Classic FM magazine - 10th May 2007 (June issue)

[postscript]

Regardless as to whether the June issue of Classicfm sells out because it is Hayley or Enigma, the key point is she is in the issue that does sell out, which means perhaps the maximum possible coverage Classicfm could possibly have given her.

Peter S.

[Stephany]

My local newsagent had 15 copies of "Classic FM magazine" (ok, now 14!).
What a delight to see Hayley on the cover!

[Martin]

Hi Everyone
The picture of Hayley on the cover is stunning and should sell the magazine on its own. But, there is a less flattering photo inside - some people might describe it as a "bad hair day".

The interview is a little predictable but there is one very interesting comment relating to her views on becoming an opera singer. I quote:

" At the moment I can't really see myself moving into the realms of opera or Lieder. When I was 12, I won a competition and the judges suggested that I take private lessons to train my voice in that particular style. At the time I didn't bother and now I've decided not to go down that route because if I got it wrong it could ruin my voice. I feel I sing instinctively and I want to have the freedom to make my own decisions".

Martin

[postscript]

Hi everyone.
.
I thought I had better read over this thread before I started off on my own tangent of comment. That was last night when I was asked to look after my favourite dog and consequently became distracted—in both meanings of the word! Now it is a day on.

My purpose is to give my response to the Classicfm issue without repeating what may have already been said. I have a feeling this might be one of my multi-posts! To put things in perspective and recognise those who have already contributed (which I accept have derived from other threads--but there is a relationship and relevance):

Jeff commented

"It's quite an admission for Hayley to say she doesn't want to get into the realms of opera and lieder, particularly for someone who's marketed as a classical singer. I get the feeling she really wants to do folk and Celtic material but then the record company comes along and says: "Hang on a minute. We'd better put a couple of classical tracks on this album so it gets a play on Classic FM with their 7 million listeners !" I'm glad she didn't have voice coaching at 12 if she felt it might ruin her voice, although other singers seem to have been successfully taught, but then they don't sound like Hayley !"

I agree about the voice coaching. It seems like a destiny by lack of decision. The opportunity didn't register in her mind and as I have posted elsewhere, having a college friend who was once married to an opera singer 'it doesn't half wreck the voice'. What we have is the voce naturelle, if my 'French' is correct and 'pardon my French' if it isn't It is her greatest selling point and by default!

Regarding everything else, Jeff, I think we are too quick to grab a sentence from her mouth and make a novel out of it. This is a 'moving through my life' girl and nothing should be taken as being anything more than a statement of fact as of the moment it is stated.

Dave makes this point with his

"Hayley has never (to my knowledge) said that she is or wants to be an opera singer, although much of the uninitiated and loose-talking media has persisted in describing her as such."

That, I think is an important point, what others have said or assumed about her we tend to take on board as if coming from her.

"I haven't seen "lieder" mentioned before but I suppose it's similar to a certain type of opera aria."

This is usually but not necessarily a reference to the German for song and is effectively a cycle of songs around a theme. I had thought she might try more of this when she sang Wiegenleid as her German sounded to me so soft and encouraging and those who speak German remarked on the excellence of her pronunciation.

Arguably, such musical style is out of fashion and too specialist an audience so it is understandable that she hasn’t taken it on. At the time I first heard Wiegenleid it opened my memory banks of summer evenings in someone’s ‘extended into a concert hall’ living-room (a favourite baritone of 'Friday Night is Music Night' audiences whose name I have now completely forgotten) with the French windows open, the birds singing in the trees and champagne and canapés on the lawn during the interval. But, ‘the past is a foreign country, they do things differently there’ and I was fortunate in my younger days of sharing a dying twilight world of late Edwardian reminiscing Victoriana style of social life. Somehow, my memory banks have latched to those years and I have become mentally stuck there. If anyone asks, the quote (often misquoted as ‘another’ for ‘foreign’) derives from The Go-Between by L P Hartley. They are one of the most renowned of book opening lines which why the phrase is so well known. But I digress, of course!

A day later Jon comments:

“I personally see the limits [of CW] as something like "dipping in and out" for perhaps another year or so, depending on what other opportunities come her way. If she is bringing in the income from this that I suspect she might be, it might be hard to turn her back on it.

One thing though - I cant help but feel there is a sort of sea change happening just under our radar. I sense that the "Pure era" is running its course. I simply can’t see it as being viable in its current aspect when she is 25 for example - unless she is willing to accept a very limited niche and have a functioning career at that level. One irony of course, is that among other things, this "chapter" might give her the wherewithal to do just that. If she were to continue this, and other projects like it, she probably could also afford to produce a CD every couple of years which sells to 50,000 people if that is what she wants to do.

