Idina singing 'Sleepy Man'

Just a video I found on Youtube of a young Idina Menzel (or Mentzel, not sure if she changed her name yet) singing Sleepy Man from The Robber Bridegroom. Much more classical sounding and less rocker/belty. Am I the only one who actually prefers this over her current sound?
Sleepy Man

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My God, what has happened to her voice since this clip??? There were a few pitch issues, but her voice sounded full and well-supported. She sounds so different now when you view other clips of her singing...

I love how just because she has more vibrato, suddenly she is "classically trained."

Idina Menzel is not classically trained. Period.

Just because she is not screaming in this clip does not mean she is showing her "opera side." She has no opera side. This doesn't mean I don't like, I do. But please.

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"Idina Menzel is not classically trained. Period."

Idina Menzel had years of classical training from her child-hood through almost her entire time in college. Period.


"My God, what has happened to her voice since this clip???"

RENT, Wicked, The Wild Party, Aida...take your pick of shows Idina has screamed her way through.
Hmm. Not quite. She's since switched her vocal techniques--that gives her the harsher, brighter, more rock sound withOUT damaging her voice. Well, unless, of course, she slips up in her technique, which is less often than most people on this board think. What she's been doing since she's turned professional doesn't sound like proper classical technique because it's NOT, it's another technique--and a completely valid one--altogether, whether or not classical snobs think it's "right."


I personally prefer the way she sounds now. To me, she has the most unique and expressive voice I've heard, and I don't think classical training allows for that quite on the same level.

Updated On: 8/8/07 at 10:26 AM

Well if she was, she is hardly showing it in this clip.

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She's definitely showing classical training in this clip...maybe not OPERATIC training, but there's a difference between the two.

And I prefer her voice now....it's fabulous. True, she's had some bad performances, but so has everyone. I don't know why people want to harp on Idina's bad performances as if the rest of the Broadway actresses are pitch perfect all the time....

I love her now, but I love her in this clip as well. I wonder how different her performance would have been in Wicked if she had sung the score like this...hmmm...I'm sure it'd still be great

Idina just kinda sounds like she's trying to sound a certain way....like she's adding affect to her voice...I like it better today. She's a passionate singer if nothing else :)

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the whole thing is bad. but mainly because the tempo is too fast. Its a lullabye. Slow it down. Its a song to soothe the man to sleep. Its best on the original cast recording.

"Its best on the original cast recording."

I disagree. I think it's best when Liz Callaway does it on her solo CD, The Story Goes On.

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I agree with GClef's first post. I am a gigantic Idina fan, but think it is laughable that people are basing how classically trained she is based on this clip. I am not saying that she wasn't classically trained...but come on...in this clip her voice sounds just like every other 20 year old wannabe singer/broadway actress in New York. Nice, somewhat powerful, nothing special.

Thank God she found the uniqueness in her voice that has made her the broadway performer/singer that we know (and a good percentage of us Love). I much prefer her now--harsher sound or not.

Love Patti's version on this, and I hate Idinas.

IMHO, it's a nice sound.

But it certainly wouldn't have made her a star.

Let alone landed her a record contract.