Dear List! All these discussions on the use and development of chest voice are really very interesting and exciting. What about applying this info to standard repertoire?
What arias (I suppose these would be mainly female ones) need the use of chest voice to be really effective (and heard above an orchestra)? I suppose the male equivalent would be top C in "full" voice as opposed to Head? Just asking?:-)
I have just been listening to Verdi's Macbeth with Shirley Verret singing Lady Macbeth. It struck me that it could be an interesting exercise, especially for our repertoire fundis out there, to compare singers singing the same aria, some using chest and some not.
I share with you the thoughts of Sten Hoegel, a singing lecturer in Copenhagen, where it is apparently common practise to start young singers off using chest-voice. (We have had brief correspondence regarding the teaching of chest voice.)
"I often use Donna Elvira's "Ah chi mi di che mai" as an example:
1. Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, a splendid Elvira, using her chestvoice correctly.
2. Kiri te Kanawa, a dull Elvira, avoiding the chestregister.
It is a pity that good taste these years tends towards avoiding chestregister in classical singing, even in the part of Fiordiligi!
We find it both a healthy and artisticly fine thing to use the chest register. The vocal chords become strong, when a voice is founded on a welldeveloped chest register, but it has to be taught correctly of course."
What about "Deh Vieni" or even "Batti Batti", so often sung by quite light voices?
Mozart's Arias in particular seem to imply that chest voice must have been used by sopranos, or you wouldn't have been able to hear half the aria. Why bother to compose arias requiring such a wide range if no-one can sing them?
Any takers for this topic? Lieder could be included as well.
Regards
Susi
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