ElenaHouse

Hi everyone!

It's been awhile. I thought back to when I did my cover of Enya's "May it be" from the movie "Lord of the Rings" and I wanted to give another of her songs a try. I decided to tackle her biggest hit "Only Time". I had to get producer Thomas Schauffert involved to get the right sound for this one. So I sang it a bunch of times and he mixed them. The video is of one of the recordings. Hope you like it.

I found this wonderful instrumental recording of Walking in the Air and just had to give singing it a try. Mom put together a nice relaxing video to go along with it. Hope you like it.

Brava, maestra, brava. Just now and then, especially on the high notes, you reminded me of a very young Sarah Brightman, which I mean as a compliment.

And you should be getting an award, too.

Thank you, Ron. We both know how much we appreciate Sarah.

No award but it looks like singing in Hong Kong will be next because of someone in that audience. Yay!

I was invited to perform at the Beverly Hilton in L.A. for "The World's Most Distinguished Chinese Award Gala" on June 28th. It was a great audience filled with movie and music producers. The award winners were all seated at the front so you will see a lot of movement there because everyone wanted to congratulate them. I sang "The Last Rose of Summer".

Hi guys.

I brought my twin sister in to help with this video. LOL

At first I wasn't sure which way I wanted to sing this song, the original like princess Aurora or like Lana Del Rey which seems more like Maleficent. Then I decided to do both. That's when I had to call my sister.

I hope you like it.

Hi everyone.

My first attempt at singing "All of me" by John Legend was, as my teacher says, too bright. It was with my usual high Opera resonance. I re-sang it and tried to tone it down and just go with feeling. I hope it came out OK.

Elena,

Missing your videos in the "Social Media" section

How are you doing ?

Adolph

Hi Adolph.

I just put this Nightwish song on the "Social Media" section.

Did you miss my Vampire music video and the info on the Vampire Feature Film I received a lead roll in? If so you can see that post here. I put that in the SMedia section just 2 weeks ago.

http://themodernvocalist.punbb-hosting.com/viewtopic.php?id=9418

You should have seen it on my Facebook unless your'e at the doctor a lot lately. I hope you are feeling well.

Yes.

And here's some other trivia important only to me. When we got married, my wife's mother made her wedding dress. Have you ever seen the dress worn by Drew Barrymore in "Everafter"? It was that dress, but with darker blue main pattern and lighter blue accents.

And I had tights and formal blouse made by a dear friend and my hair was halfway down my back. Even though we were dressed for 17th century England, I looked more like the mascot for the Minnesota Vikings.

Was it this dress:

Or this one?

Love them both.

Ron, you have got to post a pic of you two at your wedding. I wanna see the tights. LOL

That's very nice Elena!

Thank you, Bzean. I stumbled across the group Nightwish and this song, Sleeping Sun, really spoke to me.

And I swing the hammer to ring the bell. And I ring it three times in a row. It's all technique.

Good job, Elena.

Thanks Ron.

I, on the other hand, have never rung the bell. Don't want to get the dress dusty and all.

Last year I was an Elf. Do you remember the pink outfit from Enya's "May it Be"?

Thanks everyone.

The filming starts in July and I'm not sure when it will hit theaters. We had a "table read" Wednesday night with most of the cast. This is going to be soooo funny. If you want to see pictures and updates you can "like" their FaceBook page: http://www.facebook.com/AtlantaVampireMovie

Changing the subject, when are we going to watch you on the screen on the vampire movie? :cool: Cheers!

Thanks Gneetapp.

The filming starts in July. It will take some time in "post" because of the special effects. We had a "table read" Wednesday night with most of the cast. This is going to be soooo funny. If you want to see pictures and updates you can "like" their FaceBook page: http://www.facebook.com/AtlantaVampireMovie

Hey guys.

I fell in love with this song the first time I heard it and immediately started working on it. We got some great footage out at the Georgia Renaissance Festival. I hope you enjoy it.

Incredible! Great performance and video!

Thanks, Igor. You did a fantastic job with Queen with "Show must go on".

Also thank you to Gneetapp and mvrasseli. This was the sound I was going for with my Soprano voice. I am Opera trained and like to change song to fit my voice. Igor, now he sings them exactly like the original artists.

Love it, Igor. Great job.

I bet we could do a great NightWish song. I'm wrapping up "Sleeping Sun" right know.

I love their version of Phantom of the Opera.

I know I had replied to this thread and now it is gone. Adolph, has my account been hacked?

