Singers of the past weren’t afraid to use their chest voice! I feel like that’s being taught out of modern singers, and chest voices are becoming weaker as a result (and thus, so is the head voice bc when you have a weak bottom foundation, you can’t expect a strong upper range on top of it). The acting point is so true too!
This pretty much sums up my gut feeling when watching modern 'master classes' where the Pros over-explain, over-intellectualize, project too much meaning into the singing instead of just singing.
The difference between the old and new singers is night and day. Tebaldi's sound is forward, uses a strong head voice instead of a weak head voice, and has no manipulation through force. Sonya has amazing acting; but, must work on her technique. Unfortunately, you have many skilled actors in opera who have bad technique. But, the thing that they are missing is making the emotions loud through their voice and not just showing everything with their bodies. I think we should all make a petition to get these singers trained old school and then have them make opera movies for the 20s-30s crowd.
For me this skilled actors in modern opera days don't deliver any emotion, because in Opera you must deliver blend of acting and singing (to make the impact on the crowd), this a true reason that this art is so hard.
There’s still hope though! There are hidden gems in the young generation. There’s a young Bulgarian soprano called Krista Petkova. She doesn’t have a lot of recordings online, nor her technique is perfect, but she’s different than most. I really hope she’s educated on old school opera, not merely talent that lead her up to this point..
I used to like arias only. Once I attended a few operas, I began to appreciate the genre. Now, I attend every opera I can. Once you have seen opera live, you can appreciate the records. Without experiencing live opera, you won't like opera. It's the same with ballet. Live performances add a brand new dimension to your experience and appreciation.
@Corey H it’s true to an extent. A decent live performance will trump a great recording in my mind almost every time. A much more visceral experience. And this is a guy who can only afford student tickets.
To tell you how far opera has fallen in popularity, my Dad was born on a farm in Lawton, Oklahoma in 1946. He knew who Rosa Ponselle was, because they played her on the radio. And when I was born and started singing in the pick up truck with him, he’d have on Rosa as we drove around, and I’d sing with her. People don’t like opera anymore, and it’s because the sound doesn’t grab you. No amount of sound mixing can fix the lack of chest voice mixed throughout the voice. It sounds like they’re all swallowing potatoes when they sing these days, and when you go to master classes, they actually want that sound. They’ll try to take you off track by telling you you’re using too much chest, but they don’t understand that it’s a coordination to be practiced just like hitting a backhand. You don’t do it perfectly at first.
'People don't like opera any more' - that's a big statement! Well I'm 'people' and so are my many friends who adore opera. There are plenty of fabulous singers around today, just as there were loads and loads of really awful singers about in that distant past that you think was so universally wonderful. Naturally, only the very bnest of those past singers are normally heard on recordings. What it comes down to is, if you don't like opera, then don't go, don't listen to it! But just slagging it off because you don't like it - boring and ignorant.
All of the above and I think what also adds to the deterioration of great operatic singing and opera as a result is the prevalence of cronyism. Before it was very simple - can you SING so that your voice resonates above the orchestra and excites the audiences. Now is who you know in the industry to give you a role, voice had become a secondary or even tertiary consideration!
The vibrato is really what kills opera for me. Such beautiful melodies only to be ruined by constant heavy vibrato. Listening to an hour of soprano voices wobbling away is very grating!
All opera is, is a bunch of bullshit, done to your voice. You waste all these years of time and money, to sound like you are having a meltdown, or a bad day. It's not music to me. I hate musicians that like to make their instruments sound like that, with old electronics and effects.
@@pedrohasallthepower There's just too much of it these days. What used to be a mere ornament basically became the entire foundation of modern operatic singing. Most singers do vibrato CONSTANTLY, it's straight up impossible to make out any melodies of whatever they are wobbling about...
Wobble is NOT the same thing as vibrato. VIbrato is necessary in any opera after really early rep. Wobble is what happens when the voice gets older or the singer has poor technique.
Well, I understand that the same thing is happening to opera as to many other artistic disciplines, it is degenerating from the inside, turning it into something completely different. As is now the case with art in museums, made up of bananas taped to the wall, they need a context to support their narrative, they need an intellectual behind to say that it is art, like modern opera, it takes intellectuals who say that this is also opera, even if it does not respect the essence of what opera really is. So, in conclusion, everything over time degenerates or is transformed, and many times the essence of what was, is lost. Sound rude, but, i think that's basically what is hapenning in this times with everything.
You may be right, I'm not an opera singing expert, however when the video shows the comparison, I don't think it's a fair one to explain a phenomenon. At around minute 10:00 are shown commercial recordings by some of the best singers of older times, and compared to less known singers of our time, singing live and recorded by phone or camera.
That argument has an easy response: even with the most terrible recording quality, you could hear the wobble, the absurd vibrato, the depressed larynx and every other aspect covered in this video. I'm a pianist, not a singer, but I work with singers (students and professionals) and I can assure you that the modern academy is the main problem here.
@@Harekrishna90000no Even with that ! He chose what he wants ! There are many opéra sinters who sings like older… and don’t forget many older singer have some problems in live too. So it’s just Frustrated person
Bro this is exactly why I don't like Opera, because everyone keeps criticizing each other and claiming their way of singing is the best and everyone else is wrong. Bunch of divas...
Just a note that the Turandot clip is incorrectly pitched. If you look at the exact same clip on the Met Opera on Dmeand clip you can hear it correctly, whether you like it or not!
The first one is Yusif Eyvazov, husband of Anna Netrebko (the 2nd one) since 2015. The third one is Renee Fleming and the 4th is Roberto Alagna. What should opera sound like? Sopranos: Maria Callas, Montserrat Caballe, Mirella Freni is her good years, Coloratura Sopranos: Kathleen Battle, Joan Sutherland, Natalie Dessay. Dramatic / Wagnerian Sopranos: Birgit Nilsson, Raina Kabaivanska, Ghena Dimitrova. Tenors: Giuseppe di Stefano, Franco Corelli, Alfredo Kraus, Placido Domingo. Light Tenors: Luigi Alva, Juan Diego Florez Dramatic Tenors: Mario Del Monaco, Franco Bonisolli, Jon Vickers Mezzo Sopranos: Christa Ludwig, Teresa Berganza, Regina Resnik, Cecilia Bartoli Baritons: Tito Gobbi, Hermann Prey, Ruggero Raimondi, Dmitri Hvorostovsky Basses: Ivo Vinco, Nikolái Giaúrov, Yevgeny Nesterenko All of them had good and bad days, but their technique was wonderful and unsurpassed. So hear them and imagine... then compare.
@@elmerhuertaacarapi366 it's very strange to include altogether great singers of the past and some "modern" (in terms of technique) controversial singers!! Kathleen Battle - yes, the tone is lovely, but the voice is TINY. I can't UNsee Bartoli being among Ludwig and Berganza. Just no comments...
Though their recordings are of older quality..... Kirsten Flagstad was the great Dramatic Soprano before Nilson....and Lauritz Melchoir as a heldenetenor
Yes! The Late Great Jerry Hadley echoed the same sentiment. He said that because it has been bastardized and moved from the concert stage inside the college voice studio that singers are learning it completely divorced from its original home.
@@miguelpereira9859 Most of the old great singers had private voice teachers who were usually famous singers who retired and became voice teachers for the younger generations. But in Europe students do not learn to be music performers (either vocal or instrumental) in Universities but in specialised Music Condtevatoires. They generally learn to play a musical instrument from childhood with a private teacher, or going in their spare time for music lessons to a music conservatoire which takes child pupils until they are about 16-18. At that age they go as full time students to a music conservatoire for about 3-4 years and at the same time take part in performances at the Conservatoire to familiarise them with how their careers will develop. The atmosphere in these Conservatoires is very different from a university because they are specialist institutions. In addition there are numerous specialist Voice Academies some of them started by retired famous singers eg The voice academy in Italy owned by Mirella Freni and several others. There is also the Rossini Academy in Pesaro specially for teaching how to sing Rossini’s music. And many others.
I had a chance to study at the Opera Academy in São Paulo, having a fair amount of activities physically in the theatre and the course was very practical and focused on rehearsing, preparing the part, improving our acting and performing with orchestra. It was totally different from university kind of learning, I believe we need more initiatives like this 💕
I detest the so-called popular style of singing with very rare exceptions. And, these current opera performers are shouting, forcing their voices. Imagine what the orchestras would sound like if the instrumentalists forced their sound and technique the way these singers are doing. Too much vibrato too. Hard to hear if the music is ever in tune.
A lot of these examples don’t really fit the criticisms described. It doesn’t seem like the person who put this together is very knowledgable about opera at all. (How dare they use Lisette Oropesa as an example of “squeaky” tone!!) Every human voice is distinctly different and no two singers are exactly alike - and THAT is the beauty of opera. Vibrato is the natural consequence of a well-supported tone. Some vibratos are faster or slower than others. It’s similar to measuring the speed of a pitcher at a baseball game. Pick what you like and leave the rest. That’s the beauty of opera! And you can’t beat the drama, range of expression, and theatrical ability to tell a story. All done without modern amplification. All the rest of pop music singing is merely the “fast food” of music.
The vibrato seems over the top in many modern examples because it's deemed virtuosic. So much so, that the actual tone is undistinguishable. This is not acceptable - imagine hearing any instrumentalist shaking the tone like that (except when notated specifically). And overall I agree with the video that there's too much artifice and constraint in the manner of singing today compared to the past. I'm not a singer and I'm not knowledgeable about vocal technique but I do have ears and music education.
