The Singers Thread

[Voronwen]

Originally Posted by Tessar

What stuff specifically? Messiah?

Yes, and the Come Unto Him especially fits me well. I've performed these several times, but i haven't sung them in a while ... so nice to go back to something 'reliable'. Also the Laudamus te (the high part) and Domine Deus from Vivaldi's Gloria, though the latter isn't quite as good for my voice as the Handel, i think due to a slightly lower tessitura. But it's a lovely piece, and i've performed it.

I've also pulled out things that are oratorio but not typically "for Christmas", like the Exsultate, jubilate (Mozart) and Pie Jesu (Faure Requiem - thank you for reminding me of this one! ). I'd forgotten how amazing it feels to sing the Pie Jesu. It's a perfect fit. You know that feeling, when something just sits perfectly in your voice? It's almost effortless, but with the right kind of effort behind it (if that makes any sense... and i'm sure, to you it does!). It's like singing Pamina, in that way. Another that has given me this feeling is With Verdure Clad from Haydn's Creation. I hadn't sung it in a long time, but when singing through it again recently for the first time it was like finding voice heaven I've noticed that many of the pieces that really fit are in the key of B flat, or its relative minor.

I need to get working again on the other Mozart mass solos. I've learned the Et incarnatus est but it hasn't yet been coached. It's going to be another perfect fit, despite not being written in Bb I can't wait to find someone to work on it with. I also love the Kyrie but it's a bit pointless to work on it as a solo, since it requires the chorus.

None of these things require insanely high notes, and that's liberating. Sometimes it's so wonderful to just work on a piece that requires lyrical finesse .... i can't even verbalize how this feels, by comparison. It's all at once like a sigh of relief combined with tears of joy. Does that make any sense? Again i think this may be my intuition telling me something about myself as a singer.

I'm so happy with the new vocal technique stuff but it's frustrating to not be able to click it in automatically every time I sing. Grr.

It'll take time being conscious of it at first, especially while plugging it in to music you haven't looked at since before the new technique. But it'll all be worth it, i promise.

[Tessar]

I fiiiiiiiiinally got my voice placed more forward during my performance tonight, and I got several comments afterwards from my parents and my friend's father (all of whom have come to every show) that my voice was -really- strong tonight and much clearer than ever before.

YAY!

[Voronwen]

Woohooo!!!!

[Tessar]

Frustratingly enough, I'm finding that my voice is still slipping back as early as an F#3. I have so much work to do that it's extremely discouraging. Trying to keep the palate up, the voice forward, and everything else is just so frustrating when it's like I'm having to retrain every single singing 'instinct' of mine. It's frustrating because it's really hard to focus my voice enough to keep it forward, but of course when it's in that focused place the actual production is much easier. But getting it there is so much work and effort, never mind actually keeping it there.

I have a feeling I'm going to bite it pretty hard at NATS :-/. I'm going to try my best, but I'm really not feeling so optimistic any more.

I hope it's just because I haven't really been able to practice in so long, and that in a week or two things will be clicking because I feel like I'm singing like crap right now :-/. My Handel aria is extremely frustrating too because I feel like I end up just screaming it no matter how hard I try to keep it placed and balanced, and some of the repeated high notes are really, really flat.

Well, I'm just going to keep trying and pray for the best. The people who usually attain success are the people who want it badly enough, and I sure want it.

[Voronwen]

Retraining 'instincts' is really what it's all about.

Don't compete during a technical transition if you feel you won't be at your best (run this by your teacher).

I can tell you "want it badly enough" and because of that, you can't help but succeed!

[Tessar]

I had a great lesson today despite my fears. If I can learn to imitate the things I did today consistently, the aria might actually be awesome in my voice. O_o

We ended up modifying a bunch of vowels, and then unmodifying a bunch of the stuff we had done before. For instance instead of, 'honor and arms,' I was singing something more like, 'hanar and orms,' to get the sound. Now that my voice has better placement, we're changing it back to 'honar and arms'.

