & bearing tone. IB fails imo.
@AustinShowen His technique is 'suited', not flawless. Definitely not suited or flawless when measured against the requirements of this music. In general I would say that his voice lacks the ability of modulation to a more robust and dramatically inclined voice handling. I am not saying he is naturally inept at this, but he hasn't displayed it as of yet. As a result, he excels at the genres he focuses on, and not so much in the other ones. Fritz Wunderlich, I think, had integrity in both fields.
not every tenor has a voice like wunderlich gedda, dermota etc. but mr bestrides behaving on stage is against the words and the music he is singing. also his italian is not good enough, better he should sing other music. or he should try to sing it in english and for sure he would realize, that his stage manners are not adequate to dalla sue pace
I like his singing but I can't stand his constant moving. I can't imagine how unbearable must be to see him performing an entire opera. Where's the old art of recitali singning? It seems it's not taught anymore in the schools and the old standard is being discontinued. I have to say the same thing happen to me with Juan Diego Florez. While I like (don´t love) his singing, I can´t stand watching him.
this is an example of Arrested Development it's what happens when you take a boy soprano in the terrible English tradition of singing who never grows up
Absolutely agree with Jaaakob ,mannerisms.pretentious singing.False artistry,promising with his mannerisms what he cant do with the instrument.Very limited range,love to here him do Almaviva or even Nemorino.Or rather I wouldnt.
mannerism mannerism mannerism So pretentious and artsy imo.. can't stand this kind of rendition. No, you aren't entitled to sing Mozart just because you sing lightly and brightly. Don Ottavio is a distraught man, desperate to aid his beloved - this is not what I feel when I see mr Bostridge. The character Don Ottavio is weak - the music and the lyrics are not imo.