"Every human voice is distinctly different and no two singers are exactly alike - and THAT is the beauty of opera" . You think THE beauty of Opera is ... diversity ? Are you a moron ?
And the major music schools in the US have “voice” teachers doing the vocal coaches jobs. They no nothing about vocal technique. The vast majority of them! It’s frightening. People in casting powerful jobs no nothing about singing. It’s sad..
It is the sad truth. Many teachers cannot even recognise the voice properly and refrain from damaging it. Once I heard a young boy singing a bass air, and I thought, good Lord, he is a tenor. And the great soprano Teresa Zylis Gara said the same thing I thought. I understand it is possible to mix heroic tenor material with a baritone, but with the bass, for goodness sake. So teaching is chaotic and results are not great.
The elitist pretentiousness and the declining skill and talent of the singers are just *consequences* of opera's no longer being popular, not its causes: fewer people sing it and listen to it, hence the smaller pool of talent and less 'manpower' devoted to maintaining and developing its excellence; and since it no longer corresponds to popular taste, the people who do still listen to it are often motivated precisely by an attraction to its elitist reputation, hence the snobbish antics and, sometimes, even some negligence of aesthetics and real quality.
Hello I'm French and I'm very glad to see your video again. You missed me a lot!! Your work has opened my eyes on "Le beau chant or Bel Canto". I understand know why I dislike the modern singers. Abs why I definitely prefer the ancien style of singing. Thanks for your work!
As someone who just came here to know why people enjoy opera, I can hear the clear differences between the old and new singer. I have never ever been a fan of opera. I thought it’s annoying. I still do but the old opera sounds a lot more pleasant than the new ones. Without being too technical, I think it sounds a lot more polished and controlled. I still don’t get why people enjoy opera but I guess everyone will have their own entertainment. Btw, this is not an insult or anything. I’m just someone who’s genuinely curious about opera.
It is true that some operatic vibrratos are too heavy, but all singers like Mariah Carey, Shirley Bassey and, fir example, Tom Jones All have vibratos. The issue is not whether a singer should have a vibrato, but how it should be produced and controlled. I'm afraid that all the author of this video is doing is expressing a personal taste and letting it masquerade as a learnéd opinion.
Most bossa nova singers have almost no vibrato. That's the style. Ella Fitzgerald had vibrato, but she could introduce it gradually on a long note, not apply it equally to every note in a song.
Totalmente de acuerdo contigo,. Añado lo siguiente. Hoy en día se hacen producciones operísticas que faltan el respeto al compositor. Por eso, yo personalmente agradezco a todos los que suben los performances de antaño, yo los disfruto mucho. Pues, corresponde al tiempo en que había belleza en el canto: el recitativo, la declamación,…la fidelidad a la partitura, entre otras cosas. Me encanta que en 22:39 hayas puesto las palabras de la maravillosa Tebaldi (la voce d’angelo). Es cierto, lo que ella dice, la mayoría de los cantantes de hoy en día tienen voces muy pequeñas y no son recursivos en el uso de estas. Esto lo he vivido. Yo vi y escuché en vivo a Eva Marton, era impresionante su voz. He regresado al teatro y las voces de las sopranos y mezzos apenas se oyen. A lo mejor es como dicen hay otro concepto de ópera, otra reconceptualizacion en detrimento de este bello arte. Parece que hay un afán por producir performance al gusto del pensamiento de hoy y así atraer gente nueva. De esta manera lo que han hecho es ponerle otro traje a la ópera, para que guste y sea atractiva. Sacrificando así el drama , la palabra, la partitura. Una cosa gravísima en estos tiempos. Aun así, no hay que olvidar que el arte es y seguirá siendo esperanzador. Saludos cordiales.
La prima donna You are right about the difference between the great singers of the 50s and 60s and the singers of today. I am old enough to have seen these giants of the opera live in the opera houses of Europe and thank God for being alive to witness these miraculous performances. Sadly the decline is very great and very unfortunate for the younger opera lovers of todays. Singers like Corelli, del Monaco, di Stefano, Bastianini, Callas, Sutherland, Tebaldi, Simionato and many others are no longer and as things are at present singers like them will never appear again. In my opinion the two biggest things that have happened since then to bring this decline are 1. Singers are taught to sing primarily to preserve their voices so they can go on singing until their 60s or even 70s. A few of them have the vocal cords and technique that can allow them to do that, but they are very rare. However, the quality of the singing is inferior as a result. But the modern techniques taught at present are all about a long career and not about quality of sound. The second reason for the decline is that the productions of the last 40 years or more have become a “director’s” show to show how he can re-create the original work with the aim of making it “modern” and “relevant” under the impression that this will entice more people to go to the opera. Most of the time the actual opera audiences dislike what they see (and sometimes boo) even if they like what they are listening to. For me the main reason that younger generations cannot relate to Opera is because the vast majority of them do not hear any classical music while growing up, they are not taught about it at school nor taken to any performances as children so in general the sound of classical music, and opera in particular is very alien and unfamiliar to their ears. They grow up thinking that music =pop music. So unless these two issues are addressed at their point of origin Opera will slowly wither and die.
Forcing the larynx down using the back of your pharynx produces tension and sounds like you’re singing with a potato in the back of your throat. To get the larynx to lower naturally, you just raise your sternum and acoustic box to shorten the distance between the sternum and larynx. Then the larynx automatically relaxes into a lower position.
You make a good point about 1970 as a watershed date. The last of the greats - Corelli, Tebaldi, Nilsson, Sutherland - had their prime in the 50’s and 60’s. By ‘70 they were in decline, and no one followed.
@warmelon4672 the other comment may be referring to the aria that's almost over at that point. If you're asking about the one that begins 1 or 2 seconds later, it's "Vesti la giubba" from Pagliacci by Leoncavallo.
Nobody is saying Opera doesn't take skill. But just because something takes skill doesn't make it GOOD. If I sculpted a scale model of the Mona Lisa out of my own feces, that would take a lot of skill. It would also not be good. Using your voice to skillfully make unpleasant noises is not good. Ifd you like Opera, you are ALLOWED to like Opera. Not a single person on the face of this Earth will force you to stop liking Opera. But, conversely, You need to accept and aknowledge that you like a thing that most people DON'T like, and recognise that there are legitemate reasons WHY they don't like it. You are allowed to E I E I O all you want. But most people aren't going to like that, and you should get of your high horse and stop guilting them for it.
My only regret is that I can't put more than one like to this perfect video. I totally agree, also with the choice of the tenors, just the best like Corelli, Di Stefano and the glorious Mario Del Monaco. So many times I asked to myself why modern Opera singers are so bad, and of course if I was the only one to see the terrific condition of Opera or not. Thank you very much
Your not alone in your observation in the fall of the Greatest art form in the world. I've been following Saioa Hernandez for sometime now & she's has a great technical sounding voice . Our Montserrat 🙏🙏💙💙 said it all " that the opera houses were sleeping because Saioa Hernandez should be signing in all of them. And to me she is the voice of the century " let's face it artistically speaking the met is not Mecca. It's a Large beariful opera house filled with voiceless ghost , destroying OPERA. sincerely, Arnold Bourbon Amaral
Perhaps, like me, not being too well versed in the technicalities of operatic singing is a good thing. To me, it all sound beautiful and I can't tell the difference between head voice or chest voice even when it's pointed out to me. Though I can't drink deeply of all the subtleties of art as so many of you can, but I think I'm getting more enjoyment out of the genre than many of you are. We all can't appreciate a meal at a 3-star Micheline restaurant and are quite happy with the local burger joint. Ignorance is indeed bliss--at least in my case!
Nasality, as you call it, is by no means privative of modern singers. The most famous soprano of the 2nd half of the 19th century, Adelina Patti, praised by all the composers of that time had a nasal voice. So did Conchita Supervia, Nellie Melba and many others. You listen to Geraldine Farrar and her voice was more nasal than anybody else's. Kraus voice was nasal (you didn't dare to put him as an example, eh?). It doesn't mean they sing badly at all. And I think it's a bit unfair to compare any of the modern singers with Tebaldi, let alone in Cio Cio San. Tebaldis are not born every 5 years.
I have watched most of the "This is opera" videos and subscribed, they are so on point.. who authored them? Is it a teacher/Conductor? I would so love to know.. Teacher or Conductor or Singer you certainly are a Maestro of this art form, I have learnt so much!
They aren't allowed to develop a vocal personality because they have to be vocally faceless to fit into the all-powerful stage director's HORRIBLE travesty of a production.
I'm no expert on operas, just an average listener. To me at least, operas are mostly about the voice. Good voices, good techniques always delivered good performances. For example, you can't see people acting in opera records but you still enjoy the glorious voices immensely. Those examples in the clip tell me those singers just don't have good techniques so they just try to some weird stuff to cover up. Sometimes, not sure what to do, just sing it straight.
