The art of the coloratura soprano
[Hat tip: commenter “Artfldgr”]
I’m not a big opera fan, although there are a couple of operas I love and with which I’m very familiar. But I have the deepest admiration for the skill and artistry of opera singers, who can do something that almost seems superhuman to me. I don’t sing very well, even in the pop sense, and although I can sort of carry a tune, the most you can say for my voice—as a voice teacher once told me—is that it’s “not unpleasant.” And he was trying to be nice.
So to me, opera singers do something unimaginable. The tones, the power, the projection! Plus the feeling and the acting. And then there are the languages.
Opera singers are usually not very young, because it takes quite a while to develop the entire package. But here’s a young lady of eighteen I find very impressive indeed. Wow, what a pure tone, what effortlessness combined with power (that’s the idea, right)?:
Even within the opera world, coloratura sopranos don’t tend to be my favorite type of singer—although again, my admiration for them knows no bounds. I seem to prefer a certain depth of tone, even in a soprano. Somehow, this type of soprano sounds almost freakish; otherwordly. But Janeckova’s voice is like velvet, and her highest notes show no strain that I can hear, unlike some of the others. If she sounds otherwordly, that other world would be the celestial one.
Here’s a wonderful video that is a compendium of many coloraturas of the past. Of all of them in this clip, I prefer Moffo:
a good friend of mine is a power opera singer
Sings at carnegie all the time.. Especially Xmas
she sang at my wedding… the harder version… 🙂
here is power opera [Modernized!!!]
Power Opera – Voice – (La Voix) Kirkorov & Netrebko
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZLzrADPk_U
Power Opera – One Fine Day (Puccini) Renée Fleming
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66iKh4KKfME
and if you REALLY want a treat..
REALLY want your mind blown
Then look a the operas written for specific singers
[Mozart did this for varous clarinetists and singers]
notice how many are red heads.. 🙂
these make even the most expert scared!!!!
The Queen of the Night — Mozart’s Die Zauberflé¶te
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLs-Z47oFYw
Elena — Rossini’s La donna del lago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLCob01Ay5o
Norma — Bellini’s Norma
[the purity of the notes is shocking!!]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=g-6JhBYZCrw
Lucia — Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor
Dame Joan Sutherland – ‘Eccola!’ (The Mad Scene) Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3_8wz_xNI0
Abigaille — Verdi’s Nabucco [Verdi is great!]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nu46FhJWZ-4
Bré¼nnhilde — Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owFdFRoFKHk
[my friends mom would sing this part for fun. other times we would play… betsy played her stratavarius, i on my Buffet clarinet, mom doing arias ]
Olympia — Offenbach’s Les Contes d’Hoffmann
[i think this one is fun… fun to play too… ]
Les Contes d’Hoffmann: “Les oiseaux dans la charmille” (Kathleen Kim)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=2&v=9emRjIMZsVk
Elektra — Richard Strauss’s Elektra
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=CxPrtsOtyUg
Turandot — Puccini’s Turandot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXPfxafHfTM
Lulu — Berg’s Lulu
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xalf_HMB2U
Ariel — Adé¨s’s The Tempest
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=170&v=U3x6t0qb3as
how hard do they push?
well, you only have to know how
Americo (Amerigo) Sbigoli
Singing the second tenor part in a performance of Pacini’s opera Cesare in Egitto, Sbigoli took part in a vocal quintet with first tenor Domenico Donzelli. In the course of the quintet, Sbigoli’s character was to sing a phrase “closely resembling one sung just previously by Donzelli”.Attempting to match Donzelli’s powerful voice, Sbigoli overstrained himself, burst a blood vessel in his neck, and died shortly thereafter.
A Young Shy Girl Walks On Stage, but within Seconds Everyone’s Jaw Hit The Floor
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVQ53howlr8
[sings beyond her age]
and people like me have special talents
[why i was in lincoln center, carnegie hall, bronx science, photography, art, computers, chip design, and, and a lot more… sadly, we are constantly abused, do worse in life cause normals have to put us in our place to be equal, they cant accept that genetics can grant a great boon, for everyone of the people on this page, including me, are a form of genetic celbrity… ]
Remember the left would exterminate us… 🙁
A 10 Year-Old Blind Autistic Boy Singing. What Happened Next Shocked Everyone.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-F_W_zl61bI
Another way to see greatness is range..
the young lady up there has a range that goes to the top notes of a flute..
