Every Operatic Soprano Voice Type, Explained 

Let me know what you think I missed! I could do a whole video just on the concept of a Zwischenfach alone, so I know there's lots to add! And if YOU are one of these soprano voice types, drop it here!

That hair bow... it's DELIGHTFUL

I'm a Coloratura!!!! I find this system so interesting, I particularly think a Fach system for the Musical Theatre World and also for the pop world, would be very beneficial for singers to really learn how to handle their voices in a healthy way.

Would you be able to do another video with some more audio examples, from those typical fach roles? I love the video, I'm just only now getting into opera and am finding it hard to distinguish the different voices based on how they sound. The different "typical roles" bit does help though! Would also love a similar video on the other voice types (mezzo, contralto, tenor, baritone and bass, right?)

Cool video and pretty accurate! I've sung every soprano fach you mentioned! Started out as a soubrette/lyric coloratura and now I cover the Wagnerian/Spinto and even some Dramatic Coloratura roles.

I’m so glad you pointed out that there are some voices that are hard to place in the fach system because some voices are so hard to classify & categorize. There are some voices that may seem like 1 type but can do things another voice type is capable of. It’s that uniqueness that makes us human.

"The Dramatic is the one that it hurts to stand beside in the rehearsal hall." ......sorry. :(

I'm 27 and have been singing for exactly 20 years, but only a couple days ago I learned that I'm a spinto soprano. How interesting it is to learn more about it

Please please please can you do one of these for altos? I have a really low voice type as a woman and really want to hear about all the different alto types!

as ive grown as a vocalist, ive devolved more of a light lyric coloratura, i started out as a light lyric soprano. ive always loved the coloratura repertoire, and have always wanted to sing them!

What do you think of the idea of the 3 hybrid fachs? The dugazon (mixed lyric mezzo and soubrette), the falcon (lyric mezzo soprano, mixed with dramatic soprano) and assoluto (mixed between a contralto and lyric coloratura?)

My first voice teacher thought I was a dramatic soprano but then my second voice teacher called me a lyric soprano. So I've been wondering if that means I'm a spinto or maybe just a full lyric, but maybe I just don't fit into any of those boxes.

I've been looking for this type of information for a looong time! Oh, thank you so much! You're the best!

I really enjoyed your style of presenting information. The insight about the “boxing” voices is spot-on! You’ve gained a mew subscriber 😊

Loved this!!! It would be cool if you did a video on all of the voice types and the famous singers of that voice type. I’m not a singer (I’m a flutist) but I do have several friends/ acquaintances/ colleagues who are singers☺️

Really interesting and well explained....Thankyou......and engagingly relaxing

Well explained. Bravo!

Thank you Robin for bringing your lovely humour and style in this video!

My voice hasn't always been on the big side, but now it has expanded as it has matured and I am a full lyric soprano.

I love this video, so informative.

Love this content. I just wish u had included short video examples of each

I think you're being too modest with your chart. I think it's genuinely very useful. Particularly for Opera families who have heard all these terms but don't have a clue what they mean... Not like any of us have that issue... lol

Thank you, I feel so seen! I am a Dramatic coloratura and I am rarely included in these videos so I searched for it and found you!!! I think you are so right about people fitting in boxes. My lower register sounds like a contralto with depth and I can sing tenor roles! I used to love singing the Andrea Bocelli duets because I could sing both parts for most of his songs. I don't know how but I can sing in the 5th and 6th octaves comfortably E6 on a good day. It was fascinating because I didn't know I could do that until I went to Peabody. My teacher there told me she had a feeling and forced me to not look at the piano and sing as high as I could. I told her it was too high until I stopped looking and then got into the 6th and 7th registers in my 20s. I lost my top octave from disability but my lower register also got stronger. My vocal cords must be thin and stronger or something to be capable of sustaining the length and volume I can. It is amazing how I told myself I couldn't sing past the normal notes until that teacher. I never even tried until she had that feeling and forced me to stop looking. I am so glad she did that! I wonder if more people are like me and they just never had a teacher like her notice and train them. I think we should try everything and see how we do instead of thinking we can't even try. You never know you might be capable of something amazing you didn't even realize.

Thanks so much for making the video! I will have to memorize all the terms. But it's really helpful for a learner. Greetings from Indonesia

Great job!!! I agree with you 100%.

I learned so much from this! 🎵

Hey i dont know if you read these but the similarities and parallels between different voice types has always fascinated me and i was wondering if you would ever do a vid on some other voice types, mezzo, tenor, baritone?

I genuinely had no idea about there being an entire group of sopranos who only sing Wagner. Really makes me want to get into writing operas to give them something more fun to do...

OMG... the psychodelic graphic is absoluely real! I feel the same way about what people espect us or some roles to be... we are certainly NOT boxes at all. Thank you soooo much four your aport. You nailed it! I started singing as soubrette, then soprano leggero, then coloratura soprano. Then lyric and... now in my 39's it's.... wtf...???!!! Just a high voice With a warm and big central notes, but, not as huge. A good coloratura but not so easy. I feel I am a lyric soprano With and extra touch of High notes. Maybe aproaching to mad sopranos, 😂, but then dying as well... you Know what I mean. Greatings from Argentina! Please keep doing this videos. Loved it.

