Not for me to decide where this thread belongs in relation to The Line. I came here from the earlier thread that started the discussion. [Yes, it should have been in the music section. -Joe Offer-]

Yes, this question, regarding singing in public, in concert, with the audience directly before you, does polarize people. My own experience comes out of recitals of classical music: those I have attended myself; and the legendary singers I am too young to have seen, but whom people recall seeing. There are vivid opinions both ways.

I recognize the sentiments and the choices of words, not at the OP of this newer thread, but in the OP of the earlier thread (August 22, 2002).   It is like the echo of a conversation that I recall from many years earlier: I was a young student, the speaker was a retired classical singer, and he was speaking of the late Marian Anderson.

Marian Anderson was on the concert/recital stage for years and years, both when her voice was in its prime, and, sadly, long after her voice was too aged to sound as it had once done. And Ms. Anderson was well-known for shutting her eyes when she poured that deep great voice into any given song, be it the German Lied or an African-American spiritual -- she sang both with equal authority.

The older singer of whom I spoke, had spent much of his career in opera and in the theater, with some distinction, he was a very worldly, sophisticated person. Eyes Open was his default position. And he sounded as frustrated as Mrs. Lemon, if not more so, when he spoke of looking at Ms. Anderson with her eyes shut and singing away: "She cut herself off from her audience!" he protested, and passionately too, I can still hear his vehemence.

Ms. Anderson was venerated, adored, by many -- ever see that television interview with Odetta (Dick Cavett), when she described how she first walked up to Ms. Anderson in order to say something about how much she meant to her, and she -- Odetta the Great -- dissolved into tears on the spot? So I can just imagine all those people in the audience who would respond indignantly and vehemently that Ms. Anderson could do no possible wrong. As she was well before my time, I never experienced anything but the documents/recordings she left behind.

But I prefer not to generalize with singers, for singing is such a particularly intimate engagement of one's individual character, and what works for one singer will be thoroughly inappropriate for another singer. From what I can observe of Marian Anderson, when she closed her eyes and sang, she did what was most natural and characteristic for her, regardless of the expectations of the public.   She certainly had people coming out in their droves to attend her performances, regardless.