Welsh · Soprano

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/katherine-the-great-katherine-jenkins-979731.html
"Katherine the Great: Katherine Jenkins" featured in the Independent.

Highlights: 
Katherine Jenkins is so pretty, so cute, so wholesome and so winning, it's hardly surprising some people can't stand her. [...] She brings a voice of exceptional purity to the singing of hymns and light classical tunes, but neither she nor her record company will call her an opera singer.
[...]
Tim Ashley of The Guardian wrote, "She can't really be called a classical singer." Norman Lebrecht of the London Evening Standard complained that she'd "never sung in an opera house." David Mellor wrote in the Mail on Sunday, about her performance of Holst's "Jupiter", "The great soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf once coined a word that sums up perfectly the sheer awfulness of this bathetic rubbish: vomitacious." And the online opera gossip website Opera Chic is always harping on about her "bewbs", calling her a "pOperaTart" and complaining that she hasn't a trained singing voice.

I can't imagine the likes of her in Portobello.  That's my favourite area of the city! 

Classical crossover is taking over the classical music industry. And people my age are probably to blame. Why do young people find REAL opera so boring, anyway? If they'd just listen to the lyrics (translated or not), they would see that the stories are compelling and the music divine-just like what they'd see at the cinema. It's not a screaming match.

Now, I have no personal problem with Hayley Westnera--I think we'd get on well if we went down the pub. But her singing is in dire need of improvement. She's nearly reached the prime age of training...but has apparently decided to skip it in lieu of an even more "popera" repetoire. There was a time when I thought she'd be different from other popera stars, namely Charlotte Church and Katherine Jenkins (my fellow countrywomen!). The only serious artist at the moment (and one I'm really proud of, as she comes from my hometown) bringing genuine classical music to the masses (at least in the UK) is Elin Manahan Thomas. She's known as the "Bach Soprano" and is off to a promising career. We are both almuni of the National Youth Choir of Wales, and there was a time I wanted to persue a career in opera, and while I still sing from time to time, my life is far too busy. More info: http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Manahan-Thomas-Elin.htm and http://www.elinmanahan-thomas.co.uk

Anyway, back to Hayley...

There goes any thought/hope I had of her ever improving her technique…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfU60smJfF0 (One poster commented, “[She had] total control, no strain” Really?! Even for an 18 year-old, I think it’s particularly bad.

I happen to really like Loreena McKennit, but this is just a cheap imitation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1NOTvW0v1U&NR=1

And what the hell is this? The lad's not TOO bad, but she is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjAqgTVzr0o

Other offenders include, but are not limited to:
Katherine Jenkins and her protege, Juliette Pochin (www.juliettepochin.com), Russell Watson, Josh Groban, Emma Shaplin, Filippa Giordano, Sasha Lazard, Summer, Izzy, and Aimici.

What's really sad is that that there's an entire industry based on this! I really recommend the book "The Life and Death of Classical Music" by Norman Lebrecht. While I don't really like Lebrecht, he makes several valid points about the Classical Crossover genre.

I'm open to new things and most genres a listen. Even if I don't like what a friend is listening to, I'll still go to a concert, because I'm her friend and I'll be supportive. But classical crossover is like a cheap imitation of the real thing. Why have sugarless chocolate when you can have the real thing? (If you're not exempt from having it, of course). It doesn't make any sense to me. I know people enjoy classical crossover, I just don't understand why. Is it the same reason why anyone like any genre? Still, why have something so obviously manipulted when you could have it in it's original, unadulterated form? Maybe times are changing. There's a reason people keep coming back to Mozart, Verdi, Rossini, Puccini, and Bizet--they are timeless and have created real art. Classical crossover should be a passing phase, but its rise since the late 20th century is astonishing. It's as simple as that.

I was flipping through a magazine (can't remember which one, some tabloid), and Emmy was one of the stars asked about what they watched with their families during the holidays. Next to a smug picture of her was the quote, "Larry David and Curb Your Enthusiasm," and the she went on to say how dysfunctional families are like "most families". Most? And I've seem a few episodes of Curb, and it doesn't look so holiday-ish to me.

And Katherine Jenkins is sounding a lot like Emmy. Look at this from The Daily Mail:
One of the criticisms of her is that she has never sung opera, and would be exposed as underpowered if she were to try. There is a semantic nicety here, for while she has sung countless arias, she has never performed in a full-length stage opera. She leaps with surprising alacrity to the side of her critics. “I agree, I agree. I’ve never actually called myself an opera singer. Classical, yes. But I’m too young to be doing full opera. I’m still training with my teacher from the Royal Academy, and we are getting there. Give it three years. And then, I’m sure it will be, what can I say . . . up for discussion by the critics.”

Um, then why has eveyone been billing you as one, Katherine? And I think at this point it's too late to change. She'll always be a popera singer to me.

1. When you're in your coachings and after the fifth run through your coach wants to run that section with the high E two more times? If you're thinking "Great, I can sing up here for days", you might be a coloratura.

2. When you lok at "O luce di qu'est anima" do you think "****, this would be easier if it was in a high key", if you do, you might be a coloratura.

3. Have you ever said "But this only goes to C and that's not a high note", if that's the way you think, you might be a coloratura.

4. If you can sing Zerbinetta without getting tired, but "Deh vieni" is bloody tiring, you might be a coloratura.

5. If you offer the Doll Song, you really can't imagine an accompanist playing it too fast, the faster the better, you might be a coloratura.

6. If you never ever miss the high note at the end, no matter how sick you are, you might be a coloratura.

7. If lyric roles make you nuts because all the big high notes are in your passagio, you're probably a coloratura.

8. If things get easier as they get higher, you might be a coloratura.

9. If your high E-flat sounds so full that people mistake it for a high C, you're probably a coloratura.

10. If you know no fear above high C, but everything below it can be a little scary, you might be a coloratura.