How to build an opera singer | Canadian Opera Company | TEDxToronto
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 12 ธ.ค. 2016
- On October 27, 2016, some of Toronto’s greatest thinkers and change-makers joined together onstage at TEDxToronto to deliver powerful talks and performances that embodied our theme, Symbols + Signals.
To learn more visit: tedxtoronto.com.
Follow TEDxToronto on Twitter (@TEDxToronto), Facebook (TEDxToronto), and Instagram (@TEDxToronto).
Based in Toronto, the Canadian Opera Company is the largest producer of opera in Canada and one of the largest in North America. The COC Ensemble Studio is Canada’s premier training program for young opera professionals. The members of the Ensemble Studio are the COC’s resident artists and important ambassadors for the company.
For TEDxToronto 2016, Liz Upchurch, Jennifer Swan, and Wendy Nielsen coach singers Danika Lorèn and Iain MacNeil.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at ted.com/tedx
This is what TED is about - teaching with demonstration - not just people talking about their life.
Exactly
Yeah
Absolutely far more engaging than someone just talking at you for a period of time.
My vocal teacher sent me the link to this video, and I suspect it's because she wanted to prove to me that all the "inner tube and angel wing" imagery she employs does indeed have a physiological impact. It's great to see her teaching methods explained like this!
Denton Froese indeed I have been always thought these metaphors must have a simple (logical) lol explanation...... there we have it..... wonderful video
Denton Froese does do Pilates. Everything will open up
yess and doesn't it show what a pointless approach it is that she used with all that confusing metaphorical stuff. I personally hate all the mess with words that singing teachers tend to use. Thank god mine teacher generally doesn't.
I use both of these metaphors with my choir too!
When I was in my 20's, my voice teacher's metaphor was "... like a water fall ... like laughing... " I hear her words haunting me to this day.
The way she advocates preparing the breath is strongly reminiscent of the way I've been instructed to set up for weight lifting. Very interesting.
it is very connected.
Opera singers are considered the athletes of the music industry. It's very much a physically taxing way of preforming.
@@shirsh4657 The greater the reason for seeking higher vocal efficiency which equates with vocal endurance. Resonance is NOT amplification which implies added energy. But it IS magnification which in any resonant device involves removal of the R component so that the the Q provides purification along with Homer Simpson's embiggening. 😉
exactly
That's cool! Sometimes I really feel I'm lifting my voice and body, when singing. The difference is just about creating tension inside my body (between breathing muscles and vocal cords) than between body and an exterior weight, like you do :)
So clearly and simply all explained. Makes me never want to stop the singing journey I just started !
OMG her scarf...
I know! I was like when is she going to notice XD
*triggered*
Dabney Ross Jones, Soprano THANK YOU!
😂😂😂
The opera singers vocies were so beautiful. I learned so much from watching this video. Its very inspiring. Im planning to become an opera singer myself.
I liked how the clavicular breathing uncovered pitch problems that vanished when the singer used chest cage establishment. Secondly the Transversus Abdominus has firm connection with the back of the sternum. Third, in the footsteps of Sundberg, tests that disrupt the action being assessed, invalidate the test.
This was my dream from I was 5 years old. I love opera. 🌹
If she doesn’t fix her scarf in 0.5 seconds I’m going to scream
if someone could just pull the other end of her scarf a little bit down further, then I would be able to finish watching the video without staring at her scarf the whole time. I tried to look away or close my eyes and just listen to the audio instead 😂😂😂
I hadn´t noticed until I read your comment...now I´m so upset :)
Its fashionable in UK to be asymmetrical..didn’t you read vogue?