I thought the same thing, Ron. I came in the next day and couldn't find my post and I was thinking "I know I put it here somewhere". haha. Then I checked my email and saw Robert's explanation and reposted.

(wonder what you said the first time around)

@Elena,

I just saw Highlander last year, and I was singing this song and "Princes of the Universe" for a straight week. I really dig your interpretation, and I liked the concept of the video [thought the lovers' deaths were silly, but funny]. The operatic, crooning quality of your voice does give away to an almost succubus or vampiress-like mournful ballad, which is an interesting take on the original song. I really like the ring of your head voice. Great listen, great fun.

Thank you, Java.

Hi guys.

I love this song by the unbeatable Freddie Mercury. I made my video story from the feeling I got for this song while watching Highlander. I felt that a vampire might feel the same way after snacking on many lovers over the decades.

It was interesting that after seeing a picture I posted for this video on Facebook the producer for the upcoming movie "Atlanta Vampire Movie" contacted me to be in be in the movie. It's a Vampire spoof. It's gonna be so fun to make.

Hi everyone.

While we were in the middle of the snow storm I just had to make this video in a winter wonderland. Hallelujah was written by Leonard Cohen and made more famous in one of my favorite childhood movies, Shrek.

Hi everyone.

A classical version of a progressive rock song from the Seventies. Because I'm so young I first heard this song from Sarah Brightman's album. Then I listened to the original. Both are great but my voice is definitely more like Sarah's. She did it with a very mysterious sounding reverb but I decided to do it without that. I hope you enjoy.

Hi everyone.

My latest assignment is "Ebben! Ne Andro Lontana" ("Well, then? I'll go far away,") the principal aria from the Opera "La Wally". In this scene the young lady, La Wally, tells her father that she has decided to leave her home forever and to go out into the cold of the Alp mountains. The opera features a memorable operatic death in which the heroine throws herself into an avalanche. It is seldom performed, partly because of the difficulty of staging that scene, but Wally's principal aria is still sung frequently.

Outstanding. Very reminiscent of Sarah's cover.

Oh, and I should also mention, you said months back that you use Adobe Premiere for green screening. Well, I decided to give it a try, and it cut our rendering time in HALF! Needless to say, the old Pinnacle software has been ditched.

So, thanks for that!

Very happy to have been helpful.

We are still experimenting with different lighting to get the best results. For this one we used a DSLR camera shooting RAW for pictures and all cold white lights. It gave me the extra pale look of a Fairy in the video (a little too much) but in the pictures it was easy to adjust skin color with Photoshop using the "White balance" button and choosing "Daylight". The lights should all be the same type or the software has a hard time dealing with it. Meaning that the lights on the green screen and the light on the subject should be the same type.

Just a something we learned through trial and error. ;)

Hi everyone.

I put on my best fairy look for this version of "Scarborough Fair". I was imagining an older version of this song as explained below.

The lyrics suggest a tale of a young man who instructs the listener to tell his former love to perform for him a series of impossible tasks, such as making him a shirt without a seam and then washing it in a dry well, adding that if she completes these tasks he will take her back.

As the versions of the ballad known under the title "Scarborough Fair" usually adopt the premise of these impossible tasks, many suggestions concerning the plot have been proposed, including the hypothesis that it is about the Great Plague of the late Middle Ages. The lyrics of "Scarborough Fair" appear to have something in common with an obscure Scottish ballad, The Elfin Knight, which has been traced at least as far back as 1670 and may well be earlier. In this ballad, an elf threatens to abduct a young woman to be his lover unless she can perform an impossible task. (information from Wikipedia)

Please enjoy.

Hi everyone!

Here is a festive song to bring in the New Year. Libiamo ne' lieti calici - The Drinking Song - is a famous duet with chorus from Verdi's La traviata, one of the best-known opera melodies and a popular performance choice.

The song is a brindisi, a lively song that encourages the drinking of wine or other alcoholic beverages. We were using sparkling juice as a substitute in the video.

Hi everyone.

My latest Opera assignment is Lascia ch'io pianga, an soprano aria by composer George Frideric Handel which has become a popular concert piece. The melody for the song began its life as an Asian dance in his 1705 opera Almira. As an aria the piece was first used in Handel's 1707 oratorio Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno; but with a different text and name, "Lascia la spina".

I have been wanting to sing this song for awhile. I love Cecilia Bartoli, Renee Fleming, and the Farinelli movie's version of the song. I hope you like it.