On the word 'blow' from 'though I could end thee at a blow,' we formerly had me singing 'bloo' or 'blue' and we changed that back to 'blow'. We also realized that apparently every time I sing a 'b' consonant I put a tiny glottal stop into it and yank back on my air flow. O_o I have no idea why, but it's an instinct of mine. We spent a good three or four minutes singing the word 'blow' till I managed to get my throat to (consistently) continue the air flow rather than stopping it.


It's really peculiar how my throat wants to grab at some vowels. For instance: we sang a 1-3-5-8-5-3-1 scale with 'ee' on 135 and then ah on 8531. The 'ee' vowel would place well, then on the 'ah' my throat would grab and the sound was poor. Then she had me modify the 'ee' to an 'ih' mouth (still the 'ee' vowel, but a different mouth shape if that makes sense), and then we used different 'ah' vowels (very bright 'a' in my middle register, then changing gradually towards a super forward 'ah' through oh lips). Crazily enough, even though I was changing the vowel I was singing, and the mouth position, when I did it correctly it sounded like a perfectly placed, warm 'ah' vowel even when I was singing a bright 'a' or forward 'ah'. It floated pretty nicely up to a C#4, but above that my instinct to grab is still too powerful :-/.

Like I said to my teacher, I can still hit my F4's and F#'s, but I'm very aware that it's not correct and I would rather not be singing those notes any more till I can do them correctly. I think singing them so much over the summer just reinforced my bad habit of gripping. I know I can still hit them if I want to, but I'd rather not till I can do them at least marginally more correctly.

Sooooo it looks like we're going to be basically teaching my throat how to stay open by modifying my vowels like crazy for a while, and then I'll gradually stop needing to modify in weird places and I'll only have to do it in the 'normal' areas.

Please say some prayers for me... I really want to at least make simi-finals at NATS, but it's going to take a lot of work over these next three weeks to get these songs into that kind of shape. Plus I'm trying to get ready for the opera audition next Monday and the choir solo audition (Bernstein's 'Simple Song' from his Mass) next Friday. I'm not expecting to get the choir solo, but I feel that it's important that I audition for the director (and do my best job) so that he's aware that I'm still wanting solos and to show him that (hopefully -_-) I've improved vocally.

[Voronwen]

Originally Posted by Tessar

We ended up modifying a bunch of vowels, and then unmodifying a bunch of the stuff we had done before. For instance instead of, 'honor and arms,' I was singing something more like, 'hanar and orms,' to get the sound. Now that my voice has better placement, we're changing it back to 'honar and arms'.

Sometimes those little vowel changes can make all the difference in the world! I remember when i was coaching through Ach, ich fühl's and i was told to adjust my vowel on the word "herzen" to be a bit brighter, more like "heerzen", just slightly. My vowel was too much like "uh", which is not a usual habit of mine but in this case it was coming out that way (thank goodness for those outside ears! ) and, once i corrected it, the sound was placed much more forward and clear. Eventually i was able to back off of the modification and find a nice, happy medium.

Like I said to my teacher, I can still hit my F4's and F#'s, but I'm very aware that it's not correct and I would rather not be singing those notes any more till I can do them correctly. I think singing them so much over the summer just reinforced my bad habit of gripping. I know I can still hit them if I want to, but I'd rather not till I can do them at least marginally more correctly.

Smart thinking But i wouldn't expect anything less out of you!

Please say some prayers for me... I really want to at least make simi-finals at NATS, but it's going to take a lot of work over these next three weeks to get these songs into that kind of shape.

I will pray, of course.

You can do it!

[Tessar]

Hmmm... this is going to be a tough call on the Simple Song audition. I thought that I wouldn't be able to do it because my F's weren't coming out well at all, BUT we figured out some vowel modifications that work really well and let me sing the notes. We'll see.

I made good progress today. As we got up towards the D4-G4 area I was able to flip my 'ah' into my sinus cavities. It was very peculiar because I had to sort of... 'release' something above my mouth... it felt like I relaxed something -above- my hard palate. Anyways... worked great. It happened on its own the first time because I aimed for a vowel that was too bright, and after I did it the first time by accident I was able to sing the correct vowel but keep flipping it over.

