When the young tenor sang “It Ain’t Necessarily So”, I flashed back to a concert at Woodland Hills Park in L.A. in 1996. The opera program at USC put on a show with their young singers with full orchestra. One young Korean sang that Gershwin number. Because that number requires a chorus and there was none available, he turned the audience into a chorus and rehearsed us in the call-and-response and scat singing. You have to know your hoodie-ah-da-wa-da from your scatty-wah. I hadn’t had that much fun in years.
When Renee told him to “Expand his rib cage” I had to laugh out loud because that is the FIRST thing I teach my kids, before I even let them sing a note.
But I do EVERY exercise WITH the kids. I never make them do anything I don’t do myself.
I have a cool exercise where they have to hold a sheet of paper against a window using JUST their breath.
Her advice to the girl to “Lighten up” on the Jewel Song was the same thing I thought too. The story and lyrics of Marguerite finding the box of jewels in her garden requires playful innocence, a sense of wonder, a bit of coquettishness, and the impending omen of innocence about to be lost.
The student declaiming the song as if she were the Queen of the Night was jarring.
The Beauty of this documentary is that as soon as Renee gives her Marvelous advice, the students improve exponentially!
Tonight on PBS, they are doing “BROADWAY the American Musical” . It is also excellent (except for the fundraising!)