I believe one of the things that has killed the technique of the past is the need to have many singers in a very short amount of time. Opera houses need singers, they want them now, and they couldn’t care less about the rest. Nowadays, the people conducting auditions have zero understanding of operatic singing. They want a voice that sounds "big," and nothing else matters to them. The younger, more attractive, and more forced your voice sounds, the better for them. What has ruined opera is not the singers of today; it's capitalism. Everything is disposable, even the purest art. I hope no one here thinks that the current singers being showcased are bad singers. It’s incredibly hard to achieve what they are achieving, no matter the means or the results. Opera right now is like TikTok: people want something that moves, that has bright colors, and they don’t care about emotions. Before judging, we need to realize that the problem is ALL OF US. Every single one of us is to blame for this, not the singers. It’s easy to say that all singers can change this, but who is going to take the first step? Who’s going to give up eating every day and stop being hired to make this happen? This is something that’s easy to see, not just in this kind of situation. Read a treatise by Rossini, and you’ll see how he says it’s unpleasant to hit the high note on the tonic at the end, and that the high note should be on the dominant. Tell that to the chef de chant who has been doing C-to-high-C at the end with every singer their whole life… Goodbye, job!
It's funny when you think about it because a lot of French school opera singers resist the modern tendency and still sing the old school way. I think it's more of a commercialisation problem than anything, because we've started to more and more to value the popularity and connection system.
Contemporary singers are anti vocal, anti aesthetic, caricatures, but artistic directors, stage directors, conductors, are all same . Thanks to older and eternal generation of opera, that we know what opera is. Mario del Monaco, Franco corelli, Miguel fleta, Merli, Gigli , Caruso, Tebaldi, so many others ☀️👏❤
I believe the problem is , that many singers don’t use their natural voice structure anymore. When you want to be successful and make money in the opera business you got to have a certain sound and that dictates your process in developing your voice. I remember my own study . I always felt like a baritone but my voice teacher told me that I had to become a tenor , because tenors make the big money . And I believe that’s what’s happening. Singers change their natural sound into the one that generates money and then it sounds unnatural
What blows my mind is how much more human the orchestra instruments are compared to the modern opera singers. It’s like the orchestra can’t even figure out how to play with them.
I actually do like opera. I’ve been listening to operas for over 40 years now, ever since I heard a soprano sing “morro ma prima in grazia” as I was a teen and I still listen to operas now
Power is _the_ most important element without a doubt. Not that other elements should be disregarded, but many modern singers don't achieve power whatsoever. In our theater, many of them sound like they're behind the scene when singing an aria...
With respect…I find myself scratching my head at this video. I don’t hear a lot of the unpleasant qualities you claim. What I do hear are a multitude of singers with different head/throat/chest configurations that all have a sound distinct to them. Also, a lot of the older recordings you cite as “better” are recorded in mono in a studio, so the voices are flatter and stand out more from the orchestra, whereas the modern recordings are largely live performances on stages where the acoustics of the performance space muffle the sound of the voice. Just as it was in the past, there are a lot of opera singers today that have their own unique sound. What sound appeals to one person might not appeal to the other, and while I certainly hear differences in execution between all of these singers, the ones you’ve cited all seem to be talented individuals who are carrying on the traditions of their craft with skill and care.
Not really. I was used to them. I thought that's "good" for quite a while. Only after you listen to correct chest participation a while do you start to understand. Singing that way also cleans up the pronunciation, it's far easier to be understood. The more I try to mimic Del Monaco and the crew, the easier singing becomes, and (in my opinion) better-sounding.
Symphonic metal helped me get close to opera and classical music, as strange as it sounds. The singers are classically trained just enough to blend into thenmore modern sound, being able to smoothly switch between registers and genres, making their performances absolutely magnificent, without that heaviness of the operatic style. And it is frustrating not being able to totally truly enjoy opera because of that obnoxious screamed vibratos that hides the words and the emotions.
La culpa la tiene el stablishment de la opera, te cierran las puertas si usas el canto antiguo, y el que quiere vivír de esto no le queda otra, lo dijo el mismo kraus.
Whoever put together this video picked out the crappiest performances and recordings to illustrate their 'point'. The opera that I listen to carries me away with its beauty and drama.
Thank you for these videos. I could never quite put my finger on why the newer singers always sounded either squeaky or strangled to me. You do a good job explaining exactly why.
Yo no puedo contestar esa pregunta pero para demostrar que se puede cantar ópera hay que salir en un teatro, sin amplificacion, pasando una orquesta y cantando una partitura que alguien compuso y no canciones arregladas para la tesitura vocal del cantante. Es muy diferente.
@@zadighamroune Her mother thought, was an opera singer and that's where she got her technique. But she said herself that opera wasn't her thing and she's grateful that her mother did not push her in that direction.
If Mariah wanted to sing opera, she’d have to start from her very good belted chest voice and train her acoustic box (lungs) to never collapse in the middle of phrases like she loves to do and let all of that air out. It would actually improve her voice greatly. Because she’s gifted but has allowed that whisper sound she loves to make to grate her voice into disrepair. She should retrain as an opera singer if only to just repair her voice for further pop performances.
Thank you for immediately pointing out the wobble. I have never understood how or why so many opera singers have become famous and are considered excellent by so many people when they have a vibrato that sounds like it looks when a heavy goods vehicle tries to drag a full load up a steep, muddy hill
In old opera recordings you can more often tell what note is actually being sung…as opposed to most modern opera in which intonation issues are a moot point because the wide vibrato is always hitting ALL OF THE NOTES. It’s comical to me!
I enjoyed your video, but I didn't understand your point about vibrato. In many recordings that you chose as examples of good old opera singing, there is still a lot of vibrato. Isn't huge vibrato necessary simpy because it allows singers to project over the orchestra, especially when the orchestra plays loudly and when there are no mics?
It’s hard to know what you mean by “huge” vibrato. That’s not a very specific term. The pitch variation of the vibrato should not be too wide, nor should it be excessively slow or fast. 1955 Corelli = too fast (caprino), 1928 Lauri-Volpi the same. 1961-62 Corelli = perfetto!
@@renalazuardi3512 it’s not natural as much as modern teachers and singers may claim. It was always taught in the past in the Italian school. Read tetrazzini, Guelfi, del Monaco, Lo Monaco.
I'm definitely willing to learn and engage with what you have to say, so I'll be checking out your other videos. I do worry- and maybe you can reassure me on this, if you read comments- whether or not you're doing a fair comparison between new and old. Wouldn't you have to do a much more thorough-going analysis (amounting to not much less than a PhD thesis) of old and new recordings, devise fair methods of comparison etc. before you have something of truly referential value for the viewer? At the moment it looks like it may be a bit polemical and not much more. By the way, at the start, I actually couldn't tell if you were playing a psychological trick on the listener or not, by deliberately choosing problematic examples from popular music (the Mariah Carey hardly seemed to me even an equal to the preceding putatively problematic examples from opera, let alone obviously better).
This whole concept that modern equals bad is just stupid. However, it seems most modern tenors seem to have an unnaturally artificial sound. The biggest problem with opera is a lack of new quality repertoire. Edit: Juan Diego Florez is NOT an example of bad singing!
As awful as Mr and Mrs Netrebko are Renne's foray into verismo is beyond horrible. Of course she never sang a Puccini opera (to the best of my knowledge) for which we should all be grateful. Whoever was singing Vesti (Cura???) is pretty bad but at least his career was very brief. I'm sorry I checked out after those three.
This video makes some really good points. However, for me there's another really important reason why people don't like opera, I think (and it's kind of related to what the video says about the "intellectualisation" of the art.) Now, for me, I really love opera -and I'm not a singer or anything. But the reason I love opera is because of the stories that are told and the combination of story, spectacle, theatre, singing. So I think that people don't like opera is because they don't get to know the story of the opera work! All the "opera elites" are obsessed with technique, and forget that behind all this, there's only Story, and nothing else. If you just listen to an opera record without knowing the plot and what the singer is singing about, of course it's going to be boring! Also, let us not forget that the examples that were shown regarding the expression of the voice using cries etc during singing, were all examples from scene with really heightened emotional significance. That's the work of the writer (librettist) there, in collaboration of course with the composer who made it possible that all the emotions of the story are transferred and felt through music! So, technique is the smallest part of the problem, in my point of view. Story is everything, it is the only reason why we read books, watch films and theatre, and why opera is such a unique form: because it combines story with all the other art forms in one. ❤
It is "mass production". The internet has it all available for nothing, so everybody is selling. Then, artists dictated their metier, today the public by like-vote. Furthermore, probably we are not blessed with a really great set of artists. It is not expression that is looked for, but sound. Very few know that music is not in the sound, but in the communion of souls of musician and listener.
I think to the unfamiliar and general audience, they sound almost exactly the same and would have the same appeal honestly. The technology of the old recordings made things sound lighter in timbre and I think you may be attributing too much of that to technique. I agree that Opera today focuses a lot on Big, Round, Loud voices and not a beautiful, unique ones. But the reason Opera isn't as popular is because it is out dated in terms of what people are looking for in entertainment. 3-4 hours of a simple, drawn out story, that people can't understand in their native tongue, is not going to appeal to people today where TV and Movies are so entertaining, complex and not as long. Music generally comes in smaller packages too. Opera music isn't catchy for most of the time, and the recitative style for dialogue is taxing on the listener, especially when you can't understand it. After I finished school, I realized the style of Opera, where the voice is pushed to the limits and there are all these high notes sung with so much effort, so frequently, makes almost all of them of no effect, because the listener is over exposed. I fell in love with the style while I was studying it, but it's like an isolated world, where you need to know it to get it. The truth is that Opera is just out dated in ways, and yes some people will always be drawn to it, but it will never be as popular as it once was, unless it becomes unrecognizable. Even Musical theater isn't as popular as it once was, which is arguably more accessable to the modern audience.
