Use of the stage

[roger]

jeremiah said:

She's going to be on a 64 Concert megatour with Il Divo in the States and she has not even meet them yet? Just a rehearsal scheduled the day of the first show a few hours before?

Something does not add up. But whatever the handlers of Hayley's career pulled off - it leaves Hayley with quit the load. Shrewsbury Abbey and that level of show does prove there is a segment of the population who is entertained to some degree by a simple song recital. What about a 64 show megatour in the USA co-starring with todays hottest selling chart topping vocal group?

Quit the challenge if you ask me. I respect her courage. And i think her handler's know how to get in there amongst the competition and impress them with their vocal artiste's abilities...

...But study of for instance Las Vegas Shows that go on contract for months. Celine Dion entertains. Mixed in with simple standing-stick song recitals she let's herself out of that cloistered box and uncorks herself. All the great entertainers have one thing in common. Very simple to understand. Multiple dimension creativity beyond just standing still. I'm not being critical of Shrewsberry. The venue style was matched to standing still. But on a high energy Il Divo Concert Tour, Hayley is going to have to learn to expand herself into some other dimensions besides just the one she's been accustomed to. I say that to encourage her to bust out of her cocoon. Good grief she's such a pretty girl too. With an athletic past spanning an entire decade as a ballerina and Stage Play performer. Creativity has to be genuine to be real so we can't push somebody into it. But we can sure encourage....

Hi Jeremiah,

I think you have raised an interesting point so I have started a new thread with your quote from elsewhere.

The one aspect of Hayley's performances that has always concerned me is that she never strays more than a step or two from the microphone stand in the centre of the stage. Jeremiah acknowledged that this may have been appropriate in church venues such as Shrewsbury Abbey. However, I have seen her many times at much larger concert venues and she does exactly the same thing.

I feel her audience would appreciate a bit more movement from her - a slightly more animated performance (depending upon the song, of course). Admittedly, the songs from Odyssey don't exactly lend themselves to a particularly animated performance like some from Pure did ('Wuthering Heights' for instance). I'm not looking for Hayley to start striding around the stage as she sings (like Amici Forever do to an annoying degree) but a little movement would be nice.

Whilst Hayley is introducing a song, maybe she should hold the mic and stroll casually along the length of the stage as she talks to her audience instead of remaining rooted to the same central position. (?)

What does everyone else think?

Roger

[portia]

I think that movement isn't necessary,. It's more important to be comfortable in a certain way without boring your audience or tripping yourself up. People who do the standing still motion very well are the Three Tenors. A person who moves quite well (without huge special effects a la Sarah Brightman) would be Josh Groban, though I don't quite like his choice of songs. I must add, though, that the reason the Tenors can hold their own standing is because of their incredible voices.

I think that part of the reason Hayley doesn't move around much (and I see it in her vocals too) is uncertainty. She doesn't seem to quite know if she wants to be the vibrant entertainer or stand stock still, so she does a bit of both.

[Joe]

Hi all,

I thought Hayley's stage presence was wonderful. I think she did remove the mic from its stand a few times at the Easton concert (one time could've be to introduce Hine e Hine...w/ the kiwi bird going to kip down in a satellite dish).

[Richard]

Hello Roger and everybody!

I hadn't really thought about this before, but perhaps the shows might be a little more intimate if Hayley did walk to the sides of the stage occasionally while introducing or performing her songs. People sitting towards the sides would then feel closer to Hayley, but I wouldn't suggest that she changes her style of presentation too drastically.

Best Wishes,

Richard

[fusilier23]

Well, all the times I've seen Hayley she hasn't moved around the stage much except to sway a bit during "Mary, did You Know?" But except for Easton, she didn't usually have a lot of room to move, since there was either nowhere to go or she was sharing the stage with an orchestra, with them taking up a lot of space and a lot of cords for mikes, so if she walked about she risked stumbling.

Truth be told, I think some of her songs, particularly the ballads like "Never Saw Blue" could be sung sitting down, creating kind of a "coffeehouse" image, with also the added benefit of her feet aching less from standing in heels all evening. As for walking about the stage, hmmm, most of the songs don't really fit that, and before she makes a major change, she has to make sure it won't look artificial. The moment things look artificial the artist loses credibility

[roger]

Exactly. I didn't mean she should go walkabout during the songs. But it would be nice if she strolled towards one side whilst introducing a song, then sit on a stool to sing it as you suggest. It would be nice for those in the side seats to get a closer view for a few minutes.