This was good! I am an operatic soprano and I and my teacher and the pianist practice in a fairly small room. My teacher sometimes jokes that I've given her and the pianist a new hair division again. I don't necessarily hear the same (as the sound of classical style singing is best heard a bit further away from the singer), but I notice it when I sing in a large concert hall and I can hear that the whole hall is filled with the voice. Thank you for this video!

Absolutely loved your explanation! I definitely learned something new. Best of luck wwith the Grant applications...I'm sure they are neverending.

It's so fun watching you

I used to fit neatly into the coloratura soprano/soubrette category but since the beginning of my mid-twenties there's been a LOT of change and I'm trying to navigate it, haha.

Oooh Wonderful thank you Robin!!!

Such a good video, when I learnt that there are different soprano voices I finally understood why I could never reproduce the agility from Les Oiseaux Dans La Charmille

Thanks for this video. I just found out that I am a spinto soprano, and you actually discussed the spinto soprano.

I wish u gave video/audio examples of each one😕

Jessie Norman highest notes were always low on volume compared to the rest of the voice... She was not like Shirley Verret, Birgit Nilsson, Gwyneth Jones when singing their highest notes. Their voices was like laser bombs being trown at you, unlike Jessie who was almost piano compared to the fortissimo regions of her voice.

Oh how fun!! Thank you

Thank you so much for this wonderful video! I'm one of those people that don't fit into anything. I like how you stated this is subjective and as specific as it is it is occasionally inaccurate. Many times a singer will sound like one fach but sing in a different one. ( I once heard a soprano that could be described as a spinto with agility and a huge extension on top.... this voice could definitely sing any role... she did Carmen and Lakme.) It's more about the comfort in the artists individual voice... just like you said! Keep making these videos. People need to be educated! Thanks again!

You are hilarious!!!!!Thank you so much for the breakdown.i don't know the first thing about opera singing ..haha I'm just trying to figure out what my voice is and clicked on this..I have no idea what my voice is..if I had to guess I'd say a light lyric soprano..I def got the nasally Vanessa Hudgens thing going on..but I had no idea there was so many subcategories.

Thank you.

Whould be nice to talk about rare voices or types Like, Yma sumac, Violetta Villas, or Operatic voices like Verret or bumbry who sang soprano/mezzo! thanks!

I’m a opera singer I trained in classical music when I was 8 years old I’m playing snow while in musical at my new house on Thursday 31 of may and on January 2023 on Friday First 1 of July I’m playing Christine in the phantom of the opera concert at my new house

So different to the bass experience. If the bass has a big resonant low C, he may add Monteverdi to his repertoire along with everything else a bass has to do.

Thank you for your video! I'd been called a coloratura since I was a teen, but I didn't actually realize I was a dramatic one until now 😆. I had listened to some lyric coloraturas and knew I wasn't quite like them, so this explains some things. I always have loved singing Queen of the Night 😍.

Hi there, found your channel vi's your comment on OperaAnna. Subscribing.

thank you very much for you very educational video. could you please tell when a singer ( even a good one) is singing in a range out of his or her fach. I if so, could you give an example.

So well explained. I'm a non classical singer but so interested in opera. I think I'm a light lyric but my whistles go beyond G7.

I like this ❤

Hefty Chonk

Very entertaining and delivered with such natural expression. I was told I would never be loud enough to be an opera singer because my head is not as big as Dame Kiri Te Kanawa’s.However, people’s ears hurt when I sing in a small space lol; go figure.

I kinda like it when mezzo-soprano vocalists choose to expand their repertoire by also doing soprano roles, like when Cecilia Bartoli did Susanna in "Figaro", or when Agnes Baltsa did Giulietta in "Hoffmann", or when Ginger Costa-Jackson did Musetta in Puccini's "La Boheme". It also works vice versa (sopranos going mezzo, like when Angela Gheorghiu did "Carmen" or when Sumi Jo sang Adalgisa in "Norma"). BTW comment if u got any more examples 😉🎼🎶🎵

Yes concur with most people, if you could include sample audios accompanied with each type that you explained, it would be great. - Coming from someone who is new (noob) to music.

What do you call the type of singing in Agitata da due venti? And, is Pretty Yende a lyric soprano?

What Soprano fach’s fit best into Soprano 1 and Soprano 2 in choir? Speaking on high level choirs where texture/timbre is just as important as range. Love the video!

