Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Sills Sillsiana--Opera Mashup!



Mashups seem to be everywhere these days! This is Beverly Sills doing her famous Sillsillana piece: a pastiche of every famous coloratura piece mashed together to make this hysterically fun piece. I have it as an MP3, and never thought I'd find it at Youtube, but there it was.

It was arranged by her coach and for those of you who know some of these pieces, you will hear the following excerpts:



Piano intro -Una voce poco fa – Barber of Seville
Grossmächtige prinzessin – Ariadne auf Naxos
Je suis Titania – Mignon
Shemahka’s aria - Coq d’or
Holle Rache -  Magic Flute
Richard Strauss: Amor
Je suis encore tout étourdie –Manon (with Una voce “ma” at end)
Vien delitto – Puritani  (with Una voce poco fa "ma" at end)
Schubert: Shepherd on the Rock
Vocalize on Chopin’s Etude in A-flat, Op. 25, no. 1
Spargi d’amaro (Mad Scene) - Lucia
Vocalise on Chopin Nocturne in E Flat Major, Op. 9, no.2 
 Les oiseaux (Olympia)– Tales of Hoffmann
Sempre libera - Traviata –with Gagnon as tenor
Sills’ cadenza used for O luce di quest’anima – Linda di Chamounix
Sempre libera – the final “pensier”



ENJOY!

6 comments:

  1. I really enjoyed listening to this mashup. I had a lot of fun trying to recognize pieces in the list, and I recognized some I didn't even realize I knew! I think that sometimes we think of exercises and pieces as separate parts of our practice, but this arrangement reminds us that they are very much connected. In some parts that I didn't recognize it almost sounded like she was just doing scales or arpeggios, but once I knew a section it turned back into a song. This reminded me that if I have sections of a piece I'm struggling with (especially lots of coloratura like we find in here) I can make it into an exercise. And there aren't limits! She even sings some pieces for piano as part of the song, so we can take any piece of music we might find and like and turn it into a learning experience.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I was already familiar with Beverly Sills before this project, but I don't feel like I've ever heard her sing that that before! I was exhausted just listening to her! She's clearly a technical master, but just from hearing her (with no video) I was able to hear the color and character in her voice, which is something that we've been working on a lot recently in my lessons. I was incredibly impressed with her vocal stamina and musicianship, because singing all the "greats" while transitioning between them is no small task. Although this piece was close to 6 minutes long, I heard no sign of fatigue and it felt as if she could carry on for another hour that way. This was a fun and incredible performance that displays the need for accuracy as well as musicianship when we sing. It's encouraging me to go do some coloratura exercises right now! Although it'll take me a while to get to her level ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. As I have never heard of Beverly Sills before, listening to this piece is very awe-inspiring. Her voice and character are phenomenal and her singing feels very effortless and exciting. After one song, I am definitely a fan of her work and think she is a great singer to look up to when it comes to professionalism in all aspects of her singing.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I also have not heard of Beverly Sills, but after listening, I could tell that this mash-up would take a lot of hard work to master and transition between each piece. I could tell that this was a very fun performance to listen to based off of the crowds reaction and all the fun quotes. I chuckled to myself when the transition to "Les oiseaux" happened. Overall, this performance was very entertaining to listen to!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I have heard a few recordings of Beverly Sills, so I'm slightly familiar with her, but I've never heard this mash-up! While listening to this, I was amazed at how flexible her voice is and how she is able to transition between each piece. I agree with what Marjorie said as well, I can hear the color choices she makes and this informs the character that she brings to each piece - even though we can't see her we can definitely hear her choices. This relates to what I've been working on a lot recently - being specific in my choices and committing to them.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I have never heard of Beverly Sills before, but after hearing her perform this I would listen to more of her work. This was fun to listen to because it felt like a little scavenger hunt to find all of the pieces I recognized. It's always nice to hear things like this from professional musicians because you can forget that they are people and have senses of humor too.

    ReplyDelete