„Il Corriere della Grisi“ is a polarizing „cup of tea“ – not to everybody´s taste and at times it may be difficult to get down your throat. But in this operatic world made of meaningless superlatives and blabla generalizations, in times, when reviews of a performance do not give you more information about an evening´s singing than „adequate, „great“, „thrilling“, „great voice“, „beautiful voice“ „great singing“, „great emotion“, „grande“, „legato-lines“, or (if you´re lucky) a mere description of the voice itself – this „Corriere“ is obligatory. Because what about the actual SINGING?
The „Corriere“ is one of the VERY FEW sources around, which provide you with details, concreteness, insight and a fervant will to dig deeper (when most people content themselves to just bathe in the sound of a beautiful voice). – NONE of this, by the way, will usually be offered by the people who criticize the „Corriere“ so strongly as being too negative and destructive……
But even though the different writers may indeed at times be cruel or exaggerating, even provocative in their style of writing or their way of putting things – everybody with a bit of knowledge about the „Art of Singing“, „l´antica arte del canto“, will agree that they ALWAYS have a point. – Mostly several of them.
Can anybody have a night off? – Of course! But can one expect a high level of continuity, quality and craftmanship especially in big-league names, wanna-be record breakers and ultimate new star-singers in order to justify their incredible media-hype? – Yes!! Do the big big names, the big money makers get judged more severely and does one want to find out, whether they really hold the expectaions promised to us or not? – You bet!!
When I joined the ranks of „Il Corriere della Grisi“ in 2011, I met a bundle of people, who not only love opera or a pretty voice, o are just a „fan“ of some famous singer – but who love SINGING; who can share the great pleasure and the satisfaction it can give when you hear a great singer at work. Opera is a time-consuming hobby, no doubt. And the more you know about it and the deeper you dig, the more rewarding it gets. – What a shame, that most people are happy enough to repeat the sensations or opinions of others instead of listening closely themselves. Talking about „satisfaction“ and „pleasure“ though, I personally find little of that in today´s singing. Yet – you continue to go to the opera for there´s nothing like the live sound of a human singing voice – constantly hoping, that at least once in a while, there will come a singer, who makes you sit up and listen attentively and thinking to yourself „yes, he´/she´s got something“.
It´s the love for singing, good singing, which unites the writers here. We/they put a lot of time and effort (and money) into it. – Some of us are taking the trouble to write in a language other than their mother tongue (which does not make things easier). Our stimulation here is definitely not to destroy, but to modify, to dig deep and to infect others with our own enthusiasm (and knowledge), with the love for opera and singing. I think that´s a perfectly good reason to wish everybody at „Il Corriere della Grisi“ another happy 10 years!
Yours affectionately, Selma