SAME
Is it just me or did this Ted talk end too quickly? Hungry for more
“Brain training to sequentially perform tasks to support singing” these are really helpful
Form follows function
Breath support and metaphors
Lateral rib expansion to help the voice and better breath support
Being rather old I was fortunate enough to hear some of the REALLY GREAt opera singers of the 20th century live, eg Franco Corelli. Cesare Siepi, Carlo Bergonzi, Ettore Bastianini, Tito Gobbi, Boris Kristoff, Maria Callas, Joan Sutherland, Renata Tebaldi, Giulietta Simionato, Birgit.Nilsson, Teresa Berganza, Teresa Stratas, Mirella Freni and many others. All I can say is that despite all the additional scientific knowledge re the vocal chords, the anatomy of the larynx, the breath production/control, muscle function and much more knowledge on how the voice is produced and trained, the singers of the current generation are but a pale shadow of those I saw on the opera stages in my youth.
As a want-to-be singer, this is now my favorite Ted Talk.
Perfect.... that was all i always looking for. I could easily see the difference in my voice just by doing the same practise.... now i am ready to enroll in a music college.😍
This is mind blowing for me. Maybe this style has become more common place at high level schools, but all the vocal training I’ve received has been exactly as they described, consistent vague metaphors that force me to internally interpret those cues into physical responses, rather than just giving me the bio mechanical cueing outright. That’s not to say that the metaphors aren’t effective for improving your voice, just that they are inconsistent
We need more opera in our life!!! Thank u so much ❤
nice demonstration for all singers to watch
When the intro played i was surprised!
I had that music in my mind a couple of minutes earlier.
two wonderful singers
I need these people. My opera voice is dying in the Caribbean.
Giiirl get out of the Caribbean. Get into a college in the uk or paris idk and leave!
I wish I could find lessons in the Caribbean -_-
Theres actually great Conservatories in the Caribbean. Im from Puerto Rico did my bachelor in there and subsequently been accepted to continue studies in Italy. I belive also Cuba and Dominican Republic have operatic programs
How about teaching a 49 year old man who always wanted to try singing opera, but has spent the last 29 years in and out of hospital? Long story...but I really wanted to be a opera singer, but was never taught how to achieve that rich tenor operatic tone. 29 years, 11 chronic illness, 34 brutal surgeries has destroyed my vocal cords...any chance they can be saved and I could finally live my dream now that I survived the 4 times I was suppose to die? As a teen, I sang tenor or first bass in 5 different choirs, but my voice is ruined after all those surgeries, from your experience, is it possible to strengthen my voice so I can sing again, and hopefully, learn how,to sing opera? I live here in Toronto, so any advice would be greatly appreciated!
watch?v=wpHrniTNTDk
The man in the video is a baritone, but he can do high e with ease when he older than you!
It's "咽音" .
If you can do exactly what he taught in the video.
I believe you'll sing again!
i'm 66 years old and have not done any substantial singing for about 5 years. When I almost died from sepsis a few years ago, I thought my voice was damaged beyond repair; but I have begun to take lessons again, and the results are remarkable. Find yourself the best teacher you can afford and lay your cards on the table. If someone is willing to teach you, you may not make the Met, but you'll find satisfaction in every lesson. While you are beyond the age where any opera house is likely to take you on, there is a world of beauty and drama in art song, from the early Baroque to Schubert and Schumann to Sibelius and Mahler and beyond. All you need is a pianist and your own skill and imagination. I wish you every success!
If you are able to speak, you are able to sing
From the time I was a baby, I've been given a terminal prognosis by over a dozen doctors. I've nearly died a dozen times which includes lapsing into a coma - but I sing in ten languages with a full operatic voice - and because my health issues include chronic fatigue - which makes diaphagmatic singing too exhausting - I created a new vocal technique that uses the small muscles instead of the large muscles which results in minimal fatigue - this vocal technique allows me to sing 20 operatic arias in under two hours. I'm a lyric soprano who loved coloratura arias - but couldn't sing them - until I developed my own vocal technique - now I sing Je veux vivre, Una voce poco fa, E strano ... Sempre libera and all the others. That's my answer to your question about whether or not you can do it: our nerves and muscles do what we tell them to do. Happy singing.
Great video. Excellent work Iain!
