Orriel Smith - The World's Favorite Cluckoratura Arias

Selections:

·  Mozart: "Der Holle Rache" (Die Zauberflote)

·  Donizetti: "Quando Rapita in Estasi" (Lucia di Lammermoor)

·  Verdi: "Caro nome" (Rigoletto)

·  Offenbach: Doll's Song (Contes d'Hoffmann)

·  Mozart: Alleluia (Exsultate Jubilate)

·  Donizetti: "Chacun le Sait" (Fille du Regiment)

·  Meyerbeer: Shadow Song (Dinorah)

This CD is available on line from CDbaby.com

Available from a Portland, Oregon company, CD baby, and privately produced, this CD was released in 2004.  Production values are minimal but then this CD does not pretend to originate from Decca or Philips.  It is a small, private enterprise.  As a concept it is very successful.  Surprisingly, it touches within a number of arenas.  The concept of a chicken "clucking through" a coloratura aria is not a new one.  However, Orriel Smith goes one further by showing a voice that, when allowed to float freely on its own, turns out to be quite beautiful.  This is especially true in the upper register which is sweet, pure and right on target when it comes to pitch.  Not only that, do not assume that because of the humorous emphasis of the CD that this is something Ms. Orriel threw together.  Not at all.  The clucking has been thoughtfully plotted for each aria and various types of clucking sounds and placements have been used. To her credit, she actually sounds like a chicken.  Complimenting her clucking is excellent staccati work and some startling forays into the high register.

This kind of blatant humor or parody is often the most difficult to pull off and initially I was hesitant to give it a listen.  But this certainly ranks high beside other great operatic parodies.  Indeed, it deserves to be better known.  The aroma of the grotesque that surrounds Smith's virtuostic clucking is as alluring as is the legitimacy of her basic instrument.

We will not get into the pedagogical problems of a singer using a clucking technique to sing such demanding and difficult music.  Suffice it to say, Smith triumphs.

Ms. Smith grew up in a musical household and at one time her mother worked at Paramount Studios.  When young Orriel became influenced by the famous folk singer, Jean Ritchie,(still performing)who specializes in Appalachian folk songs accompanied by guitar.  When 18, Orriel went to New York city to study with William Herman, the teacher of the famous Metropolitan Opera coloratura soprano, Roberta Peters.  While studying with Herman, Orriel continued her folk music performances in New York's Greenwich Village.  She has performed on Johnny Carson, the Red Skelton Show and the Smothers Brothers’ Show and has recorded folk music for Columbia Records (the LP - A Voice in the Wind).  For the past 20 years she has been teaching Presentation Skills for various corporations.

Perhaps because it is such a short CD (only a little over 21 minutes long) I found that I eagerly anticipated each aria and I did not tire of her program.  One might have wished for a longer program but her selections were well chosen, well executed, and, different from many "legitimate" operatic recitals by her contemporaries, Smith's disc leaves you wanting more.

My personal favorite remains "Caro Nome."   The odd cluckings of Ms. Smith's voice perfectly lend themselves to Verdi's aria.  There is also a certain vocal stance that Smith takes during the recitative that perfectly parodys a self indulgent diva and which found me chuckling before she had even begun to sing the aria proper.  Make no mistake, however, Smith is not a singer who can only "cluck-through" an aria in this manner.  It is obvious that underneath all the strange sounds there is an extremely adaptable, attractive and classically-trained instrument.  What you also may not expect after such shenanigans is her ability to spiral, with no effort at all, to a beautiful top E at the end of the coda which she sustains with commendable purity.

The famous Queen of the Night vengeance aria also benefits from Smith's particular brand of humor - and she nails the notorious high Fs better than some of her more famous operatic sisters.  (The staccati passages are sung with a curious pecking technique which keeps within the chicken framework. ) I played this selection for a friend of mine who laughed through the entire aria.  The piece is brought to an exciting finish with an interpolated, final high D.  Another excellent final top note graces an otherwise hysterical performance of "Chacun le Sait" - this time it is a sustained high F.

Perhaps one of the most amusing aspects of this CD is the fact that, although short, each aria was obviously carefully chosen for its compatibility with Smith's cluckoratura technique and in each instance proves to be an excellent match.  There is something almost perverse in the humorous slant Smith is able to put onto Gilda's panting-like phrases during "Caro Nome" and the short, "pecked" phases of "Chacun le Sait." 

Dinorah's “Shadow Song” finds the "cluckoratura" complimented by the melismatic wonder: "CatO'ratura," who provides the echo effects during the aria.  The idea of a chicken and a cat singing together is as silly as it is successful in this case.  It is too bad that Ms. Smith did not decide to include a cadenza with flute - that could have had some outrageous possibilities.  Although clever and well done, the aria ends too abrubtly to be completely successful.

The Mozart Alleluia works quite well within Smith's concept but the Doll Song from Hoffmann is even better.  In some instances one can tell that Smith is working with a "music-minus one" recording.  (Remember this is privately produced - it is not from Decca or Philips.) But it is just as obvious that she has carefully plotted her work around the recording since rarely does this fact intrude.  Most classical singers have worked with these recordings and know how difficult it is to sing with them.  It is a very tricky matter to time your own musicality with that already supplied by the Music Minus One company.  Smith does a great job.

Obviously this is not a CD one would want to listen to all the time - and perhaps not even all at one sitting.  If you buy this CD, however, I predict that because of its clever execution and Smith's dazzling high register it will be one of those rare discs that you enjoy pulling out to play for your friends - first to amuse and then to stun.

(April 19, 2004)                                         

Nichols E. Limansky www.Divalegacy.com