The modification is doing great stuff for me. I run into some trouble because I don't always know where to modify to, but my 'ee' vowel is getting really good because I know I just have to go to 'ih' as I ascend. The 'ah' vowel is still really tricky... I think that one is going to be less to do with modification and much more to do with getting it to resonate in my sinus cavity. I guess that's the 'flipping over' into middle voice.

Oo is another weird vowel. It seems like it's an actual 'oo' in my lower register, but as I ascend it changes to 'oh' with 'oo' lips.


I'm still stressed about my NATS pieces. :-/ The problem isn't being able to sing through them, now, it's that they are still SO unpolished. I need to really work the stuff into my voice, but I'm afraid I wont have time. I wish I had at least an extra two weeks to work the pieces. Better yet, a month.


It's annoying to be able to make some pretty sounds, but not be able to string those pretty sounds together into a pretty song . I can sing some of the phrases REALLY well, but only when they're not connected to the previous or following phrases .

She and I both agree that we're extremely happy with the progress that I'm making, and that I'm making great breakthroughs and improving vastly at each lesson... but that I am still behind where a Junior should be vocally/technically speaking. She's very confident that I can catch up in short order, but I'm still a little anxious... I know there's nothing to do but work hard and trust myself, but I REALLY want to get into a good graduate school or apprenticeship program in a couple of years, and you have to be freaking amazing to get into any decent grad program.

Patience and prayer. Patience and prayer.

[Voronwen]

Oo is another weird vowel. It seems like it's an actual 'oo' in my lower register, but as I ascend it changes to 'oh' with 'oo' lips.

That's because of the height needed in the palette in order to sing those higher notes.

The idea of relaxing something "above" the hard palette caught my attention. I think i know what sensation you're referring to. It's a more open feeling, like the 'yawn space' but in front of it. This was a major breakthrough for me when i discovered it. Once i let go of the idea of "back space" only and allowed more of this natural (not forced!) opening, it felt as if i could sing most anything effortlessly. High notes were not a problem anymore. Yes, at one time i was absolutely terrified of anything above a Bb5. Finding this made the difference for me in how smoothly i navigated the passagio.

[Tessar]

Yes, when it happens there's that wonderful 'float' to the note and you can navigate through the registers (almost ) effortlessly with a consistency of tone that's otherwise impossible. I'm so glad you know the sensation I'm talking about... I have a feeling anyone who's not a singer isn't going to have a clue what it is. I had certainly never felt it (to this extent) before.

I just had an AMAZING coaching with my teacher from the summer!!!!!!!!!

I just love this man to death... he has such a way of saying things that makes me laugh at myself instead of berate myself . I sang my problem phrase and said, "It's okay, but I know it's not right. What am I doing wrong?"

He shut his eyes, screwed up his face and said, "GOD, I don't know! It's almost right, but it's not there... do it again."

So I sang it again, and he said, "You're grabbing with the back of your tongue! It's placed perfectly, the vowel is perfect, but right at the base of your tongue you're grabbing. That's why I couldn't tell what was wrong, because everything else is right." So we fixed that with a little exercise that I'll be doing as a part of my warmups from now on.


So then in a fit of inspiration I yanked out 'Simple Song' and said, "Okay, we've almost got the F's right, but they're not good enough to get me the solo yet... help me fix them."

We sang the phrase a few times, and then we talked through it. We discovered that it's basically a psychological thing. I desperately want to sing with passion and really give myself to the music when I sing. But in the past when I've tried to 'feel' what I sing my throat constricts and the whole thing would go to hell, then I'd end up with a sore throat the next day. So basically I've been afraid for the last few years to -truly- invest myself into the music when I sing because it used to kill my voice.

All he really said was, "Okay, do all of the things that your teacher told you, because she's absolutely right and you're doing this stuff -technically- correctly, but this time do it with your whole body and just lunge into those high notes with passion."

