About those child opera singers: here's the deal

http://dropera.blogspot.com/ ^ | 2/2/2012 | Glenn Winters

[Borges]

Paganini or this guy? :) This guy is not a musician he is an academic.

[Dante3]

Interesting.

[Borges]

Scratch that he is a musician I guess. In any case what’s your beef with the article apart from a meaningless typo.

[dfwgator]

Yeah and Liszt wrote etudes inspired by Paganini.

"Never heard of him, wrong number."

[MarvinStinson]

Today, as classical music is on its last legs, we have ADULT frauds like pianist(?) Lang Lang whose main talent is making faces as he ‘plays.’

[dfwgator]

Good article. I think a lot of these "prodigies" get the attention they do because the people who are amazed by their performances are not regular listeners of classical music or opera and notice only that the prodigy is "so good for such a young age", even if they are not really that good.

It's like the "Dancing Bear", people are amazed that the bear can even dance, then after awhile they realize that the bear doesn't dance particularly well.

[MarvinStinson]

To repeat-—Your clueless author used the term “Paganini Etudes”-—which betrays his lack of knowledge of the subject.

Bad slip for one trying to pose as an ‘expert.’

[Borges]

Classical music is doing just fine. They’ve been singing its death throes for over a century. Lang Lang is very talented from a technical point of view. It’s what he does with talent that’s objectionable.

[SkyDancer]

Watch Amira Willighagen on youtube. As for child prodigies, what about Yehudi Menuhin for starters. Lots of them out there that made it ...https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_child_music_prodigies

[MarvinStinson]

Excellent.

[Borges]

OK so that minor slip invalidates the argument. Gotcha. Shakespeare’s anachronistic references to clocks in ‘Julius Caesar’ invalidates that play as well.

[MarvinStinson]

Lang Lang "is very talented from a technical point of view"

only for those who can't play the piano.

He is a wretched pianist technically.

[MarvinStinson]

“Meaningless typo” to YOU.

Demonstration of incompetence to me.

[Borges]

I play the piano and know a gifted technician when I hear one. He can play very fast and very accurately.

[left that other site]

Amen!

I am a vocal teacher, and most of my students are children, and I am 100% in agreement with this article.

I teach guitar and piano as well, and often will teach children to accompany themselves as they sing Classic Rock, Folk, Pop, or Country, and they sound unstrained, unstressed, and totally “Age-Appropriate”.

If a parent wants a “Charlotte” or a “Jackie”, I quickly disabuse them of that notion or tell them to get another teacher.

Thank you for this article. I am going to print it out and frame it!!!!!! :-)

[Poison Pill]

See, the reality is that for every Yehudi Menuhin (prodigy who became an all-time great artist), there are one hundred Dmitri Sgouros's

I was just waiting to spring the "But what about Menuhin" comeback. But then I recall being told once that he hit a wall in his late teens and had to essentially relearn his instrument.

[MarvinStinson]

This pissant doesn't know that Mozart was the most remarkable child prodigy ever

and also did pretty well as an adult.

Franz Liszt, Chopin, Mendelssohn, Yasha Heifetz, Anton Rubinstein, Arthur Rubinstein, Josef Hofmann, etc etc etc were all child prodigies.

I think maybe the guy who wrote this got his face pushed in repeatedly by those with superior talent to his when he was younger.

[G Larry]

He tells why he’s unimpressed and the limits of expectations.

I’m drawing a conclusion from his wet blanket analysis.

[Borges]

Virtually all great concert musicians were child prodigies. That’s not the the point. He is addressing the way they are treated by their handlers and the public. If you think that singing operatic arias is good for a 10 year old you are severely misguided.

[Darteaus94025]

G1