Where are Caniglia, Traubel, Milanov, Cigna, Farrell, Gencer, Ponselle…?

I saw Florez in Lucia at La Scala last year, I say "saw" because I barely heard him. Watching him demonstrating here makes me realise why!

Opera was much more of a popular force in the past which also produced a lot more aficionado's and critics. On top of that, sheet music was disseminated to the middle class so they could perform numbers in their own homes with friends and family, adding to the demands of hearing a perfect performance on stage. Performers were routinely roasted in the press and in personal correspondences by the public for poor technique of all sorts. There's nothing new about any of this.

its merely an acquired taste. This whole video is just as inane and ignorant as a child explaining why cookies are better than brussel sprouts

The only way to sing 😊

Im still in my way to becoming a professional singer, but what I have learned, that the tongue needs to be relaxed, no matter what position. For me with high notes i had the problem that my tongue was always cramped and pulled completely back, basically into my throat. My teacher first focused with me on relaxing my tongue, and now we reimplement pulling back the tongue for opening/sound but without it completely cramping up wich helps a lot in maintaining a full sound in high notes without needing to push so much

I went to the Bavarian Stare Opera to see Tosca. They modernized the story and the first act was, for a lack of a better word, atrocious. Second and third act got better. Lise Davidson was playing Tosca. I was highly disappointed because she was terrible. Nasal. Low notes lost to the orchestra. Couldn’t make out any of the words she sang. That collapsed head voice is no joke. I will say that, her Bb5’s and high C’s were loud and powerful. That’s about it. Anything Bb4 and below began to get lost. Such a tragedy the way opera is going….oh, and Scarpia had a wobble. Tenor’s voice sounded like it would hit a wall when he would go for high notes. His voice should have gotten louder on those notes, not been stunted….

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.

Falsete!

One of the greatest contraltos of her generation, the renowned Dame Clara Butt.

I've always thought her voice had a self-imposed dark color. Now this is an established fad and people have a wobble in two years. Singing at the Met is so bad now it no longer deserves to be called an international house.

The author of this slander has no clue about opera singing! LOL! Anan still sounds great at 53 years old.

Opera is universal it should sound “bright” or “dark” when it needs to be 🤷‍♀️

Comme c'est étrange d'isoler 10 secondes d'une consigne, sans savoir ce qui précède ni ce qui suit, sans savoir ce que proposait initialement l'étudiant, sans rien expliquer... et c'est encore plus étrange de se moquer de chanteur.euse.s qui ont fait des carrières longues et brillantes, de prendre une note mal émise pour critiquer l'ensemble d'une pensée musicale. C'est une attitude anti pédagogique, non?

Not all singers are good teachers and some good teachers dont sing well! Go figure

Was this a live performance, if not this is a terrible recording with the music over powering the singing ..

Totally disagree with Florez!

If you dont know ehat they are saying that is not opera to me

opinion: Best Verdi duet ever kzbin.info/www/bejne/d5OXnZSVhNhgias

Your knowledge about singing and understanding of the coaching process is totally lacking.

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

But I like Opera!

Already in the seventeeth pupils like Jard van Nes on the KC the Hague let you know, Deutekom could not sing, so we had a fight over it and now it's the end of Opera, there are no real singers anymore, while everywhere peolple are in charge who think Florez or Fleming know it best! Thanks for posting!

She had a lightlyric voice then and now she could have been a regular lyric soprano. She sang many coloratura roles at her early days her voice wasn't that high or that agile for this fach even at her younger days. She has never been a coloratura soprano, neither a dranatic or spinto of course.

I absolutely disagree about Blake. He's probably the best Rossini tenor ever existed. By the way, Ah mes amis is not is best performance, but he remains unmatched in his repertoire. I thought this was a serious channel...

My intro into opera were recordings of Bjorling and De Los Angeles followed by a large dose of Sutherland. I had the pleasure of seeing Te Kanawa live in Melbourne, but that was only a recital and not a full opera. Nevertheless, to my tiny suburban mind, I thought she was amazing. Later in life I worked at the Victorian Arts Centre, and I had the privilege of enjoying many vocal performances of both classical and modern repertoires including many opera productions of the Australian Opera. I was initially very disappointed by the singing for all the reasons you have highlighted in this video, but I take my hat off to all the performers who had the guts to get up and sing in the full knowledge that the audience was probably critical of everything they did. I saw everything from the Sun Aria competition for new and emerging artists to full seasons of Alcina Carmen Butterfly Magic Flute ( I was an usher, so I saw every performance in a season) i came away from this time in absolute awe of the entirity of the opera experience and found I enjoyed the live, if flawed, performance exhilarating and sometimes overwhelming. I hope that people will continue to listen to and enjoy opera and the glory of the human voice and maybe one day we will be lucky enough to see again anotjer Callas or Sutherland and the artform will be revived for another generation. (I will say thuough, if you are performing Carmen and the horse gets more applause than the human cast members you really need to pick up your game 😂)

What a dreadful video to make fool of distinguished singers! I’ve had some lessons for La Nilsson in a masterclass and she did really meet us all in the masterclass with various instructions depending in which part of our development we were. The problem today is all the pushing to try to sound more rich in the voice than you are able to. The man that you glorify in this video as a good example - his instructions voile ruin a voice for ever. My wife who studied for the Wagnerian tenor Helge Brillioth can verify the process to go from the small to the big sound! If you can’t sing simple, light tones you probably have a damage on your vocal cords - a checking point in your voice-health. With a great experience in jurywork for operachorus you hear this broken/ruined voices in young ages depending on the singers faulse believe in the way you suggest to work.