Personally, I dont see that - at the very least she apparantly has the driven work ethic of a much more ambitious person - but I could be wrong. For Hayley perhaps it is the singing more than anything else, and simply making a good career of that. Selling CD's is one way of course - but CW seems to be working pretty well for her at the moment as well. Still, I strongly suspect that she is going to come out of the other end of this a bit different than she was. This is if the change isn’t already occurring. Many of us have said that we like the song Summer Fly - but I will note that the subject matter of that song hasn’t seen too much scrutiny Summer Fly would not have flown in the Summer of 2004....”

As I will come on to--and was my original intended opening--change is precisely what I believe is in the air and rightly so, in my opinion, for reasons I will expound upon in a moment--or perhaps post 2.

I don’t think ‘niches’ or even ‘audience figures’ are of concern to her per se other than recognising the reality of the need for hard cash. I think Jon’s perception that ‘she just wants to sing’ is the key to the whole person who is Hayley. However, I do believe she had a great time in her younger days in stage performing. Given the choice between stage and recording studio she would prefer the former. In so far as Hayley is ‘pre-planning’ matters--and she does seem to be someone who ‘grabs opportunities’ rather than being ‘organised’ in a sense of pre-planning the next move--she may have in the back of her mind the following scenario.

She wants children of her own. She needs to allow herself time to make the right relationship. She will want to be as much a parent to her children as her parents were to her and her siblings. She wants time for her children. Logically, stage perfomances now, early marriage and child-bearing years, return to the recording studio, then later perhaps return to the stage. Now that is really mapping her life out for her!

Picking up on later posts. Grant and Graeme disapprove of her cutting her hair and dislike the concept of any promotional change in ‘our’ Hayley. Wrong on two counts, in my view.

One, there is no need to cut her hair. As long hair she has all options open at the whim of a toss of hair. Hanging loose, hanging long but fashioned, swept back, up formal or informal, she can change her appearance as the mood of the moment takes her. Why have short hair which reduces opportunities? Except that long hair is much more of a pain to manage when rushing in and out of hotels! Short hair does provide a practical dimension.

Reason 2. The need for change. Here I suspect we are really debating timing. The timing, I think, is now, for reasons I will expound upon in post two, which is how I intended to start my commentary of Classicfm, after taking the courtesy of seeing who else had already posted!

Peter S.

[comet]

Hi folks.
I have to agree about not training as an opera singer, I also feel it does irreversible damage to a delicate voice.

Some opera singers should be strapped to the funnels of ships and used as foghorns.

Not mentioning any names at all, at all..........

comet

[grant]

comet said:

Some opera singers should be strapped to the funnels of ships and used as foghorns.

Not mentioning any names at all, at all..........

comet

Ouch!!

[postscript]

Hi everyone.
Part 2.
Having side-tracked myself by wanting to read other's so far posted views, to save any repetition, let me now continue as I originally meant to start.

I bought my copy of Classicfm the other day and had I not been looking for the magazine, the picture on the cover would not have attracted my attention. It needed the name!

It is a classic example of how a girl can so change herself you can pass her in a crowd. I suspect, when she states her love of 'being lost in the crowd' she does something with her hair, maybe adding a hat and anyone of us could have her stand beside us, admiring the Thames and we would not give her the second glance we are each sure we would!

It is a superbly seductive pose in the best of taste, giving a glimpse at the bottom right that tells us she is wearing a strapless dress--or perhaps a halter strap dress.

There are other reasons for this pose which are to be found on Page 3. The side view, the long dress, the swept-back hair, the turned head are deliberate. This is a 'coming of age' portrait. The sort of portrait you might find in Tatter or Country Life announcing 'The Honorable Miss .... announces her engagement/ ...at her 'coming of age' party/ ...'comes out in August', when the term 'coming out' referred to debutantes being presented to the Queen, or announcing their entrance upon the social round and not an announcement about queens. It is a statement that this is no longer a teenage girl, this is a woman.

It is a pity that they saved on the cost of hiring the quarter-of-a-milion pound diamond necklace that would usually set off the neck. That absence is noticeable--and the ear-rings are wrong. Otherwise, this is the official 'coming out' portait of the (not an Honourable but very much honoured) Miss Hayley Westenra who is no longer a teenage girl but a young woman.

The side view and loose fitting shoulder of the dress help emphasise her bust further adding to the sense of maturity of the body. Perhaps the long ear-rings are to compensate for the lack of necklace?

So, am I extraordinarily imaginative or have I gleaned the essence of the sea-change that is taking place around her? If, of course, I am imaginative and none of what I have interpreted from these portraits was ever intended, then something has gone seriously awry with her promotional team--but I think not.

I do think the lack of appropriate necklace unfortunate--or it could be deliberate, a token that maturity is here but the simplicity of the girl remains.

