Chita's Raspy Singing Tone

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Chita's Raspy Singing Tone

Posted: 7/7/06 at 2:30pm

I've only recently been into Chita after seeing her in The Dancer's Life. Has her voice always been raspy? I've been buying some OBC with her from more recent shows like Nine and Kiss and she sounds raspy. Has it always been like that or is it age or does she smoke? She sounds like my mother who smokes two packs a day.

"The sexual energy between the mother and son really concerns me!"-random woman behind me at Next to Normal "I want to meet him after and bang him!"-random woman who exposed her breasts at Rock of Ages, referring to James Carpinello

re: Chita's Raspy Singing Tone

Posted: 7/7/06 at 2:35pm

Yes, I think she is a terrible singer, she always sounded like that. Still it seems that saying that a Broadway "legend" can't sing is a sin. I enjoyed Chita's last Bway show, a lot. But she was more of a dancer back in her day. Chita has a great personality though, she was hilarious in her show.

"People have their opinions and that doesn't mean that their opinions are wrong or right. I just take it with a grain of salt because opinions are like as*holes, everyone has one". -Felicia Finley-

Updated On: 7/7/06 at 02:35 PM

re: Chita's Raspy Singing Tone

Posted: 7/7/06 at 2:40pm

I don't have many Chita albums, but I do have West Side Story and she doesn't sound raspy at all.

I also borrowed Chicago from my library, and I don't remember her sounding too raspy.

I am a firm believer in serendipity- all the random pieces coming together in one wonderful moment, when suddenly you see what their purpose was all along.

re: Chita's Raspy Singing Tone

Posted: 7/7/06 at 2:41pm

I agree. I was second row for Dancer's Life and felt like it was an intimate evening of her telling stories. Her zest for life is so clear. She has an incandescent spirit. I'm totally devoted to her now. She is a role model on so many levels. I just wasn't clear on her singing voice-if it was always like that.

re: Chita's Raspy Singing Tone

Posted: 7/7/06 at 2:51pm

Think about getting The Rink next. She brought something incredible to that, and her voice suited the part of the run down Rink proprietor, perfectly.

Life is...just a bowl of cherries...

re: Chita's Raspy Singing Tone

Posted: 7/7/06 at 3:14pm

It really depends on which Performance you are talking about. She definitely has earthy tones to her voice and there is always that mixture of saliva in her voice, to put it frankly, but that should not take away from her singing. Being brought up on Chita I think she has a wonderful voice and belt.
She has one bad recording and one good, but not as good as the replacement, recording. Her bad one is Bye Bye Birdie, I really can not stand her English Teacher and What Did I Ever See In Him, though her Spanish Rose is very lively. The other recording is Kiss Of The Spider Woman. What is funny, is that both of these roles were done by Vanessa Williams, who I definitely prefer on Bye Bye... but since Chita still gives and amazingly well crafted performance as the Spider Woman all I can say is that Vanessa's voice is better on her recording.

re: Chita's Raspy Singing Tone

Posted: 7/7/06 at 3:19pm

She admits to 72. If you factor in what could be delicately called a theatrical deduction, you'd have a raspy voice too.

Unless you are truly dedicated singer (Kitty Carlisle Hart has a daily voice lesson at 96), the pipes can get rusty.

"If my life weren't funny, it would just be true. And that would be unacceptable." --Carrie Fisher

re: Chita's Raspy Singing Tone

Posted: 7/7/06 at 3:21pm

I like her voice, I think it's interesting. I've only seen her in Nine, but I thought it worked VERY well there. And there's a reason she's a legend... she lit up the stage! I couldn't take my eyes off her.

Now what would you say if today I started over? Without a thing but this taped together four leaf clover And I'll pretend like everything is already alright And I'll run toward the sun till the castle's out of sight

re: Chita's Raspy Singing Tone

Posted: 7/7/06 at 3:27pm

Though her voice has tattered a bit over her 50 year career (and yes, she smoked), Chita is one of the most thrilling theatre vocalists to this day. There is LIFE in her voice and its rough edges only imbue her characters with further dimension. She is also from the era of pre-microphones where she had to belt it to rafters 8 times a week. To be honest, I'd prefer to listen to her than some of our recent vocal heroines who all kind of sound the same (high pingy, pop belt). Give me a unique diva any day.

