[redforever]

Originally Posted by octothorp

Nothing infuriates me more than the following exchange:
Me: "Oh, so you listen to opera?"
Other person who I am about to lose all respect for: "Why yes, I listen to Andrea Bocelli/Sarah Brightman/Josh Groban."
Even Bocelli or Brightman I can almost allow. But Groban is not an opera singer. Yeah, he sings opera here and there (usually easy, impressive-sounding pieces), but if it was not for his celebrity status, no serious opera company would ever book him. He's got decent range, but none of the vocal depth or character or agility that professional opera singers have; actually, it has nothing to do with opera: the best blues singers, or folk, or country, or rock singers are all able to call up depth and character and emotion. He never sounds like anything other than some professionally trained vocalist who's standing on stage at a charity event or in a booth with David Foster. There's absolutely no subtext, no illusion to his singing. Maybe that's what some people really like.

Well Groban does not refer to himself as an opera singer. The ill informed might, but Groban makes no pretext of doing so.