The Physiology of Opera Singers | Sheri Greenawald | Talks at Google

[@michaeldailey5589]

I absolutely LOVE this woman. Had the privileged opportunity to call her my voice teacher for a couple of years and she is one of the most nurturing, well-versed, and supportive people in the business. This is a true masterclass! Thank you as always for sharing your wisdom Sheri.

[@hetedeleambacht6608]

wow

[@frankieblue1738]

Ms. Greenawald spouts one "pearl of wisdom" after another. Watch and listen...repeatedly, if necessary. 😊

[@tomsalmon6334]

I have known Sheri for a thousand years! And have always loved here...plus we both found the same marvelous teacher at Santa Fe, the mad and wonderful English woman Audrey Langford. This is a wonderful hour! I must add that of all the sopranos I have known over 50 years, Sheri had the single most beautiful high C I have ever heard..! Thanks so much for posting this!

[@caninbar]

I find talking about singing and the physiology of singing to be amusing. Teachers, pedagogues and voice 'experts' each have their own interpretation of what happens when one sings and each is convinced their version is the right one. Also, anecdotes about how Caruso sang and how he himself said he sang vary immensely as well.

[@SingYourselfWell]

So good. Thank you Sheri and Google. All true.

[@radiflo]

Ciao Sheri! un ricordo indelebile della tua voce e della tua interpretazione della Marescialla ne "Il Cavaliere della Rosa" nel 1992. Un caro Saluto da Napoli.

[@nicolette7007]

It’s amazing, she was unsure of her pitch which leads me to believe she doesn’t have perfect pitch and yet, she sang both the A and the C with perfect intonation!

[@hectorspanflutesecrets]

What a smart Lady ! Love her!!

[@SarahFearnley958]

Hearing someone sing in person is so much richer than a recording. The difference is palpable.

[@sarahyeo2130]

thankyou for this talk, i really found it so interesting.. i am a country singer ,having problems with my speaking voice and i feel this has given me some great facts on the workings of the voice, and what a great lady!

[@hetedeleambacht6608]

what a wonderful person she is, i love her

[@TimothyJonSarris]

Brava! It's about time they put a singer in charge at the Merola program.

[@nononsense6875]

Gorgeous voice.....strong with good vibrato.....just a beautiful gift!

[@jcee6886]

Totally enjoyed this. Experience makes a difference when teaching.

[@AindriasHirt]

What a great lecture!! I now disagree with the comment about the French/German glottal /R/ even though i was taught to avoid it as well (Tri-Cities Opera). You just have to put it on pitch and also place it where the following vowel is. This last point isn't really taught in the Germanic/Romance languages, but is of great importance in the Celtic languages (especially Gaelic). So when singing in a foreign language, the singer often thinks in a linear manner and pronounces the word as is written on the page. This is not true when actually speaking. The mouth forms the vowel first and then the complete syllable with preceding consonants are spoken. So if you are to sing "freude," the tendency is to think f-r-eu-d-e. The singer won't actually put the /f/ in the placement of the (/oi/) so the /f/ has a lower "pitch" because the mouth of the singer is in the position of rest (lower pitch) than when energized to sing the . To say an unvoiced consonant has pitch sounds crazy, but it's true. So if you call a company in Montreal and the answering service (native French speaker) says, "p-uh-lease press one," you can hear the "pitch" of their /p/ is too low. If you say it as a native speaker, the is in the position of the following vowel. You'll also notice that your lips are flat whereas the French speaker is using rounded lips. So your lips change according to whether the vowel is palatal or velar. This makes a big difference in Gaelic. It must be correct or you will insert an intrusive vowel (which is what the British conservatory teaches singers - that or to have an intrusive aspirant). It's actually quite easy to sing the glottal /R/. The Italians actually taught the solution when they made the singer sing on point. After learning to move to the vowel on its pitch staccato, you're then supposed to go back and immediately say the complete syllable. So "freude" is rehearsed /oi/ - /fRoi/; this puts the /fR/ exactly on the pitch of the vowel and also in the exactly correct camber-size of the mouth required for that vowel on that pitch. I never would have know this unless I had studied Gaelic. Who would have thought that?

