> the one with rosa ponselle. "sing with a square > throat" she says is bad > enough but then, he tries to figure out the > placement of the square.
I can't make heads or tails out of the Ponselle chapter. Then again, it's often been said/written that Ponselle had a natural voice with practically no formal training, and that she had no idea what made her voice work or not work -- which contributed to her horrible stage fright, which contributed to her early retirement from the stage.
Another chapter that puzzles me is Anna Moffo's. I have heard and read so often that her voice lacked complete technique (often attributed to the fact that she got out of Curtis very young and immediately went to Italy and launched a career), and that is what derailed her and ruined her voice... and yet, everything she says in that chapter seems so right to me. Maybe she understood it but it didn't "stick"? Or maybe there was another piece of the puzzle she was missing... or maybe her vocal demise had nothing to do with faulty technique.
But Ponselle is a mystery. Of course, she did teach James Morris, and he seems to have worked out fine. But I certainly can't make heads or tails of her "square throat" business.
Marilyn Horne's chapter reads like vocal suicide to me, all that manipulation and "yawn" feeling in the throat (of course, I don't like her voice and find her hooty and unlistenable). Just goes to show that what works for one singer doesn't work for another.
I think it's interesting that Dr. Diane subscribes to the above theory (different strokes for different folks), when her teacher, ze vonderful Zinka, says in the Hines book, "There's only *one* way of singing."
Isabelle B.
===== Isabelle Bracamonte San Francisco, CA ibracamonte@y...
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