Amazing piercing frequency danika sings at. Beautiful.
i am so in love with the sopranooooo
I so love this! ❤
What you're here for starts at 12:48 (it's all very good, but here's where you learn the concrete steps to improve your breathing).
Grab a towel with palms facing up and follow these three step (to create and sustain a lateral rib expansion):
1. Shift your weight out of your heels.
2. Draw the pelvis up and back (activating the transverse abdominus)
3. Pull the towel away from the midline (firing your lats)
Commenting so i can track this comment
Excellent job. Would like to be 30 years younger and learn with you!!! Excellent!
Thank you.
Even though the soprano sung the Queen of the Night aria lower, still impressive! She made the lower key work.
Yes, in Eb-major, so two half-steps lower. Which was the key/tuning of the instruments when Mozart lived btw! Nowadays the tuning is higher and everything Mozart/Bach is sung in higher keys.
If indeed the note it reached was an Eb and it was not an F
This was amazing but all I was distracted by was her ill proportioned scarf. Wonderful informative data.
There was no data in the video.
I am alone in my room and I cant stop clapping
she killed that
Wonderful, great information. I need to know more!
I was thinking about the last aria lippen from lehar!
5:53 I’m sure that offended a lot of people 😂
She's not wrong though
well, there is no untruth in that
The snobbiest comment in the video. She may have a very good point were it not that we are talking about music, not sport.
All the breath support in the world won’t help you sing a vocal solo like Ella Fitzgerald, Bobby Mcferrin.
Let’s not even mention originality, creativity and song-writing.
@@jameshogan6293 actually, vocal solos need breath support. How do you think they have the smooth and accurate pitches? Breath support. Breath is the first step in singing. I am a vocal performance major and have studied both classical and jazz performance.
@@hopewonder kpop singers like the main lead vocalists most of them have amazing breath support because they have to dance. Singers that participated in eurovision like Sanja vucic also have amazing support despite the heavy dancing. I think that they are two kinds of pop
the performative : who requieres a lot of stamina to dance and sing correctly
The standard: playback or simple jumping while singing good enough.
She wasn't begging,
she was forcing.
Voice spreading.
Awesome
All the voice is staying into singers after such kind of lessons.
OMG DANIKA'S VOICE
Wow!!!
I wanna be an opera singer
@JC Denton I concur.
I live in the NJ/NYC area. Where and how can I find a kinesthetic consultant to help me with my vocal training?
she didn't sing the usual high F in Queen of the night, she sang an Eb, probably cause its morning, none the less it sounded good
I am 22 and wondering if I am too old or young to really learn opera singing. I sang in high school but not so much in community college but have always been praised for my voice. I originally wanted to go to school to be an opera singer but I couldn't and still can't read music, so I went into something else. I still have my own mini library of opera songbooks, music books and am involved with my city's opera house. Though I have a soulful passion for opera, I always get very nervous when I have to sing. Is it really worth taking 10+ years at my age to learn operatic singing when it may all be for naught?
Of course you are not. 22? You have so much time. Get going!
@Thais Solin Thank you so much for your thoughtful and kind words. It really means a lot to me.
@@maiamaola6143 oh yeah your voice will just be starting! Tryn
Actually Franco Corelli, a famous opera tenor who had his golden age in the 1950s only started training for opera when he was 30. He is one of the best tenors ever so don't let age be a barrier. In fact, the older you get, the stronger your natural voice will get. By the time you are 40 is the absolute latest time to start as this is when your voice finishes its development and it can't change anymore.
Luciano Pavorotti couldn't read music either. Don't let that deter you! That desire to sing was put in you by God Himself! Find a voice teacher and begin.
Chest cage establishment is still the foundation upon which all the other parts of support depend and a soft well supported legato, is the test. I did not hear that in the final duet. I heard spectacle rather than mutually seductive passion. FORMANT shifting is the engine room of passion and legato.