[@angelinamorocutti3297]

Wow, thank you so much, that was very interesting!

[@AindriasHirt]

Angelina Morocutti: Thank you for your kind comment. I hear things that no one hears. I am all alone. This lady (above) is a sharp cat. Her approach is very solid.

[@sutherland9]

at 32:50 Ms. Greenawald says she can identify the voice type by a person's body shape. I have heard other vocal pedagogues say that. However, as soon as you come up with a rule one can immediately think of the exceptions. Jon Vickers was a tenor with a loud voice and Franco Corelli was a tenor with a loud voice - two very different body shapes.

[@buhnedej]

she said basses are usually lean and tall, im 190, 80kg and im not a bass :D

[@Zhasa_Zhasa]

Exactly! I had 3 teachers. One of my teacher says I'm a soprano because I have short neck and my vocal range is C3 to E6. Another one said in a mezzo and the last one said he's still deciding whether I'm a mezzo or contralto. 😂

[@rowantucker7010]

@@buhnedej I don't look anything like my voice type either 😂

[@benbrown2281]

Sheri is fantastic, i have fond memories of how considerate she was for us youngsters during Der Rosenkavalier in 1994.

[@richardmccowenclark2412]

I recall being a Super in the opera Manaon at SFO many years ago and Ms Greenawald sang the lead. Not only was she all kinds of AMAZING but she was and is a wonderful person and so down to earth.

[@mckavitt13]

I used to listen to Sheri often Live from SF Opera. I also met her here in Lyon, France, just after the death of those 3 wonderful sopranos who all died of cancer at age 53: Arleen Auger, Tatiana Troyanos & Lucia Popp. And she told me all the young sopranos were scared to death. I was a little disappointed w her response, since she expressed no sorrow at the loss to opera by the deaths of these marvellous singers. She was my favourite Violetta... I taped it Live & still have it. She was v pretty when young & abit shy. She’s changed! Seija Ozawa had an auditory memory... he’d obviously listened to all the great conductors. And was influenced by them. Nice to see Sheri again here. She’s v clear & informative.

[@papilloncriollo316]

Did María Callas also die at 54?

[@mckavitt13]

@@papilloncriollo316 53. Exactly the same age. Wow. Eerie.

[@EleniOperaNoir]

FANTASTIC presentation, for beginners and more intermediate students.Clarifies a lot in a simple way.

[@sophiepoffy8539]

In the German language you say Mama to your mother. Mutter kinda equals mother so you use it only when your talking in a formal way about you mother

[@BarbaraMarieLouise]

Sophie Poffy That’s true! And Mutter cimes from the latin Mater.

[@MichaelSmith-os2km]

Does anyone know how I can get in touch with Sheri?

[@Gardis72]

I absolutely never heard of this woman, what has she sung?

[@pony7752]

Me encantó! Tomé muchos apuntes! Cuánta sabiduría en esta mujer!

[@julia.kowalsky]

She is amazing.

[@RFSoprano]

Thank you, Donna Olson, for sharing this link with me!

[@andrenewcomb3708]

Some singers lose good quality in chest resonances when they sink like that . . . but gain better quality in higher elevations or colder climates. How long does it take for the bio/physiological to adjust if they were able to isolate themselves BEFORE going onstage with conditions favorable to qualities they favored?

[@123pailin]

"seraphim"???? She said that Callas was happy to have SERAFIN in the pit. Tullio Serafin..Does that ring a bell???The greatest opera director alongside Toscanini????

[@cherrymaefiesta5264]

I'm here because my teacher recommended me to watch this for more info's.

[@sarahmilano8086]

This sounds fun! I am tall with a shorter torso. Medium build with a larger head and jaw for a female medium build. Whats my vocal part. PS This lecture was fascinating!

