| re: was there an effort to replace Kahn, even slowly, with a NAME star? | |
| Last Edit: PlayWiz 06:01 pm EST 02/02/21 | |
| Posted by: PlayWiz 05:50 pm EST 02/02/21 | |
| In reply to: re: was there an effort to replace Kahn, even slowly, with a NAME star? - Chazwaza 05:38 pm EST 02/02/21 | |
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| Beverly Sills was huge box-office at the time, and she had made recordings of operetta (much like the style of "On the 20th Century") as well as opera that sold pretty well. She was on Public Tv, and on all the variety shows and singing on the "Tonight Show", "Dinah Shore Show", etc. at the time. She and around that time Luciano Pavarotti were almost like the most approachable/friendly/well-known opera singers to the general public in terms of their public personas (even if they were different in real life at the opera house). Kahn had sung some opera and Kaye did some later on, and they certainly had legit voices. It seems that Kaye's was more secure, perhaps in her technique, but certainly in her confidence, than was Kahn's. There were probably some other sopranos or operatic mezzos (which usually have the biggest range anyway) who might have been able to do the role well, but there weren't many who were box-office or recognizable names. That's partly, among other problems, why Barbara Cook had left Broadway for cabaret by the early 70s -- lack of legit kinds of roles for her. So Judy Kaye turned out to be a blessing that she was right there to take over. Plus, I don't know if Sills would have wanted to do 8 shows a week even if she was free to do so, as the most she did in the opera house was 3 times a week most likely. Since you bring it up, "Sunset Blvd" isn't a soprano role, isn't as difficult a sing, with Glenn Close quite successful with her acting performance even with a faulty (to be kind) vocal performance. Also soprano roles aren't inherently difficult -- if a lady is well-trained and sings up there, she's like Sonja Henie on ice, just born to it in that range. Same with most any other vocal range. But there are some roles known for being difficult by virtue of the length and shear amount of singing, lots of high notes (which do take more energy generally), how gracefully they are written, where the tessitura (best part of the singer's voice) lies in any particular singer's voice, whether there's a lot of notes written around the passaggio, etc. My point is: Lily Garland is a tough sing. Plus she has a lot of shouting in her dialogue, too (like Eliza in "My Fair Lady"), which weighs on the vocal cords. |
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