When I combined the passion I want to show with the technique that I now have of keeping my throat open and modifying the vowels/keeping the palate up... OH MY GOD. My voice just soared like I've never felt it do before. He said they were the most amazing F's that I've ever sung, and I can believe it because although I couldn't really hear myself while I sang them, they felt like they just rode out on the breath with no impediment and I really felt what I sang. When I stopped the whole room was still reverberating. It was -awesome- .

When I sang the phrase correctly, he just shook his head at me and said, "You know, your voice is humongous and ridiculously resonant for someone your age when you sing correctly. So stop singing incorrectly!"

So I'm sure it's going to take some work to get my body used to singing this way. I just hope I can sing the solo like that for the audition, because I think that if I can do that I just might have a shot at getting it. Maybe. A better shot than I had before, certainly.

I need to sing the solo with passion, AND I need to use the vowel modification to keep my voice placed and the registration shifts smooth. There's a killer phrase where you sing the F4, the E4, and then you do little triplets that are something like B3, D4, B3, A4, C4, A4, and then a C4, E4, C4... so I'm literally flipping registers at the top note of every single triplet, then flipping it back, three times during one phrase.

Now I gotta go ear-learn some more of the audition stuff for Monday. No more singing today I think, but I do need to look at it.

[Voronwen]

So I'm sure it's going to take some work to get my body used to singing this way. I just hope I can sing the solo like that for the audition, because I think that if I can do that I just might have a shot at getting it.

Oh, YOU CAN!!!

Just repeat, repeat, repeat those very same sensations while in practice. Eventually, they'll become good habits and be second nature!

[Tessar]

I'm so incredibly pleased with the progress I made technically and 'emotionally' yesterday . Today using that 'follow-through' of the emotional, and the technique I've gotten from my teacher, I was able to sing my high notes with much less effort and less of a need to 'belt' them out.

It still needs a whole lot of work and polishing, but it's definite progress and I'm very pleased with it.

It's such a relief to be able to sing with emotion now and not have it wreck my voice .

[Voronwen]

Originally Posted by Tessar

It's such a relief to be able to sing with emotion now and not have it wreck my voice .

Yes!!! This happens when you connect to the body. You'll find yourself making sounds you didn't know you could!!

I had a consultation with a local coach/teacher. He heard me sing a couple of arias and thinks definitely that i am a lyric soprano. I just happen to be one with a crazy high "extension" range. He said the reason he classified me as a lyric soprano and not a coloratura was because a coloratura is a virtually "weightless" voice, and that the places where my voice is weighted are those of a lyric soprano. He thought that perhaps some of my repertoire (though not all of it - he approved of Pamina ) is just slightly too light for me and that there is more "potential" in the voice to blossom into a true lyric.

It's not unheard of for lyric sopranos to have a high extension range - both Renee Fleming and Angela Gheorghiu both have some crazy high notes, and have even performed them. Many lyrics perform high E's.

He still qualified that i am on the lighter side of lyric, at least for now. But he suggested that i experiment with "Mi chiamano Mimi" from La Boheme. I've sung "Quando m'en vo" before but it never felt like 'me', at least character-wise - i never really related dramatically to Musetta, but i do relate to Mimi. I guess we'll see where this goes.

The unfortunate bit is that he's on a busy college staff and doesn't have time for one more private student right now in his schedule, so i will not be able to study with him. But it was good to get another opinion. Who knew??

[Varnafindë]

Originally Posted by Tessar

I'm so glad you know the sensation I'm talking about... I have a feeling anyone who's not a singer isn't going to have a clue what it is. I had certainly never felt it (to this extent) before.

Not being a singer, I don't have a clue ... but I enjoy following your explorations of singing techniques!

When I combined the passion I want to show with the technique that I now have of keeping my throat open and modifying the vowels/keeping the palate up... OH MY GOD. My voice just soared like I've never felt it do before.

Great to hear - I'm happy for you, and hope that contest works out well.

About passion during performing - I was treasurer for an amateur theatre company a while ago (I also did some prompting, and enjoyed it totally). I remember once during a rehearsal when they were doing a "fast forward" through a scene, just to check out the timing or some detail of blocking, so they weren't really acting it, just saying their lines. And one of the ladies found that when she wasn't adding her emotions to her performance, she couldn't remember her lines!

