<< I've heard there have been a number of people who believed you can
sing anything you wanted (tenor, bass, baritone) provided you found
the right attitude, which stems from a deep awareness of the mind-
feeling-spirit world within each of us. >>
i believe that most singers are capable of singing more than they think
they can. anybody with a good technique can usually vocalize a wider range
than they would ever use (practically speaking, most music doesn't use more
than a 12th). so, the most apparently prohibitive element in 'singing
whatever you want' might not be the obstacle many assume it is. (i should
add that extending one's range on the high end is far more doable than
extending it on the lower end so, some people are just plain screwed in that
regard.)
more limiting are how long one can sustain a particular range and with
what quality. the further someone gets from their 'plain vanilla' voice,
the more limited they will be in what they can do with it.
the assesment as to whether a singer can get away with something or not,
is dependent on who is making the determination of whether or not they did,
indeed, get away with it. there is going to be less variability on the
judgment as to whether or not the singer suceeded in singing the notes.
open to more disagreement is whether or not the singer sang with the
appropriate quality. with regard to the latter, in the last century, we saw
a number of roles go through changes in criteria as to what was appropriate;
don giovanni, carmen, boris godunov, etc. it seems that there is more
acceptance of singers moving upward in 'fach' than moving downward and there
seems to be more acceptance in the notion of a 'bass-baritone' than there is
acceptance for a 'baritone-tenor' (a subject we covered recently).
'attitude' seems to play more of a role in limiting a singer than it is
in helping the singer. still, getting rid of a bad attitude is not enough
to make a singer more versatile. the singer has to develope the skills
required by that versatility.
the health of one's voice is a seperate consideration. just because one
can do an extraordinary number of things with their voice doesn't necessarily
mean they are going to be able to do it for very long (think of the little
league pitcher with an awesome curve ball).
as long as we're on the subject, let me say again that i think people
should sing whatever they can get away with.
mike
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