Turning to the cover story spread of pages 22-23 we see, retrospectively the girl turning to woman. Her face does look fuller. This is interesting. When looking at the grouping in front of her plaque, the essential difference in physique between Sophie and Hayley seemed that Hayley's face was more oval and Sophie's fuller, more round. In this photograph it seems that Haley has taken on some of her younger sister's physique. You can see Sophie in Hayley.

Her look is wistful, almost melancholic. Is this a girl 'tween seasons? A girl, looking back to her childhood and a little apprehensive of letting go her girlhood, while welcoming womanhood?

Page 24 shows us her face is fuller than that to which we are accustomed. Has she got fuller of face, or is it the swept-back hair that makes us think so, so that in seeing more 'side of the face' we gain the effect of a fuller, more mature, face?

Surprisingly this photo is very catching for me. It gives her the facial look of the daughter of a friend of mine. A year younger than Hayley she has an extraordinary maturity for her years, has as full a face but is generally a much rounder figure than Hayley.

Page 26 takes us back to the Hayley we know. The oval face and slender, almost slightness of the figure is back. On 27, the small picture shows us the Hayley on stage to which we are accustomed.

Who determined what (and I cannot believe that someone did not determine something to achieve these shots and their juxtaposition) we are being led gently through a transition to the 'coming of age' Hayley. It looks as great, as tantalising and as exciting as Hayley has always been.

I'll look at the text in post 3.
Peter S.

[Raymond]

postscript said:

Classicfm

Hi Peter,

I like it.

Cheers,
Raymond

[Dave]

postscript said:

Hi everyone.
Part 2.
... had I not been looking for the magazine, the picture on the cover would not have attracted my attention. It needed the name!

And the name is there Peter, writ large!

Regarding the remainder of your post, well yes and no and maybe... but publicity shoots are just that and I don't think we should read too much into them.

Cheers, Dave

[postscript]

raymond said:

postscript said:

Classicfm

Hi Peter,

I like it.

Cheers,
Raymond

But not the rest of it?

[postscript]

Hi everyone.

Part 3 The text.

That opening intro under a heading 'The gentle art of persuasion'
With her delicate features and air of quiet confidence, Hayley Westenra appears to have stepped out of a Jane Austen novel. But with global success and three million record sales, hers is a true 21st century story.

A very lovely summing up of 'our' girl in a few but stunningly effective words. In such mode the article continues with a summary of her history, of which we are all aware, encapsulating most enchantingly that lovely contrast of down-to-earth fun-loving girl with highly professional worldliness of extraordinary talent, so many of us have been privileged to meet face-to-face.

That simple, open honesty of hers comes to the fore when she greets her interviewer with an apology for being under the weather--an indisposition the interviewer found unnoticeable.

After the history, essential to all interviewers meeting her for the first time but which is well know to us all (or discoverable here for those new to us!) we learn further researching her Celtic past is an ongoing project.

She only dismisses opera for the time being but leaves the door open for musical theatre. Apparently she is interested in horse-riding, '...but what if I fall off?'

I would have thought she might have been more likely to do herself a mischief on ice-skates than by riding a horse. The problem, of course, is that any risk for her is gigantic. It is not the question of lost performances, knowing her she'd sing on crutches rather than miss a show. The problem is intubating a throat like hers and the effect of gas--even though much can now be done under local anaesthesia and epidurals.

But as a friend of mine pointed out to me, somewhat irritated at my enquiry as to whether he had recovered from having fallen off his horse, 'riders do not fall off horses, they are thrown by them!'. It is always the animal's fault, never the rider's. Not that that is much consolation when putting the broken bones back together!

All in all, this is a superb interview and the collective overall spread is a splended promotional tool that will stand her in good stead. Well done Classic fm.

Peter S.

[Eric]

joe said:

Hi all,

My local Borders didn't have the ClassicFM June 2007issue yet. (Two copies of the May issue only). I asked an assistant and she said to call in three or four weeks.

Hi Joe,
Having been away for a few days and extremely busy, I have just now caught up on this thread. Thank you for checking. I will try to keep an ear out down this way.
Best wishes, and hope your mom had a wonderful Mother's Day!
Eric

[Joe]

ericd03 said:

joe said:

Hi all,

My local Borders didn't have the ClassicFM June 2007 issue yet. (Two copies of the May issue only). I asked an assistant and she said to call in three or four weeks.

Hi Joe,
Having been away for a few days and extremely busy, I have just now caught up on this thread. Thank you for checking. I will try to keep an ear out down this way.
Best wishes, and hope your mom had a wonderful Mother's Day!
Eric

Hi Eric !

I went to Borders again and there wasn't any issues of the June Classic FM Magazine.

Joe

[Dori]

Yes Joe, I visited Borders and they only have the April issue!!! Made me so mad!! I'll wait...I'm sure they have to come....
Dori

[Joe]

Hi Dori

Yeah, it will be worth the wait! i.postimg.cc/9fYxy370/smilie-big-grin.gif

Joe