Mike Giuffrida

Freddie Mercury is hailed as one of the best performers in music history. From his impossible vocal range to his larger than life stage presence, no other artist has ever come close to Mr. Fahrenheit himself. We’ve all heard of Bohemian Rhapsody, seen the Live Aid concert, and chanted We Will Rock You at some point. Only a man with such greatness can have such an impact on our lives. Here are some facts depicting just how phenomenal Freddie Mercury was as a performer. Mercury’s vibrato is irregular Classically trained singers modulate fundamental frequencies to make their tones more vibrant. A typical opera singer’s vibrato measures to about 5.5-6 Hz. Mercury’s vibrato is slightly higher than that. Image source: buzzfeed.com Mercury’s agility in shifting register While a lot of singers shift from one tone to another with great difficulty, Mercury does this with effortless ease. While he is naturally a baritone, Mercury primarily sang as a Tenor. He also made switc...

For us aspiring actors, there have been iconic performances over the years that we can’t help but admire. Some of us even go that extra mile and try to emulate these greats. I’ve come up with a list of our favorite performances since the ‘70s. Image source: businessinsider.com '70s: Marlon Brando in 'The Godfather' When one talks about iconic performances, no one in the era comes close to Bradon’s take on Vito Corleone, a role that is still relevant today, nearly 50 years later. For me, he beats out Robert de Niro’s performance in “Taxi Driver.” '80s: Jack Nicholson in 'The Shining' As Jack Torrance, Nicholson gave one of the most brilliant, and by brilliant we mean terrifying portrayals of man’s descent into madness. And Nicholson did it in a way only he could. ’90s: Anthony Hopkins in 'The Silence of the Lambs' With less than 20 minutes of screen time, Hopkins held the audiences and Jodi Foster in the palm of his hand. He also...

Theater acting and screen or movie acting are two different skills. One requires you to act in front of a live audience of hundreds of people with very minimal breaks while the other lets actors do a scene as many times as possible. But apart from logistics, what are the main differences between theater and movie acting? Image source: uarts.edu Theater acting requires thespians to exaggerate their facial expressions and their gestures to make it easier for everyone in the theater to see. Unlike the movies where you could have a camera zoom in to show the most delicate facial expressions, working in theater requires actors to adjust their expressions to the size of the audience. The audio level also changes between theater and cinema acting. Not all productions can afford to equip everyone with microphones. Some stages have microphones strategically placed in areas of the stage while some smaller productions use zero microphones. This means that theater actors have ...