Nothing about it is outdated. I as someone who was born in the early 2000s and grew up online, a live performance of an opera is a unique experience that cannot be replicated digitally. A great film of the performance capture some of it, but the things that make opera, ballet, and theatre in general is the live adaptive aspect of it. I heard my first live opera at the MET. It was Rigoletto with Michael Chioldi and Pytr Becžala and despite never liking Pytr much on recordings, live he was incredible to listen too. Just because my generation generally devalues theatre (though musical theatre is doing great work it bringing us back) doesn’t mean it’s outdated. The skills required to act and sing live on stage are different than what is required to act in a Hollywood film or to record an album. “Outdated” suggests inferiority, which I don’t think you believe is true.
We are willing to concede the point that recording technology had some effect. But even Mister Opera admits that there has ALSO been a change in tendencies. We also concede the point that lots of the old recordings really are people singing like "modern singers", but it's disguised. Fair point about the technology, but it's not the whole story. Old recordings make it harder, but not impossible to spot differences. Singers today are taught to push light techniques beyond their limits, and that's what we need to change. One other point we had to concede is that old school singers were just more fit. They maybe weren't doing sports, but look at the legs on Corelli. In general people back then had more physical activity.
Can you please criticize the video of a country singer (Caroline Jones) who attempts to teach Bel Canto while singing terribly? I'd love to hear your take on it 😆
16:22-16:23 Mario Del Monaca is here showing a vocal break, we can clearly hear his passagio. Thus this is bad opera since one of the first goal is to hide the passagio between full chest and "mixed chest"
I don’t hear any break either. And you’re confusing art form with technique. In any case, let’s say that Del Monaco did break. All of these singers had marvelous techniques, but as to be expected, they also made mistakes. You can’t consider this “bad” opera because he broke a note, or didn’t hide his passagio. The most important aspect in opera, or any art for that matter, is to communicate, to express emotions, to make people feel what you’re singing, regardless whether or not they understand every single word you sing. So, this isn’t bad opera. Bad opera is what we hear today, which, for the most part, not only is it bad technique, but also little to no emotion.
It's not a crack, he just wrongly calculated how much he needed pression and air for this group of notes, causing a little squeeze on his throat and his vocal chords. If you call that a crack, you need to stop listening a lot of modern opera singers, because they sounds the same but x10 and almost all the time in almost all registers. The infamous throat sound.
Most people don't like opera because it's too hard. Listening to a 2-4 hour performance is already hard, but if you don't understand what anyone is saying (because it's in a completely different language) it makes opera unbearable for most modern listeners. Taking into account that we are also part of a "less pompous era," there is absolutely no reason for people to sit through a Mozart opera where the words are looped 30 times in each scene. The average listener doesn't know what is good and bad, the average listener does what they need to do. If back then it was considered intellectual to listen to opera (and that status mattered), people would do it. Right now, nobody cares if you come off as intelligent or not. We live in a completely different time. There is no reason for people to listen to opera. Old people watch opera, yet they don't understand and can not explain what they are watching. So why are they watching? Cause they've got nothing to do, and they want to come off a certain way. The music is also more primitive and easier to understand (in Mozart/classical operas), while being outlined and curved in a very repetitive but simple manner. This obviously allows for an easier digestion of the music for older people, for whom time flies faster than for young people who could be working, studying, doing anything at all. So how about the few nowadays and preceeding that genuinely enjoy opera? They still exist. They still go to opera. As I came from a family of musicians, I have been going to operas since a very young age, and I love many of the performances I listen to (I didn't encounter most of the issues you've stated, maybe some of the incorrect darkening and some singers would over vibrato, but most of the time there were better singers who would counteract it). There's a lot of issues with this video honestly. I'm not trying to instigate anything, but some of the recordings you showed for both sides sound pretty awful. You're also using examples of very controversial singers in general, like Maria Callas. People during her time complained about her lifts (I'm only talking about the lifts), so using her as an example of what people "used to like" and "used to consider good" is honestly very holey. Don't get me wrong, I love Callas, and she was a true master of language/acting. I do hope you understand what I'm saying though. Referring to the "incorrect darkening," some people create chambers differently. Yes, you didn't provide examples of what we consider great singers, but they were still alright (the first one). It's crazy to hear this I know, but the reason opera started to die out in the 70's is because there was a huge shift in culture (in what was meta, popular, etc.). It takes one second to see what people were listening to back then to understand what I'm saying. I somewhat agree with the acting, but not everyone is bad at acting like this. There are many amazing singers who still sing and act with the voice. You provide bad examples. There are many great singers right now, and many great singers will come up. Opera will definitely make a comeback. It will be hard for a lot of people here to understand anything I said, but I'm not writing this for you. I am leaving this for the future generations, so that when they look back (if they happen to) at these posts, they will find someone who actually knows what they're talking about.
Thank you for these wonderful examples. I believe it all started with Callas. She had a bad wobble and people started accepting it as correct. I've even seen posts where they say it's supposed to sound that way! Then when they hear a perfect close vibrating shimmery tone they're say the the vibrato is too fast!!!! Just listen to how steady the sound is on the older singers.
Con Callas empezó y terminó la ópera. Los responsables del declive son los teatros y las discográficas que promueven y hacen cantantes a sus gustos. Gracias
The gaslights were burning so hard on this video that the tenor's hair caught fire!
Singers of the past weren’t afraid to use their chest voice! I feel like that’s being taught out of modern singers, and chest voices are becoming weaker as a result (and thus, so is the head voice bc when you have a weak bottom foundation, you can’t expect a strong upper range on top of it). The acting point is so true too!
Renée Fleming said in an interview that she was advised to avoid using her chest voice (!!!)
This pretty much sums up my gut feeling when watching modern 'master classes' where the Pros over-explain, over-intellectualize, project too much meaning into the singing instead of just singing.
many of them just audition wise-sounding phrases and over time learn to repeat the ones that get the most applause
@@Thisisopera It's so tragic. Makes sense why those old records sound so clear and crisp (in the diction) compared to modern albums
They don't make them like they used to, we can all agree on that!
All the master classes I've seen basically has the master saying to the pupil: play it/sing it just like me.
For example : th-cam.com/video/FzzFtPjkyYM/w-d-xo.htmlsi=DaTMV5yW6drrygDx
The difference between the old and new singers is night and day. Tebaldi's sound is forward, uses a strong head voice instead of a weak head voice, and has no manipulation through force. Sonya has amazing acting; but, must work on her technique. Unfortunately, you have many skilled actors in opera who have bad technique. But, the thing that they are missing is making the emotions loud through their voice and not just showing everything with their bodies. I think we should all make a petition to get these singers trained old school and then have them make opera movies for the 20s-30s crowd.
For me this skilled actors in modern opera days don't deliver any emotion, because in Opera you must deliver blend of acting and singing (to make the impact on the crowd), this a true reason that this art is so hard.
In a nutshell, Opera in nowdays has a lot of problems
There’s still hope though! There are hidden gems in the young generation. There’s a young Bulgarian soprano called Krista Petkova. She doesn’t have a lot of recordings online, nor her technique is perfect, but she’s different than most. I really hope she’s educated on old school opera, not merely talent that lead her up to this point..
I do love the singers of the 50's however...
Как Верно!
"nasality" when ou talk about Flores doesn't mean you don't understand opera. It means you have no ears
I used to like arias only. Once I attended a few operas, I began to appreciate the genre. Now, I attend every opera I can. Once you have seen opera live, you can appreciate the records. Without experiencing live opera, you won't like opera. It's the same with ballet. Live performances add a brand new dimension to your experience and appreciation.
Same with metal concerts.
@Corey H it’s true to an extent. A decent live performance will trump a great recording in my mind almost every time. A much more visceral experience. And this is a guy who can only afford student tickets.
But opera singers suck today...@@boundary2580
To tell you how far opera has fallen in popularity, my Dad was born on a farm in Lawton, Oklahoma in 1946. He knew who Rosa Ponselle was, because they played her on the radio. And when I was born and started singing in the pick up truck with him, he’d have on Rosa as we drove around, and I’d sing with her. People don’t like opera anymore, and it’s because the sound doesn’t grab you. No amount of sound mixing can fix the lack of chest voice mixed throughout the voice. It sounds like they’re all swallowing potatoes when they sing these days, and when you go to master classes, they actually want that sound. They’ll try to take you off track by telling you you’re using too much chest, but they don’t understand that it’s a coordination to be practiced just like hitting a backhand. You don’t do it perfectly at first.
I discovered Rosa Ponselle because of your comment. Thank you.
Yep. My father did not graduate high school (father died young), but he was familiar with all of the great singers at the mid-century Met.
@@philnewberry8072You’re so welcome! Enjoy.
@@monizdmI’m sorry to hear about your father, but I’m glad he got to hear wonderful singing whilst he was here.
'People don't like opera any more' - that's a big statement! Well I'm 'people' and so are my many friends who adore opera. There are plenty of fabulous singers around today, just as there were loads and loads of really awful singers about in that distant past that you think was so universally wonderful. Naturally, only the very bnest of those past singers are normally heard on recordings. What it comes down to is, if you don't like opera, then don't go, don't listen to it! But just slagging it off because you don't like it - boring and ignorant.
