The Times : Hayley, not just anybody

[grant]

stephany said:

I agree with you, Dave.
In other words, she has her own style...and she's perfectly UNIQUE.

So UNIQUE that even her UNIQUENESS is UNIQUE!!

Grant

[stevemacdonald]

socalboy said:

...

As for that little blurb in the Christchurch paper, how about a simple retraction without the judgment from on high? And a bogus judgment at that. Let’s call Hayley something she has never called herself (an opera diva), then let’s cut her down to size for not living up to our definition of that term. Sounds like strawmen have been populating Christchurch since Hayley left.

I see no harm in calling Hayley an opera diva, since she has sung several operatic arias as gorgeously as one could want, and since diva can mean "successful woman performer" — which she most certainly is. It's only the opera elitists who get their knickers in a knot if "diva" gets used outside of their world.

Ironically, the pejorative use of the word "diva" stemmed from opera itself and the apparent haughtiness of some of its famed sopranos. The non-opera world eventually appropriated the pejorative and applied it to rudely-behaving and self-important female pop stars.

Since the word originally meant "goddess" and since Hayley sings like one, why not let her be a diva in the best sense?

[socalboy]

Hayley more than lives up to the term as you define it. It’s the folks and readers at the Christchurch paper who seem to find her wanting. I don’t know who decided that Hayley “needs amplification,” but I’m well aware, as you say, of how exclusionary and insulated the opera community can be. It’s clear that Hayley’s rapid ascension and extraordinary gifts rub some in that community the wrong way. Too bad for them. She’s worked plenty hard for what she has, and she’s a gift to us all.

[stevemacdonald]

socalboy said:

... It’s the folks and readers at the Christchurch paper who seem to find her wanting. I don’t know who decided that Hayley “needs amplification,” ....

I think it's the other way around: Opera singers need to sing more quietly. What they do in training is unnatural, just so they can be heard in the back row. Maybe that was necessary in the old (pre-amp) days but it also shifts the timbre of their voices almost into a fingernails-on-a-chalkboard sound. Hayley's voice is not unnaturally loud and thus retains its magic even when mic'd.