Music has always been a big part of my life, in one way or another. I've sang in different choirs and I've played different instruments in different orchestras and groups. For quite a few years now, I've also been taking singing classes - and due to my nomadic lifestyle, with quite a few teachers, too.
In classical singing, your voice type is of course of particular importance. It's the material you work with and it also pretty much determines what kind of repertoire one should be singing. However, even a skilled vocal couch may take a while finding out what your particular voice type may be and even then you may someday end up changing fachs as your voice evolves and changes with the age. During the years I've been singing, I've got quite different views on my voice type, ranging from a dramatic mezzosoprano to a mezzo aiguë and a soprano. And to make things more complicated, my teachers have often changed their minds in the course of the year... In the end, I didn't really know if I was a mezzo or a soprano or a some kind of strange mix in between!
In classical singing, your voice type is of course of particular importance. It's the material you work with and it also pretty much determines what kind of repertoire one should be singing. However, even a skilled vocal couch may take a while finding out what your particular voice type may be and even then you may someday end up changing fachs as your voice evolves and changes with the age. During the years I've been singing, I've got quite different views on my voice type, ranging from a dramatic mezzosoprano to a mezzo aiguë and a soprano. And to make things more complicated, my teachers have often changed their minds in the course of the year... In the end, I didn't really know if I was a mezzo or a soprano or a some kind of strange mix in between!
Now that I've been studying singing with my current teacher at the conservatory, things are finally starting to fall into place. She's been convinced from the beginning that I'm a soprano and it seems indeed that she was right, I was simply blocking my upper register. Since my voice wasn't properly placed I had only a limited access to my upper notes - until some time ago when something quite amazing happened (well amazing to me at least!): something just clicked and all of a sudden my voice opened all the way up.
These are things that you hear happening to other singers, like the story about an alto turning into a coloratura soprano you've probably all hear of, but I didn't expect it to happen to me. I'm still no coloratura and probably never will be - my voice type seems rather be evolving into a soprano lirico or a lirico spinto -, but now I get to work on a new repertoire and it's great fun!
These are things that you hear happening to other singers, like the story about an alto turning into a coloratura soprano you've probably all hear of, but I didn't expect it to happen to me. I'm still no coloratura and probably never will be - my voice type seems rather be evolving into a soprano lirico or a lirico spinto -, but now I get to work on a new repertoire and it's great fun!
One of the pieces I'm working on now is Batti batti, o bel Masetto - a soubrette aria where the peasant girl Zerlina, after nearly succumbing to Don Giovanni's seduction at her own wedding party, tries to win back the affection of her future husband Masetto. It's a beautiful melody, with quite a few interesting leaps and runs. Here it is sang by Joan Rodgers.
No comments:
Post a Comment