All of the above and I think what also adds to the deterioration of great operatic singing and opera as a result is the prevalence of cronyism. Before it was very simple - can you SING so that your voice resonates above the orchestra and excites the audiences. Now is who you know in the industry to give you a role, voice had become a secondary or even tertiary consideration!
The vibrato is really what kills opera for me. Such beautiful melodies only to be ruined by constant heavy vibrato. Listening to an hour of soprano voices wobbling away is very grating!
All opera is, is a bunch of bullshit, done to your voice. You waste all these years of time and money, to sound like you are having a meltdown, or a bad day. It's not music to me. I hate musicians that like to make their instruments sound like that, with old electronics and effects.
It's not heavy vibrato, it's the wrong kind. Either too fast or slow, wide, or inverted waves
@@pedrohasallthepower There's just too much of it these days. What used to be a mere ornament basically became the entire foundation of modern operatic singing. Most singers do vibrato CONSTANTLY, it's straight up impossible to make out any melodies of whatever they are wobbling about...
Vibrato, as the term is understood today, is NOT an ornament.@@lucia-di-lammermoor
Wobble is NOT the same thing as vibrato. VIbrato is necessary in any opera after really early rep. Wobble is what happens when the voice gets older or the singer has poor technique.
Well, I understand that the same thing is happening to opera as to many other artistic disciplines, it is degenerating from the inside, turning it into something completely different. As is now the case with art in museums, made up of bananas taped to the wall, they need a context to support their narrative, they need an intellectual behind to say that it is art, like modern opera, it takes intellectuals who say that this is also opera, even if it does not respect the essence of what opera really is. So, in conclusion, everything over time degenerates or is transformed, and many times the essence of what was, is lost. Sound rude, but, i think that's basically what is hapenning in this times with everything.
Yes, but i feel that we can do something
It also takes someone bold enough to call a shit for what it is, despite the intellectual sophistry trying to support it.
The banana is good, you just have bad taste.
That and mediocrity rules the day.
Modern art/opera in one sentence: “A banana taped to the wall.” Brava!
You may be right, I'm not an opera singing expert, however when the video shows the comparison, I don't think it's a fair one to explain a phenomenon. At around minute 10:00 are shown commercial recordings by some of the best singers of older times, and compared to less known singers of our time, singing live and recorded by phone or camera.
That argument has an easy response: even with the most terrible recording quality, you could hear the wobble, the absurd vibrato, the depressed larynx and every other aspect covered in this video. I'm a pianist, not a singer, but I work with singers (students and professionals) and I can assure you that the modern academy is the main problem here.
@@Harekrishna90000no Even with that ! He chose what he wants ! There are many opéra sinters who sings like older… and don’t forget many older singer have some problems in live too. So it’s just Frustrated person
Bro this is exactly why I don't like Opera, because everyone keeps criticizing each other and claiming their way of singing is the best and everyone else is wrong. Bunch of divas...
确实，他们这些人通过否定别人的努力和勤劳来获得满足感。艺术这种东西在这种人嘴里总是死掉的都是最好的，活着的都是问题百出的。但是他们不知道的是，否定别人成果的前提是自己练习并唱出成就去说服其他人，而不是搞一些录音录像来做简便的对比。可惜的是，这种人一般都不练，以吃鸡蛋不用下蛋做比较。所以不论哪个时代这种人都不会少。
Quand c'est mauvais, c'est mauvais. Y'a pas à relativiser.
I cam tell you aren't a singer 😂
I'm going to start calling things "woofy, weak, falsettish"
@ 24:42 The second singer in that category is late Ewa Podleś, contralto, called by opera experts the best singer in her fach
Just a note that the Turandot clip is incorrectly pitched. If you look at the exact same clip on the Met Opera on Dmeand clip you can hear it correctly, whether you like it or not!
The first one is Yusif Eyvazov, husband of Anna Netrebko (the 2nd one) since 2015.
The third one is Renee Fleming and the 4th is Roberto Alagna.
What should opera sound like?
Sopranos: Maria Callas, Montserrat Caballe, Mirella Freni is her good years,
Coloratura Sopranos: Kathleen Battle, Joan Sutherland, Natalie Dessay.
Dramatic / Wagnerian Sopranos: Birgit Nilsson, Raina Kabaivanska, Ghena Dimitrova.
Tenors: Giuseppe di Stefano, Franco Corelli, Alfredo Kraus, Placido Domingo.
Light Tenors: Luigi Alva, Juan Diego Florez
Dramatic Tenors: Mario Del Monaco, Franco Bonisolli, Jon Vickers
Mezzo Sopranos: Christa Ludwig, Teresa Berganza, Regina Resnik, Cecilia Bartoli
Baritons: Tito Gobbi, Hermann Prey, Ruggero Raimondi, Dmitri Hvorostovsky
Basses: Ivo Vinco, Nikolái Giaúrov, Yevgeny Nesterenko
All of them had good and bad days, but their technique was wonderful and unsurpassed.
So hear them and imagine... then compare.
@@elmerhuertaacarapi366 it's very strange to include altogether great singers of the past and some "modern" (in terms of technique) controversial singers!! Kathleen Battle - yes, the tone is lovely, but the voice is TINY.
I can't UNsee Bartoli being among Ludwig and Berganza. Just no comments...
the 4th one sounds to me like josé cura
Though their recordings are of older quality..... Kirsten Flagstad was the great Dramatic Soprano before Nilson....and Lauritz Melchoir as a heldenetenor
Learning opera through academia has been incredibly destructive to the art form.
Yes! The Late Great Jerry Hadley echoed the same sentiment. He said that because it has been bastardized and moved from the concert stage inside the college voice studio that singers are learning it completely divorced from its original home.
How did singers used to be trained back then?
@@miguelpereira9859 Most of the old great singers had private voice teachers who were usually famous singers who retired and became voice teachers for the younger generations. But in Europe students do not learn to be music performers (either vocal or instrumental) in Universities but in specialised Music Condtevatoires. They generally learn to play a musical instrument from childhood with a private teacher, or going in their spare time for music lessons to a music conservatoire which takes child pupils until they are about 16-18. At that age they go as full time students to a music conservatoire for about 3-4 years and at the same time take part in performances at the Conservatoire to familiarise them with how their careers will develop. The atmosphere in these Conservatoires is very different from a university because they are specialist institutions. In addition there are numerous specialist Voice Academies some of them started by retired famous singers eg The voice academy in Italy owned by Mirella Freni and several others. There is also the Rossini Academy in Pesaro specially for teaching how to sing Rossini’s music. And many others.
I had a chance to study at the Opera Academy in São Paulo, having a fair amount of activities physically in the theatre and the course was very practical and focused on rehearsing, preparing the part, improving our acting and performing with orchestra. It was totally different from university kind of learning, I believe we need more initiatives like this 💕
I detest the so-called popular style of singing with very rare exceptions. And, these current opera performers are shouting, forcing their voices. Imagine what the orchestras would sound like if the instrumentalists forced their sound and technique the way these singers are doing. Too much vibrato too. Hard to hear if the music is ever in tune.
What performance at 15:00 of Clara and Mario is this?
I think it’s from Otello “Act III, Dio Ti Giocondi” live on the Bongiovanni label.
A lot of these examples don’t really fit the criticisms described. It doesn’t seem like the person who put this together is very knowledgable about opera at all. (How dare they use Lisette Oropesa as an example of “squeaky” tone!!) Every human voice is distinctly different and no two singers are exactly alike - and THAT is the beauty of opera. Vibrato is the natural consequence of a well-supported tone. Some vibratos are faster or slower than others. It’s similar to measuring the speed of a pitcher at a baseball game. Pick what you like and leave the rest. That’s the beauty of opera! And you can’t beat the drama, range of expression, and theatrical ability to tell a story. All done without modern amplification. All the rest of pop music singing is merely the “fast food” of music.
A come back from the maker of the video would be good!
@@georgeholloway3981 agreed
The vibrato seems over the top in many modern examples because it's deemed virtuosic. So much so, that the actual tone is undistinguishable. This is not acceptable - imagine hearing any instrumentalist shaking the tone like that (except when notated specifically). And overall I agree with the video that there's too much artifice and constraint in the manner of singing today compared to the past. I'm not a singer and I'm not knowledgeable about vocal technique but I do have ears and music education.
"Every human voice is distinctly different and no two singers are exactly alike - and THAT is the beauty of opera" . You think THE beauty of Opera is ... diversity ? Are you a moron ?
Lisette is a treasure!
And the major music schools in the US have “voice” teachers doing the vocal coaches jobs. They no nothing about vocal technique. The vast majority of them! It’s frightening. People in casting powerful jobs no nothing about singing. It’s sad..
It is the sad truth. Many teachers cannot even recognise the voice properly and refrain from damaging it. Once I heard a young boy singing a bass air, and I thought, good Lord, he is a tenor. And the great soprano Teresa Zylis Gara said the same thing I thought. I understand it is possible to mix heroic tenor material with a baritone, but with the bass, for goodness sake. So teaching is chaotic and results are not great.
The elitist pretentiousness and the declining skill and talent of the singers are just *consequences* of opera's no longer being popular, not its causes: fewer people sing it and listen to it, hence the smaller pool of talent and less 'manpower' devoted to maintaining and developing its excellence; and since it no longer corresponds to popular taste, the people who do still listen to it are often motivated precisely by an attraction to its elitist reputation, hence the snobbish antics and, sometimes, even some negligence of aesthetics and real quality.
