Hello everyone,
It certainly is
not as much fun to have Frank here when we can only look but not touch.
Nor going places that you get to see afresh through a child’s eyes.
All things going according to plan, they will be in Durham on
Wednesday. I’m still closed for all the obvious reasons. Any yard
work that I may have done has gone under with all the rain and sunshine making
the plants very happy to go places I don’t want them to go. The bees,
too, are very happy. Sigh.
Enough with the
gloom. Let’s find some music that makes sense in the world.
Remember Aksel Rykkvin, the world-famous Norwegian boy soprano we all
loved? There are a million videos of his perfect boy soprano
performances. Well, he’s a young baritone now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLBb2P_oYmA As a person who has
met a lot of 16-year-old bari-tenors, I’d say he’s really very good. All
his musicianship is paying off, and he sings beautifully. Let’s hope that
the voice develops into something with which he can make a career – IF he wants
to do that.
I got to meet
his voice teachers at a NATS workshop a few years ago. He was just
starting his journey into the voice change, and they were talking about how
they are working with him. This Schubert song is a tiny bit pushed, but
this was before the Britten folksong above: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TphscdLJ504 You can hear a bit
of nervous vibrato, which is often a sign of a young voice being pushed.
Of course, it could be just nerves. I can’t even imagine what it’s like
for a child star to change to a new voice and then perform. Notice how
mild the applause is? He is used to getting rapture. Bless
him! I’m just glad that the later one is better.
Best wishes,
Pat