I'm rarely agreed with on this list, but I'll venture
into this arena anyway.
I get the impression that there are two schools of
thought about whether an undeveloped voice should sing
bigger repertoire -- the "do it under supervision"
school and the "don't touch it until you're ready"
school. "Bigger repertoire" doesn't just mean our
20-year-olds here who are learning "Un bel di" and
"Voi lo sapete," but also, perhaps, a 19-year-old
possible lyric singing Mimi, or a 30-year-old
coloratura with only a year of lessons singing Lucia
or Violetta. It's a question of whether and how far
to push the envelope of what a voice can do
comfortably.
I think we can all agree on a couple of things. One:
Never never venture out into the *world* with music
that's beyond your scope. None of our young singers
are suggesting that they have the dramatic
credibility, emotional experience, or vocal maturity
to pretend like these big pieces are in their
repertoire for performance or audition. They're
talking about pieces to learn on, presented only in
lessons, as technical exercises.
Two: Don't sing music that's really too big -- too
much of a reach. A 20-year-old future dramatic can
sing quite a good (for learning purposes) Butterfly or
Santuzza, IF IF IF the teacher's assessment is correct
and the voice is a future dramatic (or, more likely,
spinto). If it's the 20-year-old's own idea that
she'll be a dramatic someday, or if the teacher
incorrectly understands what "dramatic" is, there
could be trouble. But forcing large voices, even when
young, into the "inas" as a matter of course is also
asking for trouble.
Subset of two: Singing dramatic music doesn't mean
that a 20-year-old future dramatic should sing Isolde.
There does have to be room to grow -- that means that
the student who is learning Santuzza has the type of
voice her teacher expects will eventually become a
Brunnhilde and Isolde. The young lyric singing Mimi
must have shown signs that she will take on the
heaviest Puccini roles in her 30s and 40s. If you
have a 20-year-old potential Santuzza, she should be
learning "L'altra notte in fondo," Michaela, Nedda,
Liu (depends where her voice sits). It's the
potential Wagnerian or heavy Verdian who should be
singing Santuzza at the age of 20.
Okay, so where does the controversy lie?
Some teachers are, in my very opinionated opinion, so
deathly afraid of doing harm that they do no good.
They refuse to let a voice "learn on" anything. I
think that you have to reach a bit in order to grow.
Maybe that means doing messa di voce exercises that
are just a little bit beyond your ability, and
practicing them every day, and watching them improve.
Maybe that means singing "Pace, pace" in order to put
that concept into practice. Maybe that means putting
a 19-year-old through Gilda to teach her to negotiate
a high-lying passaggio. Singing a perfect Zerlina at
every lesson isn't going to help that voice advance,
but Gilda would (while sounding healthy but
"inappropriate" to the outside listener) stretch her
and challenge her and teach her how to handle it. BUT
BUT BUT, you *must* be certain that your teacher
understands exactly where the boundary lies between
pushing and learning, and can correct your problems
and keep you on track. Also, the teacher should know
when to say, "Nope, this is still too big," and scrap
a project. Or when to say, "We've been doing this
aria for four months and you've learned what I wanted
you to learn from it. It doesn't sound perfect and it
won't for another ten years, but it's served our
purposes and we're going to put it away." Singing big
repertoire to feed the ego is bad; singing big
repertoire to teach the voice to sing is NOT bad (if
the teacher is good).
The other school of thought, and one I've found to be
prevalent in conservatories, is that young voices
should not be pushed AT ALL, but should be treated
gently and nurtured. They teach sound concepts and
solid technique but don't make the student reach for
them in repertoire -- the repertoire is always a
little challenging, never so challenging that the
student is in despair at first (but ends up learning
that extra little step by the end). Maturity will
take care of the vocal development, they say, not
singing bigger repertoire. These students almost
never leave the studio in tears, never get blasted by
masterclass teachers when they take their repertoire
into a class, and almost always sound good and
presentable and appropriate in everything they sing.
The other students are often frustrated to tears by
the impossibility of their repertoire in the beginning
of a project (but not after a few months -- if it's
still impossible, the teacher made a bad choice).
They have a bunch of repertoire that they can't take
anywhere in any seriousness, and they sound "too
young" (although healthy!) in the repertoire they do
sing. But, in my opinion, they end up with the
better voices -- they learn more.
I realize that it's not so black-and-white. Many
teachers agree that students should be challenged and
pushed a bit in order to grow, but for them that means
a 20-year-old future dramatic singing Musetta, not
Santuzza. Some teachers agree that students should be
challenged, but for them that means a 20-year-old
singing Isolde. That's where experience and knowledge
of the teacher comes in -- to assess exactly what the
voice needs and can handle at any moment, and to push
that envelope as much as they can without harming the
voice at all.
No way would I want an inexperienced teacher, or one
without the gift of innately understanding what voices
need and what they can safely handle, to be teaching
the bigger rep. Most teachers don't know where that
line between "as much as they can" and "too much"
lies. So it's a good thing that the prevalent attitude
is to teach gently without enough challenge. At least
it doesn't hurt a voice. But that doesn't mean that
the best teachers are wrong to be teaching bigger rep
-- someone making remarks like "What kind of quack
teacher would ever allow you to sing this stuff" not a
relevant comment, since we don't know how advanced the
teacher is. It's not automatically wrong, if the
teacher is good and the voice can sing it healthily.
My opinions. You know how to take 'em.
Isabelle B.
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Isabelle Bracamonte
San Francisco, CA
ibracamonte@y...
ibracamonte@y...
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