Got GarageBand? Get to Work
Crystal Manich
There's a pretty cool video you may want to see: Ivywild's (actual name is Jessica E. Jones) lusty song "Longing for You." This wide-range pop song is sung by a soprano opera singer. She basks, covered with floating ivy, in a bathtub. Well, that's how the song starts. You'll see Jones/Ivywild in a load of other, non-tub settings too. During the pandemic, she got creative with a new-to-her app, GarageBand. Then things took off, even faster.
"And, unbelievably, we did all of the scenes (there are many) in the same location," said the video's director, Crystal Manich, an Emmy-nominated director of film and stage and winner (2021) in Toronto International Women Film Festival's Best First Time Female Filmmaker.
Director Crystal Manich is also directing IU Jacobs' "Anne Frank" opera
Manich, from Pittsburgh, Penn., and Puerto Rico, happens to be in Bloomington lately, as she directs "Anne Frank," the world premier of the first full feature opera about the Frank family.
The New York Times said: "Manich's lively staging meshes pathos and bathos (anticlimax) with quirky touches."
Bathtub, by Erik Mclean, Unsplash
Ivywild is, well, wild
Quirky definitely describes Manich's guidance on Ivywild's "Longing for You," which was an Official Selection of the California music video festival for best female vocalist and best directing.
"You are the one that keeps me on solid ground," Jones/Ivywild sings to a heavy reverb and a man's punched whispering of "ah. ah. ah. ah."
"I'm tryin' to shake you, but . . .."
Once you see this it will be hard to shake it. And, you might find yourself shaken—and stirred.
While directing, Manich, who started her career as a fan of dance and theater, watches a performer's center of gravity.
"Every person leads from a different part of their body and I’m always wanting to know where characters lead from. Experimenting with this really does help the performers create a physicality that is uniquely their own to inhabit the character."
Jones is scampering toward the top of America's important-soprano list. Critics use words such as "thrilling" and "astonishing." For the Metropolitan National Council Auditions, she was audience favorite, district winner, and regional finalist.
She sings early music to contemporary opera, and her use of the bel canto style (literally "beautiful singing" and referring to an unforced, pure sound) has increased her popularity.
Jones earned a master’s degree in performance from Houston, Texas's Moores School of Music and is a native of Pocatello, Idaho.
As a child, Jones sang constantly and created her own songs. Then came community theater and Bye, Bye, Birdie. Then Les Miserable.
"My high school choir teacher was a big influence on me and my passion for music," she says on her website.
I also started taking voice lessons when I was a sophomore in high school. Her teacher told her to audition for Barbarina in Le nozze di Figaro in a small local company. Getting cast meant driving her 15-year-old self the 50 miles to rehearsals.
She had never seen an opera and became instantly ensnared by the voices.
Her single “Willing to Find Out,” picked as an Official Selection at the London Music Video Awards, is also on Youtube.
Black leather jacket, by Adrian Ordonez, Unsplash.
"There are things I'd like to do," she sings after having gone from a skin-clinging black leather ensemble into a peacock blue neglige.
"You ought to give yourself a pinch/
Gave you a mile; you took an inch"
According to Eric J. Keller of Soulcatcher Studio, in the Idaho State Journal, for years, Jones/Ivywild sped around the U.S. in a motorhome, accompanied by her husband.
That thoughtful and industrious husband built her a space-saving fold-down desk, where during the pandemic, she discovered Apple's digital workstation GarageBand.
To see "Longing for You," sung by Ivywild and directed by Crystal Manich, visit facebook.com/watch/?v=2173293852837808
To engage with Jones/Ivywild on social media, use the tag @jessopranojones on Instagram and twitter.
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