Q&A Part 4 - Coda

[@LisetteOropesaSoprano]

Thank you so much to everyone who asked me questions! I have tried my best to give you all an honest and real point of view and I am so grateful to everyone who has contributed to this conversation. Please if you have any questions, write them below and let me know how you feel! I love you all and I hope that this series brought more perspective to the opera world. ~Lisette ❤️

[@nanettetredoux7613]

A wonderful, open and honest video with lots of wisdom. Your career didn't just happen overnight. When the Lucia was streamed, I thought "who is this new soprano", but of course you weren't new. I later discovered that I owned a DVD of La Rondine with you as Lizette. And I had it for several years. You were wonderful then, but now I feel that you are raising the bar for everyone. Even my teacher, who is almost impossible to please, is a fan.

[@jasonhurd4379]

I've been an opera fan since I was six years old (fifty-two years! Yikes! 😮) and have only recently encountered your work. Though I am a huge Mozart fan, I never cared for Susanna's aria Deh vieni non tardar, UNTIL...I saw a video of you in the role onstage. Though I am also a rabid fan of Irmgard Seefried, who to my mind was the ideal Susanna, your Deh vieni was the first rendition that really broke through my reserve and charmed me. As a result, I am now an eager and curious Lisette Oropesa fan! I have been having a great time exploring your videos and recordings, and look forward to many future hours of enjoyment. Thank you so much for sharing your art and your life with us!

[@joaoholanda3021]

Here I am, three years later, watching this for the first time... It's not simply a Q&A. As a mstter of fact, it is one of the most generous and honest testimony, from both professional and personal perspective. That's not something easy tô find. Thank you

[@davidalbro2009]

Two great lead roles at the Met next season! Congratulations! (Perhaps more people are seeing that you deserve to be at the top of the operatic stratosphere as we already have.)

[@LisetteOropesaSoprano]

Thanks so much for the support!

[@tempsperdu9278]

What a joyful, interesting presentation! Such a wonderful combination of reasonableness and excitement, and yet also such humbleness! I keep saying to all who care to listen that you're one of the most intelligent and sensitive singers of this time. Hoping to hear you live many more times before I leave this world!

[@lesthermiranda1794]

Let me start with: You're so beautiful and Gorgeous! Thank You so Much for taking the time to do this for us, I'm a young opera singer and I find this so helpful!

[@joelcaspari9390]

I was SO happy to see the Met announcements... Manon is going to be a perfect fit for your voice and we know how you rock as Violetta. All the best!

[@LisetteOropesaSoprano]

Thank you so much for the vote of confidence!

[@Shahrdad]

Another informative, sensible, and honest video. Your joyfulness is infectious. And I must say that I am not one bit surprised to hear you say that Callas is your favorite. The first time I heard you, I thought to myself, "Callas's more beautiful daughter!" You never imitated her, and you sang with her own voice and your own thoughts, but the way you phrased, the elasticity of your rubato, the clean and legato handling of coloratura, the expressiveness of your fioritura, your ability to enter and exit a trill without ever breaking the flow of the melody, and most of all, your architect-like understanding of the shape of the music brought Callas to my mind. I feel that too many singers learn the wrong lessons from Callas, but you're the exception. Thank you for your hard work.

[@LisetteOropesaSoprano]

This is such a thoughtful and kind comment. Thank you so very very much for listening the way you do!

[@stephencostan207]

what an incredibly GENEROUS person you are professionally and personally........................i have been teaching voice production to actors for 50 years or so and i love to observe your breath when you work..............breath and thought are a marriage made in heaven and you are well on the way to mastering the process............thank you so much for giving an old man so much pleasure and carrying on the tradition of true vocal placement where everything is in alignment............here's wishing you a lifetime of happiness

[@alexandratyazheva6703]

You are such an amazing and charismatic person and of course and amazing soprano!!! I am a big fan of yours, thanks for being so open and supportive!

[@charisloupa1606]

Thank you so much ms. Oropesa for your really helpful and honest advises! As a young opera singer I appreciated every minute of these video series and surely will add some things you ve said in my routine !

[@charisloupa1606]

Also, loved how positive, rational and humble you truly are! Such a role model! Watched you in La traviata in Greece, Herodes and was astonished by your technique and great voice control given the difficult circumstances (acoustic) .

[@4444marla]

Wonderful to meet you and hear your very intelligent, down to earth, charming manner and useful answers. I am sending your videos to my students. Brava!

[@lungdoc]

As a fan ( big one ) enjoyed it immensely. Thank you for taking the time to share.

[@kingamitrowska]

Immensely enjoyed your talk, you have such ease of communicating and expressing yourself. Best regards.

[@SabrinaZimmerman]

Thank you so much for taking the time to make these videos! My voice teacher has been watching them too, and wanted to make sure that I had seen them - especially the Business one! We were discussing some of the things you had mentioned in my lesson today! :-)

[@LisetteOropesaSoprano]

That is awesome! I'm so glad!

[@esterclewans9400]

Oh you answer me!!! What an honor!!! I can’t believe this!!!Me? Latin American emotional? This was amazing for me! How do you do it oh thank you so much for answering me! I’m a 67 year old frustrated opera singer. My dream is to be able to sing at least one single area, from beginning to end, well. Do you think it is possible for a person like me that sang all her life, that has all the passion and the power hidden inside..., the timber...to be able to do this?

[@flaviamusica1509]

You are SO --- SO --- SOOOOOOOO INSPIRINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!! Thank you for this videos

[@rudyarambula750]

Dear Lisette, I am huge fan and discovered you recently. I appreciate you sharing your information on technique and especially breathing since it is the foundation in all good singing. However, I was a little surprised though when you didn’t answer the question on trills. Maybe you did and I missed it? I hope to hear you one day live and experience your performances. Much continued success and I admire you for your hard work on that God given voice!!!

