Prospects for AGT Las Vegas Week per Yaoi Huntress Earth
Well, we’ve all been really busy here at Pure America’s Got Talent and so we haven’t been able to provide the commentary that we usually offer. However, Yaoi Huntress Earth has provided commentary in the comments of this post on the various day 2 acts potential in Las Vegas. Here’s her write up:
As for Day 2’s passed acts…
Echo of Animal Gardens (Animal Trainer): It was nice, but wasn’t there another bird act earlier?
Vegas Week: She’s going to have to do more if she wants to go farther. The parrot singing alone isn’t going to cut it as a Vegas act.
Mrs. Smith (Performance Artist): Sorta reminds me of Mary Ellen except with some talent and is a lot less painful on the eyes. Not a bad guitarist.
Vegas Week: Unless she can expand what she does, I don’t see her going beyond that. I’ll be interested to see what Peirs thinks.
Saint Luke’s Bottle Band (Bottle Band): Fun just for how odd they are. I would like to see them take on some more contemporary stuff next time.
Vegas Week: Their novelty might get them into the Top 40, especially if they can do a variety of music.
Lys Agnes (Opera Singer): I normally have a problem with singer who could compete on any generic singing show appearing on this one, but I’ll admit she’s really good and very pretty (just love her hair).
Vegas Week: Unless she really screws up, she’s a shoe-in for the Top 40.
The Midget Dancer: As much as I like midgets, I wouldn’t have put her through.
Vegas Week: I predict Vegas Week will be where it ends.
Those Funny Little People (Variety Act): They remind me of the Zupper Stars. Cute in a creepy way for a little while, but then I wanted to see them do more. Though it was funny when they were tormenting Piers.
Vegas Week: It could go either way.
The Silhouettes (Dancers): That was beautiful and one of the best auditions I’ve seen this year.
Vegas Week: They’ll pass and if they do what they did last year with giving ten acts an automatic slot, I could see them getting it.
The Kinetic King: That was very unique and fun, but I wonder how he’d sustain a show or top that.
Vegas Week: About a 70% chance of going through.
“Lys Agnes (Opera Singer): I normally have a problem with singer who could compete on any generic singing show appearing on this one, but I’ll admit she’s really good and very pretty (just love her hair).
Vegas Week: Unless she really screws up, she’s a shoe-in for the Top 40.”
I see you still persist in calling anybody who sounds “operatic” to you (while singing with a microphone) an “opera singer”. WHY? Do you call everyone who sings “I dream a dream” or “Memory” or “I could’ve danced all night” a musical theater performer?
Lys is really talented with a beautiful voice, but from opera perspective she still needs training. This and her age puts her chances of getting any kind of opera jobs at near-0, and it’s not even what she wants to do. She herself said in an interview that she is more into jazz/soul. She sang a classical song, yes, but it’s not an aria from opera and anyway an opera singer is an artist who performs roles in operas. This is why they are called “opera singers” because they sing IN OPERAS.
Nobody who appears on AGT has a prayer of ever getting a job in an opera unless they are still young enough to get training. But by the age of Lys, you’ve either made it in opera or not.
Why do you persist at calling people who’ve never sung in operas opera singers?
kitty,
Actually it was Yaoi Huntress Earth who wrote the commentary and not me. So, I didn’t persist in it.
To answer your question, yes, I would call them a musical theater singer if they sang those things. So, I’d likely do the same with Opera. I think it’s generally accepted by the mass population that when someone sings the way Lys sang that it’s called opera. You certainly could identify it as bad opera if you want, but most people would still call it opera.
It’s not the issue of good opera or bad opera, it’s not an opera at all. Even if she was perfect, she’d still not be an opera singer unless she had sung in live operas, made a living this way. Look up the definition of the word “opera” in a dictionary. Ave Maria is an art song, it doesn’t even come from an opera, but even if it were an aria from opera, it’d still wouldn’t be an opera. It’s an issue of a definition and not confusing genres.
An opera is a theatrical performance with roles, orchestra, UNAMPLIFIED singing, costumes, acting — look up opera definition in a dictionary. Just like playing the role of Fantine in Les Mis requries more that being able to sing I dream a dream, singing a role in opera requires A LOT more than being able to sing an aria, especially with a mic. And Ave Maria isn’t even an aria.
As I said, in terms of singing, opera utilizes classical style of singing. So does chamber music, church music, as well as classical musical theater e.g. Show Boat, My fair lady, South Pacific – musicals written before Broadway introduced amplification. Julie Andrews sang in classical style, but she was a musical theater performer not an opera singer. Singers who perform art songs in strictly classical music concerts and don’t sing in operas are not called opera singers, they are called recitalists or concert performers. Just because most people who don’t know opera say it doesn’t make it true. Once upon a time most people believed that earth was flat. “Most people (who’ve never been to opera) think it’s opera” is hardly a good argument.
It is not fair to both opera singers and classical crossover singers to confuse genres. Saying that a good performance of a song is “bad opera” isn’t fair to a performer who probably has no intention of ever becoming an opera singer. It’s also not fair to singers who sing in operas.
Just to add, a few questions to you and all those people (who’ve never heard a full opera in their entire life yet presume they know who is or isn’t an opera singer):
1. Do you understand that there is a difference between singing with a microphone and singing without any kind of amplification over a 60-80 piece orchestra in a 2000-4000 seat theater and be heard even when one sings softly? Even a bad opera singer should at least be able to do this…
2. Do you understand the difference between singing a stand-alone piece out of context and hitting the notes and sounding fine and singing in a way that shows the character, coloring one’s voice and changing interpretation to actually show the character being played?
3. Do you understand the difference between singing in concert and singing in a complete sometimes 5 hour long performance, going from an aria to recitative to a duet sometimes non-stop for long stretches of time, without voice wavering even once, sounding as fresh at the end of the performance as in the beginning? (and not hurting one’s voice)
4. Do you understand the difference between just standing there and singing and singing while acting, in heavy costume, sometimes dancing, sometimes lying on your back, sometimes pretending to make love?
5. Do you understand that a singer may be able to sing a single classical song or even an aria from an opera and sound fine yet not be able to do any of the things above?
An illustration. This is a couple of opera singers doing their job – singing an opera:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgptuwWBV7s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hd8s265bpGo
A little different from singing a song into a microphone? Oh btw – what exactly does Ave Maria has to do with opera?
Just because “most people” believe in something – because the ignorant media told them so – doesn’t mean it’s true.
Yes, you’ve made all of those things very clear.