Idina's gasping

A lot of people say it is...and it probably is. She screamed a lot of her notes. It's a very vocally-demanding role...I think.

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It's because she doesn't have the right technique breathing was. Her voice is incredibly forced through her throat instead of through her diaphraghm. You can hear it when she punches higher notes instead of allowing her voice to ease into them. While it creates an electric, belty sound - it is very dangerous to her voice and makes her ability to do it occur less frequently.

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Please note I'm not saying it makes her a BAD performer. I'm not a huge Idina fan, but I do admit a lot of people have this habit. I'm one of them. But I'm only 18 and I'm starting to force it out of my muscle memory now and am working on fixing the problem so that it doesn't get worse in the future as it happened with Idina.

Compare Idina with Tonya Pinkins. Tonya's voice stayed strong A LOT longer than Idina's did but CAROLINE *murdered* Tonya's poor voice. I believe I heard the same happened with Tyne Daley in the GYPSY revival....?

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I highly doubt she smokes.

Every now and then could mean completley opposite things to certain people. And occasionally or 20 times a day, I still doubt she smokes at all.

She did sound very good today. She and Tracie were wonderful together.

I saw idina perform Wicked 6 times between October 2003 to January 2005. She definitely was not gasping in the beginning, but she definitely WAS gasping at least from June on. It was VERY distracting for me, and it detracted from her performance--although I still think she's the best Elphaba thus far (of the ones I have seen).

Someone on another thread said recently that performing Wicked "shredded" Idina's voice, and I think that's a good metaphor. What Iluvtheatertrash says about her breathing technique makes sense to me. I'm sure these two things are related.

Please excuse my ignorance in these matters, but I have a question for those of you who are trained singers. Is there any way for a singer's voice that's become "shredded" like this to be rehabilitated?

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" I still doubt she smokes at all. "

She mentioned at one of her concerts...or I think "She Rock Broadway" about smoking. Not cigarettes, but...you catch my drift. She did say she doesn't do it while she's in a show, but you never know. And an occasionaly puff MAY catch up with someone, especially if she's developed some sort of minor asthma.

Yes, this is all true. I have downloads from the SF preview and her "Defying Gravity".... at that time was absolutly amazing. I also have some of "No Good Deed" and D.g from around july-nov of `04 and I just can`t stand the annoying gasping. So,yes Idina really killed her voice for a while there. However, before I saw this show back in April of this year, I knew nothing about it at all. I knew none of the music or anything, so naturaly I saw Shoshana Bean. I`m sitting there, watching this show and finding her vocal skill very great. I know a lot of people like Idina more than Sho due to her belty, un-skilled screaming rather than Sho`s slightly softer,more skilled voice. You can 100% tell Sho knows what she`s doing out there with her singing and she`s is still doing great today and she`s been with the show for a good while now. Plus, she will always be my favorite `cause that was the first Elphie I saw. Howver, Ana is perfect for this role.

Updated On: 8/5/05 at 07:02 AM

Idina's gasping the two times I saw her perform Elphaba was only noticable it in the beginning of the show during "Wizard and I". After that either she warmed up into the vocals or I just didn't really hear it after that.

You people read way too much into gasping

While I heard Tyne Daley was a force not to be reckoned with and brought down the house, I also heard her voice just could not handle the part. So sad...

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