Offensive, unprofessional video! Someone who probably hasn't had a career himself is defaming great artists in the cheapest possible way.

This nonsense of "lower=softer" is utter foolishness. I am a cellist who was always taught that when you play on the lowest strings (C and G), you dig in more to make the notes live and truly vibrate. This is the foundation of performing - something one does intuitively if one has any musical intuition at all.

@1837. I believe that this wimpy, literally gutless, no sound trend extends to orchestras as well. Yannick Neget-Seguin was music director of the Philadelphia Orchestra, and it doesn't surprise me that the same nothing, "breathy" sound is the same as what he espouses here with singers. It's not completely his fault though. The Philadelphia Orchestra was once known for its lush string sound under the tenure of Eugene Ormandy. After Ormandy's death, that velvet sound was trimmed to a certain degree by Riccardo Muti, then Wolfgang Sawallisch. Now the orchestra sounds like a non-descript, average "good" American orchestra. What I'm saying is this. The trend of breathy, soft, overly intellectualized "meaningful" performances is what is killing opera, and the classical music world as a whole. Skinny, pretty, lifeless sounds are in fashion these days.

As a professional working opera singer I just have one question? Is the creator of this channel, an opera singer, a working professional opera singer as opposed to someone who watches masterclasses on KZbin and obviously doesn’t have a clue about technique? To criticise the teaching of these absolute greats - whose careers speak for themselves - is absolutely astounding. To pick out tiny snippets of a lesson/masterclass and hold it up as poor teaching, is astonishing. These comments make complete sense if one understands everything that makes up vocal technique. An incredibly complex technique to learn and master. Nasal - is trying to get the singer to sing in the ‘mask’ as opposed to an unpleasant ‘covered’ sound in the back. It’s only to learn placement, you are definitely not meant to have any nasal sound/tone when singing. But you start there. If you don’t understand this basic point, please take this down. You’re making yourself the 🤣 - not the singer/s.

Silly opera;who told you that opera should sound dark?Methinks you`re deluded.

Que falta de inteligencia y de respeto ponerse a discutir y de denigrar a ciertos cantantes simplemente “ porque no me gustan como cantan” No se puede comparar como canta un tenor ligero con un tenor dramático y viceversa .

6:05 you see how he closes his muscle behind the nose thats how you get projected squillo and true voice of the person.

This person definitely didn't ever sing but he has some points.

The odd comment, taken out of context, is NOT a basis to judge anyone or anything. "Opera should sound dark" is a perfectly ridiculous comment - when taken in isolation and out of context; Well, honestly, I can't really think of any situation where a generalization that broad isn't stoopid.

Dear Zinka😂😂😂 so honesty❤

I disagree! Now in my 80's I have been a lifelong opera fan. Almost gave Opera up because of singers like Maria Callas and that god awful vibrato of hers, and others who over exaggerate their voices and acting! Perhaps that was fine back before sound equipment and video but now we can become up close and personal with the music and drama! The reason Opera has fallen out of favor is due to the fact it doesn't lend itself to a drug high!

3:34

I think this channel would be more aptly named “This is what I think opera used to be.”

The author is making fun of people who are advocating too much chiaro while advocating a purely scuro approach. Basically, it is like saying I only like singers who sing in one imbalanced way and will now make fun of all singers who sing another way.

The author is making fun of people who are advocating too much chiaro while advocating a purely scuro approach. Basically, it is like saying I only like singers who sing in one imbalanced way and will now make fun of all singers who sing another way.

you don't have to sing dark, ok in this case yes, but generally a lot of compositions would sound poorly is sang only in dark mode :) :) :) But nasal hahahaha duck singing

Doing and teaching are totally different disciplines. Many great singers from the past weren't taught by singers. Great talent cannot be passed to others because it is exclusive to that person. Great teachers don't create the talent, they nurture and develop it. Lots of opera singers like to do master classes to remain in the public eye and, of course, for recompense. I'll go off script and give an example. Some years ago my daughter was a talented violinist. I took her to the Wigmore Hall to see Joshua Bell in concert. After the performance, she managed to get back stage and speak with the virtuoso. She asked him how he did a particular shift. He replied that he didn't know, he just did it.

This sounds not dramatic!!! A dramatic singer does not sing with head voice or falsetto!!!

thanks for this video..the worst for me was always the fat wide vibrato and too much throat in the sound opening too wide but the direct and nasal resonance in maria callas' voice and expressive dramatic truth led me to love opera and as a result I created my own mixed sound that is natural and unique to who I am.

Real opera doesn’t exist today? Reminds me of my grandfather saying they don’t make real cars anymore. Humanity reads like the back of a shampoo bottle: Wash. Rinse. Repeat.

These analysis videos crack me up. Pretty sure most people who make these have never sung a note in their lives, at least not a classically trained one

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.

wow.. really atrocious that someone is teaching to sing opera with a breathy sound!! Ick😝. i didn’t know it was quite that bad! Scary😱