[Ingélou]

If you were to be famous for one of the reasons mentioned in the poll, what would you like to be noted for?
Write a brief profile of this famous alter ego of yours, and how s/he excelled.
Describe your style of singing and the operatic roles you excelled in.
Or describe the sort of orchestral work you'd like to write, and what the critics said about it.
Give a synopsis of the plot of the opera you wrote, and so on.

Fantasy - tout court.
But the wittier the better.

Not expecting oodles of replies - but one lives in hope.
Thanks to anyone who ventures. :tiphat:

 

[Ingélou]

I think I'd like to be a famous singer more than anything. It would be wonderful to be a violin virtuoso, but the flesh quails before all that practice. Being remembered for your compositions would be fine, but you'd have to spend a long time on your own in your study thrashing it out. Conducting - I've never known what all the fuss is about! :devil:
I'd be quite tempted by being a famous musical biographer, as I enjoy writing. Maybe I could write a best-selling detective story about Lully, or about how Leclair met his death. Or if I wrote a biography of someone who died not too long ago, I could go round interviewing people who knew him or her, and I do so enjoy talking to people.

 

[DiesIraeCX]

Although I'd love to be a biographer or music critic, I already have enough academic material at my fingertips to satisfy my curiosity.

I'd choose to be a virtuoso fortepianist! My second option would be a famous conductor (of a Symphony Orchestra).

 

[Taggart]

I've popped down instrumentalist - early keyboards - clavichord, virginal, spinet, harpsichord, simple organ - playing a repertoire from 1490 to about 1650. This would (inevitably) involve a fair amount of musicology and criticism and discovery and editing of sources.

Imagine doing a tour of English music from Richard Allwood to Richard Wynslade via Byrd, Dowland, Gibbons, Lawes, Tallis, Taverner -great fun!

 

[Ingélou]

But no - a singer.
'She had a pure but very expressive mezzo-soprano voice, and, although in her youth she appeared in a television production of Carmen, she specialised in baroque operas - when performing as Dido in Purcell's opera, she once famously stopped the production in its tracks when the conductor of the orchestra broke down in tears! In her later years, she made the role of sorceress in the same opera her own.

She also gave a definitive performance as Sesto in Handel's Giulio Cesare.

The cd that she made of French courtly love songs - Fourteenth-Century Fire - became one of the best-selling early music productions of all time.

She undertook her last stage role at the age of eighty-four, and for eight years after that gave regular concerts for charity.

She died just a few weeks short of her hundredth birthday, a day after her fitting for the dress she'd planned to wear while singing to the fellow residents of her nursing home.'

 

[GreenMamba]

Composer. Classical instrument mostly, that improbably sells. Maybe a "post-minimalist" type who catches on with the pop/rock crowds but without being overly repetitive. Writes the occasional film score. Dies while still cool.

I struggle to imagine myself as a performer because of nerves.

 

[Manxfeeder]

Distinguished critic and musicologist Manxfeeder came to prominence when he championed appreciation of music from ceiling fans. His treatise demonstrating how tape hiss has a legitimate place in the overtone series spurred a renewed interest in cassettes and vintage Sony Walkmans. His influence is credited with the presidency of Julliard being granted to Kenny G.

 

[MoonlightSonata]

I would like to be a condposianingographitic.

 

[MoonlightSonata]

But no - a singer.
'She had a pure but very expressive mezzo-soprano voice, and, although in her youth she appeared in a television production of Carmen, she specialised in baroque operas - when performing as Dido in Purcell's opera, she once famously stopped the production in its tracks when the conductor of the orchestra broke down in tears! In her later years, she made the role of sorceress in the same opera her own.

She also gave a definitive performance as Sesto in Handel's Giulio Cesare.

The cd that she made of French courtly love songs - Fourteenth-Century Fire - became one of the best-selling early music productions of all time.

She undertook her last stage role at the age of eighty-four, and for eight years after that gave regular concerts for charity.

She died just a few weeks short of her hundredth birthday, a day after her fitting for the dress she'd planned to wear while singing to the fellow residents of her nursing home.'

:clap: Love it!
You could use Ingélou as a stage name.

 

[Guest]

Well, need I say it? I voted for Beethoven !!!

 

[Dim7]

Well, need I say it? I voted for Beethoven !!!

You wish to be dead?

 

[QuietGuy]

My exact choice wasn't there: I'd be a famous composer of instrumental AND choral works. I've long admired the works of Barber, Bernstein and Copland (my own "BBC") who were all capable of writing instrumental, vocal, choral, operatic works. In addition, Debussy, Ravel, Faure, Griffes, Hanson, Gershwin all wrote instrumental and vocal works.

It's part of the skill of being a good well-rounded composer -- one has to know how to create a melody that suits the mood of the words, as much as how to create melodies that suit the instrumental ensemble for which he's writing.

 

[Albert7]

Can I be Mahler?

 

[SimonNZ]

Philanthropist / producer: putting musicians and composers together, commissioning and/or making their projected work possible , clearing obstacles and allowing the public to hear exciting new works and ensembles.

...if I can dream

 

[SixFootScowl]

My dream would be to be able to play guitar like Johnny Winter could, and be able to sing decently (not necessarily beautifully as i would want to play more blues and folkish stuff so a coarse, rough voice fits). Then I would like to be able to write some really good songs with great messages as well as cover favorite songs of others--if I can do them any justice.

 

[Ukko]

Scottish bagpipes, yeah. Famous, yeah - in Vermont & New Hampshire - for the sweetness of my sound.

 

[Morimur]

Composer of . . . EVERYTHING!

 

[ArtMusic]

Me, as famous opera, vocal composer in the 18th century.

 

[manyene]

I have chosen the role of a famous critic, largely because as a teenager this was one of my ambitions, having read Tovey's essays. I have no performing skills, despite several attempts;I would never be a composer after finding I had inadvertently copied a theme of Debussy's thinking it was my invention. I did write several crits of concerts, and once, even a programme note, but that was as I got before reality set in. I suppose membership of discussion forums is a kind of substitute for this ambition??

 

[Blancrocher]

Musical biographer, since I'd hate to be really famous. I'm not sure if those other people (with the possible exception of classical music composers) can leave their homes without being pestered by rabid fans.