Vocalist Monday - Florence Quivar

someone recently asked me who my favorite vocalist is. it's a surprisingly short list, filled with names that don't get bandied about very often in the media. this opera singer is one of them.

i love florence quivar for so many reasons - mostly for this: i have yet to hear another opera diva sing classical music with so much soul. listen to ride on king jesus, the album she did with the harlem boys choir, in its entirety. i dare you. clearly those songs mean a lot to her personally. she is singing with what can only be described as pure raw emotion, and with a voice that is as refined and developed and sure as any of her generation. what you are hearing within those spirituals is the sound of her very soul, the absolute essence of who she is, praising God.

and isn't that the point - to be a conduit for the divine when you open up creatively? to praise God with whatever you do, however you can, with whatever you've got? in hearing ms. quivar's voice and her performance on that album and in considering what's floating around out there in the miasma, you don't have to listen for long before you click into so much narcissistic, self-serving dreck that consistently continues to miss the fracking mark.

she's the reason why i still love opera, why i'm so glad that i studied it formally at such an early age, why i continue to take lessons privately.

why this woman isn't a household name is beyond me.

i wish i could find some selection from that album to post here. instead, here's a duet that she did with pavarotti. not the tenor that i'm in love with, by any far stretch of the imagination. but maybe i'll let you in on that one next week.