#10

re: Chita's Raspy Singing Tone

Posted: 7/7/06 at 3:34pm

Chita's voice has always sounded as it does now.

If you listen to WSS -" A boy like that" OCR, it sounds exactly the same as her recent rendition of the song in "the dancer's life"...

Personally, I love her voice, it's unique, expressive and extremely powerful...

Vanessa W, certainly has a "pretty voice", but Chita owns Kiss.

#11

re: Chita's Raspy Singing Tone

Posted: 7/7/06 at 3:36pm

I do not like Chita's raspiness. Her voice, IMO, is not good, and I never really enjoyed her performance.

There is such a thing as a beautiful raspy quality ie Maria Friedman, who has such a beauty in the raspy quality of her voice, but Chita's is much more coarse and hard.

...What happened next, was stranger still, a woman breathless and afraid, appeared out of the night, completely dressed in white. She had a secret she would tell, of one who had mistreated her. Her face and frightened gaze, my mind cannot erase...But then she ran from view. She looked so much like you...

#12

re: Chita's Raspy Singing Tone

Posted: 7/7/06 at 3:52pm

Everyone can't be Chenoweth....thank God

#13

re: Chita's Raspy Singing Tone

Posted: 7/7/06 at 3:54pm

Amen to that Tom :) I second that.

#14

re: Chita's Raspy Singing Tone

Posted: 7/7/06 at 3:55pm

Oh I agree that Chita owns Kiss, her rendition of it in the Dancer's Life, made me completly forget anything I ever heard of Vanessa Williams. And I do wish I was able to see both of them perform it in 1993, however, I think Vanessa's voice on Kiss's recording is not "pretty", but rather thrilling, haunting, and powerfull.

#15

re: Chita's Raspy Singing Tone

Posted: 7/7/06 at 4:27pm

She is a wonderful singer.

Forget if she has a raspy tone. She has a KILLER vibrato. One of the best vibratos on Broadway. Just listen to Spider Woman.

#16

re: Chita's Raspy Singing Tone

Posted: 7/7/06 at 11:04pm

yes.. chita has a killer vibrato,, and even at her age- one of the most powerful voices on broadway..

i like vanessa william's voice, but after listening to chita's recording of kiss, vanessa's seems affected,,

chita can sing a storm out of any song, sell it 150% and make it a show-stopper..

#17

re: Chita's Raspy Singing Tone

Posted: 7/7/06 at 11:13pm

Chita is amazing! I love her in everything!

"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view - until you climb into his skin and walk around in it."
To Kill A Mockingbird

#18

re: Chita's Raspy Singing Tone

Posted: 7/7/06 at 11:16pm

amen and halleluiah

#19

re: Chita's Raspy Singing Tone

Posted: 7/7/06 at 11:19pm

I loved Chita in Mr. Wonderful.

#20

re: Chita's Raspy Singing Tone

Posted: 7/7/06 at 11:31pm

Muscle, stating that Chita Rivera is a "terrible singer" is slightly (pardon the word) ignorant. A singer's job in a musical theater show is to deliver a song with all its subtext and to embellish the audience to a point that you feel for the character you're watching. In the case of a triple-threat the actor/actress has to use his/her body in addition to the voice to deliver the author's point of view. Chita Rivera is one of those actresses who can do just that. When she sings in Spider Woman, she makes you understand so many layers behind the character. Her voice is nothing short of haunting and spectacular in that recording. I also had the pleasure of seeing Chita in Chicago as Roxie and her stage presence simply blew me away, it was clear that the audience was in the presence of a theater legend. She has what many musical theater stars lack today which is uniqueness, she's not a cookie-cut performer, when she sings you know this is Chita Rivera and when she dances you feel you are in the presence of a legendary Broadway dancer. Her one-woman show was a major let down because of the terrible writing and lackluster direction, yet she made the most out of it, and still showed what an admirable performer she is.

