Duet with Meatloaf
Might be a long blog so I’ll do a 2-parter and finish off later. I’m delighted with so many different viewpoints and comments being about this show- makes for interesting reading.
So I got the call on Thursday saying Meatloaf wants to duet with an opera singer. Mad idea but a great way of raising my profile quite apart from the fact that I remember Meatloaf dominating the charts when I was a kid. He is a legend and what a thing to be able to say:
“I sang Bat out of Hell as a duet with Meatloaf”
They wanted to send a car straightaway but first I had to take both the boys to Kings for their regular bloods which can’t be missed as their levels have to be closely monitored. (As it happened we just got the results and Arthur’s medication has had to be increased so it was absolutely the right call not to delay them).
As soon as I got back from the hospital they whisked me to the studios for a rehearsal with Meatloaf. I met the musical director and asked for some music but he only had a lyric sheet for me. So this is Rock’n Roll – no music! I’m afraid us classically trained singers need dots to read so I was slightly on edge to start with. Meatloaf, however was charming, a real gent. I don’t know what I was expecting! But he was lovely, interesting, modest and normal – you wouldn’t know that he had sold millions of records. Well, it’s hard to forget that actually but you know what I mean. Yes, there were a certain number of expletives but not as many as I had expected – apart from when his filling fell out… He offered it to the producer of the show to sell on ebay, she declined but I wonder how much it would have fetched?
Anyway, we worked out which bits I was going to sing and I sorted out some ideas for harmonies and that was that. Meatloaf had to go off to the dentist for his emergency appointment.
Young Seth kept me up most of the night as he has a horrid cold then I spent most of Friday morning carrying him around whilst desperately trying to learn the words to Bat out of Hell. What a lot of words and I must be one of the few people of my generation not to know them!
Run out of time, more soon…
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anita
2:35 pm, February 13, 2010
I have met Meatloaf on a few occasions, once in a hotel I was staying, what a lovely man he is, gracious and very friendly and all too willing to chat he made a huge fuss of my daughter who was 13 at the time(shes 28 now!!)nothing was to much trouble for him.I`m sure hes still the same as he was back then. I`m sure it was a great evening lots of fun I don`t know how you do it juggle the children,husband, and your career!! Hope the boys are doing Ok and Seth `s cold does not stay with him too long!!
David
3:12 pm, February 13, 2010
Anita kindly created the attached link which shows the clip of Juliette and Meatloaf…what fun!.. (takes a couple of mins to download the mwv file)
http://www.mediafire.com/?yigz0zg4lun
I have to say that Juliette never fails to amaze me how she juggles home and career…no sleep, new words one day to sort it all….incredible. Domestic Diva….indeed
D
Lee
3:18 pm, February 13, 2010
Aha Juliette, so you have now entered the murky world of Rock n Roll. No dots there lass, they often make it up as they go along you you know. (Speaking as an ex rock guitarist, albeit a bad one but of course no one noticed.)
On a serious note, you were absolutely brilliant! Bat out of Hell is not the easiest song in the world to sing , (especially the 7 minute version)however you put a whole new take on it and I think you should do an album of Rock N Roll music but in the classical style, just to get your own back.
Lee
3:30 pm, February 13, 2010
Just had a thought, we could now have a show entitled Opera Star to Pop Star
Juliette singing Milk Cow Blues Boogie, a doddle after Bat in Hell ::) and Rolando doing Johnny B Good. ::-? The album and DVD of the show would be best sellers.
dai
3:37 pm, February 13, 2010
like the sound of that album Lee (you old rocker )
D
Keith
6:48 pm, February 13, 2010
It certainly was interesting – and fun. As Juliette said, it was a good way to raise her profile to a wider audience. I wonder what they have lined up for the final next week ….. K
Lee
7:22 pm, February 13, 2010
Keith,
Next week I will be duetting with them…………though they will be on telly and I’ll be in my lounge. (I just hope next door goes out for the evening. They might think I’m torturing the cat.)
Technical
7:41 pm, March 12, 2010
oh goodness, nice performance! Meat Loaf demonstrates the ups and downs, but then he has nothing to prove, at all, whatsoever.
Somebody said to me, “she sounds like a singer trying to sound like an opera singer, all that false vibrato, pretend english accent and thin soprano”
Dont be afraid to pull your voice back into your throat and put some guts into it, you have lovely pitch.
Nice dress though.
david
7:59 pm, March 15, 2010
HI “technical”..
Juliette is a very well established and popular opera singer.
Juliette is English.
Juliette is a Mezzo Soprano.
regards D