Stunning Baritone Arias

Yesterday I finally got around to finishing the second season of BBC's Sherlock. The season finale is quite possibly the greatest episode of television I have ever seen, and I'm not typically one to exaggerate. I think the British have completely nailed down the secret to great television and I regret not having BBC.

I'm prepping a list of songs and arias that I want to learn to sing. The top of that list of course is the famous opening Aria from Il Barbiere di Siviglia: Largo al Factotum a.k.a the "Figaro" song.

Here's Peter Mattei's performance, this is the level I'd like to reach someday:

I know it's kind of a cliche piece, but it's simply got everything a baritone could want to do with his voice, intricate melodies, fast passages, tongue twisting phrases and power. Someday I will be able to pull it off like Mr. Mattei. That's the dream really. I can't think of many more things I would want more than to be able to do justice to this piece of music. I would actually be willing to never kiss a girl in my life if it meant to be able to sing this song properly. Unfortunately I don't know of any devils who would be willing to make that kind of a trade with me. Good old fashioned practice will have to do.

And speaking of pacts with the Devil:

In general, Faust is a treasure trove of Baritone repertoire, but it would require me to speak French. I've attempted to sing french before and it was kind of like dancing on soap I guess. I don't know, it's late and I can't think of good metaphors when I am tired. Basically, French is difficult for me. It might be because of my tongue tension problems, which seems to be my biggest issue with my voice. I don't know nearly enough about the French language to know. Technically I don't know enough about the Italian language either, but I'm learning. And finally:

Rivolgelte a lui lo Sguardo from Mozart's opera Cosi fan Tutte or The Jeweled Box.

This is a much more realistic piece. And by realistic I mean that I can see myself singing this in two years as opposed to the five it'll probably take me to learn the Barber of Seville piece.

Then of course, there's all of those other songs I'd like to learn. Including the Popera stuff, the Gilbert and Sullivan librettos and all of those smaller Italian Arias from those yellow books.

I think we all want something beautiful in our lives. Some of us strive to do something beautiful and some of us strive to be beautiful, plenty of people want to do both. I guess for me, the thing that I strive for now is a beautiful voice, mostly because neither the beautiful looks nor the beautiful mind thing really worked out for me, not that I didn't try.

There's something unique about the voice though. When you see someone with an attractive face and body, you have a certain positive reaction to it, but it's rarely the type of reaction that one would call "inspiring". I mean, perhaps it could be inspiring in the sense that it inspires you to work out more or it inspires you to go and chat up the said person or in my case sit in the corner and avoid eye contact. Or put differently, The Victoria's Secret fashion catalogue is a beautiful think to look at, but it doesn't move anyone I know to tears. Well, to positive tears. A beautiful voice is capable of changing lives and inspiring ideas. That's the kind of voice I'm after, Solo Dio aiutami.