Sandra:
Pavarotti's English is not always the best. When he speaks of
"squeezing" the tone through the passaggio area he is referring to
the use of the more closed forms of the vowels required by the text
that must be sung in the passaggio. This means, of course, that even
as an Italian he will alter his so called "pure" vowels into forms of
the vowel that will assist his singing line. The effect of this
"cheat" is to create a vowel line that is more connected and, to the
listener, more even and "pure".
Examples: For front vowels, singing [i] rather than [I], or singing
[I] rather than [e], or singing [e] rather than [E]. For back vowels
singing [u] rather than [o], or singing [o] rather than [awe] or
singing some more closed form of [a] such as found in "father" or
"fun" or even "full". This selection of a more closed form of the
vowel allows the singer to actually move, or adjust to other
neighboring pitches, the passaggio points such that they are no
longer difficulties in a particular passage.
Pavarotti's teacher has used this method on other singers. Listen to
the even sounding scale in the singing of Mirella Freni to find
similar examples of selecting a more closed form of the passaggio
vowel in a woman's voice.
Lloyd W. Hanson, DMA
Professor of Voice, Pedagogy
School of Performing Arts
Northern Arizona University
Flagstaff, AZ 86011
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