Michael James Oberhauser
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What is opera?

5/30/2011

4 Comments

 
Two posts in one day? That's MADNESS!

Anyway, I recently ran across this blog post, and it brought up some questions in my mind:

Here's the post

That'll open in a new window, so keep it open to reference back and forth :)

Issue #1: "Operas are usually performed in an opera house or concert hall with a live orchestra." This is the norm, but what if it's not? What about accompaniment just by a piano, in, say, an art gallery or outdoor ampitheater?


Issue #2: Amplification. Again, what the blog post brings up is the norm, but what if I want my opera to be accompanied by electric guitar or electric violin, or by computer generated sounds? Also, what about musicals like The Fantasticks? That'd be just plain odd if it were amplified. (unless it were in a large space, but why would you do that show in a large space?)

Issue #3: "Operatic voices tend to focus sound from the throat." That seems to go contrary to most of what I've been taught about singing. My teachers have always told me to get my throat out of the way and get the sound more in my head. Vocal pedagogy friends, help me out here.

Issue #4: "In musical theatre, you could usually remove all the songs and still have the story make sense, as the dialogue would outline what is happening in the story." What about Into the Woods? Les Miserables? Phantom of the Opera? The Last Five Years? Spoken dialogue-led musicals are still the norm, but less and less so as time goes on.

Issue #5: "Opera can have dialogue, however 'in opera the dialogue is sung; in musicals the dialogue is spoken' (@frindley)." What about Singspielen? Die Zauberflöte? Carmen? There is plenty of spoken dialogue in plenty of operas.

I know these are just guidelines, but I think they need to be re-evaluated. I'd propose:
1.) Operas tend to not use amplification, while musicals tend to.
2.) The style of singing between the two artforms tend to be different - but there is a spectrum to this with a lot of grey area between.

Those two are almost intact from how Opera Australia presented them.  I would actually throw out their #3 entirely, about spoken vs. sung text. I would add my own point, though:

3.) The style of composition between the two artforms tends to be different. Again, there is a spectrum here, from, say, ABBA's Mamma Mia! to perhaps something like Schönberg's Erwartung. There's a lot of grey area in the middle of this one, too, where it becomes difficult to classify such pieces as A Little Night Music, Candide, and Die Fledermaus. 

Those are just a few of my thoughts... what are yours?

As I was finishing this post, I ran across my friend Steve Spotswood's article about the definition of theatre: http://www.stephenspotswood.com/?p=134
4 Comments
Rameen
5/30/2011 12:27:25 pm

I think that mostly, the corrections you made are in line with what they already said. However, I do agree that too much differentiation is generally made between musical theater and opera. Really, until about the late 70s to early 80s and the advent of the "rock opera" musicals, musical theater, vocally speaking, was almost exactly the same as opera. Most Rodgers and Hammerstein singers were classically trained. Vocally, most hit musicals pre-1970 are operatic, and those which aren't are jazz, which is often compared to classical music.

I think this article was made in the correct spirit, but executed poorly. The way to draw people to opera is to show them that it's not so different from what they're used to. The more we think of opera as an entirely different art form from musical theater, the less marketable it becomes and the more elite it seems.

However, on your third issue: this is complicated. Technically, the operatic sound does utilize far more throat resonance than musical theater singing does. There are two main resonators in our bodies: throat and mouth. Musical theater singers tend to use more mouth resonance, though they call it "nasal." Really, if they relied as much as they think they do on nasal resonance, we wouldn't hear much at all, even with amplification, because the nose is an insufficient resonator.

Opera singers, however, stay away from the nose and speak of a forward sound, because if we thought about singing as being in our throat, it wouldn't sound good. However, most opera singers would agree that one must sing with "squillo," or enough pressure in the folds, enough "ring," and even though we shouldn't think of it this way, that really is completely about throat resonance. So, if the article means that opera singers think about singing in their throats, then the article is generally incorrect. However, if the article means that opera singers have more throat resonance in their sound, then it is generally correct.

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Michael link
5/30/2011 12:45:53 pm

Well, Rameen, I also said in my post that points 1 and 2, how I think of them, are almost exactly the same.

I really like your point about how opera should be marketed through its similarities with other artforms - I hadn't thought of that before, and it makes sense. The last thing I want is opera to be elitist. Everybody should be able to enjoy opera.

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Michael link
5/30/2011 12:50:14 pm

Oh, and thank you, Rameen, for your vocal pedagogy help. I must just hear that comment a lot to get the sound out of my throat because of specific issues I have as a singer.

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Cindy
5/30/2011 09:30:47 pm

If you take a look at the vocal apparatus, you will see that very little resonance can be produced in the throat. As the sound can only be produced above the vocal folds, and the vocal folds lie at the top of the throat, then very little of the throat is left for resonation. The vocal resonator consists of the pharynx,including the nasal pharynx, the mouth and the nasal cavity. We can control only part of that area, which in my experience is the area of interest of "legit" singers. "Commercial music" (Musical theatre and popular) singers tend to allow nature to have its way with their voices, resulting in a more natural sound and the greater variety of sounds of the voices. All singers are advised to "get the sound out of the throat" because that is the most natural way to produce a singing sound. A throaty voice usually indicates a depressed larynx which results in an unpleasant sound, poor projection and often, vocal unhealth. (see Richard Miller, The Structure of Singing,1996).

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