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From:  Peter Louis van Dijk <plvdijk@i...>
Peter Louis van Dijk <plvdijk@i...>
Date:  Thu Jan 25, 2001  2:09 pm
Subject:  So who uses chest voice?


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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