From a reader:
Hi-
Not to overwhelm you with argument, but, the people bellyaching about Paul Potts’ not being an amateur make me sick. I do have some background and experience in singing, by the way… . And one of my best friends was Boris Goldovsky’s music director for the Goldovsky Opera Theater.
Paul Potts won 6000 pounds in a talent show, and spent it all and three times as much trying to make up for crippling liabilities in the opera world, those being, being too poor, too old, having no connections, not looking beautiful, and not being able to go to college university or conservatory.
He paid his own way on for-profit opera tours where people pay to sing, and the highlight is you get to sing before a name singer, and that person pats you on the head and says something diplomatic.
Pavarotti has probably over the decades of his career sat as 10,000 students or questers sang for him.
Had Paul Potts been a junior in some college and had spent a summer in Italy spending Daddy’s money to hang out on the periphery, would anyone say “professional”?
The man doesn’t even have a $25/week church gig.
Now, I could go on at three times the length why he is out of his depth in big roles like Calaf (Nessun Dorma), but he can make some “popera” records and then if he can make the right people take him seriously, he can have a career singing “male best friend of the male love interest” roles… .
Ciao, bambino!
Me: Prediction: There will be a Paul Potts made-for-TV-movie and it will be a predictable but effective tear-jerker.