That actually makes sense
...and less competent teachers.
No, I have listened to operas many times but never asked myself that: these sounds are just marvellous
Hello I'm French and I'm very glad to see your video again. You missed me a lot!!
Your work has opened my eyes on "Le beau chant or Bel Canto".
I understand know why I dislike the modern singers. Abs why I definitely prefer the ancien style of singing.
Thanks for your work!
Thank you very much!!!! I agree with every word in this video!!! At last, someone tell thr truth!!!👏👏👏
Me too!!!
So true...
yup.... once in a great while you'll hear someone doing it right...
After watching this video, I see why I love the old opera singers. Thank you for this video.
As someone who just came here to know why people enjoy opera, I can hear the clear differences between the old and new singer. I have never ever been a fan of opera. I thought it’s annoying. I still do but the old opera sounds a lot more pleasant than the new ones. Without being too technical, I think it sounds a lot more polished and controlled. I still don’t get why people enjoy opera but I guess everyone will have their own entertainment. Btw, this is not an insult or anything. I’m just someone who’s genuinely curious about opera.
It is true that some operatic vibrratos are too heavy, but all singers like Mariah Carey, Shirley Bassey and, fir example, Tom Jones All have vibratos. The issue is not whether a singer should have a vibrato, but how it should be produced and controlled.
I'm afraid that all the author of this video is doing is expressing a personal taste and letting it masquerade as a learnéd opinion.
Most bossa nova singers have almost no vibrato. That's the style. Ella Fitzgerald had vibrato, but she could introduce it gradually on a long note, not apply it equally to every note in a song.
Where exactly does author of this video state, that operatic singers shouldn't have vibrato?
The problem is, modern opera singers have too much over-vibrato
Totalmente de acuerdo contigo,. Añado lo siguiente. Hoy en día se hacen producciones operísticas que faltan el respeto al compositor. Por eso, yo personalmente agradezco a todos los que suben los performances de antaño, yo los disfruto mucho. Pues, corresponde al tiempo en que había belleza en el canto: el recitativo, la declamación,…la fidelidad a la partitura, entre otras cosas. Me encanta que en 22:39 hayas puesto las palabras de la maravillosa Tebaldi (la voce d’angelo). Es cierto, lo que ella dice, la mayoría de los cantantes de hoy en día tienen voces muy pequeñas y no son recursivos en el uso de estas. Esto lo he vivido. Yo vi y escuché en vivo a Eva Marton, era impresionante su voz. He regresado al teatro y las voces de las sopranos y mezzos apenas se oyen. A lo mejor es como dicen hay otro concepto de ópera, otra reconceptualizacion en detrimento de este bello arte. Parece que hay un afán por producir performance al gusto del pensamiento de hoy y así atraer gente nueva. De esta manera lo que han hecho es ponerle otro traje a la ópera, para que guste y sea atractiva. Sacrificando así el drama , la palabra, la partitura. Una cosa gravísima en estos tiempos. Aun así, no hay que olvidar que el arte es y seguirá siendo esperanzador. Saludos cordiales.
La prima donna You are right about the difference between the great singers of the 50s and 60s and the singers of today. I am old enough to have seen these giants of the opera live in the opera houses of Europe and thank God for being alive to witness these miraculous performances. Sadly the decline is very great and very unfortunate for the younger opera lovers of todays. Singers like Corelli, del Monaco, di Stefano, Bastianini, Callas, Sutherland, Tebaldi, Simionato and many others are no longer and as things are at present singers like them will never appear again. In my opinion the two biggest things that have happened since then to bring this decline are 1. Singers are taught to sing primarily to preserve their voices so they can go on singing until their 60s or even 70s. A few of them have the vocal cords and technique that can allow them to do that, but they are very rare. However, the quality of the singing is inferior as a result. But the modern techniques taught at present are all about a long career and not about quality of sound. The second reason for the decline is that the productions of the last 40 years or more have become a “director’s” show to show how he can re-create the original work with the aim of making it “modern” and “relevant” under the impression that this will entice more people to go to the opera. Most of the time the actual opera audiences dislike what they see (and sometimes boo) even if they like what they are listening to. For me the main reason that younger generations cannot relate to Opera is because the vast majority of them do not hear any classical music while growing up, they are not taught about it at school nor taken to any performances as children so in
general the sound of classical music, and opera in particular is very alien and unfamiliar to their ears. They grow up thinking that music =pop music. So unless these two issues are addressed at their point of origin Opera will slowly wither and die.
Qué bonito comentario, ilustre. Saludos desde Venezuela donde la copla vive en las pampas entre morichales y canales.
What’s the distinction between singing with a depressed larynx vs. with a low larynx like Pavarotti and Giaiotti say opera singers should?
Tension.
Forcing the larynx down using the back of your pharynx produces tension and sounds like you’re singing with a potato in the back of your throat. To get the larynx to lower naturally, you just raise your sternum and acoustic box to shorten the distance between the sternum and larynx. Then the larynx automatically relaxes into a lower position.
8:05 what's the title?
“Vittoria”, from Tosca. From Second Act.
Can you tell me which aria is it 11:31?
E lucevan le stelle
@@reraltizgivii9318 Thank you 😊
You make a good point about 1970 as a watershed date. The last of the greats - Corelli, Tebaldi, Nilsson, Sutherland - had their prime in the 50’s and 60’s. By ‘70 they were in decline, and no one followed.
What nonsense! What about Domingo, Pavarotti, Bergonzi, 2X Price, Freni, Carreras and many others!
@@xavieralberto1176 They sound worse.
@@xavieralberto1176 exactly from your list, 70s opera is a mixed bag
My simplified explanation of why grand opera is in decline: These people today just can’t sing, and suffer by comparison to those who could.
M. Horne started to sing in the 60s. Does it make her a good singer?..
It basically went from singing from the heart to singing from the brain
1:18 name of the aria?
“Sola, perduta, abbandonata” from Manon Lescaut by Puccini.
@toscadonna Thanks! Much appreciated 🙏
@warmelon4672 the other comment may be referring to the aria that's almost over at that point. If you're asking about the one that begins 1 or 2 seconds later, it's "Vesti la giubba" from Pagliacci by Leoncavallo.
Nobody is saying Opera doesn't take skill. But just because something takes skill doesn't make it GOOD. If I sculpted a scale model of the Mona Lisa out of my own feces, that would take a lot of skill. It would also not be good. Using your voice to skillfully make unpleasant noises is not good.
Ifd you like Opera, you are ALLOWED to like Opera. Not a single person on the face of this Earth will force you to stop liking Opera. But, conversely, You need to accept and aknowledge that you like a thing that most people DON'T like, and recognise that there are legitemate reasons WHY they don't like it.
You are allowed to E I E I O all you want. But most people aren't going to like that, and you should get of your high horse and stop guilting them for it.
We've learned a lot since we made this.
Earlier every man wanted to sound like CARUSO. LOVE IT! 😊
Who can find the original video at 1:19 I just can't find it pls
Whoever annotated this video has NO CLUE of opera!
Argumentum ad hominem without a single actual argument.
I have ears though. I concur with the author.
Listen carefully. Modern singers actually sounds awful.
Wrong. Many modern "professionals" sound awful.
My only regret is that I can't put more than one like to this perfect video. I totally agree, also with the choice of the tenors, just the best like Corelli, Di Stefano and the glorious Mario Del Monaco.
So many times I asked to myself why modern Opera singers are so bad, and of course if I was the only one to see the terrific condition of Opera or not.
Thank you very much
Your not alone in your observation in the fall of the Greatest art form in the world. I've been following Saioa Hernandez for sometime now & she's has a great technical sounding voice . Our Montserrat 🙏🙏💙💙 said it all " that the opera houses were sleeping because Saioa Hernandez should be signing in all of them. And to me she is the voice of the century " let's face it artistically speaking the met is not Mecca. It's a Large beariful opera house filled with voiceless ghost , destroying OPERA. sincerely, Arnold Bourbon Amaral
Perhaps, like me, not being too well versed in the technicalities of operatic singing is a good thing. To me, it all sound beautiful and I can't tell the difference between head voice or chest voice even when it's pointed out to me. Though I can't drink deeply of all the subtleties of art as so many of you can, but I think I'm getting more enjoyment out of the genre than many of you are. We all can't appreciate a meal at a 3-star Micheline restaurant and are quite happy with the local burger joint. Ignorance is indeed bliss--at least in my case!
your case isn't important or valid.
most of them sound quite similar actually, the creator of the video is just manipulating.
Nasality, as you call it, is by no means privative of modern singers.
The most famous soprano of the 2nd half of the 19th century, Adelina Patti, praised by all the composers of that time had a nasal voice. So did Conchita Supervia, Nellie Melba and many others. You listen to Geraldine Farrar and her voice was more nasal than anybody else's. Kraus voice was nasal (you didn't dare to put him as an example, eh?).
It doesn't mean they sing badly at all.
And I think it's a bit unfair to compare any of the modern singers with Tebaldi, let alone in Cio Cio San. Tebaldis are not born every 5 years.
I have watched most of the "This is opera" videos and subscribed, they are so on point.. who authored them? Is it a teacher/Conductor? I would so love to know..
Teacher or Conductor or Singer you certainly are a Maestro of this art form, I have learnt so much!