[Tessar]

Originally Posted by Voronwen

I had a consultation with a local coach/teacher. He heard me sing a couple of arias and thinks definitely that i am a lyric soprano. I just happen to be one with a crazy high "extension" range. He said the reason he classified me as a lyric soprano and not a coloratura was because a coloratura is a virtually "weightless" voice, and that the places where my voice is weighted are those of a lyric soprano.

Hmm. Interesting! Definitely something you need a trusted professional to 'diagnose'.

He still qualified that i am on the lighter side of lyric, at least for now. But he suggested that i experiment with "Mi chiamano Mimi" from La Boheme. I've sung "Quando m'en vo" before but it never felt like 'me', at least character-wise - i never really related dramatically to Musetta, but i do relate to Mimi. I guess we'll see where this goes.

Now, forgive me if I'm wrong here but isn't your voice already 'fully grown'? My understanding has always been that by the time they're 25-30, unless they're a dramatic soprano/mezzo, womens voices have already grown to full size and weight. It's a little puzzling to me when you say that you're on the lighter side of lyric 'for now'.

Originally Posted by Varnafindë

About passion during performing - I was treasurer for an amateur theatre company a while ago (I also did some prompting, and enjoyed it totally). I remember once during a rehearsal when they were doing a "fast forward" through a scene, just to check out the timing or some detail of blocking, so they weren't really acting it, just saying their lines. And one of the ladies found that when she wasn't adding her emotions to her performance, she couldn't remember her lines!

That's really funny!

We had a baritone in Pirates who was (in my opinion) a major slacker and just not dedicated to the show at all... he had a minor role, the pirate Samuel. He was constantly forgetting his lines and words in our beginning rehearsals, and tried to use the excuse that he, 'always remembers better when he has blocking,' . Basically to me that sounds like, "I can't be bothered to learn my lines or music but the repetition of rehearsal will probably help me learn it." At least your lady actually knew her lines .

I practiced a bit this afternoon and I think it went really well. I'm starting to get a better sense of connecting my breath to my phrasing, and not grabbing at the breath or 'holding' the air in my chest as I sing. The modification thing is still a work in progress but I -think- it's improving.

One thing I have to be careful of is flipping the voice over too early. I was singing In Der Fremde, and at one point I have an 'ah' vowel on an A3... not very high at all, but I was afraid it wouldn't float so I tried putting it into the mask... when I listened to the recording that just turned the vowel into complete mush. So I need to not place my voice too high in my middling-low range.

I'm going to practice more tonight after a mandatory recital we have to attend. I'm not crazy about the recital... it's the 67 year-old head of the voice department, and she's singing the same recital she did forty years ago for her senior recital. Don't get me wrong, she's an amazing teacher, and by all accounts was an incredible coloratura when she was young... but I am NOT anxious to hear her squealing out the Doll Aria (!!!) from the Tales of Hoffmann at 67 years of age. I hope she proves me wrong, but I heard her practicing it a few weeks ago, AND she's just been sick these last two weeks so she's probably still recovering somewhat. *sigh*

I just feel like she should be singing something a little more... age appropriate. Like NOT the recital of a 27 year old. More like the recital of someone whose strength now lies in phrasing instead of in her high notes. She's an amazingly emotive singer, but the high notes not so much any more.

[Tessar]

The recital was actually not bad at all . I wasn't super thrilled or excited, but she did sing one -very- beautiful musical theater piece at the end which she did an amazing job on.

I have to tell you what she did for the Doll Aria though. I have no idea if she had already planned it or if it was a last minute thing she threw together because she couldn't sing all of the notes... but in the middle of the piece (during the first part where the doll falls over and has to be wound back up) she had the sound guy start playing the recording of when she sang it at her 1969 recital!!!! If that isn't just clever beyond words, I don't know what is. So all of the really REALLY hard coloratura bits were just directly off of the recording, while she stood there 'looking confused', and then sang along a little bit pretending to be annoyed. I have to admit it was very cute, and definitely very clever. The final high note, which she sang without the old recording playing along, really didn't come out so well... it was very under the pitch, and the little coloratura run up to it was pretty iffy. Definitely a very -very- clever tactic though .


