Before the recent televised broadcast
of The Sound of Music goes
completely out of our heads, I have to drop in with my comments.
Luckily for all of you, I was teaching that evening, so I was only
able to watch a portion of the broadcast. That should make this post
short.
First
of all, aren't you thrilled that so many people watched this
production? See, Americans DO love quality music and theatre. Give us more!
Didn't
it feel great to be watching it simultaneously? I miss that in our
modern life. Used to be the show was on once and everyone sat down
to watch it. No taping, no watching it on the Internet, no buying it
on Netflix. There was something wonderful knowing that everyone else
was taking in the same broadcast at the same time.
I'm
not here to discuss Carrie Underwood's performance. I give her
credit. She was out on a limb, a teeny tiny limb and we were all
standing underneath her, chattering away like a bunch of hungry
squirrels. People (or should I say squirrels) who live in glass
houses.....
Here's
what I want to discuss:
I find
it fascinating that the vast majority of people are raving about
Audra McDonald's singing. Not because I didn't think she sang well
(full disclosure: I didn't get to experience her “Climb Ev'ry
Mountain” until a few days after the actual broadcast and that was
on a YouTube clip). I adore Audra McDonald. She does everything I
believe in as a singer and as an artist. So, why do I find her rave
reviews fascinating?
Because
Audra does everything that is out of style these days. Audra doesn't
belt; Audra sings in an extremely classical vocal style. Also, Audra
knows (or appears to know) the true essence of whatever she is
performing. She seems to know the material in front of her,
both the words and the
music, inside and out, upside and down.
When
people come to me for a voice lesson, I am rarely asked to help them
sing like Audra. Usually they want help learning how to belt. As
for really knowing the texts? People freak out when I suggest that
they read the words away from the music. “Oh, that's so hard. I
can't do that.”
Yeah,
well, that would be one of the differences between Audra and you.
You
know why we adore Audra? Audra is authentic. Audra is true to
Audra. She appears to know what she is good at and that is what she
does.
She
reminds me of the little kid on the floor with a box of 36 crayons
and a piece of blank paper. There are other kids in the room with
300 crayons and 5 sheets of paper, but they aren't doing what Audra
is doing. She might not have the most crayons, but she's down there
using every single one of those 36 crayons, creating that masterpiece. Tongue
sticking out of her mouth, curls falling into her face, she's focused
on knowing what is at the bottom of that piece of art.
Authentic,
creating a masterpiece, knowing the work inside and out, upside and
down.
Can we
say that about your work?