All modern singers are of moderate capability what’s totally missing is interpretation which was the center of the art of Tebaldi, Corelli and Callas
yes! rubato is basically a dead art
They aren't allowed to develop a vocal personality because they have to be vocally faceless to fit into the all-powerful stage director's HORRIBLE travesty of a production.
Regarding opera, Edward Abbey said it best: "Those screaming sopranos, those tensile tenors...musical entertainment for people who hate music."
Was Edward Abbey a celebrated idiot?
1:44 Why ?
The thumb nail of Yusif Eyvazov is symbolic and not lost on me.
I'm no expert on operas, just an average listener. To me at least, operas are mostly about the voice. Good voices, good techniques always delivered good performances. For example, you can't see people acting in opera records but you still enjoy the glorious voices immensely. Those examples in the clip tell me those singers just don't have good techniques so they just try to some weird stuff to cover up. Sometimes, not sure what to do, just sing it straight.
Are you the guy with the tomatoes?
Who is that at 6:50?!
I believe one of the things that has killed the technique of the past is the need to have many singers in a very short amount of time. Opera houses need singers, they want them now, and they couldn’t care less about the rest. Nowadays, the people conducting auditions have zero understanding of operatic singing. They want a voice that sounds "big," and nothing else matters to them. The younger, more attractive, and more forced your voice sounds, the better for them.
What has ruined opera is not the singers of today; it's capitalism. Everything is disposable, even the purest art. I hope no one here thinks that the current singers being showcased are bad singers. It’s incredibly hard to achieve what they are achieving, no matter the means or the results.
Opera right now is like TikTok: people want something that moves, that has bright colors, and they don’t care about emotions. Before judging, we need to realize that the problem is ALL OF US. Every single one of us is to blame for this, not the singers.
It’s easy to say that all singers can change this, but who is going to take the first step? Who’s going to give up eating every day and stop being hired to make this happen?
This is something that’s easy to see, not just in this kind of situation. Read a treatise by Rossini, and you’ll see how he says it’s unpleasant to hit the high note on the tonic at the end, and that the high note should be on the dominant. Tell that to the chef de chant who has been doing C-to-high-C at the end with every singer their whole life… Goodbye, job!
Im courious to know your opinion on singing of soprano Dominika Zamara. Have you ever heard of her?
Who cares?
You have selected Excellent examples to prove your point! Well done!
It's funny when you think about it because a lot of French school opera singers resist the modern tendency and still sing the old school way. I think it's more of a commercialisation problem than anything, because we've started to more and more to value the popularity and connection system.
Contemporary singers are anti vocal, anti aesthetic, caricatures, but artistic directors, stage directors, conductors, are all same . Thanks to older and eternal generation of opera, that we know what opera is. Mario del Monaco, Franco corelli, Miguel fleta, Merli, Gigli , Caruso, Tebaldi, so many others ☀️👏❤
Istrning to opera while studying is nice but it is not my cup of tea on a daily basis.
I believe the problem is , that many singers don’t use their natural voice structure anymore. When you want to be successful and make money in the opera business you got to have a certain sound and that dictates your process in developing your voice. I remember my own study . I always felt like a baritone but my voice teacher told me that I had to become a tenor , because tenors make the big money . And I believe that’s what’s happening. Singers change their natural sound into the one that generates money and then it sounds unnatural
Eyvazov it's the sign of the dead of opera.
So is his wife.
What blows my mind is how much more human the orchestra instruments are compared to the modern opera singers. It’s like the orchestra can’t even figure out how to play with them.
I actually do like opera. I’ve been listening to operas for over 40 years now, ever since I heard a soprano sing “morro ma prima in grazia” as I was a teen and I still listen to operas now
I recently learned about Maria Callas, it's impressive
the complete lack of diversity and dynamics in vibrato and the heavy focus on power whilst ignoring all other aspects of the singing is horrifying
Power is _the_ most important element without a doubt. Not that other elements should be disregarded, but many modern singers don't achieve power whatsoever. In our theater, many of them sound like they're behind the scene when singing an aria...
3:10 how could they be so bad? This is the worse opera I ever heard in my life.
Thats just horrible
It is HORRIBLE!
Me too...She is overrated.
Es una broma este video? El canto lírico es un logro supremo de la técnica vocal!
Si, este video es una broma. Además, los ejemplos aquí están mal, no tienen buen representación de opera hoy en día.
With respect…I find myself scratching my head at this video. I don’t hear a lot of the unpleasant qualities you claim. What I do hear are a multitude of singers with different head/throat/chest configurations that all have a sound distinct to them. Also, a lot of the older recordings you cite as “better” are recorded in mono in a studio, so the voices are flatter and stand out more from the orchestra, whereas the modern recordings are largely live performances on stages where the acoustics of the performance space muffle the sound of the voice.
Just as it was in the past, there are a lot of opera singers today that have their own unique sound. What sound appeals to one person might not appeal to the other, and while I certainly hear differences in execution between all of these singers, the ones you’ve cited all seem to be talented individuals who are carrying on the traditions of their craft with skill and care.
My teacher don't sound like modern singers .. She was singing on independent opera for the last years.
Is it too bad i liked some of the incorrect/bad examples u gave?😭
Not really. I was used to them. I thought that's "good" for quite a while. Only after you listen to correct chest participation a while do you start to understand. Singing that way also cleans up the pronunciation, it's far easier to be understood. The more I try to mimic Del Monaco and the crew, the easier singing becomes, and (in my opinion) better-sounding.
the creator of this video is clearly biased.
Symphonic metal helped me get close to opera and classical music, as strange as it sounds.
The singers are classically trained just enough to blend into thenmore modern sound, being able to smoothly switch between registers and genres, making their performances absolutely magnificent, without that heaviness of the operatic style.
And it is frustrating not being able to totally truly enjoy opera because of that obnoxious screamed vibratos that hides the words and the emotions.
La culpa la tiene el stablishment de la opera, te cierran las puertas si usas el canto antiguo, y el que quiere vivír de esto no le queda otra, lo dijo el mismo kraus.
Wagner's librettos are very intellectual! He vehemently criticized the shallowness of Italian and French opera.
Whoever put together this video picked out the crappiest performances and recordings to illustrate their 'point'. The opera that I listen to carries me away with its beauty and drama.
I love the channel Opera: a luxury every old school opera lover should watch the video.
Thank you for these videos. I could never quite put my finger on why the newer singers always sounded either squeaky or strangled to me. You do a good job explaining exactly why.
Mariah Carey is a national treasure. What would happen if she started singing opera? I would love to hear that.
Yo no puedo contestar esa pregunta pero para demostrar que se puede cantar ópera hay que salir en un teatro, sin amplificacion, pasando una orquesta y cantando una partitura que alguien compuso y no canciones arregladas para la tesitura vocal del cantante. Es muy diferente.
She simply couldn’t
@@zadighamroune Her mother thought, was an opera singer and that's where she got her technique. But she said herself that opera wasn't her thing and she's grateful that her mother did not push her in that direction.
If Mariah wanted to sing opera, she’d have to start from her very good belted chest voice and train her acoustic box (lungs) to never collapse in the middle of phrases like she loves to do and let all of that air out. It would actually improve her voice greatly. Because she’s gifted but has allowed that whisper sound she loves to make to grate her voice into disrepair. She should retrain as an opera singer if only to just repair her voice for further pop performances.
Thank you for immediately pointing out the wobble. I have never understood how or why so many opera singers have become famous and are considered excellent by so many people when they have a vibrato that sounds like it looks when a heavy goods vehicle tries to drag a full load up a steep, muddy hill
In old opera recordings you can more often tell what note is actually being sung…as opposed to most modern opera in which intonation issues are a moot point because the wide vibrato is always hitting ALL OF THE NOTES. It’s comical to me!
Franco Corelli was amazing. I had the chance to meet him once in the beginning of the 90s. RiP one of the best tenor of ever
I enjoyed your video, but I didn't understand your point about vibrato. In many recordings that you chose as examples of good old opera singing, there is still a lot of vibrato. Isn't huge vibrato necessary simpy because it allows singers to project over the orchestra, especially when the orchestra plays loudly and when there are no mics?
vibrato is natural oscillation of the vocal chord tho, so singing without vibrato is actually more straining to the body
It’s hard to know what you mean by “huge” vibrato. That’s not a very specific term. The pitch variation of the vibrato should not be too wide, nor should it be excessively slow or fast. 1955 Corelli = too fast (caprino), 1928 Lauri-Volpi the same. 1961-62 Corelli = perfetto!
@@renalazuardi3512 it’s not natural as much as modern teachers and singers may claim. It was always taught in the past in the Italian school. Read tetrazzini, Guelfi, del Monaco, Lo Monaco.
@@singermanz idk, but a lot of people have them naturally, but some don't, idk what the cause etc
@@renalazuardi3512 a lot of people *claim*
I'm definitely willing to learn and engage with what you have to say, so I'll be checking out your other videos. I do worry- and maybe you can reassure me on this, if you read comments- whether or not you're doing a fair comparison between new and old. Wouldn't you have to do a much more thorough-going analysis (amounting to not much less than a PhD thesis) of old and new recordings, devise fair methods of comparison etc. before you have something of truly referential value for the viewer? At the moment it looks like it may be a bit polemical and not much more. By the way, at the start, I actually couldn't tell if you were playing a psychological trick on the listener or not, by deliberately choosing problematic examples from popular music (the Mariah Carey hardly seemed to me even an equal to the preceding putatively problematic examples from opera, let alone obviously better).