[@suzannederringer1607]

I have never in my life thought about my Vocal Cords. That way lies Madness. They're there - so is my Spleen but I don't think about it either. I expect it to function properly. I work with the Instrument - my Body - as a whole. Yes I'm a Soprano.

[@ClergetMusic]

I wonder what she would have said about me. I’m 5’10”, slender, long neck, but have a tenor voice. I wonder if she would have accurately called that since I look more like a baritone than a tenor.

[@hjhjhuhyuij3948]

OK...Let's see: I'm 26 years old female with kinda "big" head, long torso, short legs, wide and long neck but I'm very short(1.58). What voice type am I?

[@rowantucker7010]

I feel like you're some kind of mezzo, dramatic mezzo maybe. That would be me in my profile pic, I'm 153 cm. What voice type am I?

[@andrenewcomb3708]

Ear canals & nasal passages and Buddhist chant. I say "move hand" . . . and my hand moves. Spirit. And spirit moves chords with support mechanisms to release spirit. It's all in the moment. Bocelli is appropriate while most others imitate.

[@andrenewcomb3708]

"Otello" tenor pitch.

[@andrenewcomb3708]

She emphasizes/endorses too much homogenization of opera standards. American influence could destroy . . . and 'big hair' in the audience.

[@andrenewcomb3708]

Depth of the stage? Waiting for the sound? NOT too sure of that.

[@ytfbms]

This was awesome! Thank you

[@andrenewcomb3708]

I slept in San Francisco's Opera House one evening.

[@bathie2636]

Sheri Greenawald is a Dear hero!… But for her to just simply treat every countertenor’s voice as black and white, is really too unfair to me, and it’s devastating😵‍💫 53:15?… *I tried all my life to be tenor, and here I am: so far I still dancing between a countertenor and a man soprano!…*

[@lety4526]

Thank you!!!

[@franzkeller2051]

The new google ads with opera singers are really annoying and disruptive. (The ones describing the password remembering system.) I generally like listening to opera! But not suddenly, loudly, and surprisingly.

[@hermanjuli2252]

27:22 Sra. El diafragma no funciona así. Anatómicamente no puede bajar tanto. Tiene razón Ud no es una pedagoga del canto.

[@mikeobrien1559]

The body type thing is not true. Go look at a picture of Franco Corelli and then find a picture of Lando Bartolini, same voice type. Or, compare a picture of Hildegard Behrens to one of Jane Eaglen. Or, how about Sherrill Milnes and Leo Nucci? She herself even mentioned tall, lanky basses and little short basses. Then you could compare my old teacher, Richard Cassilly, who looked like an Irish version of Pavarotti. Same height, same size, same huge neck, very different kinds of tenor. The only concern for body types in opera is to find the smallest thinnest singers, who can sing the roles, so you don't have to spend as much money on material for their costumes.

[@georgia.s170]

When i practice classical singing i feel like consuming a lot of cocaine😂 it makes u high like hell

[@frankfurter6561]

A lovely lady.

[@raynardi2326]

I do not agree about the trill. I always teach how to trill.A singer must trill. It is a matter of tecnique, study

[@caninbar]

It was a B flat.

[@MissAlexia]

It was b

[@ChatulajaeVampiros]

You can not tell about tenors neck or body build, because the majority are obese.

[@claudiasiefer8495]

???

[@ravelian]

LMAOO

[@skeeperhb1450]

Lady, please don’t fill peoples head with more disinformation. You have shown us that you can’t demonstrate proper vowels by speaking or singing them!

[@skeeperhb1450]

The Ah vowel is not made by positioning the tongue flat! What in God’s name are you teaching these people!

[@yogajedi3337]

Sorry, but had to cancel when she started her so called singing, bye. Btw, if opera house singers cared more with how they sounded rather than barking as loud as possible, perhaps they would get more than the minimal(deserved) attention they actually gets..