Today I've been listening to opera while at work. I'm listening to a recording of Sena Jurinac singing in the Stockholm Opera House, where she among different composers' works performed Strauss' "September" of which you can hear a little here [MP3, 700KB].

Her voice, as with a lot of sopranos from back in the day - but mind you, there are a lot of bad ones from those days as well - easily surpasses most of the crap that's pushed onto the market today. Jurinac sings using her stomach to pitch her notes. It's a totally, utterly different world than what we hear when we're being punished by, say, Charlotte Church, Leslie Garrett, Andrea Bocelli, Russel Watson, Luciano Pavarotti and Sarah Brightman. Listen to Enrico Caruso, Jussi Björling, Maria Callas, Sena Jurinac and discover great singers, who sang with their heart and soul as force behind their Art. Because that was Art! Of course there exists a lot of singers like them today, but they are virtually blotted out by the immense amounts of crap that the major record companies tout.

It's not strange that Enrico Caruso was the most famous singer of his hey-days, as he was the greatest singer when he had his hey-days. Today, as a documentary called "Yes, But Can They Sing?" by KUSC FM notes, opera singers are made famous for other factors than their "Art".

Here is a piece [MP3, 3,9MB] from "Yes, But Can They Sing?" where the narrator explains that people who listen to Andrea Bocelli, Leslie Garrett and Sarah Brightman aren't stupid - it's just a matter of knowledge. I used to think Luciano Pavarotti was a great singer. Now I can tell he wasn't. One doesn't have to be a conneisseur to tell - it's just a matter of listening to the good stuff instead of the inane, untalentful, ugly crap that's foisted off as the real thing, to find the gems that today seem well-hidden, that are not marketed by use of sex, like Leslie Garrett's and Sarah Brightman's record covers, but by the music being great.

The above mentioned bit is just one of a lot in the documentary, which by the way is a terrific one, where one marvels at how bad a singer really can sing, even with previous records available, at least showing how it should be done. And remember, there are a lot of faults recorded that are not live.

I'm not saying new singers are bad, I'm saying they're mostly bad, and that doesn't incorporate just the opera world, no-no. Rock is even worse, of course, but there's enormous differences. If Puccini wanted Julian Casablanca from The Strokes to sing "Madama Butterfly", he would probably have left that in on the cover or somewhere. He wanted his tenors, sopranos, et.c. And he, like the opera crowd, wanted his operas to be performed by performers who were well-schooled, talented and who busted their frikkin' nuts over trying to get every little detail correct. It's no wonder Jussi Björling was given Enrico Caruso's pajazzo-costume by his widow, as she felt Björling was the only person in the world fit to fill her husband's place in the opera world.

People who treat music like they're advertising people should be shot and not even dumped in a ditch; they deserve to be left in the open so that people would heed their mistakes. When I interviewed Photek appx. a year ago, he said he thought the major record companies would crumble and wither in time, maybe even within a few years. Since our interview, more and more record companies have been bought by the majors, and they're showing no signs of stopping that, even though they've, a few times, been convicted and fined for forming cartels to push prices up across the globe. Fines really don't matter as they can pay it and continue with their dirty deeds, but hell, kids - always invest in music that's made with Heart and f-ing Soul, no matter if it's opera, rock or electronic music. I couldn't give a toss about "nobility" or "intelligence" in music; with a very few exceptions (e.g. studying the brilliance Maurice Starr showed when he master-minded the whole New Kids On The Block pose - which basically is like reading about serial-murderers: you wonder what makes them do it) I only care for music that's meant, and I think most others who love music do too. A lot of people just aren't aware of there being other music forms, artists, or have got the whole idea about some artist or genre twisted up. I thought I would never understand opera. Now I do, a little. By listening to opera, taking it in, giving it time and care, I've discovered another world of pleasure, and who would say no to doing that? Leap, damn it! Listen to stuffs you'd never care for and at least, at the very base, you could say "at least I tried it". And steer clear of the mines.