At 14.09 Good Lord 😍
WHAT U THINK ABOUT PAVVAROTI ..?? ?? TO ME HE SOUND VERY NAUTURAL WITH GOOD TECHNIQUE
Too nasal.
Shouty voice, but better than modern singers.
Pavarotti sang effortlessly. He was marvelous.
This whole concept that modern equals bad is just stupid. However, it seems most modern tenors seem to have an unnaturally artificial sound.
The biggest problem with opera is a lack of new quality repertoire.
Edit: Juan Diego Florez is NOT an example of bad singing!
20:35 gets me every time 😅😂😂😂
As awful as Mr and Mrs Netrebko are Renne's foray into verismo is beyond horrible. Of course she never sang a Puccini opera (to the best of my knowledge) for which we should all be grateful. Whoever was singing Vesti (Cura???) is pretty bad but at least his career was very brief. I'm sorry I checked out after those three.
Humbly and with all respect. Walter Müller. Heldentenor. Uruguay.
This video makes some really good points. However, for me there's another really important reason why people don't like opera, I think (and it's kind of related to what the video says about the "intellectualisation" of the art.) Now, for me, I really love opera -and I'm not a singer or anything. But the reason I love opera is because of the stories that are told and the combination of story, spectacle, theatre, singing. So I think that people don't like opera is because they don't get to know the story of the opera work! All the "opera elites" are obsessed with technique, and forget that behind all this, there's only Story, and nothing else. If you just listen to an opera record without knowing the plot and what the singer is singing about, of course it's going to be boring! Also, let us not forget that the examples that were shown regarding the expression of the voice using cries etc during singing, were all examples from scene with really heightened emotional significance. That's the work of the writer (librettist) there, in collaboration of course with the composer who made it possible that all the emotions of the story are transferred and felt through music! So, technique is the smallest part of the problem, in my point of view. Story is everything, it is the only reason why we read books, watch films and theatre, and why opera is such a unique form: because it combines story with all the other art forms in one. ❤
the sound recording is also very different.
If you dont know ehat they are saying that is not opera to me
It is "mass production". The internet has it all available for nothing, so everybody is selling. Then, artists dictated their metier, today the public by like-vote. Furthermore, probably we are not blessed with a really great set of artists. It is not expression that is looked for, but sound. Very few know that music is not in the sound, but in the communion of souls of musician and listener.
I think to the unfamiliar and general audience, they sound almost exactly the same and would have the same appeal honestly. The technology of the old recordings made things sound lighter in timbre and I think you may be attributing too much of that to technique.
I agree that Opera today focuses a lot on Big, Round, Loud voices and not a beautiful, unique ones. But the reason Opera isn't as popular is because it is out dated in terms of what people are looking for in entertainment.
3-4 hours of a simple, drawn out story, that people can't understand in their native tongue, is not going to appeal to people today where TV and Movies are so entertaining, complex and not as long.
Music generally comes in smaller packages too. Opera music isn't catchy for most of the time, and the recitative style for dialogue is taxing on the listener, especially when you can't understand it.
After I finished school, I realized the style of Opera, where the voice is pushed to the limits and there are all these high notes sung with so much effort, so frequently, makes almost all of them of no effect, because the listener is over exposed.
I fell in love with the style while I was studying it, but it's like an isolated world, where you need to know it to get it. The truth is that Opera is just out dated in ways, and yes some people will always be drawn to it, but it will never be as popular as it once was, unless it becomes unrecognizable. Even Musical theater isn't as popular as it once was, which is arguably more accessable to the modern audience.
Nothing about it is outdated. I as someone who was born in the early 2000s and grew up online, a live performance of an opera is a unique experience that cannot be replicated digitally. A great film of the performance capture some of it, but the things that make opera, ballet, and theatre in general is the live adaptive aspect of it. I heard my first live opera at the MET. It was Rigoletto with Michael Chioldi and Pytr Becžala and despite never liking Pytr much on recordings, live he was incredible to listen too. Just because my generation generally devalues theatre (though musical theatre is doing great work it bringing us back) doesn’t mean it’s outdated. The skills required to act and sing live on stage are different than what is required to act in a Hollywood film or to record an album. “Outdated” suggests inferiority, which I don’t think you believe is true.
We are willing to concede the point that recording technology had some effect. But even Mister Opera admits that there has ALSO been a change in tendencies. We also concede the point that lots of the old recordings really are people singing like "modern singers", but it's disguised.
Fair point about the technology, but it's not the whole story. Old recordings make it harder, but not impossible to spot differences. Singers today are taught to push light techniques beyond their limits, and that's what we need to change.
One other point we had to concede is that old school singers were just more fit. They maybe weren't doing sports, but look at the legs on Corelli. In general people back then had more physical activity.
This “Taylor Swift is an opera singer”.
It's just beautiful music that tells a story
Yo quisiera escuchar a esos cantantes sin micrófonos ni amplificadores...cómo lo hacen los cantantes de opera.. pequeña detalle
Great video!
Can you please criticize the video of a country singer (Caroline Jones) who attempts to teach Bel Canto while singing terribly? I'd love to hear your take on it 😆
16:22-16:23 Mario Del Monaca is here showing a vocal break, we can clearly hear his passagio. Thus this is bad opera since one of the first goal is to hide the passagio between full chest and "mixed chest"
I don't hear any voice break.
I don’t hear any break either. And you’re confusing art form with technique. In any case, let’s say that Del Monaco did break. All of these singers had marvelous techniques, but as to be expected, they also made mistakes. You can’t consider this “bad” opera because he broke a note, or didn’t hide his passagio. The most important aspect in opera, or any art for that matter, is to communicate, to express emotions, to make people feel what you’re singing, regardless whether or not they understand every single word you sing. So, this isn’t bad opera. Bad opera is what we hear today, which, for the most part, not only is it bad technique, but also little to no emotion.
It's not a crack, he just wrongly calculated how much he needed pression and air for this group of notes, causing a little squeeze on his throat and his vocal chords. If you call that a crack, you need to stop listening a lot of modern opera singers, because they sounds the same but x10 and almost all the time in almost all registers. The infamous throat sound.
You're hearing things. The ears are the first to go when you waste your life listening to shitty singers.
I disagree. His technique is fine, it is just a mishap. It does not necessarily make a bad opera.
Most people don't like opera because it's too hard. Listening to a 2-4 hour performance is already hard, but if you don't understand what anyone is saying (because it's in a completely different language) it makes opera unbearable for most modern listeners. Taking into account that we are also part of a "less pompous era," there is absolutely no reason for people to sit through a Mozart opera where the words are looped 30 times in each scene. The average listener doesn't know what is good and bad, the average listener does what they need to do. If back then it was considered intellectual to listen to opera (and that status mattered), people would do it. Right now, nobody cares if you come off as intelligent or not. We live in a completely different time. There is no reason for people to listen to opera. Old people watch opera, yet they don't understand and can not explain what they are watching. So why are they watching? Cause they've got nothing to do, and they want to come off a certain way. The music is also more primitive and easier to understand (in Mozart/classical operas), while being outlined and curved in a very repetitive but simple manner. This obviously allows for an easier digestion of the music for older people, for whom time flies faster than for young people who could be working, studying, doing anything at all.
So how about the few nowadays and preceeding that genuinely enjoy opera? They still exist. They still go to opera. As I came from a family of musicians, I have been going to operas since a very young age, and I love many of the performances I listen to (I didn't encounter most of the issues you've stated, maybe some of the incorrect darkening and some singers would over vibrato, but most of the time there were better singers who would counteract it).
There's a lot of issues with this video honestly. I'm not trying to instigate anything, but some of the recordings you showed for both sides sound pretty awful. You're also using examples of very controversial singers in general, like Maria Callas. People during her time complained about her lifts (I'm only talking about the lifts), so using her as an example of what people "used to like" and "used to consider good" is honestly very holey. Don't get me wrong, I love Callas, and she was a true master of language/acting. I do hope you understand what I'm saying though.
Referring to the "incorrect darkening," some people create chambers differently. Yes, you didn't provide examples of what we consider great singers, but they were still alright (the first one). It's crazy to hear this I know, but the reason opera started to die out in the 70's is because there was a huge shift in culture (in what was meta, popular, etc.). It takes one second to see what people were listening to back then to understand what I'm saying.
I somewhat agree with the acting, but not everyone is bad at acting like this. There are many amazing singers who still sing and act with the voice. You provide bad examples.
There are many great singers right now, and many great singers will come up. Opera will definitely make a comeback.
It will be hard for a lot of people here to understand anything I said, but I'm not writing this for you. I am leaving this for the future generations, so that when they look back (if they happen to) at these posts, they will find someone who actually knows what they're talking about.
Corelli taught low larynx singing. So did Pavarotti.
Having a microphone helps pop singers.
sooo true!!
Thank you for these wonderful examples. I believe it all started with Callas. She had a bad wobble and people started accepting it as correct. I've even seen posts where they say it's supposed to sound that way! Then when they hear a perfect close vibrating shimmery tone they're say the the vibrato is too fast!!!! Just listen to how steady the sound is on the older singers.
Con Callas empezó y terminó la ópera. Los responsables del declive son los teatros y las discográficas que promueven y hacen cantantes a sus gustos. Gracias
No I hadn’t, I love going to the opera
Some of the greatest singers today are specializing in earlier music. Cecilia Bartoli is just one example.