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SONG OF A SALESMAN
This is absolutely brilliant.
UPDATE. A hustle? Manipulative? An act of sandbaggery? You be the judge!
UPDATE II. kiwinews:
I am a professional opera singer. Really. Full time, quit in 2005 to return to America.
This guy’s video is moving to me because he is scared to death. Look at his hands, the set of his shoulders. He is not a finished artist. There are alot of people in that limbo of study between “don’t quit your day job” and “will this dressing room be allright, sir?” Some people never leave it.
Luck/opportunity has a lot to do with it. He just made a good move to get out. He needs training and coaching to join up his registers, (he sustained the high note but disappeared on the lower “nessun dorma”), better breath support to add ring and depth to the sound, and, god knows, acting lessons to be more at ease on stage. But someone around him is smart enough to get him in the spotlight here singing Puccini whose soaring harmonies thrill audiences while covering multiple sins of vocal technique in a way unforgiving Mozart or even Belcanto won’t - let’s hope he’s smart enough to grab the advantage.
I wish him well no matter what his background. Music can’t be learned from books, it has to be passed from warm hand to warm hand. Now he’ll meet the people who can do that for him - sicc’em tenore!
I got goosebumps when I saw the video. People in tears, people spontaneously rising to their feet. He is a genuine talent.
—Nora
Posted by The Thin Man Returns on 2007 06 14 at 12:27 AM • permalinkThat took my breath away. The depth, the strength…unbelievable. I predict Paul will be in Sydney in years to come. Thanks for posting that, Tim.
Posted by Jeffersonian on 2007 06 14 at 12:28 AM • permalinkI’m the only opera-singing mobile phone salesman in the vil-lage!
Pretty stupendous, actually.
Posted by Copious Maximus on 2007 06 14 at 01:05 AM • permalinkI watched it twice it was so good. The clash of musical cultures so to speak reminds me of Sid Vicious meeting Freddie Mercury:
While recording ``We Will Rock You’’ at Wessex studios, Mercury came face to face with Sex Pistols bassist Sid Vicious, who crawled on all fours up to Mercury while he was playing the piano, ``So you’re this Freddie Platinum bloke that’s supposed to be bringing ballet to the masses,’’ Vicious snarled, prompting a completely unfazed response from Mercury: ``Ah, Mr. Ferocious, we’re trying our best, dear.’’
Wonderful! just bloody wonderful. The fat Welsh
bastard. envy/offPosted by Crusader-Rabbit on 2007 06 14 at 01:23 AM • permalinkBryn Terfel better watch out.
New Welsh kid on the block with some serious firepower.
Hard to believe that he is not a classically trained tenor.
Posted by Pedro the Ignorant on 2007 06 14 at 01:28 AM • permalinkWouldnt be hard to work out what ring tones he sells on the mobiles.
Posted by surfmaster on 2007 06 14 at 02:50 AM • permalinkSorry to be a wet blanket - it’s a set-up. Fine performance indeed, but not from an amateur.
I’m a trained singer as it happens and have mixed and performed with other singers, trained and untrained, on and off for 25 years. I speak in public every weekend and practice voice production before speaking.
I can say that a performance of that standard takes not only natural talent but a great deal - years - of professional coaching. There are some give-aways if you know what to look for. The bright ‘edge tone’ comes from extensive correct use of the vocal cords in the same way you don’t win a championship marathon or sprint without years of training. The position of the tongue - flat and up against the lower teeth - is not a natural position and is taught. The pouting or outward thrust of both lips is intended to mimic the projection qualities of the bell on brass instruments, so the theory goes. It’s not natural - try a bit of bathtub singing while thrusting your lips outward, dropping your bottom jaw, holding your tongue against your teeth while breathing from the abdomen without moving your upper chest or raising your shoulders. It’s tricky - takes practice. Crooners and singers (even professionals) who use amplification don’t do these things - only singers who have to project into a large theatre without amplification do it.
So - magnificent voice, top-class interpretation but it’s a hustle. The bloke is a pro.
Posted by walterplinge on 2007 06 14 at 03:25 AM • permalink#20 - Yeah, but he still made a female judge orgasm on live TV. That’s what I found impressive.
Posted by Infidel Tiger on 2007 06 14 at 03:29 AM • permalink#20 - How, exactly, is it a hustle? Nobody said he’s an amateur; it appears to me that a singer has entered a singing competition and impressed the audience. I think I appreciate this in the same way as one of the Youtube commentators, who wrote:
He is a great singer and he’s an ordinary, nice, humble man with a dream. For many, including myself, when we see Paul we see a big part of who we want to be… and that connection goes deep.
