In the glory days of the classical recording industry, rising divas were often introduced to the public with lavishly produced solo albums. A few lucky singers are still promoted that way, but in the present market's tight-budget atmosphere, some artists have become more involved in creating their own opportunities to be heard. WILLIAM V. MADISON listens in.
Nicole Cabell's debut album should be cause for rejoicing throughout Opera World. A selection of French, Italian and English-language arias paced by Andrew Davis and released by Decca,
Soprano has received abundant praise for the singer's luscious timbre and stylistic aptitude; her warmth and intelligence radiate in every note. Though nobody's quoting precise sales figures, Decca has promoted
Soprano vigorously. A studio album from a major label introducing a fresh talent — it's the kind of recording I grew up on but hadn't heard in years. Trouble is,
Soprano may be among the last of its kind.
Digital technology refuses to stop overwhelming the recording industry. We'd hardly adjusted to the fact that compact discs are more durable than vinyl records and seldom need to be replaced, when brick-and-mortar record stores succumbed to competition from online vendors, such as Amazon. We'd hardly adjusted to
that when online file-sharing and downloading emerged, then quickly gained respectability. Napster, once the premier network for illegal file-sharing, is now a legitimate pay service. Already the commerce of art was threatened — and now there's a global financial crisis.
"We're a small part of a big world, so our market realities are in sync with the rest of the world right now," says Melanne Mueller, senior vice-president at Universal Music Classical, the umbrella for Decca, Deutsche Grammophon and Philips. "Actually, we may have been ahead of the curve. In the music market it's no secret, we've been faced with challenges for several years now, since the advent of Napster, which was some years ago. We've been dealing with the market downturn since before the investment banks. I'm slightly joking, but there is some truth to that."
It's hard to quantify how bad things are in the industry. For example, since singers such as Andrea Bocelli and Josh Groban are considered classical artists, their sales skew statistics. Nielsen SoundScan, which provides U.S. and Canadian data for
Billboard's chart ratings, reported a decline in classical sales of 15 percent in 2005, when neither Bocelli nor Groban released a solo album. In 2006, both men released new albums, and classical sales rose 22.5 percent, leading some observers to celebrate, despite falling sales in most other categories. Bocelli just released a new album,
Incanto. Does that mean 2008 will be another "banner" year?
In Europe, circumstances are no better. Take Spain, which has seen declining music sales every year since 2002. In 2006, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry cited the Spanish as Europe's worst offenders for illegal downloads and piracy (though Il Divo's
Siempre sold well the same year).
"The thing to remember is that there is a complete change in the delivery of
all music, not just classical," says Matthew Epstein, director of vocal divisions at Columbia Artists Management, who's mentored Cabell since her young-artist days at Lyric Opera of Chicago. "The internet will be the new record store. We will purchase the performances, perhaps only in smaller aria-by-aria choices as opposed to disc choices, over the internet."
In fact, this already came true a few years ago; iTunes marked its five-billionth legal download last June, while illegal downloading continues to proliferate. For the paradigm to work, consumers must pay for music, and neither the industry nor any government has figured out a way to enforce the pertinent laws reliably.
In my telephone conversation with Mueller, I admit that I pay for downloads from iTunes but prefer to buy CDs. "I can almost guess your age," she replies. "There are people like you and me and older generations who still want that physical product. There are still retail stores and online outlets. But we have a generation coming up now that won't know anything
but acquiring their music online. We're in a big adjustment period. It's going to be, I believe, a number of years still."
Soprano sprang to life shortly after Cabell won the Cardiff Singer of the World competition, in 2005. Already interested in her, Decca executives attended the contest and set up a meeting. "We were talking just about the one album, it was going to be an introduction to me, and maybe there'd be another if it sold well," Cabell recalls. "I figured they were interested in my growth, because whether you're starting or you're already a name, a record is going to take a while to sell. They were thinking, 'She's young, and we can help to build her image.'" Over the course of negotiations, Decca concluded that an exclusive contract "would be beneficial to everybody"; she signed, and the first album was completed about seven months after the Cardiff win and released in 2007. A second solo album is in the works.
Cabell says the recording has opened the door for higher profile jobs and opportunities. "In this business, it's important to have media attention, something sexier or more glamorous to help with promotion. With a recording, that happens. The record company does half the work the opera companies would do otherwise. That's very appealing for opera houses."
