Popstar to Operastar

Yes, I know that title should be split into more than three words, but that's how ITV write it. Still, I'm fascinated by this programme. It was on ITV1 last night - if you missed it, you can watch it online via the link above, or you can wait till Wednesday, when it's repeated on ITV2 at 6.30. Via Intermezzo, there's a fairly balanced story in Wales Online about it.

My only real objection to it is that they give the impression that Katherine Jenkins is an opera star, although she's never actually been in an opera. (To be fair, I believe that she herself doesn't use this term - she refers to herself as a "classical singer".) And so far they haven't made clear that being an opera star involves more than just singing one aria, although there's only been one episode so far - maybe they'll make them do a whole opera in the finale, although I doubt they'll make them do eight performances of it in a week!

I'm supporting the lovely Danny McFly (well, his actual name is Danny Jones) because I have always loved McFly, as anyone who knows me well will know. I suspect that if it's entirely down to a public vote, he'll win even if he's rubbish, because he's probably got more fans than all the others combined. But I'd love it if he actually was the best one. He wasn't the best last night - he was a bit flat, and wasn't the most powerful singer, although he got better during his song (he did La Donna è Mobile). But I'm confident he will improve. He's a fabulous MUSICIAN, but this is a long way out of his comfort zone.

I expected the best singer to be Marcella Detroit, because I've always been very impressed with her voice in pop. She can sing RIDICULOUSLY high - for example, the last minute of Stay (probably their most famous song - the highest note she sings there is a top F (the one above the stave!)), or the beginning (and chorus) of You're History, which is in G, so she repeatedly gets the top B in the choruses, and I think she gets a high G (above the top B!) right near the end. I'll be amazed if they don't give her the Queen of the Night aria at some point. Last night, though, she did Casta Diva, and she did it pretty well.

The best PERFORMANCE, though, was (in my opinion) from Alex James. He was probably the weakest singer (in his defence, unlike all the others he never HAS been a singer, even in pop - he's a bass player!) but he sang his aria (Largo al factotum) very competently - he didn't stumble over the words, and it was in tune, but most importantly he COMMUNICATED. He was obviously having a great time, and I don't think he deserved to be voted out.

Several of the other singers were pretty good, and I think it'll be very interesting to see who improves the most. The one thing that baffled me, though, was that they gave Darius whatsisname - who has a lower voice than most of them - Nessun Dorma, but transposed it down a fifth! Why on earth didn't they just give him a different song? All the others had one that was appropriate for their range. Bizarre.

Choir, in case you're wondering, is making me grumpy at the moment, so I'd better not write much about it. We're doing Mahler 2 in a couple of weeks, which I was really looking forward to until it was announced that we're not doing it from memory after all, which means it won't be as good as last time. Such a pity. And we're also doing a world premiere of a thing by Colin Matthews, which isn't my favourite piece EVER but isn't actually that bad (although there are, obviously, no actual TUNES) - there are three or four bars I really like (not consecutive ones though!) What's making me grumpy with THAT is that although it's quite difficult and needs everyone to work at their own part, there are a few people who haven't, so we're doing more group notebashing than we should need to. I know that I'm lucky (in one way, at least) to be currently unemployed, so I do have time to practise - and I've spent quite a while on the Matthews. And I do understand that there are some people who don't currently have time to look at music outside rehearsals. But there are things that they could do DURING THE REHEARSAL to help themselves. For example, at the first rehearsal, a few people gasped in horror when they reached page 32 and realised - apparently for the first time - that there's a second evil triplet crotchet scale bit. Now, this music had been emailed to people a few days earlier so they could look at it, but I know not everyone had time to check their email. But even so, the fact that anyone could get to a point thirty minutes before the end of the rehearsal without AT ANY STAGE having at least glanced all the way through the score - that's what annoyed me. Even the busiest of people could take the time DURING THE REHEARSAL to flip through the score and mark which line they're singing (this isn't actually really necessary in this piece because the lines are in the same position on each page, but you'd have to look through it to know that!)

Anyway, I'll shut up about that now. I have a load of links!

Vuvuzela update: now the church is getting involved.

Via ChoralNet, a blog post about the top ten changes in classical music over the past decade. Some surprising inclusions - Maestro was the one that raised my eyebrows the most, I think.

I hadn't realised that Mahler used to conduct the New York Phil, but this Guardian article about his newest replacement sets me straight.

Michael Kennedy, in the Spectator, writes about Mahler's popularity.

Tom Service, in the Guardian, writes about Mahler too in rather more detail, and follows this up with a lot of YouTube links to Mahler performances.

I mentioned complaints choirs ages ago - now the Guardian has an article about them.

Via A Cappella News, an intriguing post by David Griggs-Janower that discusses possible reasons for the scarcity of tenors. He makes a lot of sense.

A Guardian article about a live music bill which seeks to "exempt small venues from the absurdities of the Licensing Act". There's a link to a petition you can sign.

A great article by Eric Siblin in the Guardian about Bach's cello suites.

Some sad news from Classical Iconoclast - apparently the V&A museum is closing its musical instrument gallery, so if you're in London any time soon, make sure you go and see it while you still can. (A few years ago, I spent a slightly insane weekend visiting ALL the major London museums and art galleries, spending no more than a couple of hours in each. I'd never been in the V&A before that weekend, and I wasn't particularly impressed with it, but the musical instrument section is the one bit of it I remember. To be fair, that's possibly because it's the only section in which I looked properly at every exhibit, but it was still good!)

Tom Service points out that the Festival of British Youth Orchestras is about to be lost unless someone finds some money to fund it.

Via A Cappella News, there's been an A Cappella Festival in London for the last few days. I would have loved to have gone to that, but even if I'd had the money, I'm a bit surprised not to have seen it advertised anywhere until it was too late! Either their marketing team needs replacing, or there are some obvious places I'm missing on my obsessive online faffing. (Yes, I know Facebook is one of them. That's deliberate.)

On the Radio 3 blog, there's a series of posts from the BBC Symphony Orchestra about their current Henze project. The introductory post is here, but the one I found most interesting is the one about a string sectional.

Another great post by Chris Rowbury at From the Front of the Choir, this time about the dangers of complacency. This should be required reading for all choral singers, particularly before rehearsing Messiah.

Remember the X Factor v Rage Against the Machine chart battle? Apparently the next one will be the Smiths v Girls Aloud.

Bit belatedly, a great story about some guys who decided to launch their Christmas tree into orbit. Using 32 model rocket engines.

They're staging a crucifixion in Trafalgar Square this Easter.

For Mancunians, a summary of the most important local news stories of each year of the last decade. I'd forgotten some of these were so recent; they seem much longer ago!

A Manchester Evening News article about All Day Pyjama Syndrome. It seems that a doctor’s surgery in Wythenshawe has announced that patients will not be seen by the doctor or allowed access to the surgery if they attend in pyjamas. I hadn't realised this was so prevalent (although I've been baffled for YEARS about the other thing he mentions, i.e. girls going out with no coats etc.) - has anyone else encountered examples of it?

Here are some great photos of Manchester from above, in the snow.

And Manchester Confidential goes one better and brings us photos of rude snowmen in Manchester!

An interesting BBC News article about how other countries cope with lots of snow.

And finally, the Big Picture brings us a gorgeous selection of photos themed Fire and Ice.