Was it camp? Or was she like Florence Foster Jenkins and was loved for the sincerity of her performances? Or was she great and I just didn't get it?
Yma Sumac died yesterday. There is now a room in heaven where her fans will be eternally enthralled with her. (And there is a room in hell that will get a broadcast of the performance in HD with surround sound where people with my appreciation of her Art will be in agony.)
So, until we get to have our seat in one of those rooms we'll just have to dream about Yma.
For samples of her singing you might try some that you can find on YouTube.
And here is another version of Yma Dream:
Her obituary from The New York Times.
1 comments:
Yma Sumac was in the original cast of the musical "Flahooley," the CD of which I have because I love Barbara Cook, who made her debut in that play. Stuck right in the middle, for no apparent reason, is "Nalja's Song of Joy," featuring Yma Sumac's five-octave range of warbles and grunts.
I could never really appreciate her artistry. She reminded me of Minnie Ripperton, also said to have a five-octave range. In their upper registers, dogs would howl and sea turtles would beach themselves.
May their names be a blessing.
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