Roger

[Andrew]

Hi All,

I have a strong opinion with regard to Hayley's stage presence and it is pretty simple and as direct as this... TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT!

Like Roger says, Hayley is perfectly capable if she is required to perform in a stage show, or as an actress or a dancer. When Hayley is on stage she is not trying to be anyone else, she is presenting herself in the way she feels most comfortable- true to herself and her audience.

(With all due respect to the people concerned) I personally would emphatically stress that previous comments which were made about Hayley needing to "break out of her cocoon" and the like are all POPPYCOCK! Nonsense...Rubbish...

Hayley just happens to be a very talented, confident and yet unassuming down to earth kind of person. I find her "happy giggles" and typical stage manner all part of her charm and I wouldn't have her any other way.

For anyone complaining that Hayley is "static" on stage, (I would prefer to say "focussed") just remember this... breathing is an extremely important aspect of singing (a lot of people take that for granted). Next time you see Hayley on stage, watch how she stands- you can see that she does so for the specific reason of controlling her breathing. When Hayley sings her pop numbers like 'Who Painted the Moon Black' she takes on a diffenent stance and eminates the pulse of the song through her body movement. I can clearly see the transition from her classial pieces through to her pop songs- it's definitely there!

Hayley is not trying to be Kylie Minogue! There are 10 a penny "divo type female pop acts" out there. Hayley really dislikes being stereotyped. I've been to see a lot of stage performers and personally I don't think it is necessary for Hayley to dance about (she has Fiona Pears to do that for her!).

Has anyone here been to see Tori Amos performing before? I saw her a number of times during the 1990's Tori has a certain style of sitting "astride" her piano stool. During some of her songs she really "lets rip" during songs like 'These Precious Things' and 'Little Earthquakes' and lets her flame-coloured hair have the spotlight, but for most of her songs, (I can't believe I'm comparing Hayley to Tori EEK!) she is very still on stage and is more concerned about controlling her breathing so that her music is really expressive. Hayley does this too (I've been to see Hayley more times than I ever saw Tori!)

Andrew

[Dave]

As I just shifted the discussion back to here, I'll give a link to page 9 of the NZ News thread where today's discussion started (for reference not replies!).

Strong stuff in the above post from Andrew! I wouldn't put it as strongly as that but I do generally agree with it.

I won't repeat what I said in the other thread but I will add to it by asking anyone who thinks Hayley generally needs to move about more on stage one question:

Please tell me in what way moving about more would have improved the performance and impact of Andrea Bocelli and Hayley's superb duet at Gotta Skate i.e. Vivo Per Lei (click the link if you haven't heard it).

I rest my case.

Dave

[postscript]

Well, hi everyone.

Although the last post was 27th January and the thread has been running since mid-December, I have been away from the site since my last main post on the Huddersfield Concert on 17th December, so in order to get a feel of what has been happening since, I have been catching up on quite a body of posts. On this thread this includes the link across to the New Zealand reports where Belinda has once more come into her own. She is doubtless sad Hayley has once more gone globe-trotting! I remember her gently chiding me for seeming to want to hog Hayley over here, leading to Christmas, when Belinda was anxious to have Hayley back home!

In winnowing the posts, I do not wish to presume to sum up the thread. I find empathy with many seeming contradictions! Arguably, that actually sums up Hayley—her wishing to explore herself and her opportunities means diversity and in diversity apparent contradictions lie unless seen in their respective contexts.

Hayley enjoys vast crowds but also intimate theatre. She concentrates on 'one-night stands', the most difficult thing for any performer. She does not have the benefit of 'knowing' her theatre from a previous night's direct experience, quite apart from the effect that each night's audience changes according to locale.

Huddersfield was a classic example. The age range and people mix was Hayley typical but not a typical Hayley audience. It was a specialist audience, used to their Methodist choir and their brass band visitors. This is why I noted in my report that they, ‘hung on every breath she breathed, following the detail of every cadence, waiting for the silence that determined the last note had finally died, before bursting into spontaneous applause.’ It was a musically sophisticated audience.

All too often the applause drowns out that ‘dying fall’ rather than allowing the flavour to evaporate off the tongue, as with the savouring of a fine wine. That silence must initially be quite disconcerting for the artist until she realises the momentary silence is rapture, an enthusiastic distilling of every part of her performance.

