“I don’t get opera singing,” a friend once admitted to me. “I like a lot of classical music but opera leaves me cold.” It’s a curious fact that the operatic voice can be as culturally foreign to some westerners as to the inhabitants of a Tibetan village. This article will have a look at some ways to gently “ease” interested friends into enjoying classical singing.
I think the most important thing to remember is that the operatic vocal approach developed around the practical challenge of filling a large space with sound, as opposed to more contemporary styles of singing, which are all centred around the microphone. Consequently the best introduction to the operatic voice is a live performance. Choose the opera carefully, though. Something both tuneful and meaty (like Rigoletto) or exotic (like Carmen or Les Pêcheurs des Perles) is probably best.
If a theatrical outing is not immediately feasible, try showing your novice friend a portion from a good production on DVD or video. Baz Lurhmann’s staging of La Bohème or the film of Salomé with Teresa Stratas, for example, both offer great performances as well as knockout visuals. However, you need to remember that electronic reproduction can sometimes be unkind to operatic voices, especially in tending to emphasise vibrato.
In terms of opera voices generally, it’s also important to bear in mind that the female operatic voice is more foreign to popular consciousness than the male. The high male register is a staple of pop music, often with a similar degree of intensity in the sound compared to the operatic tenor voice, though rarely matching it in terms of sheer power and fullness of tone. By contrast, female artists in more popular music genres rarely range above their break (usually around b-d), and when they do it is usually in a kind of falsetto, often with a great deal of breathiness. This is typical, for example, of the higher part of Joni Mitchell’s singing range, or Nicole Kidman’s fake coloratura in the finale of Moulin Rouge. When registers are integrated, it is usually in the exhilarating upward extension of belting, as in female soul singing (well privileged in the latest American Idol final). In any of these cases, the sound is very different to that of a top operatic soprano or mezzo.
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One way to introduce the female operatic voice to an interested friend might be to start with a light crossover example. Perhaps play something from one of Sarah Brightman’s contemporary albums, followed by a sampling of the lovely record of British folksong settings she made with Geoffrey Parsons (no less). Then move on to the fabulous recording of Górecki’s Third Symphony featuring a performance from Dawn Upshaw unsurpassed in terms of tonal purity, and sporting the most unobtrusive vibrato ever. For mezzos, Cecilia Bartoli records amazingly well, as does Marian Anderson. Singers with opulent voices like Renée Fleming, or quirkier ones like Callas, are best avoided. Their sounds are too alien to the usual contemporary experience of singing to get an appreciative first-time hearing.
The tenor voice has needed no PR since the 1990 World Cup, but if you want something a little less heroic, without sounding wimpish, I must mention Gregory Kunde, who sings very seductively on a recent-ish recording of Lakmé. I’d steer clear of basses, baritones and contraltos initially, as the sheer richness of the voices is likely to be overwhelming – in a bad way – to a neophyte.
As a final pointer, I must end by opining that opera singers are at their best in classical repertoire. Occasionally opera voices are used in the pop field and, if nothing else will, Yanni’s dance-mix travesty of “Dôme épais le jasmin” may convince clubbers that there is something they might like to explore in opera. However, play Renata Scotto murdering “Send in the Clowns” to a Sondheim fan, and you could turn them against opera for life!
Tim Passmore
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