Anna Netrebko: I felt like she has an excess of jaw movement. It was always very big, with spread lips. This was throughout the performance, regardless of pitch. Though her pitch was wonderful, I was so distracted by the "hungry hippo" mouth movement. As far as there being a difference between vowels, I didn't really see much of a difference. All of them were formed with a very tall, opened mouth.
Simon Keenlyside: On the [o] and the [a] I felt like his lips were a bit rigid. However, he was consistent on forming his vowels and I was able to distinguish them all. I felt like he was very natural looking in the way he presented the words. The only time that it looked like he was singing rather than just speaking, were the moments he held a note out for a long time and let his lips get a little rigid and fixed. One thing I was intrigued by, was the shape of his lips for the [i] vowel. They were forward, but there was a lot more horizontal space, yet his vowel still sounded tall and mature.
Jonas Kaufmann: Jonas' face seemed a little dead, which meant his mouth seemed a little energy-less. As he went up in his range, he seemed to gain more energy overall, including his face and lips. Perhaps he was letting the solemness of the song be to present in his expression and energy level. He at one point pulled a frown while saying [di] (around 1:25). As the song progressed, the emotion of the song intensified, which really made watching him more meaningful as he increased his power/energy. A TON of lip rounding on [u].
Cecilia Bartoli: There is a lot of tension in her lips. She also tends to spread her vowels. She's obviously singing about something happy, as she smiles a lot while she's singing, but that does make her sound more bright. (Side note: she has some weird facial things going on -- particularly with the eyebrows!) It almost appears on her long, drawn out phrases that she is attempting to distinguish each pitch and rhythm with a new twitch in her mouth.
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