I went up to the practice rooms directly afterwards, and when I came out about 30 minutes later there were still tons of people hanging around. It surprised me a little since I expected most of the people to be gone by then, but it makes sense considering that a lot of the people in the audience were her old students.

I have to tell my coach, when I see him at the church services tomorrow, what a huuuuuuuge difference 'singing with passion' has made for me. Basically all of this time I've lacked followthrough... which is why I sing so much better when I'm in front of an audience. Because I know that I only have one shot, I get into a 'I'm going to make those notes come out if it's the last thing I do!' mode. Now that I know I have to take that attitude even while I practice, it just makes SUCH an incredible difference.

I'm still kind of anxious about Monday's audition. Pray for me! I desperately want that lead baritone role, although I'll still be excited to get anything that's not chorus.

[Voronwen]

Originally Posted by Tessar

Now, forgive me if I'm wrong here but isn't your voice already 'fully grown'? My understanding has always been that by the time they're 25-30, unless they're a dramatic soprano/mezzo, womens voices have already grown to full size and weight. It's a little puzzling to me when you say that you're on the lighter side of lyric 'for now'.

It depends on the woman. Those numbers are very arbitrary. A lot of factors enter in - training, health, hormones, etc. So technically a woman's voice can reach full maturity well into the 30s. In fact, only the very lightest voices (ie. true coloraturas) mature fully as soon as the late 20s. Heavy dramatic voices can sometimes take until about 40. But all of these numbers are just an average.

But he wasn't talking about physical 'growth' as much as technical growth. Basically, he pointed out that i have never been encouraged toward fuller rep before, and thinks that if i gave it a shot, i may find capabilities that i haven't as of yet developed.

Then again, he may be talking through his hat Yes, others too have noticed the capacity for a warmer sound coming in, but i doubt i'll ever be a "full" lyric voice. Part of voice size actually has to do with your overall physical build and size, and i am rather petite. So, it's a lyric voice, but a comparatively small one. This is fine with me. Light lyric is a great thing to be We get some of the loveliest music ever written.

I tried singing through Mimi's aria (i have it in a soprano anthology) and, while it felt satisfying to sing, i found that most of it sat a tad low. The "high notes" are A's. While i've been told i have a lovely A, i've also been told many times that Bb is my 'money note'. So, i need things that sit just a little bit higher. It was a bit like trying on a big sister's dress. I didn't quite fill it out in all the right places.

Still wish i could go back to my old teacher in the city.


As for your department recital - Wow!! That took guts. What she did sounds like a fun way to handle it with acting. That aria is all about the acting anyway!

I heard of a 70 year old once who could still sing Queen of the Night!

I'm glad your new techniques are working for you. If i learned anything by experimenting with fuller rep (i didn't stop at Mimi - i had a few others of the same ilk in the anthology and spent some time on Saturday tinkering around ) it's that working with it in practice can draw out even more legato and connection and the kinds of things you're talking about.

[Tessar]

Originally Posted by Voronwen

But he wasn't talking about physical 'growth' as much as technical growth. Basically, he pointed out that i have never been encouraged toward fuller rep before, and thinks that if i gave it a shot, i may find capabilities that i haven't as of yet developed.

Got it . That makes much more sense to me... I guess I hadn't thought of it, although I've always understood that a person's technique should ('must' would be a better word) continue to evolve and grow throughout their entire life.

Light lyric is a great thing to be We get some of the loveliest music ever written.

Agreed. Could you be headed towards kind of a Barbara Bonny sound? She has a very light, but definitely warm, voice. She's one of my absolute favorites.


I've been thinking about some of my favorite singers like Mario Lanza, Placido Domingo, young Pavarotti, Judy Garland, Karen Carpenter, Samuel Ramey etc... and it occurred to me that they all have a similarity to their sound, although of course their voices are extremely different. They have that 'cry' of emotion when they sing. Someone compared it to the sound of an infant's cry, and I think it's true. You can pick out recordings of any of those artists and find bad vocal days where their sound wasn't 'pretty', but that 'cry' sound still tugs at your emotions every time.