Very cute, humorous and interesting, just a bit too fast for my speakers set at maximum speed, if you mentioned Kirsten Flagstad, I missed it due to speed. ...(Just kidding). Thank you indeed, Robin. :-░

Pleeeeease make one about tenors 🙏

My voice is on the larger side but I attempt to sing “darker” than what is natural. I typically sing cavaradossi from Tosca or Otello. but have equal volume output to colleagues singing Winterstrume. But because of the color and mechanics of my voice, that’s not something I would be hired to sing

I would be nice to hear an example after each explanation

0:50 what's the name I'm actually new to this so yeh can someone drop the link??

I learnt a lot! - and I also realise I know barely anything lol.

Could you make a video about contraltos? I am a contralto but I know so little about how to best use my voice

My speaking voice sits really low in my vocal range, so for a while I thought I was an alto (going by musical theatre voice types because that is what i know), and then I started taking voice lessons and nope I am a soprano.

RU-vidr "IloveArethaFranklin" has an INCREDIBLE series on different Fachs, all the way from bass to soprano! With lots of examples in contemporary music too!

I adore Dessay... I love her coloraturaness, but she messed up her voice by singing too high even for her. If she tone down her A Flats and Gs a bit, maybe she would have spared her vocal chords. She's by far my favorite coloratura. My favorite Dramatic is Nilsson. I won't choose favorites of other fachs cause I have to admit I can't. But a Coloratura Mezzo I adore is Jennifer Larmore. She's incredible, her Una Voce Poco Fa is my favorite of all renditions of that aria. SORRY: My favorite Lyric is Caballe! Hahahaha remember Montsie now! hehehehe

Are there different Fächer for Alto and Tenor too?

Your German is outstanding!

so would you say most handel bach vivaldi are lyric or dramatic ? so would you say mahler strauss wagner singers are similar? mozart rossini bellini donizetti?

I can sing with ease A3 to C6, what’s my type of voice?

What is a Falcon and Vulcan Soprano? How rae are they if they exist?

Well, Jessye Norman can sing dramatically but her voice is basically Spinto Soprano (up to Elsa from Lohengrin) in my opinion.

What type of soprano voice is required to sing Carmen?

You are right I'm a male lyric soprano

I was wondering what I was and I open the video ON LYRIC SOPRANO?

Please try lea salonga the Id give my life for you

My voice has always been high. I have always been 1st chair soprano in chorus classes. People say my voice sounds odd or strange. I'm not sure how to take that so I just stopped singing. However I wish I could sing

Fascinating, especially thinking about character types and not just range. I was wondering, is there a term for cis women singing male roles?

light vs full lyric?

I think I’m a light lyric coloratura soprano. That’s what my voice teacher told me when I was still studying with him in college. I was in my early 30’s back then. Now I’m 35 and I don’t know if I still am or not.

age changes both weight and range

What is soprano sfogato

I'm a *Dramatic Coloratura*

i would say weight vs range

Where r my spinto’s and no I’m not just talking opera singers I’m talking those who voices literally cut through sound 😂

Also how do classify people like Jessye Norman, Joan Sutherland, and Eileen Farrell .

Im a boy so i got high notes from my mom and a bit from the dad. Soo where the hell did i get soprano!? (Like from mary costa opera style) 🤔😮🎶

heroic soprano like heldentenor

verdi vs puccini soprano?

There is a discussion going on where Amira Willighagen is heading with her voice type. She's still developing but will attend music university next year. What would be your classification? Some examples of her latest videos. La Vergine de. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-NievOBH8Ab4.html La Califfa ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-XkrvMJOKvWs.html Disney How does a moment last forever. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-LVcBRziS3O8.html

Here because of Jane Powell and Kathryn Grayson.

MUCH TO OUR DISMAY!!@

I like training all the fachs

This vid on alcohol is lit?¡!!

10:19 Sounds like she's talking about Floor Jansen 😂😂😂

Perhaps you could talk about voices being drammatic or light. I have a huge travelling(carries over orchestras) dark, flexable voice with an impressive range. I have alto, mezzo and soprano roles in my reprtoire. I've sing everything but light roles. I considerato myself a mezzo for the passaggio and color even though I'm now singing drammatic soprano. At this point I just consider myself a drammatic voice.(p.s. could you please work on your pronuciation of foreign terms- it's impotant)

The greatest opera singers are the ones who defy classification. Sutherland and Callas could barely be categorized yet both could sang anything and everything better than anybody else. Vocally, Sutherland was probably the greatest of EVERY fach through difference phases of her career culminating in a Turandot that is probably the finest ever recorded. Price, largely regarded as the greatest spinto ever, is criticized for not really being a spinto at all. In the long run I don't think these categories help much but I'm not criticising the video. A role might surprisingly click with a singer who seemed to be a completely different kind of soprano. When I was a young singer (and I'm not a soprano) I would go to a new voice teacher who would tell me what a lovely baritone I had and as we vocalized for them to get a sense of my voice and they started to hear the turn over above F# and as I continued upward an octave above that every single one said "Jesus, you're a tenor. I would never have known from what the middle of your voice sounded like."

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violetta? amina? norma? lakme ? lucia?

So this is where wagyu meat comes from WAGNERIAN soprano only the best of the BEST