but these people are as rare, they have 5 octive or greater range
Axl Rose of Guns N’ Roses — 5 octaves, 2½ notes (F1 to Bâ™6)
Mariah Carey — 5 octaves, 1 note (F2 to G7)
Mike Patton of Faith No More — 6 octaves, ½ note (Eâ™1 to E7)
Corey Taylor of Slipknot and Stone Sour — 5 octaves, 5½ notes (Eâ™1 to C7)
Diamanda Galé¡s — 5 octaves, 4½ notes (F2 to C#8)
David Lee Roth of Van Halen — 5 octaves, 3 notes (E1 to A6)
Rody Walker of Protest the Hero — 5 octaves, 2 notes (G1 to B6)
Nina Hagen — 5 octaves, 1 note (G#1 to Bâ™6)
Ville Valo of HIM — 5 octaves, ½ note (C1 to C#6)
Mariah Carey’s Highest Whistle Note Ever!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hyk9wPaC69w
fun…
but talent is where you find it [and arrangements help]
If this doesn’t give you the chills then what would
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUSEviNJaEE
Boy Breaks Wine Glass with Voice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sH7XSX10QkM
i hope they made it 🙁
There are people who sit near me in church, to hear me sing. However, when the allergens are high, and the snot is on the vocal cords, I tell them I have become a coloratura tenor. It does not surprise me that most people understand exactly what I am saying.
Totally ignorant about anything operatic but more in line with my knowledge about singing, Patsy Cline’ ‘s voice has been compared to a violin. Now that, this dummy can understand, remarkable.
I once lived across the street from a coloratura soprano opera singer. She would often practice at home (when she wasn’t traveling to performances around the world) . On warm summer days, when the windows were open or we were outside in the yard, her powerful voice would float through the neighborhood. Such a gift (for her, and those of us within earshot).
She’s king of young. II hope her pipes are up to it and she doesn’t blow them out and end up a second-tier voice teacher. There are stories of child phenoms who ended up kind of ruined.
The Russians push pretty hard. Neo showed us some pseudo ballet whose moves required some kind of hip dysplasia just to start.
The Red Army Chorus has a piece on youtube doing the Battle Hymn of The Republic. At the end you have to wonder if the sound is the arrangements or some tenors tearing their throats out. Or perhaps tenors with a million miles on what have become, for all intents, brass.
By the way, I published another long post about 3 hours ago (as of the writing of this comment, which is at around 7:25 PM). It hasn’t displayed yet, although it is published. It’s about Obama and Iran, and the new article at Politico. I’m wondering whether anyone is seeing it yet.
My wife and I saw Fidelio and Aida at the Met. Opera a couple weeks ago. Aida solidly hits all the bases of what constitutes a great opera. But I enjoyed Fidelio the most even though it is much more boring visually.
Beethoven treats the orchestra more as a primary voice, rather than just accompaniment, I think. Leonora’s aria in the 1st act is interesting because it really is a duet with the French horns. First one horn, then two, and finally the whole section of 4 horns working as the second voice.
I saw ArtF put The Queen of the Night at the top the top of his list, which to my untrained ear is the pinnacle of the operatic soprano. I had forgotten that there is a little coloratura in her aria just before that amazing arpeggio.
One hint about the ongoing blog glitch:
I’ve discovered that if you force a cache refresh by pressing CTL + F5, you can usually make the blog display the comments and the posts properly. Let me know if you see the most recent posts when you do that.
All you computer experts or semi-experts out there, do you have any advice for fixing things, based on this new information? I’m still getting professionals to help, but they’re taking longer than I’d like.
It’s the fault of the motion picture “Topsy Turvy”, but I now can’t think of “Les Oiseaux” without seeibg Sullivan disporting himself in a French brothel.
Neo and arfldgr, I don’t know music well, but my son keeps telling me about Pentatonix. May I have your opinions? Although he is rarely a featured singer, as his beatboxing often serves as background to whoever sings the lyrics, Kevin is said to have the broadest range of the group.
Hey, isn’t that first one the ditty they used to play in 1940s cartoons and old comic movies? Maybe in those old 1930’s costume dramas played on TV too. The ones that became unwatchable as you began to realize that those sneering pansy guys were not really going to shoot and chop and use cannons on each other.
Anyway, didn’t know I had absorbed so much culture.
And yes, she’s good.
You have highlighted some pretty amazing young talent recently. Interestingly, some of it by Slavic performers who seemingly have not gotten the word that symphonic music, melody, and even classic jazz age tunes and standards, are now verboten.
I found Natalie Dessay’s mad scene from I Puritani ( the Met Opera HD broadcast) to be very chilling.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=92jiitUEahg
This singer is impressive but still needs some work. Typically of young singers, she is approaching each musical figure separately, with breaths between. The composer gave her a nice long, spiraling musical line: it takes a lot of breath support and a fine legato to “sing through” and link it all up into one flow.
There is also not much variation of color – the lyric is suitable for a young singer, not really demanding drama or depth. And not even romantic in its meaning, although she strikes a flirtatious attitude at some points. But a more experienced singer would perhaps shift the color a bit more to suit the meaning and/or for variation.
This is similar to the male ballet dancer about whom you posted – whose leaps were quite impressive, but who somehow didn’t link the gymnastics up into an expressive line… music has to do that too…