#21

re: Chita's Raspy Singing Tone

Posted: 7/8/06 at 12:15am

I would take Chita over an Amy Spanger anyday. What Chita has is certainly irreplaceable nowadays. Someone recently said how lucky we are to have the oldest standing (and dancing!) Broadway triple threat there to still wow us.

Her voice, my God, I never saw Kiss of the Spiderwoman, but that cd just immortalizes this image in my brain of the character. The sensuality dripping from a then 60? year old woman is greater than the whoriest spectacle you find on Mtv, yet is just done with such subtle perfection. Her voice just gives to this menacing, yet enticing creature and not many other voices could ever even try to replicate that.

I compare her sometimes to Daphne Rubin-Vega, yet not to the same obvious magnitude. Many bash the raspy voice and deem them as talentless singers, yet if you actually ever see them perform, they truly give some of the best performances. To find that depth in a character through song is the point of musicals! People lose sight of this too much hearing women belting "Defying Gravity" throwing in riffs or going up higher and counting that as a talented legend of the stage

Updated On: 7/8/06 at 12:15 AM

#22

re: Chita's Raspy Singing Tone

Posted: 7/8/06 at 3:12am

"I would take Chita over an Amy Spanger anyday" -C-

According to your list of shows, you haven't seen Miss Spanger in any show yet. So you are talking about people you have never seen onstage.
I've seen both, and I like Chita, so it's not like im rooting against her. And just because i said she is not a "singer" it doesn't mean im saying she is not talented. As i stated before, i liked her show, and just because i say i don't like her singing voice doesn't mean that you should compare her to Amy Spanger or any other actress/singer/dancer i admire. It wasn't a Chita Vs. Amy thread.
Also I want to thank you for posting the shows you have seen, a lot of people also talk about performers or shows they haven't seen and they deny it. So thanks for the honesty.

"People have their opinions and that doesn't mean that their opinions are wrong or right. I just take it with a grain of salt because opinions are like as*holes, everyone has one". -Felicia Finley-

Updated On: 7/8/06 at 03:12 AM

#23

re: Chita's Raspy Singing Tone

Posted: 7/8/06 at 3:23am

I think Chita has always had a rasp in her singing tone, although less subtle even as far back as WSS. Noone would argue that it is part of what makes Chita Chita and again nooone wouold argue that Chita is one of the true Broadway Musica Legends still living. I've also seen her act in stric classical theater (i.e. The House of Bernarda Alba at the Taper) and she's brilliant.

When I left The Dancer's Life at Old Globe in SD one of the things that touched me is that she still has that powerhouse voice that has only changed subtly from what it was early in her career.

#24

re: Chita's Raspy Singing Tone

Posted: 7/8/06 at 4:38am

Too many cigarettes, something I will never let spoil my "lovely soprano" (not my words, that's what one reviewer wrote about my voice!)... Why would anyone with half a brain smoke. You're not cool, you're just a fool! Yech!

#25

re: Chita's Raspy Singing Tone

Posted: 7/8/06 at 9:22am

Terrible singer? You people need to do your damn research before making such broad generalizations of a singer towards the end of her career. Jesus. So she doesn't sing like Idina or Bean Curd, big woop!

I happen to own every cast recording (and her rare solo recording) that Chita made, and let me tell you, she is far from horrible. Her work in Chicago, The Rink, Bye Bye Birdie, Spider Woman is some of the most touchingingly sung stuff I have ever heard. Her delivery is key. The bland, flashy singing that most of you posters on this thread favor cannot hold a candle to the magic that Chitat holds in her pinky finger alone. Get some of her early work, or perhaps retrain your American Idol Bombay Dreamy ears, and get a clue.

Chita can (I thought she sounded great in Dancer's Life) and did sing some of the best material ever written for the Broadway stage. This is just another case of the Wickhead generation denying what came before them. Why don't you start an Ethel Merman can't sing thread too, why you're at it. Singing is not all technique, especially musical theatre singing. It is about passion, depth, and a combination of skills that most people today can't even begin to come close to.

And Charlayne, go stroke your ego behind closed doors.

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