I was also thinking about the people who I have seen win competitions. I've been really shocked some times because last year two guys I know tied for first place in a local competition... I think one has a very poor voice, and the other has a fantastic voice. But yesterday I had a thought, so I asked a mutual friend if the one I thought wasn't very good really 'turned it on' for his competition performances, and the guy answered, "Oh yeah! His voice isn't very good, but he totally emotionalizes everything he sings."

Part of what made me think of it so much is that a friend of mine auditioned for a part in next semester's opera. Despite having to restart three times, and then finally just stopping and not actually finishing the audition aria she got a callback to reaudition for another part. The director told her that despite the fact that she didn't know the music, he was really impressed with the acting and emotion he saw during the parts she did know.


So I think it boils down to me needing to stop thinking, "Oh geeze, my technique isn't good enough and my voice isn't amazing," and be much more of a 'performer'. I really have such a powerful desire to have a beautiful sound that I think I've been sacrificing good presentation.

We'll see if I can change my focus. The singing with 'commitment' is working so well for me now. I'm already hearing lots of good things in my voice that sound like someone singing what they're actually feeling... and that's great . So hopefully I can keep continuing on the right path.

I'm not sure if I got a role in the opera or not. I'm pretty anxious about it right now because they told us that they've already cast some of the parts, but not the ones that they're doing callbacks for... the callbacks are next Monday, so they can't tell or even hint to anyone whether or not they got a part till they have the entire cast decided. I didn't get a callback... so I either already have a part and just don't know it, or I didn't get anything at all. Fingers crossed it's not chorus. >.<

[Tessar]

Originally Posted by Voronwen

But he wasn't talking about physical 'growth' as much as technical growth. Basically, he pointed out that i have never been encouraged toward fuller rep before, and thinks that if i gave it a shot, i may find capabilities that i haven't as of yet developed.

Got it . That makes much more sense to me... I guess I hadn't thought of it, although I've always understood that a person's technique should ('must' would be a better word) continue to evolve and grow throughout their entire life.

Light lyric is a great thing to be We get some of the loveliest music ever written.

Agreed. Could you be headed towards kind of a Barbara Bonny sound? She has a very light, but definitely warm, voice. She's one of my absolute favorites.


I've been thinking about some of my favorite singers like Mario Lanza, Placido Domingo, young Pavarotti, Judy Garland, Karen Carpenter, Samuel Ramey etc... and it occurred to me that they all have a similarity to their sound, although of course their voices are extremely different. They have that 'cry' of emotion when they sing. Someone compared it to the sound of an infant's cry, and I think it's true. You can pick out recordings of any of those artists and find bad vocal days where their sound wasn't 'pretty', but that 'cry' sound still tugs at your emotions every time.

I was also thinking about the people who I have seen win competitions. I've been really shocked some times because last year two guys I know tied for first place in a local competition... I think one has a very poor voice, and the other has a fantastic voice. But yesterday I had a thought, so I asked a mutual friend if the one I thought wasn't very good really 'turned it on' for his competition performances, and the guy answered, "Oh yeah! His voice isn't very good, but he totally emotionalizes everything he sings."

Part of what made me think of it so much is that a friend of mine auditioned for a part in next semester's opera. Despite having to restart three times, and then finally just stopping and not actually finishing the audition aria she got a callback to reaudition for another part. The director told her that despite the fact that she didn't know the music, he was really impressed with the acting and emotion he saw during the parts she did know.


So I think it boils down to me needing to stop thinking, "Oh geeze, my technique isn't good enough and my voice isn't amazing," and be much more of a 'performer'. I really have such a powerful desire to have a beautiful sound that I think I've been sacrificing good presentation.

We'll see if I can change my focus. The singing with 'commitment' is working so well for me now. I'm already hearing lots of good things in my voice that sound like someone singing what they're actually feeling... and that's great . So hopefully I can keep continuing on the right path.

