> Isabelle...some of the young singers I have heard in
> conservatory settings who sing opera roles there
> have that "ring" in their voices on most pitches,
> but not all voices are totally even at tender ages
> of 20 and 21...or 30 or 31!
Yes, I understand this more... and an "enhancement"
system that doesn't give students a false sense of
their volume level, which lets them prematurely play
with dynamic levels or color shadings at the expense
of their natural ability to project would, certainly,
be better than straight microphones.
This seems to harken back to my non-so-popular opinion
that the first job of an undergraduate is to learn to
sing, not to divide the time/resources of the
institution and student between performing skills,
coachings, polishing, grooming... If you have a
student without enough ring in the voice to be heard
in an appropriate role, what are you doing sending
that student out onto stage? No one would dream of
putting an actor into a role who had not yet learned
to speak, or sending a pianist into a recital
situation before she could play scales -- the
coordination between breath and resonator
(ring/cut/formant -- the volume level, in short) is
THAT fundamental to a healthy, long-term career in
opera.
I disagree that undergraduates can consider themselves
well-prepared if they graduate with several roles
under their belt, charming stage skills, perfect
diction, and no voice. I think the training of the
voice has to come first, and only after a student is
capable of getting through a role on the merits of his
own technique should the student be allowed to build
on that by adding performance skills. But most
undergraduates don't get any more than 50 minutes of
technical training a week, and so they aren't able to
cover even the basics of good technique in four years.
A long career comes from vocal health. Vocal health
comes from unshakable technique, the ability to
produce an operatic tone in an house without doing
vocal harm. That's got to come first. After you've
got a voice that can healthily cut over an orchestra,
THEN you should add in all the "polishing" skills and
performance opportunities.
But we've had this discussion before... I just need to
shake things up every once in a while with my opinion.
Isabelle B.
=====
Isabelle Bracamonte
San Francisco, CA
ibracamonte@y...
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