Do you like the sound of an opera singer?

[SwapTheYforaD]

Generally.

I was in conversation with a young musician recently who admitted it's not really to his taste and I think I agree.

I prefer a 'purer', less wobbly sounding voice but am in awe of what pro opera singers can do.

Even the best opera singers: I'm impressed but not moved. If I am moved it's usually down to the orchestra.

Seeing and hearing a full operatic production is incredible though.

"I once made the mistake of sitting next to two parents who were both trained opera singers at the school carol service. Blimey! The sheer power was incredible and drowned everybody else out."

I find that odd because one of the the great strengths of an opera singer is vocal control. Maybe they felt the service needed a lift! Or maybe they were just enjoying a good hearty carol sing.

I do like opera because of the superb control - pianissimo or fortissimo, without any need of artificial amplification. I dislike musical theatre and similar styles of pop singing for the lack of control (eg breathing: "I will always [gasp] love y-e-e-[gasp]-e-e-w") and yodelling, losing the soft passages without amplification, screeching out the passages at the singer's most comfortable pitch, regardless of the sense of the song, or the listener's pitch preference.

By contrast Anna Netrebko's Addio del Passato]]. She isn't even considered one of the 'best' sopranos but I love her slightly 'naive' voice. Although, being a recording, it is electronically amplified, even live, the quietest notes are clear, the loudest controlled, and she works with the orchestra, sometimes almost blending with it, sometimes rising above it.

I think partly it's a very crisp, clear, stylised vocalisation of end consonants and a 'round' uniformity of vowels, the way you learn to do as part of chorister training, because it's necessary to achieve the unity of sound you ideally need in a choir, especially in an acoustic environment with a lot of reverb like a church or cathedral. (That kind of space will tend to swallow any consonants which aren't somewhat over-enunciated, meaning whatever you're singing just sounds like an undifferentiated collection of drifting vowel sounds.)

Also to do with having been trained to sing unamplified and mostly collectively -- it's a whole different ballgame when you're solo in a recording studio with a mic within a few feet of your face, so suddenly much more subtle consonants are possible, but not necessarily natural to a former chorister. And of course the material. If pretty much your entire musical training was on church music, much of it from the past (with maybe some forays into other stuff on tour, but I just looked up my old college choir's discography, and the most contemporary stuff they've recorded is Vaughan Williams and Tippett), and/or in a language other than English, then you can sound rather formal in your phrasing etc when you're singing pop or folk.

Does that make any sense?

I'm sure there are singers who can transition successfully, too, obviously.

Compare Alexander Armstrong's version of 'Golden Brown' with The Stranglers'.

No. I don't like vibrato either.

X-posted! Yes! It is deeply bizarre, though it did also make me think that it kind of works as a 'classical' song...?

@EustaceTheMonk, agreed about Elina Garanca. She's such a good singing actor. I saw her first as Romeo in I Capuleti e i Montecchi and was blown away. And @amicissimma, I have a lot of time for Anna Netrebko, despite people being quite snooty about her (though EG sang her off the stage in the Bellini where she was singing Juliet, but in fairness, I think it was her first role back after having a baby...)

My (probably unfair) opera dislike is Danielle Denise.

Proper operatic voices, yes. Jonas Kauffman, Cecilia Bartoli, Bryn Terfel. Not Andrea Bocelli or Katherine Jenkins or Alfie Boe "crossover" voices.

I do adore choral singing. I have a very unimpressive but effective choral voice as I am in tune and have little natural vibrato, and adore singing. Don't do enough any more. Give me a Brahms or Faure requiem or similar and I am a happy bunny.

I love music and choral singing. But I can’t bear opera or that operatic ‘showy off’ sort of singing. It just leaves me completely cold.

Its like fingernails on chalkboard to me

"I once made the mistake of sitting next to two parents who were both trained opera singers at the school carol service. Blimey! The sheer power was incredible and drowned everybody else out." How incredibly rude of them!

Yes! Emma Kirkby is glorious. Adore her singing Vivaldi and all things Baroque.

Some opera voices I am not so fond of....but Renee Fleming, Jessye Norman are just mind-blowing.

Sometimes I think it's because you really have to listen to opera in its context and all through. Nessun dorma is far more emotive and impactful when you understand why it's sung in the opera. Same with other famous arias.

I must admit I did think that they were a little bit rude. Other parents were having a go in true British style, hesitantly and quietly in case they got it wrong. My neighbours let rip, vibrato and all.

The technique used to project the voice in opera and discussion around the singer's formant is absolutely fascinating. But I find the sound far too intense and am never comfortable listening to opera, even stuff like Porgy and Bess ("Summertime" for example is like someone taking a cattle prod to my nerves. Hate it).

The best opera singers absolutely do NOT have wobbly voices! Crap ones do - but I would not pay to hear them.

Not a bit.
I can appreciate they have an amazing vocal talent but the sound is not pleasant to me.

I used to hate it. I even worked for a famous Italian maestro as an au pair and used to grumble that they always played it in the car. But then a french teacher at the school I taught in on my year our took me to the opera with her family. They had a box. It was amazing, I loved it. And since I was over 40 we have gone to a few. I’ve loved most of them, but need the vibrant set, costumes etc to make it great. I’d not listen to an album of opera. I do get tired of there are too many female voices, or it’s too morose (Madame Butterfly I’m looking at you!), but I equally dislike warbling female pop singer’s voices, such as Mariah Carey!

It's not my cup of tea.

Love opera singing. Can't stand some of the shouty musical theatre voices. Seeming to mistake volume for skill. They sound much more "warbly" to me. But then I don't like Whitney Houston's voice.

I love Opera and go as often as I can, about 3 times per year, but I don’t know enough about the singers technicality to be able to join in the discussion. It’s ‘just’ something I love and I’m happy with that.

Glad I'm not the only one.

Thank you @MouthfulofMidwinter

Totally makes sense now I know what I'm listening for. I sing, modern church music and in choirs, have had excellent and indifferent choir masters. Evensong, messiah, various requiem and the current worship music which is pretty much pop/folk, I'd say. Those vowels and the enunciation that you aim for in choir... so obvious now you've mentioned it!

My favourite music. Listening to a soprano makes my skin tingle.
Never heard a wobbly one. This is my favourite aria by my favourite singer
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I don't like music much at all. I tend to switch it off most of the time. However I have been to a lot of operas over the years and really enjoyed them. I like the drama.

Number one voice type I don't like is the girl in Love Actually. Now that's wobbly.

Are people naturally operatic, trained that way, or a combination?

Could any singer be trained to sing operatically, although not necessarily well?
Can a voice be trained to both, or does one hamper the other?

I should ask a friend who started in opera but is crossing over into more mainstream/popular music. I don't because I'm afraid I'll let slip that I dislike opera.

I love the mellow breadth of Karen Carpenter's voice. It's like oil, smoothing out any worries, whereas operatic voices make me a bit tense.

Yeah I don't like the way it sounds, its like yodelling to me- like I'm sure its very difficult and you have to be very skilled to do that but I will never want to hear it.

Love it but then I trained as one in a former life. However, opera is far better experienced live. And like Shakespeare the more you know the story (usually) the better it is. Its an acquired taste (like olives) and the more you experience the more you like it. For those of you under 25 or with children under 25 the ENO does reduced or even free tickets. They also do family friendly performances. They do some fantastic staging, some really funny. They did a new opera a few years ago called The Women of Whitechapel, which was based on the experiences of Jack the Rippers victims that was a feminist view and spine tingling.

I rarely like the sound of opera but the female singers are the worst for making me reach for the off switch. Blooming racket usually.