[@LisetteOropesaSoprano]

hahaha well to teach a trill is a full video and in and of itself and I thought it would overwhelm the technique video. Besides, it has to be taught very carefully...

[@Shahrdad]

@@LisetteOropesaSoprano Until my young teenage years, I grew up in Iran in an immigrant Azerbaijani family, and every Persian and Azeri singer I heard seemed to be able to trill at will, not just in half and whole steps, but some in thirds and fifths in the traditional radif or mugham music. We didn't even have a name for trills, but if you sang a melody without melismas and trills, to our ears, it sounded cold and stiff and without emotion and heart. So we just trilled and sang melismas without thinking about them. I am of the belief that everyone can trill, especially if they don't think of trills as a technical feat, but something natural and easy. Back when I was studying singing (before med school), I was learning a Handel aria, and when I got to the trill, I got stuck and it wouldn't come out. My teacher then asked me to take a break from Handel and instead to sing a Azeri song she had heard me sing before. When I finished, she said, "Do you realize you just sang 18 perfect trills?" The difference was that when singing Azeri music, I never thought of them as trills, but as a means of expression and coloring, but when I saw the "tr" written on the page, I got stiff and I got stuck. Once I made the mental shift that the "tr" was nothin more than what I had been doing all my life without thinking about it, I could sing every written trill. It was something mental, not technical. I think since the Verismo era, we have begun to think of trills as a big bugaboo. We have become scared of them, and consequently, we become stiff when we see a trill coming. And no one can trill if they're stiff. You just have to let go and allow your voice to do its thing. Perfect abandon within perfect control. Sorry for my long-winded comment!

[@Shahrdad]

Rudy, you might find this interesting: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mqrdoYl_mraroa8

[@rudyarambula750]

Shahrdad thank you and very interesting example you provided. Though I don’t do very many trills as a tenor in comparison to female voices I find this technique fascinating. One of my voice teachers said you just let the larynx oscillate freely, but I think there’s more to it than that or maybe not :)

[@Shahrdad]

@@rudyarambula750 There was an excellent article written in Opera News by Will Crutchfield in the 1990s. It was titled, "The Trill is Gone." He goes through the history of the trill and speaks about whether or not it an be learned. Also, if you want to hear a tenor trill, here you go: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mGG2gWV4g7N2i7M

[@shailenabrams373]

I love love love what you're doing keep it up.

[@ticolino1]

Do you still dedicare some time to play the flute? Is there any video available of you playing it? Does the flute technique help with your voice production?

[@Keiwon.X.Lambert]

15:22 PERFECTLY SAID

[@KarenLynnLHC]

This was a wonderful series! Thank you for taking the time and for sharing so much. One thing I'd love to hear about is your vocal warm-up routine. How long does it take? Is it different depending on what you're doing/singing or how you're feeling, or is it pretty much always the same? Another thing I wonder about is a couple aspects of voice development: can more or less anyone learn to sing well, and to sing opera well? Is there a ballpark figure for how long it would take to develop your voice to a decent level and to a professional singer level? (I'm assuming it depends on age, natural ability, voice teacher, dedication to mention a few.) Finally, age more specifically. Voices develop and mature over many years, and I'm assuming anyone can improve if they have a good teacher and put in the work. But is there also an age past which you're unlikely to ever get good enough to make it into the ranks of professional singers?

[@LisetteOropesaSoprano]

Hmm good questions: My vocal warm up includes a good run (that helps to cut it in half!) and scales in the shower. It takes me about 30 minutes minimum. If I don't run it takes me a bit longer. I think for vocal development, it depends on each individual...some people are born with a wonderful natural gift that makes it easier to grow. I am lucky my mom and grandpa were singers and so I had an advantage. I don't think anyone with a gift is ever "too old" to start taking lessons...it's still rewarding to sing, even if it's not on the world's big stages!

[@KarenLynnLHC]

@@LisetteOropesaSoprano - thank you for answering! Yes, singing is definitely rewarding even if only for the birds outside the window. More rewarding for a human audience, though. ;) If you ever felt like doing a video going into details about your warm up, I'd love to see it.

[@esterclewans9400]

It is so easy to fall in love with you! Lisette I can’t believe that I saw you for the first time not too long ago!!! although you could be my daughter or granddaughter! Tenemos mucho en común, yo nací en Argentina y por supuesto hablo Español; también tenemos el temperamento en común, (excepto yo sufro de Depresión Bipolar entre otras condiciones); quise cantar antes de poder hablar, (imitaba cantar La Traviata a la edad de 13 años); tengo facilidad para aprender idiomas aunque yo puedo hablar solamente tres, buena comunicación verbal; y mi emoción, y pasión se refleja cuando canto en las casas de vida asistentes, y en cada cosa que hago. Thank you Lisette Oropesa! I also want to thank KZbin, which is another thing we have in common and how I got the privilege to meet and listen to your exquisite, extraordinary, cristal like, powerful and vibrant voice and sings with so much emotion, deep interpretation, and passion!!!

[@LisetteOropesaSoprano]

Hi Ester, you sound like you could be related to me! haha! Yep! I really appreciate your sharing such positivity with me, thank you!

[@bluechazzan]

the trill bit might be the kicker in this entire series! :) They don't elaborate much more than you, but it's an entertaining discussion in this clip on bel canto singing, etc with Bonynge, Sutherland, Pav, and Horne. kzbin.info/www/bejne/o4DXep-sp5WpiJo