Intercostaldrama For me, the classical Cross over artist that has the most impressive Bell like ring is Rhydian, a baritone.
@Nicholas Ennos You have not a clue what you're talking about.
@@Trillidotia I laughed so HARD when I read it as well! Like... Whhhhat???
@@arxsyn Clearly cross-over comes after the singer has perfected h/her vocal technique to allow a peak ability. To me, cross-over means doing non-vocal things to your voice in an attempt to simulate studio equalisation etc. There's an American word I absolutely love for it's perfect description of this, "equilibration." Approximation, rather than calibration.
I'd be afraid that if I 'release my abdominal floor', I'll have an accident in my trousers.
What is the name of last performance?? Please let me know!!!
I want to be able to sing Christine's AAA... Aa... Aa... Aa.AAAAAAA.........
litle voices
They could have turned the mics on for the last part.
I love them all!!!!! i want to marry danika!!!!!!!1 im crying
Why is the Queen of the Night aria down a tone?!
Wouldn't it be simpler to send them to ballet classes where all of the aforementioned stature targets are basic to ballet?
lohphat, no, it wouldn’t, because you don’t sing in ballet class. Even very well trained sportsmen, dancers and actors, perfectly aware of their bodies’ functioning, get puzzled when it comes to singing. You might have a perfect stature but then the high note comes and your whole body instinctively responds to that by raising your shoulders, stressing various muscles etc. Though I must say that, in my opinion, there’s no problem with using those mental images - half of a singers work happens in his mind, and it’s fine.
Definitely not. It is significantly more involved than just that.
The take away from basic ballet training is strengthening of the core and proper balance as so you have a stable foundation for any other subsequent physical demand. Even football players have improved their game as they learn in class how to protect and strengthen muscles to protect joints and tendons better.
My experience in musical theater is that having some basic dance training helps your stature and projection as you are often tasked with having to move WHILE signing.
I want to sing opera, amateur Messa Soprano
Ian becomes way more attractive when he sings for some reason. Not sure why.
the moment loren sang magic flute im like "plz marry me xd" hope this is not creepy xd
Porqué está en si b? Es muy confuso
OMG.
High notes Microphone.exe stopped working
Where the tenors are??
The song is featured in Star Wars, Not Harry Potter...
GemmaDoyleOfficial that doesn’t impact any of the information shared.
What about Apocalypse Now?
I think it was a joke...
that was a joke
R/wooosh
But there's a mic in the singers hair!!! Was it turned off?
Nyakaat lol
Yes! You can hear their voice resounding in the room instead of the way the dialogue sounds amplified through the mic.
Yes
12:55
4:43
What's the name of the song ?
Der Hölle Rache from the German Opera Die Zauberflöte.
18:22 she says : I wanna die in italian wow that’s amazing 😉 !
Canadian opera company
Coc
I'ma a natural but taking notes
Who are these people? Names in the titles please.
This is GREAT!!!!! Hahahaha!!!
In China, most of the audiences cannot understand this. They hardly reach the youtue. Could you upload video to China websites? Or I download it and send it there.
I'm only here because Amira Willighagen inspired me to sing. She's just pure gold, her voice takes me out of this realm
WE FOUND IT MEN, WE FOUND *COC*
Can someone who doesn't have a good singing voice become good at opera singing?
Anyone who have the DNA physique for loud singing can become an opera singer. You train your voice. Learn a couple of roles and you are in business. Hard work and determination. No natural real musicality needed. It's explained very well in this video. Factory fabricated voices so if one singer has to cancel they just call in a replacement.
If your normal singing voice is healthy you can actually try to train your body for the Opera. If you should Sound Like Bruce Springsteen... Please Go to a doctor!
IT depends on your voice Type, age, mental and physical health to become an Opera Singer! Singing Opera doesnt mean to sing only Arias. Indeed you have to learn recitativo and acting too! IT IS a very HARD Business!!! try IT!!! It's never too late to try...good luck!!!!
No.