To me it was a very fine voice but lacking in professional polish. I agree with #20 that the guy must have had training, but I didn’t think he sounded like a seasoned pro. I thought he wobbled around the high note.
As for the audience reaction, perhaps what was on before him (mostly rubbish) could explain the enthusiasm. Remember that this is one of the most inspiring pieces of music ever written, but the great majority of people have never heard it performed live. There is something uniquely thrilling about great opera performed well, and you need to experience it live for full effect.
I envy anyone who can sing anything at all. Our entire family were/are tone deaf. My mother refused to go to church anymore if my father insisted on singing the hymns. I was with her on that one - he was bloody awful. I went to a small country primary school so we were all in the choir for the end of year concert. After hearing me sing, the teacher said I could stay in the choir for the concert, but I had to mime the words and stay silent.
So good on you Paul Potts, mobile phone salesman, whether you are trained or not. It brought a tear to my eye, but maybe I’m getting soft as I approach the big six zero.
Posted by Whale Spinor on 2007 06 14 at 04:47 AM • permalinkMy father was a good singer, though he never tried opera (at least not around me—I used to yell at him for singing “Danny Boy”). A lot of people can actually sing who aren’t in the music business—believe it or not, the singing talent, at least in the classical music end of things, comes before the lessons. However, talent alone won’t get you anywhere—you need connections, and the ability to self-promote, and so on. Also discipline and drive. (If we are talking about pop music, though, you can pretty much get by on a pretty face and a hot bod. They’ll pipe your thing little voice through a machine to make it sound like something.)
Posted by Andrea Harris, Administrator on 2007 06 14 at 05:52 AM • permalink#20 agreed. The fact that he’s honed a wonderful talent with years of dedicated training cannot detract from the fineness of his performance. What does detract is the obvious attempt by the judges and the program producers to deceive and manipulate the emotions of the audience. Pretending they didn’t know his ability defies credibility – the disparaging glances that just happen to be caught by the camera, the too obvious condescension and skepticism. Are we to believe that these performers don’t have to audition before they get anywhere near the televised performance? Oh, please. This program has all the credibility of a Michael Moore documentary (or ABC current affairs report)
rexie ... good link to the Pavarotti performance ... whilst on the singing/YouTube theme, I cannot go past one of my favourites performed by Montserrat Caballe ... she does this one quite well ... O mio babbino caro. Here’s another from her that doesn’t sound so scratchy ... O mio babbino caro.
This song brings tears to my eyes nearly every time I play it ... it’s a personal thing ... hmmm ... a bloke crying? ... does anyone else like Puccini’s piece “Oh, My Beloved Father”?
I like shedding tears to a good bit of opera from time to time, but I hate having my emotions jerked around by “reality” tv people. There’s an essay in that somewhere but damn if I’m smart enough to write it.
Posted by dean martin on 2007 06 14 at 08:27 AM • permalinkHow is it a hustle? Well, “the world of show business seems a million miles away”. “I find it difficult to be confident in myself”. Uh huh.
What went unmentioned is that he’s spent two years travelling Italy with a professional Opera company, and with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Here’s his bio:
http://www.bathopera.co.uk/Past Productions/Aida/aida_biographies.htm
No question that he’s a fine singer. But sandbagging is the very definition of manipulative; he’s a pro trying to pass himself off as a a gifted amateur.
Posted by William de Haan on 2007 06 14 at 08:30 AM • permalinkSinging is distinctly not a Paco family talent. Old Paco sounds like a bull frog with diptheria when he attempts to croon, and Mother Paco used to put me in mind of a bagpipe dropped from a ten story building. Mrs. Paco was once bustling about the kitchen singing “The Battle Hymn of the Republic”, of all things, and it came out sounding like “Deutschland Über Alles”. Because my range is only about half an octave, my own singing resembles one of those stupid European police sirens. But, hey, as the Bible says: “Make a joyful noise”.
#55 William: Couldn’t get your link to work. But if he is more or less a “professional”, I agree that it kind of undercuts all that “diamond in the rough” stuff. On the other hand, I’ve never been afflicted with thr urge to watch any of these reality/talent programs, so they may be pure snake oil, for all I know.
In any event, the guy does have a nice voice, particularly if you like opera. Which I can pretty much take or leave. Give me Perry Como and “Hubba Hubba, Dig You Later”.
