Videos: Opening Night *spoilers*

[drzubritsky]

Originally Posted by louielouie2000

Yeah she definitely has a problem with projecting too much. You can totally see she realized that while singing the first few lines of Sara for her Soundstage. She took it down a few notches, and sang beautifully. Storms was good when she wasn't belting. But it wasn't too pretty when she did .

This has been my issue with Stevie's vocals for the past dozen years. While I can accept the fact she doesn't have the upper range of her youth, I see no reason why she can't vary the dynamics a bit. Some more variety in dynamics would partially compensate for the lost high notes, and provide some opportunities for new interpretations that may be just as interesting in a different way.

I wonder if the vocal coaching is actually degrading the quality of her interpretations? It sounds as if she's trying so hard to maintain vocal control that she's not varying her voice at all. I think The Dance was the last time we heard more dynamic vocals and that was before she started regular voice coaching. On The Dance, she occasionally summoned that breathy quality that has since disappeared (e.g. the "rock on, ancient queen" section on GDW).

This is not just a problem in concert but on studio recordings as well. The only vocal variation of any significance that I can recall since The Dance was that rare moment of semi-falsetto on "Sorcerer".