I seem to be having nearly the opposite issue these days. I've recently
started with a new teacher again, after ~5 years outside of formal training
(I've been choral singing in the meantime) and she's doing far different
things with my voice than I ever expected. When I was in college, my teacher
at the time was having me do lyric/soubrette and fairly light coloratura
material. My last few pieces before I left school (age 23) were things like
"Una Voce Poco Fa" and "Una Donna Quindici'ani"
I very much enjoyed these things, and figured that was the path I'd aim
toward. I had (to my ear) a pretty good top that started getting juicy right
about C5 and just got better. I was even starting to work on gaining control
of some of the "whistle" (whatever) stuff post a solid D6. My agility was
(and still is) quite good. Conversely, I also had a fairly rich bottom, with
a low note of around D3. I got cast in a quartet from Falstaff one year as
Dame Quickly! Although I enjoy doing classical singing, my "real" joy is in
jazz and musical theater, and I also did a fair amount of that type of
singing as well, which resulted in getting several solos in one of my
choruses in belt range. ("Johnny One Note", for instance.) So, needless to
say, part of my reason for starting lessons again was to try to figure out
exactly what goldurn fach I am anyway, so I could decide whether and what
type of career I could reasonably expect to pursue. I had to drop one of the
choruses I was in because, even though it was a very large group, the type
of material they were doing (Aside from a few Opera choruses and Carmina
Burana) was mostly fairly gentle stuff- a lot of romantic and 20th cen.
acapella works, lots of Oratorio. I really was having a very hard time being
a soprano 1 in that group and having to, as I commented to my husband one
night, "rein in the rhinoceros" every time I was singing with them to avoid
sticking out.
In clearing the cobwebs on my technique, my new teacher now seems to have
discovered my "mix." She believes my fullest, richest sound is actually
smack dab in the middle of my range, with a good A~B on top. Ack! Okay, so
I'm 29 now, and my voice has changed somewhat, I can get that. I also have
physically changed considerably since my college days as well (gained about
75 lbs due to a hormone disorder- though I was never small to begin with)
and my voice has actually deepened (I added two notes on the bottom) but I
feel like the top is still there. I still feel like a soprano- I don't think
I'm descending into mezzo territory- but my teacher's been throwing out
names like Marilyn Horne and even made a brief suggestion of a possible full
dramatic path(!!!!!)
Yipes!
So now what? Obviously, I need to discuss this in further depth with my
teacher, but I kind of wanted to get some other feedback about this as well.
Is this bizarre and unusual? Am I doomed to never sing Bel Canto again? What
about the musical theater and operetta that I love doing? I feel I'm more of
a comic actress than a dramatic one, though I can certainly do drama when
necessary, but who ever heard of a soprano buffo? There's a good chance I
may end up doing Josephine in HMS Pinafore this spring- is this ill-advised?
I'm not terribly musically sophisticated, and certainly not very aware of
much of the classical singer "real" career path so I'm not quite sure what
I'm doing anyway, and I'm more than a little worried about the future. I
want to be able to work for real someday, but I'd always just figured that
would mean getting paid a pittance now and then for some small regional
opera productions and the occasional choral solo. I really don't know what's
out there otherwise, and I'm worried that if I really throw myself into
this, what are the chances that it will be worth it?
Any and all ideas would be greatly appreciated!
-Shawna
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