Male Student's Winning Solo

Resource for Grades 6-12

| Citation

Media Type:
Video

Running Time: 2m 15s
Size: 8.3 MB

Source: Broadway or Bust

This media asset was excerpted from Broadway or Bust.

Resource Produced by:

Collection Developed by:

Collection Credits

Collection Funded by:

Funding for Broadway or Bust was provided by the Anne Ray Charitable Trust and public television viewers.

Related Resources:

Acting in Vocal Performance
(Video)

Connecting Emotion to Lyrics
(Video)

Female Student's Winning Solo
(Video)

Vocal Coaching
(Video)

In his winning performance featured in this video from Broadway or Bust, Joshua Grosso sings a song in Italian from a recent American musical set in Florence and Rome—The Light in the Piazza. Although the audience may not understand the lyrics, the singer is able to convey the emotions of the song through his gestures and the expression of his voice. In this way, he gives a compelling performance of the song for an English-speaking audience.

Accessibility Features: Caption

Teaching Tips

Here are suggested ways to engage students with this video and with activities related to this topic.

Ask students to view the video and make a list of the emotions that the singer expresses as he performs the song. Discuss how these emotions come through for an audience, even if they cannot understand the language of the song.
Ask students to prepare a short song (or dramatic speech) in a language other than their own (ideally one with which you or another teacher can help them). As they are working on their song or speech, ask about the attention they give to the words and pronunciation and how that may be similar to or different from performing in their own language.
If you have a student who speaks a language other than English, ask him or her to teach a short song in that language to the class.
Many voice teachers consider Italian to be a good language for studying singing, as its open vowel sounds encourage good vocal technique. Listen again to the performance, focusing specifically on how the performer sings vowels and consonants and how that makes the sounds of the words clear.
Ask students what kind of work they would do to prepare a song in a language that they do not speak.