Since a broad view of the current topic could be youtube links, try this one, Inconvenient Bingo
#60 Paco:
Funny you bring Perry Como into this. The legend is, he was a barber who used to sing while he worked. Someone discovered him, and he went on to (as anyone who read the Guinness Book of World Records as a kid) become the world’s highest-paid TV performer of his time.
Posted by Rittenhouse on 2007 06 14 at 09:31 AM • permalink#69: No, daddy-o, you got it right the first time. You’re cookin’ with gas, now, Jackson.
#66 Rittenhouse: Hadn’t heard that before; now I’m one up. I believe, because of the smoothness of his baritone voice, he was also at one time known as “The Human Tranquilizer” (a phrase I have had occasion to apply, in quite another context, to a variety of gasbags at the vast number of boring meetings I’ve had to attend in my lifetime).
Sorry about the link error. There is a space character in “Past Productions” that needs to be percent-sign-20. Preview shows it’s being cut from my post.
Try this
Or even http://tinyurl.com/yv78le
Posted by William de Haan on 2007 06 14 at 09:46 AM • permalinkWell, this thread made me break out my Puccini CDs, because I haven’t listened to them in a while, and I love Italian opera.
#53 does anyone else like Puccini’s piece “Oh, My Beloved Father”?
I like everything Puccini ever wrote, but I’m partial to Madama Butterfly and Turandot.
It’s disappointing, but not really surprising, that the Paul Potts bit was a fraud. That’s TV. But I’d have fallen for it, because I’m a sucker for Cinderella stories.
#75 RebeccaH, have you ever heard Al Bano Carrisi? It’s not really opera, but it’s good to listen to.
That there was some purty singin.Like a lot of my generation I was primarily a rock fan.Later a blues nut.Especially Chicago style blues.We got a Mozart cd when greene jr. came along because everyone says Mozart is good for young ones.To my absolute shock I got hooked on classical music.Mozart arias .... man o man .Talk about chills down your spine. Only took me 45 years to get bitten by the classical bug.My best to the Ashes too.
#80 Ash…. Mozart helped a little.But now, after two years of public school ,rap and to a lesser extent,country music are greene jrs. favorites. Good luck trying to find any kid friendly rap music. Ugh. Paco yogurt..heh heh.I’ve heard that Paco has skewed the odds horribly on the ember birthday pool.I’m not betting on anything that Paco and his legbreakers have money involved in.My birthday is Sept.17, by the way.Whole lotta virgos goin on around here.
I am a professional opera singer. Really. Full time, quit in 2005 to return to America.
This guy’s video is moving to me because he isscared to death. Look at his hands, the set of his shoulders. He is not a finished artist. There are alot of people in that limbo of study between “don’t quit your day job” and “will this dressing room be allright, sir?” Some people never leave it. Luck/opportunity has alot to do with it. He just made a good move to get out. He needs training and coaching to join up his registers, (he sustained the high note but disappeared on the lower “nessun dorma”), better breath support to add ring and depth to the sound, and, god knows, acting lessons to be more at ease on stage. But someone around him is smart enough to get him in the spotlight here singing Puccini whose soaring harmonies thrill audiences while covering multiple sins of vocal technique in a way unforgiving Mozart or even Belcanto won’t - let’s hope he’s smart enough to grab the advantage.
I wish him well no matter what his background. Music can’t be learned from books, it has to be passed from warm hand to warm hand. Now he’ll meet the people who can do that for him - sicc’em tenore!Not too bad semi-pro performance, and the effect is heightened by his day job and his slightly funny looks, but there were at least three instances where he needed a ‘stepladder’ to get to the right note.
But bravo to him anyway - it ain’t La Scala, and it would have been a pleasant change from the hip-gyrating pop-trash that usually passes for music on these sort of shows.
Posted by Apparatchik on 2007 06 15 at 02:22 AM • permalinkHe looked like he was going to piss his pants, but seemed to know what he was doing. I have to agree with kiwinews, though. Puccini makes panties fall off – most notoriously, those of the singer for whom he inserted Musette’s Waltz into la Boheme – but Mozart requires the performer to make everything look easy. That’s much harder. Hell, if Chris Martin can accomplish the same trick as Puccini, how difficult can it be?
A pianist I met said that Chopin made him sweat when he played it, but Mozart made him sweat when he thought about it.
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Well bugger me with a 10 foot barge pole! I thought it was going to be one of those sappy Downs Syndrome sufferer remembers all the words vids! A beautiful touch him reaching a crescendo just as the female judge Amanda reaches climax. Bravo!