| From: Isabelle Bracamonte Subject: Re: Interesting Renee Fleming quote from Opera News... To: vocalist Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>
In response to the comment:
> If one listens to the old recordings, you also hear > "bright" tinney quality coming from the instruments. > What does that tell you?
I wasn't actually referring to old, old recordings, but to singers around the 50s or so. Roberta Peters -- bright, pointed voice quality. Tebaldi -- singer's formant out the wazoo. Both of these singers were recorded in mediums that are much more faithful than the era I think Mr. Cheeseboro was referring to.
I have this great recording of Tebaldi singing Cleopatra's aria "V'adoro, pupille." She sings it with an incredible amount squillo and clarion-ness (what I call "ping"). Nowadays, we are used to hearing Handel sung with delicate, floating pianissimi and "oooey," luxuriously rounded tones. Proponants of today's singer's would probably say that Tebaldi blasted her way through the aria. I far prefer the vocal tone, however.
To my interpretation, Fleming was making a comment on the way audience's ears have changed over the years. I, too, believe that a tone heavy in singer's formant (I call that brightness -- some people use the word "bright" to refer to a childlike and breathy sound, but what I call "bright" I also call "ringing, pointed, focused," etc. Dr. Hanson and I may have had a problem with the semantics of the bright/dark vs. formant issue)... where was I? I, like Fleming, believe that a very pointed tone is healthier than the rounder position that is the current taste du jour.
That said, Fleming has a rather wide face with rounder bones. In my experience, singers with certain physical structure will naturally sound "rounder" than others. Why? Resonating spaces, maybe - who knows? It would be interesting if there were research somewhere on this topic. So Fleming might be singing more "pingy" (it's her term, and she demonstrated the term rather well on her interview with 60 Minutes, so I'm using it as well) than she sounds to us. Or she may be rounding out her tone more to appeal to today's tastes. It wasn't made clear which she was actually doing in her Opera News quote.
Isabelle B.
===== Isabelle Bracamonte San Francisco, CA ibracamonte-at-yahoo.com
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