@Isabela McK Look those poor deluded people who audition for American Idol: "I don't care what you soo- called experts say, I KNOW I can sing!"
There is a big difference between noise and actually singing on a recognizable pitch.
@Isabela McK sometimes it doesn't matter how much technique someone learns, if they can't carry a tune, that's it. It's like a learning disability. I am a classically trained singer, sang a few minor operatic roles, mostly just chorus, but i do know what it takes to be a professional opera singer. Very, very few make it. It's like the Olympics if singing. Most people will never be able to attain it, no matter how much they work at it.
I struggled to hear the singers without the mics on this talk. I wish opera would permit mics
If you'd been in the audience, you'd have heard them quite well.
Thre only time mics are ever used in opera is if it's performed outside.
True, but it's useless shouting the loudest you can into a mic. An operatic voice is very limited. Contemporary music with an operatic voice sounds very silly. Check a musical for better and understandable singing.
@@Trillidotia I am hearing impaired (deaf in one ear) and I use a bone conduction based device by Cochlear to hear. Usually, I can connect to an FM system or a telecoil system so I can hear the performer easier.. I understand the WHY they aren't amplified but it would be nice to accommodate hearing impaired fans who don't use sign language.
They were happy enough to grope the poor guy in the blue shirt.
Qué manera de marear a estos dos chicos
Mi sembra che il teatro la scala sia il più importante al mondo e tutt'ora lavora...
0:44 nope lady, that's video games 👌
Pinza‘a stance
It was so good I almost peed my pants.
Sorry i started to tune out when she was giving the instructions - she uses far too much technical terminology - and tuned back in when he had to sing adn then i wondered, did all he have to do was hold the towel in that postion to prevent the rib cage from collapsing. I will try it but not until tomorrow. Apart from that, is it really necessary to use all those technical physiological terms.I agree that instructions should be concrete instead of metaphoric and abstract but too much jargon is a pain.
If you can't feel the music you shouldn't be a singer.
I don't think this is a very good example. No teacher has ever used metaphor ...they trained my muscles and my voice with a series of diff exercises then tried to apply it to arias and songs. They kept it all pretty sensible and grounded.
Are you serious? Every voice teacher I've had used metaphors. Never heard of any decent teacher who didn't.
She forgott about heavy metal
Is it only me or does the Kinetic Consultant seem a little too happy about getting to touch that Ian boy?
Is this why all young singers nowadays sound exactly the same, with sounds indistinguishable from each other, and with their jaws shaking when they hold the note, as if they were chewing gum?
A shaking jaw is an indication of tension. Good singers don't do that.
I don't like how they mock the popular singers and their training. You don't need to revile or humiliate others work or profession to demonstrate that yours is good enough. Actually, I prefer to think both popular and Opera singers should be using the same techniques for breathing and support. We are all using the air to sing after all.
Not one of those trained opera singer are talented enough to make a popular career. Instead they train barking as loud as possible and self admires their awful sounding soprano voices a person with intact hearing can't stand for more than a song or two. If they were good singers for real the opera houses wouldn't be so sparse populated. The average audience age at the Meth is +60, persons with hearing aid, yeah just that fact speaks for itself
No one is mocking anyone by pointing out that defective technique is both dangerous and does NOT produce the goal of harmonically rich tone without strain or ear-shattering noise. Yes noise is definable.
@Aaron Anderson That Peter Barber again. He's less than run of the mill and almost totally unknown. Just accept it. If you want' vocal range used with real talent or real why not check Dimash Kuidalbergen. He's tremendously popular and that Peter not, guess why.
Pretty holier than thou, don't you think?
You know, coming from an opera singer, I kind of agree with you.
the mozart's queen of night is a bit out of tune
Амадей Моцарт I'd say it is transposed.
And it was transposed down a whole tone...
I THOUGHT I WAS CRAZY
it is very much in tune for the key it is played it. Just not in the original key.