I'm not sure if I got a role in the opera or not. I'm pretty anxious about it right now because they told us that they've already cast some of the parts, but not the ones that they're doing callbacks for... the callbacks are next Monday, so they can't tell or even hint to anyone whether or not they got a part till they have the entire cast decided. I didn't get a callback... so I either already have a part and just don't know it, or I didn't get anything at all. Fingers crossed it's not chorus. >.<

[Voronwen]

Originally Posted by Tessar

I guess I hadn't thought of it, although I've always understood that a person's technique should ('must' would be a better word) continue to evolve and grow throughout their entire life.

Yes, that's exactly right!

Could you be headed towards kind of a Barbara Bonny sound? She has a very light, but definitely warm, voice.

Entirely possible. I do relate to her sound and already sing some of her rep. I'd say she is squarely in the center of "light lyric", sound-wise and rep-wise. I should probably look up everything she's sung, for ideas. I know she's sung Pamina and a lot of other Mozart, for starters. Also she's sung Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier, which is a role i was cast in once (just scenes, not the whole opera). You may be onto something!

I think the biggest relief is that i can feel free to drop the "coloratura" tag. I can sing coloratura rep if necessary, but i never really felt at home there, despite having the notes. I've been doing some research and evidently Lucia Popp and Kathleen Battle are examples of sopranos who have been called light lyrics who got away with singing some coloratura rep at times. All of these ladies have sung Pamina, which seems to be a central role in the light lyric rep.

I've been thinking about some of my favorite singers like Mario Lanza, Placido Domingo, young Pavarotti, Judy Garland, Karen Carpenter, Samuel Ramey etc... and it occurred to me that they all have a similarity to their sound, although of course their voices are extremely different. They have that 'cry' of emotion when they sing. Someone compared it to the sound of an infant's cry, and I think it's true. You can pick out recordings of any of those artists and find bad vocal days where their sound wasn't 'pretty', but that 'cry' sound still tugs at your emotions every time.

It's imperative that we keep an emotional connection to our music, someway somehow. I had a teacher in college who emphasized this (as well as good technique) at every master class. She would say that she and others could tell who was emotionally connected to their music and who was not. She taught us to have our own "inner dialogue" for what the aria or song meant to us - even if it had nothing to do with the opera and only made sense to us alone! I am here to tell you that it does make a difference!

So I think it boils down to me needing to stop thinking, "Oh geeze, my technique isn't good enough and my voice isn't amazing," and be much more of a 'performer'. I really have such a powerful desire to have a beautiful sound that I think I've been sacrificing good presentation.

Yes. You really can't have one without the other. They are two sides of the same whole. Technique is a means to an end. You can express the emotions far better, the better your technique is. Without technique, too much emotion in the voice just makes for a butchered aria But a 'technically perfect' aria without any emotion is just as bad, in a very different way - it's boring.

Remember also that "beautiful sound" is in the eye(ear?) of the beholder. There are some famous singers that people have said their sounds are "beautiful" that i honestly can't stand listening to. Beauty comes from good technique, but it also comes from the inner person. It's a lot like looks, that way the two go hand in hand. When you have humanity behind your singing, as well as good technique, you'll have a "beautiful sound".

I'm already hearing lots of good things in my voice that sound like someone singing what they're actually feeling...

This is exactly what i'm talking about! I've heard it said that singing is 'elongated speech' and that an aria is a 'repeated emotion'. And because opera is theater, we need to keep this all in mind. Imagine going to see a production of a Shakespearean play, and when the lead comes out to deliver a famous monologue, it's all enunciated and pronounced perfectly, but... there's no emotion behind it. Going to sleep yet? You'd never see that happen in reality, because such an actor would never get cast.

I didn't get a callback... so I either already have a part and just don't know it, or I didn't get anything at all. Fingers crossed it's not chorus. >.<

Actually, if you don't have a role, cross your fingers that is IS chorus! In the chorus you can not only practice your stage craft, but you'll get to observe others who were successful at being cast in the leading roles this time, and learn from them. Next semester, it just might be you.