| | Hi Meg. Thanks for your response. What I was hinting at in my comparison of a singer and a person who paints by numbers is that compromise is not a vice for a singer. His "artistic integrity" is ~defined~ by his willingness to compromise (or abandon) his individual creative vision in favor of the composer's.
A singer doesn't create any of the vital aspects of the art which he performs (the subject, score or libretto). He sings the notes and words that someone else has written, just as a paint-by-number artist paints the shapes and colors that someone else has outlined and indicated.
Meg wrote,
"They can also add their own individuality to them with their individual voice / playing style and invent new ways of making the pieces even better or more perfect. In this way they are professionals inventing. The artist who comes up with his own composition is also inventing."
An operatic singer is not asked to scat and jam and otherwise jazz things up with improvisation. He is not requested to "invent." His task is to study his role and learn how it is to be performed ~correctly~. He is to conform to the styles and traditions which have been established over centuries by kings, emperors, their court composers, advisers, and other arbiters of imposed taste. The closer an operatic singer comes to following the predetermined rules, the "better" he is deemed to be. Any "individuality" which lingers through to the finished product will be the target of connoisseurs' criticism.
Meg wrote,
"Painting by numbers, on the other hand, leaves little room for invention."
Paint-by-number kits leave more room for invention than any classic opera I've ever heard. Even though it's ususally limited to 10 or 20 colors/values, there is plenty of room for different styles of blends, blurs, scumbling and other techniques which would make the image either more lifelike or more "posterized."
Meg wrote,
"If I am correct, the composition and the colors are chosen beforehand."
Yes, the composition and colors are chosen beforehand, just as the composition, notes and words of an opera are chosen beforehand. The singer does not have input in writing it.
Meg wrote,
"It can be a fun pastime for the amateur, but it is not the same as professional music-making or artistry."
I disagree. A professional artist's paint-by-number project would be as noticeably superior to an amateur hobbyist's as Plácido Domingo's singing is to mine. In fact, there are companies which hire people to paint copies of famous paintings using the paint-by-number techinique. A canvas is printed with a contour/cartoon and very skilled craftsmen fill in the colors. They're quite popular.
J
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