Monday 28 July 2008

A Tenor Masterclass

This is one of my YouTube favourites. It's a clip from a masterclass by Placido Domingo, in the early eighties. I think it's a brilliant nine-minute tutorial on what "musicality" in a performance actually means. The word isn't mentioned; that's just my opinion.



My favourite bit is from about 03:30, when Domingo first illustrates a point about the word "cielo", then goes straight on with his verbal advice, "when is coming the word, cielo," without giving the audience time to recover from what he's just done. This causes such discomfort that they laugh, forcing a pause. The student's reaction is funny, but watch the pianist, too.

There are some related clips that well worth watching if you click through - I think this one is very instructive. It would be nice if these clips were available commercially, but I doubt they are.

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