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Let's try to understand who the actor singer is.
It has always fascinated me to study specificity, talent and vocal potential of artists who have expressed their art both as singers and as actors .
The opera and the American musical represent the tradition of the use of these dual aspects of the voice but the focus of my analysis is aimed at artists and artists who in the second half of the 1900s occupied the show of the show in the context of the Music, theater and cinema becoming icons for their genius and professionalism.
At the time, talent was cultivated , manifested itself in one of the arts and soon was developed and combined with the others. The theater was the natural means of increasing its artistic skills and represented a real springboard especially for the artists who managed, with natural versatility, to express themselves with skill in different areas. Soon the cinema imposed itself as a new popular language creating characters who would have trendy all over the world. In the musical universe there were real revolutions that upset the traditional forms of representation and the singers became constant presence in the orchestras of all kinds, those who had strong personalities were able to emerge becoming successful artists creating new reference models.
How does a voice affect in such a strong way as to determine a new language in both singing and acting?
There are several elements that contribute to creating a new character and bringing him to high levels of popularity.
From a vocal point of view, in addition to the innate qualities of marked musicality and strong charisma, one of the fundamental prerogatives is "ductility".
Fred Astaire , considered by Rudolf Nureyev the largest dancer of the twentieth century, was also an excellent actor and a very good singer.
He managed to perfectly grant the three arts in a single expressive form making everything very simple and natural, transmitting grace and elegance to every performance. In the acting he had a light -fascinating American voice that in singing became warm with medium -high textures but was in the dance that made all his extraordinary strength and energy explode.
Frank Sinatra , when he was the singer of the Tommy Dorsey orchestra, declared in an interview that tried to imitate the sound and stamp of the trombone of Tommy thus developing that vocal roundness and medium -low textures typical of the instrument in Coulisse; To this must be added the style , a perfect intonation and an diction that was one of the fundamental elements in his career both as a singer and actor.
The vocal diction for an actor is one of the predominant aspects and it is also for a singer who unlike the actor does not always manage to control it perfectly for a question of amplitude of melodic intervals and lengthening vowels. Frank Sinatra , in my opinion, represents a perfect balance of singer - actor.
Charles Aznavour , a multifaceted artist was an actor in over sixty films, often with a protagonist role, his vocal and expressive nuances made the interpretations likely and natural.
Singer, author, passionate and romantic, had a fabulous career, his unique and recognizable voice, characterized by a vibrated on medium high textures, given him a strong expressiveness making him extremely communicative. He sang in different languages, managing to express himself intensely always maintaining the same style and the same vocal character.
In Italy of those years the artist who had a career as a great -thick actor singer was Domenico Modugno . Equipped with a very strong personality and overflowing energy he managed to impose himself in the world expressing a strongly Italian .
His flying is still transmitted by radio all over the world. Modugno, as well as in Italian, sang in Neapolitan, Sicilian and Apulian using the voice in a powerful and evocative way. He participated as an actor at over forty film and was the absolute protagonist in all Italian and European theaters in the musical comedy Rinaldo in the field of Garinei and Giovannini, enjoying an unrepeatable success.
There are important elements that unite these four icons of which we wrote: they are all children of that early 1900s which represented an extraordinary historical moment made of social revolution that had an incredible propulsion in all sectors. Fred Astaire son of a Jewish immigrant, Charles Aznavour son of Armenian immigrants, Frank Sinatra son of Italian immigrants and Domenico Modugno born and raised in a family of poor southern Italy, but full of hopes.
Everyone was moved by inner fire and the need to arrive at all costs. Their art is rich in history and voices are an elaboration of passion, emotion, love, technique, curiosity, study and much more.
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