|
|
||
"I have matured as an artiste," Watson claims in the (embarrassingly illiterate) programme to his current tour. Artiste, or even artist, is not a word I would have used: Watson's essential skill lies in his knack of copying things he's heard on other tenors' recordings. Nor does he have any real personality beyond a whippet-thin laddishness - Jamie Oliver gone Mancunian, adept at winking at a pretty girl and giving her gran a hug, too.
I admire the guy's nerve - he's got a voice, and he's making a pile out of it. Fine. But what must be firmly objected to is the way that the word "opera" is dragged into the equation. Nobody would have paid any attention to Watson in the first place had the idea not been circulated that he was "like Pavarotti", and that remains his prime selling point. It is a blatant lie. He is no more "like Pavarotti" than I am. His performing ability, as revealed at Wembley, is entirely reliant on massive amplification, and I would very much doubt whether he has the stamina (or the desire) to sing an entire role in an opera house. His technique is negligible - he sings flat and breathily. Stylistically, he is coarse and flat-footed, without grace or subtlety of interpretation. As amateur tenors go, the late Harry Secombe had far superior natural gifts. This is the apotheosis of karaoke, not operatic artistry. Let's get that clear. ©
Copyright
of Telegraph
Group Limited 2002. Terms
& Conditions of reading. Posted for the purpose of discussion only - Not for re-publication without prior permission
|
||
Karaoke
on a grand scale 
