# Question for fachverwirrt (or other experts) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 11, 2009, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-fachverwirrt-or-other-experts/509729 "2009-09-11T20:46:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2009, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-fachverwirrt-or-other-experts/509729/1 "2009-09-11T20:46:10Z")
Is the opera lady on America’s Got Talent a good singer? In a technical sense, I mean. Her name is Barbra Padilla. She is a cancer survivor, a single mom (I think), and has limited training (I also think). Here’s a YouTube link: [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6sUaRagfDA) ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-fachverwirrt-or-other-experts/509729/2 "2009-09-12T04:42:16Z")
She has a good amateur voice, but could use some training. Professional opera singers can get a more powerful sound without a mike, and don’t need to take a breath so often. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 4:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-fachverwirrt-or-other-experts/509729/3 "2009-09-12T04:57:27Z")
Jesus, is The Hoff sober? You can’t miss with “Ave Maria,” if you can deliver. I want it sung at my memorial service. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-fachverwirrt-or-other-experts/509729/4 "2009-09-12T12:39:34Z")
The Hoff is never sober. He’s the show’s Paula Abdul. At any rate, thanks for the assessment, panache. Her voice sounds beautiful to me, but then I have no real ear or training for opera. The comment that she has “a good amateur voice, but could use some training” sounds perfectly fitting. ETA: @dropzone Yeah, I wondered when she was going to do that piece. This was her fourth performance, counting her audition. ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 2:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-fachverwirrt-or-other-experts/509729/5 "2009-09-12T14:23:42Z")
The biggest problem with that show is you can’t tell what’s really going on - there’s the mike, there’s the ‘orchestration’ of the piece for what sounded like three keyboards with samples, there’s a sound man in there who’s balancing and tweaking everything, and the crowd that cheers and claps every time she sings over an E… I’d like to hear her in a straight-forward audition situation - just her and a piano in a medium sized room. Just from that clip, I go, ‘Yeah, she could have a career, maybe.’, but I don’t hear anything outstanding or spectacular - yet. Just my two cents. ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-fachverwirrt-or-other-experts/509729/6 "2009-09-12T16:05:15Z")
I haven’t had a chance to listen (we’re rebuilding a closet this weekend), but I just wanted to chime in and say that **Ministre** is the one you really want to listen to. (His opinion, that is. I mean, his voice too, but his opinion in particular at this particular moment.) ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-fachverwirrt-or-other-experts/509729/7 "2009-09-12T16:30:43Z")
Och, horsefeathers! I call False Modesty - **fachverwirrt** has forgotten more than I’ll ever know! ---
**Author:** ![fachverwirrt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/94ad74/32.png) [@fachverwirrt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fachverwirrt)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2009, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-fachverwirrt-or-other-experts/509729/8 "2009-09-12T16:55:35Z")
I certainly have forgotten a lot.🙂 I just mean that, between the two of us, you’re the one with an actual career. You probably have a more meaningful perspective on such things. I’ll certainly weigh in with my opinion when I have a chance, though. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2009, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-fachverwirrt-or-other-experts/509729/9 "2009-09-13T00:30:28Z")
Thanks to both of you. And I didn’t know that Ministre is a professional. Very impressive. I’m sorry for the bad video, with the crowd and all. I reckon an opera crowd is normally more well behaved, as in quiet. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2009, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-fachverwirrt-or-other-experts/509729/10 "2009-09-13T00:41:32Z")
Looking at the clip again, and while I am certainly no expert on the technical aspects, there is just something about her that is so lovely and so… how do I say it?.. heartful. I’m impressed by any performer who sings from the heart, even if they are not technically perfect. (It sort of reminds me of a Star Trek Next Gen episode in which data played the violin with technical perfection, but Ryker and others tried to explain to him why his piece did not “touch” people.) ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2009, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-fachverwirrt-or-other-experts/509729/11 "2009-09-13T03:10:34Z")
> [@Liberal](#): > > I reckon an opera crowd is normally more well behaved, as in quiet. Normally, by the time someone gets to sing at the Met, they’re already an accomplished singer. But I’ve been to performances in which a singer was not up to the audience’s expectations, and it got ugly. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [September 14, 2009, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-fachverwirrt-or-other-experts/509729/12 "2009-09-14T02:21:34Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > Normally, by the time someone gets to sing at the Met, they’re already an accomplished singer. But I’ve been to performances in which a singer was not up to the audience’s expectations, and it got ugly. What about when it was great, or when it exceeded the audience’s expections. Did they react with any sort of “ooohs” or “aaahs” or applause or anything at all? Or was there dead silence, until the end when men in semi-formal attire and women in gowns golf-clapped, and chanted “Brava! Brava!”? ---
**Author:** ![rivulus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@rivulus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rivulus)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2009, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-for-fachverwirrt-or-other-experts/509729/13 "2009-09-15T21:49:24Z")
Just listened to a couple of videos. OK voice. Pretty average lyric soprano. [ul] [li]Registers/timbre: basically even throughout, which is good. No obvious distortions in her vowel sounds. Sometimes the voice is a little gravely or missing a bit on the bottom. It could be just phlegm, but it might also be a slightly underdeveloped chest voice. No big deal for a light lyric soprano, but she could work on it.[/li][li]Pitch: mostly on pitch, although she did ride a little under on one of the last (optional) high notes in “O mio babbino caro.” Could be a support problem (see breath). In “Ave Maria” she rides a little on the bottom of the notes most of the way through.[/li][li]Breath: obvious breath control/support problems. Sometimes that causes her to fall a little off the voice, especially in the upper passaggio. Very obvious breathing/phrasing difficulties in “Ave Maria” – to the point where I felt like I was hyperventilating trying to breath for her![/li][li]Legato: not great. Needs to work on connecting notes. Needs to figure out how to “spin” the sound out on longer notes and phrases, especially in “Ave Maria.” This was the piece that really revealed her vocal issues.[/li][li]Musicality: Oy. Needs a lot of work. Get the woman a coach. Almost completely ignores the accompaniment. But who knows how well she can hear up there on the sound stage?[/li][/ul] If she auditioned for a master’s level program, she’d get into most places. I like the timbre of her voice. Light and fresh, but with a touch of warmth. A little bright/pushed on top for my taste, but lots of well-known light lyric sopranos have that problem. Bottom line: she needs quite a bit of work, especially on musicality, diction, phrasing, and spinning the tone from note to note. But the basic vocal material is there. And she’s cute, which doesn’t hurt. ETA: I agree with **Liberal** about her emotional connection to the music. It hasn’t been trained out of her yet. 😉 Just kidding. If she can keep that while working on the technical aspects, she’ll have something good to work with.