JohnM wrote:That's exactly the type of voice I do like. Dubin was a coloratura, the only soprano voice I can stand. It's the full-out operatic soprano that I detest. Opera voices are my least favorite, male or female. Mostly they are all bombast, covered, with horrendous diction, because the note's the thing. And while I can take a "fake opera singer", I can't stomach an opera singer trying to do Broadway or Jazz (Kiri Te Kanawa anyone? Oy!). The results are universally lousy and embarrassing. In the case of Durbin, she could hit the notes and enunciate at the same time, so she scores points for that.
John, John, John. Deanna Durbin was a lyric soprano, not a coloratura. A coloratura's forte is ornament -- embellished runs, portamento, trills, etc. -- it has nothing to do with tessitura (vocal range). A filmic example would be Márta Eggerth in
For Me and My Gal. In opera, the
bel canto operas made the coloratura the star. Coloratura can be mezzo-, soubrette, lyric sopranos, etc. There many, types or
fachs of operatic voices. No good opera singer has poor diction (okay well, Joan Sutherland and bad diction, but she's an exception); diction is an important aspect of operatic singing and poor diction is a complaint of opera afficiandos. Rather than detesting "full out operatic sopranos", it sounds like what you despise is the dramatic soprano. Those whose specialty is Wagner and [Richard] Strauss, perhaps.
There are many bad examples of opera singers singing vernacular repertoire. Kiri Te Kanawa is one of them. But there were/are many who can winningly cross-over: Eileen Farrell, Dorothy Kirsten, among others in the past; Audra MacDonald, Teresa Stratas, more recently. Check out Eileen Farrell's jazz albums. They are not lousy nor embarrassing. Conversely, there are the "popular" singers who attempt the concert hall works to ill end. Anyone hear
Classical Barbra?
Bunching all of opera and opera singers into one category is misleading. There's 500 years of operatic music. A truly wide variety ranging from early chamber operas to jazz, rock, hip-hop, minimalist and -- yes -- Sondheim. To hate all of it is pretty expansive.
There. My feathers are smooth again.