Further, Hayley responded to that theatre in the way she responds to all her venues, individually. Huddersfield is a classic music hall style concert hall, where the auditorium lights were not fully dimmed, so she could see right to the depth of the auditorium oval, while almost shaking hands with the people in the stage end of the upper balcony. On so crowded a stage, she had barely the space to come on and go off but this did not inhibit a sense of movement. It was not just the way she swung her upper body and arms but the way her head so obviously took in the wide range of audience seating. Her eyes clearly encompassed all, as I described her arrival in the vestibule in that report. She was aware of everything around her and made the whole feel a part of her.

It is a truism of great conductors that they have an ability to make every instrumentalist in the orchestra feel as if they are conducted personally. This is the impression created by all the great solo performers. They engender the feeling in each member of the audience the artist is singing solely to them. It is a technique Hayley has not yet fully mastered, although I am convinced she understands it and is working on it. I have seen it in many of her performances.

So, first, who are we who are criticising her? People who see many of her performances in any concert sequence, so we can more easily compare and note patterns to which the occasional ‘one-off’ concert-goer in any sequence of concerts misses completely—that is the majority of her public and we need to bear that in mind.

Most importantly of all, what are we criticising, but seemingly her ability to stand still! How many teenagers do members know who can stand still without fidgeting—or anyone short of fifty for that matter! To stand still on a stage without being wooden or stiff but showing a state of being relaxed and comfortable with oneself and an audience is no easy art to master. More over, Hayley is an artist who performs with very few constants in her life. Her backing/accompaniment periodically changes but is reasonably fixed. Beyond these everything is a state of change from the previous performance: light angles, intensities; stage size and shape; auditorium shape; audience type. The poor girl must have some fixture in her life around which she can hang her act and her response.

One observation has nagged at the back of my mind and that is the danger of her seemingly unrehearsed patter causing her occasionally to verbally stumble BUT let us remember the heavy criticisms of Il Divo in the America press: that their patter is artifice, stiff, awkward and false. Emphatically, it is not liked. As one NZ paper, perhaps critiquing the Dunedin concert observed, ‘she was on a stage decorated with some candles and she just came on saying in effect, ‘hi, this is me and this is what you get’. Don’t we all verbally stumble in our everyday speech, suddenly stopping mid-sentence to rephrase what we had started to say?

This is the age when politicians spin rather than do their job. The whole world seems on a hard sell to everyone to offload something and most of it gush or vacuity. Everyone seems to need to jig all over the place while Hayley quietly walks on stage in a normal manner, without artifice, to perform her act, don’t let’s knock it. There is a golden rule of theatre, do not move without purpose, so let’s ask the question of those who need to see her move more, what is the end purpose of her moving? Without purpose, why move?

More over, even in her standing still, her natural poise speaks her delicate grace like a bolt of draped silk. To hold a stage without artifice, simply by being is not an art that comes easily to many. For those of us privileged to have met Hayley off stage, the difference is solely location. She is the same Hayley either side of the footlights. Everything about her speaks grace but most importantly of all, even in her stillness, there is a sense of animation. With the movement of her hands, her upper body, her head, the way her eyes encapsulate her surroundings, this is no dressmaker’s window figure. When she has a large enough stage, she crosses it unhurriedly, with purpose lending a sense of gliding into position.

The danger of over-simplicity is that it can descend to naivety. Although she acknowledges the music world is one of hard knocks and when very young she had her anguishes, she has not yet been bruised in that cut and thrust. Perhaps her quoted awareness is more to do with cocooning herself for any disappointments to come. At the same time, the spirituality that is her esprit de corps does make one want to say to her, ‘Hayley, it’s a cynical world outside, be wary, don’t naively (or pigheadedly) ignore the way others do things, nor wear your heart too openly upon your sleeve’.

Therein lies the value of this discussion thread and this site overall. If we, who are particularly motivated in expressing our appreciation of Hayley and wishing to support her, cannot open avenues of critical and hopefully balanced debate then who will? We certainly will not serve her by fawning over her. By the cut and thrust of our debate, hopefully we will bring potential future criticism to her attention before it arises in the wider public world. Therein, we will serve her best.

Even if the intent of starting this thread was pure whimsy or deliberate provocation, debates like these help to widen the thinking and give a good riposte to the press. After all, which NZ paper it was taking her apart, are we sure its ratings aren’t down and it was looking for some self-centred focus puller?

Could it be the writers wanted to provoke, sell a few more copies, or simply promote themselves as clever-dicks? It happens. After all, their purpose in reporting is not to promote Hayley but simply to sell the paper and advertise it! There is often more behind a newspaper story than the story the newspaper presents.

In the mean time, I am convinced that when Hayley determines it is right for her to swing from the theatre chandelier, that is when she will do it and she will do it with aplomb!

postscript.