Okay, I’d like to hear your “perfectly in tune” queen of the night.
That queen of the night has a good chest voice... I mean head voice, I don't know what I was thinking of
12:43 Dam grab me a piece
A fun talk, but mostly nonsense. If it weren't nonsens the singers would have better technique. He is woofy and she has mixed her registers, producing very shrill tones.
But hey! They sound "intellectual"! Isn't that what's matters the most, I. E. Making Opera seem more intellectual than pop?
@@Tkimba2 Yes, opera is a science for the intellectuals, portraying the deepest of naturalistic and sublime Bergman-esque psychological themes, aimed to give the audience a three hour psychotherapeutic lecture, granting them the possibility to honestly ponder their own insignificance.
Strong feelings meant to move your soul? No, that's for pop music.
@@celibidache1000 this was so hard to watch... (of course I couldn't watch the full video)...
Sometimes I think it's already too late for opera...
Look at these people spreading all this nonsense. They're the big majority. What's one to do? I mean one who really loves it and knows it? Even if you are doing the right thing (and I'm not just talking about technique, there's a thing called style which people like Di Donato and such totally ignore, and than there's a thing called tradition), how isolating it is when everyone around you is on a completely different world?
@Aaron Anderson You misunderstand my terminology. What you call mixed voice, I call head voice - ie coordinating chest register and falsetto in varying degrees depending on pitch and intensity. That coordination is, as you say, absolutely vital for great singing.
By mixed registers I refer to an uncontrolled and static mixing/blending of chest and falsetto, where the low register becomes woofy due to too much falsetto participation, and the middle and high register becomes pushed, shrill, constricted, and often overly heavy, due to too much chest participation.
Ellie Goulding is a pop singer and her songs are NOT easy ma’am! Lights has octave jumps in chest voice... in the verses!
Don't bother. None of those on the stage can sing well enough. They just are self admiring themselves. No top manager will ever consider to invest one cent on these types of run of the mill talented singers/artists.
Mariah Carey too.
@Aaron Anderson Opera singers are good in what they trained to be good at. Barking loud as possible so the cheap back row tickets will not complain hearing anything. Do you think an opera company will hire a singer that doesn't sing loud enough, hahaha. Perhaps opera singing can be an event in sport tournament measuring loudest db four 2 hours.
The amazing thing is that all of these singers were actually able to sing reasonably well in spite of all this nonense these women were telling them.
What is the point of demonstrating what she said earlier if she is singing with microphones? It defeats the purpose of her explanation.
I disagree about the largest known art form part -- I don't think that opera is the largest known art form known to man.
Art is larger than many things we can imagine
Queen of the night one step lower seriously ?
Nicolas Dosch it was early in the morning lol CMON MAN give a girl a break
Nicole Dawn she did a great job anyway , just singing an aria in another key shows it’s not for you. As a student in singing it’s very usual to sing in the morning, specialy for exam 😢
She has a great voice anyway don’t get me wrong , maybe a more lyric tone than a coloratura soprano
it is sooo obvious, come on. Expert lol
Queen of the night--amazing--so easy and resonant in her voice. That's real technique. The baritone not so much.
SteveL2012 I don’t know if I totally agree with you. For some reason it irks me very much that she transposed the aria down a whole step. That’s just something you don’t do for an aria like this one.
Asymmetry is a vibe, but this lady's scarf is just so wrong. I cannot watch this. If i was in the audience i would have honestly leapt up and tugged it into place
5:45 what the heck is she talking about ? She had a microphone to her left cheek the whole time.
It was switched off while they sang.
Women get away with whatever they want. I think Ian caught wood @ around the 12:40 mark, geeeez.
I'm with you, King Willie. It was inappropriate
The singer did have a mic.
this microport only used for the talking voice. Listen attentively, you can hear the opera voice comes from far, when the lady sang the popsong the voice was came directly more two dimentonal, the opera voice has more plasticity. It produces specific echos.
Vivienne Maynard and?