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From:  Isabelle Bracamonte <ibracamonte@y...>
Isabelle Bracamonte <ibracamonte@y...>
Date:  Sun Nov 26, 2000  2:05 am
Subject:  Re: [vocalist-temporary] "voi lo sapete"- too dramatic?


> 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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6793 Re: "voi lo sapete"- too dramatic? thomas mark montgomery   Sun  11/26/2000   5 KB

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