Folk Song + Parlor Piano + Opera Voice = ??? (or, Oh I Come From Catania With A Piano On My Knee)

* regarding "Oh! Susanna" as performed by Richard Lalli, from the album And The Beat Goes On.

This recording utterly confuses me.

"Oh! Susanna" is a common folk song still popular today, so I came into listening to it with some preconceived notions. I was immediately struck at the odd choice of instrumentation used for this recording. Most people probably think of "Oh, Susanna" these days as a campfire song, accompanied instrumentally by an acoustic guitar and sung by a solo singer or small, informal group.

The instrumental accompaniment on this particular recording is not a guitar, but a piano – and not even a Ragtimey western saloon sort of piano, but a dainty, intricate Mozarty sonata type of piano. The song was most likely originally performed with the traditional minstrel instrumentation of fiddle, banjo, tambourine, and bones.

And then there’s that voice. Ugh. "OH! SUSANNA" IS NOT AN OPERA – SO DON’T SING IT LIKE AN OPERA! I cannot stand singers that overdo the vibrato. Vocal vibrato originated in the opera genre so that a singer could be heard over an entire orchestra. Vibrato is not necessary to be heard over the sound of one lone piano. The song was most likely originally performed in a quite plain and informal vocal manner.

And then we get to the chorus of the song. Arg. Four-part harmonies? Are you kidding me? This is "Oh! Susanna" for Godsakes. Take your four-part harmonies and go sing Handel’s "Messiah" or something. Richard Lalli takes a tune that would fit in a parlor or on a minstrel stage and tries to make it go to a Sunday church service.

May the Lord have mercy on his genre jumping soul.