The California native talks shop fluently yet never seems pushy or careerist, perhaps because she's so obviously delighted by her success. She marvels that she's now on the same label as Renée Fleming. That's also the same label as Bocelli, whose revenues may give Universal the confidence to continue producing solo albums by relative newcomers, though many labels have stopped.
"We help build artists' careers," Mueller says. "You can look at someone like Cecilia Bartoli, who was signed when she was very young, and we've worked with her her entire career. That's a long arc and a long development, a perfect example of how things work and should work." In any young artist, she says, Universal is looking for musicianship first, but beyond that for a commitment.
"Gone are the days of the artist who would walk out on the stage and give a wonderful recital, never do a special signing, never do a meet-and-greet with the top patrons of an organization. That's important. Behind every recording is not only an artist but a human being. We're all in a different time economically," Mueller continues, "and whether it's the recording market or the performance market, we've all had to evolve, to understand what it is to be a serious artist. That media savvy — to be in touch with the public — it's exciting. These are vibrant young artists. It's partly a sign of the times, it's partly your understanding, 'This will help me.' It's not always work for them. I think it's part of the fun of being a musical performer."
As it happens, that's just how Cabell describes being asked to give as many as six interviews in one day: "It was a great opportunity to talk about the art form and call attention to it," she says.
"I still think it is really a very necessary thing for a young singer, for any singer to make recordings," says Marilyn Horne, who coached Cabell prior to Cardiff. "My God! Anybody who's upwardly mobile. You have to get your voice around the world." Yet even for established artists on major labels, challenges persist. "I'm the case in point — I've been the victim of bad distribution," Horne says, recounting how executives have met her suggestions with the robotic reply "Not in our marketing strategy."
"You're fighting an uphill battle most of the time," she observes. "Do you know how often those guys change? That's part of what happens. Somebody brings you in or wants you to make a recording or a contract, and then within a short time that person is out." Bottom line: "A lot of singers who can't get a company to record them should try to do it themselves."
Soprano Ana María Martínez, another smart musician with a beautiful instrument, did just that. Like Cabell, Martínez had won a prestigious international prize (at Operalia, in 1995) and looks great in a strapless gown. Unlike Cabell, however, Martínez got her start recording ensemble projects (many with Plácido Domingo or with Bocelli); in part because of executive turnover, discussions of solo projects at major labels yielded no fruit.
"Here I am," Martínez recalls, "waiting, wishing, praying, like God's hand will come down and say, 'Here, my child, is your solo contract.' Finally I said, 'I'm going to stop waiting around and do it myself.'"
She hired a producer/editor, a sound engineer, the Prague Philharmonia and conductor Steven Mercurio. "Flying everybody in, transporting everybody — every last penny was something I financed." When she was through, she shopped the album to several companies for distribution, arriving at last at Naxos, which released the album (Naxos 8557827) in 2005. "It's gotten tremendous exposure, great reviews," the soprano says. The label's budget prices make it painless for listeners to get to know her work, and she now has a lasting document of her voice.
"You can do it," Martínez says. "You can executive-produce it, you can finance it, you can speak to people who are passionate about the arts who have donated to the arts who can help you with money." Even if one can't find a distributor, she recommends setting up a website and selling the recording at concerts and recitals, as well. She says there are "so many options today that the door is wide open."
"We're seeing the visual, the DVD, the live television broadcast serve the same purpose of promoting young artists and making them well-known by a broad public," Epstein says. "The success of Mr. Gelb's broadcasts from the Met shows that those can be a good promotion for a young artist. Much of the industry is moving to visual from sound-only. In most cases the visual material comes from opera houses themselves, and much of it is live performance," he notes, as opposed to more cinematic production. This reduces a record company's initial outlay while increasing potential revenue for opera companies and concert halls, which would have produced a performance anyway. Casting and repertory decisions and even distribution are shifting into impresarios' hands.
"I really sense a renaissance in recordings," Cabell says. "Even five years ago, you didn't have a lot of young singers being signed. Now there's a happy number. It's still not that many, compared to how many are singing, but it's quite a bit." How does she account for that? "I would like to believe it's about the longevity of the art form — almost like a museum for the continuation of the art form and of culture in our world. You never know, but I like to think positively like that."
WILLIAM V. MADISON
is at work on the authorized biography of singing actress Madeline Kahn.
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