molly,
i agree with you on eilleen farrell. she is the only female opera singer, besides julia migenes, that i have ever heard sing in another style succesfully. most still sound like opera singers acquiring new rep from other styles. a good male example is rene kollo who, i think sounds much better, vocally, singing 'pretty woman' than he ever did singing wagner.
going from singing operatically to singing pop/jazz/folk/etc. styles, is potentially more difficult for the female classical singer than for the male. most pop/etc. singing is done using the voice in a similar manner as it is used in speech. simply put, most of the singing uses 'chest voice' as it's base. in the case of the female classical singer, the base for most of her singing is 'head voice' which, is not the same 'head voice' used by men (except for counter-tenors) or, female belters.
where i would think you should begin is by using your 'speaking voice' to sing with, using it as if it were the same as speaking only adding specific pitches (similar to singing stupid songs in the car on a painfully long and boring family outing). where you are likely to have trouble is in extending the range of this 'voice' past the Bb above middle C. the key to getting past this hump are roughly the same as a male singer would use in getting past those notes near the E just above middle C.
musically, there are far more textures available to the belter than to the opera singer. where the opera singer tends towards singing everything with the same vibrato rate, 'all over' legato and, out of necessity, the same volume, the belter (if amplified) is not limited to these few elements. also, there is far less distortion of words in belting than in opera singing. i believe this is due not only to vocal use but, also to the idea that most other forms of singing can be seen as an extension of speech, more or less.
i like seth riggs' 'singing for the stars' as an approach to singing anything but, i think you might find it particularly more applicable to non classical singing than any of your previous vocal training.
mike
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