> One has to look no further than the > career of Susan Dunn to > realize the potential PERMANENT harm of singing > beyond your means.
I would point out the difference between performing heavy repertoire and studying it, under constant monitoring and scrutiny, as a technical exercise. Many of the examples sited here have to do with performing.
> Birgit Nilsson always said "I sing with a slim > voice", and to consistently sing with a gathered, > focussed tone takes more than a couple of years of > voice lessons, not to mention the many other aspects > of singing which must be mastered before even > attempting any operatic repertoire.
Singing with a narrow, focused tone has nothing to do with the heaviness of your repertoire. Foward, narrow singing creates good voices in every fach. One of the big problems with the warm, fat singers of today, from Swenson to Fleming to Sweet, is that they have lost the concept of focus. Any singer with two or three years of intense (ideally more than once a week) lessons under their belt ought to understand focus enough to take on heavier repertoire in order to advance their training. [Point for Molly: "Vedrai, carino" is an excellent song for any voice type, as long as you know you'll sound like a truck singing it. It's "Batti, batti" that can overly lighten a bigger voice and cause it to lift off and choke. Vedrai is a great song for learning to sing forward, lean passaggio lines, even if you sound like a spinto doing it.] [However, re: Santuzza, if your voice teacher didn't prescribe it specifically for your voice at this moment in time, don't do it. Roles that are "useful" in the future are not important at this age; learning technique through vocalises and instructive repertoire are, so trust her to diagnose and assign what you need as you need it.]
No one is suggesting that young singers perform dramatic repertoire. I think that this entire post has dealt quite deftly with the very real dangers of performing (in an audition or competition or in front of an audience or in your own bedroom -- performing is performing) the heavy rep.
But we're talking about *learning* on bigger music. As a technical exercise. In the studio. That means you don't sing it outside of the studio (even to practice, in the beginning phase), that means that you don't try to sound like Zajick or Nilsson, that means you don't yet add interpretation or emotion into the technique, that means your teacher doesn't let even a note come out of your mouth that is strained or pushed, and that means that you end up singing a healthy, young-sounding version of it.
Yes, muscle memory exists. Don't go home and tear through all the top hits in the Adler books in your free time. But muscle memoy is not a problem if your foundation is correct (i.e., if you were taught to sing it youthfully BUT HEALTHILY at first). Muscle memory gets you most in trouble when you initially learn something incorrectly, rather than simply with young technique that you can build on. Your teacher, one assumes, is giving you a solid understanding of your instrument and your technique -- you ought to know how to pick up a piece you haven't sung in two or three years, and work through it over the course of a few days so that it ends up the best piece in your repertoire.
I would also point out that saying that a 20-year-old should never sing Santuzza, as a blanket statement, fails to take into account both the skill of the teacher and the particular instrument of the student. For all we know, you wouldn't be able to tell Molly's voice from Ponselle's if you heard it on the street. Most voices are light; most young voices are very light; most light voices should not sing dramatic literature; most young voices should not sing Santuzza. But not *all* young voices, and that's where the danger in this "ina" theory lies. Also, most teachers do not have the innate gift of sensing where "too much" lies and how much challenge is beneficial, nor can they hear and diagnose the next steps a voice needs to take in terms of operatic repertoire; most teachers therefore cannot and should not be teaching larger repertoire to their students.
Performing -- no. Singing through for your own pleasure -- no. Learning in a studio? The debate goes on.
Isabelle B.
===== Isabelle Bracamonte San Francisco, CA ibracamonte@y... ibracamonte@y...
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