> Perhaps I'm opening a can of worms, but it seems to
> me that amongst female
> opera singers, some utilize adducted vocal chords
> and some don't. There is
> a lot of falsetto going on, maybe since it is
> perceived as feminine.
John, the technical purists may point out that there
is (according to current pedagogical thought) no such
thing as female falsetto.
It is instead referred to as "pure" or "unsupported"
head voice, with no chest voice mixed in. I call it
falsetto when I sing it, because that's what it feels
like -- a flip into another register, that high, soft
little-girl voice.
I would say that a powerful, laserlike singer (and I
admire voices of the laser variety, such as Milanov,
Tebaldi, Behrens, Dessay, Zajick) (in fact, my
repulsion against the softer-grained heady sopranos,
like Sumi Jo, Swenson, Fleming, has been
well-documented and soundly bashed -- and I hear that
there are people out there who do not like the sound
produced by singers like Tetrezzini, younger Behrens,
etc.) -- where was I? Oh, yes. I would say that a
powerful laser voice has a good deal of chest in it,
while figuring out how to mix in the higher resonance
of head voice without sacrificing that squillo
quality.
I haven't heard Eaglen enough to say whether she is
more head-heavy or chest-supported, but it surprises
me that a voice can be balanced in favor of the head
voice (falsetto) and still cut over a Wagnerian
orchestra.
I have heard it said that Caballe's famous high
pianissimi were actually "cheated" because she flipped
them into falsetto (unsupported head voice) instead of
the much more difficult task of whittling down a
supported tone into a pianissimo. I don't know if
this assessment of Caballe's technique is correct,
since I never heard her live.
Isabelle B.
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Isabelle Bracamonte
San Francisco, CA
ibracamonte@y...
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