Omg this is my voice type and I could never find someone to train me properly and I have resorted to European famous opera singers who firstly classified me as countertenor, then as A high baritone and finally as a leggero. We have two voices incorporated in our throats. A very light head voice (not falsetto) and a darker chest voice than other tenors, especially in the third and second octaves. I'm so glad to have found your video.
I’m so glad that you were able to be properly classified and helped! It truly is difficult to find someone who knows about this unique voice type. I’m glad the video helped as well! 😊
Interesting presentation. I am a leggiero tenor and my secondo is A4. My vocal story fits that of many leggieri: I was mis-classified as a baritone at first, and then because of frustration with not having the darker timbre all the way to the G, and even getting there maintaining the dark sound was always very difficult and never resulted in satisfactory singing, I decided to do away with any preconceived ideas about my voice and go exploring. I explored tenor by seeing if I could go past G4 by allowing my timbre to reman bright. Ab4 and A4 immediately sounded. I never in a lifetime thought I’d be able to sing that high. Baritone was done for me. With study I was able to get my breathing under control and now I can vocalise to an E5 on a regular basis. The high A in Un’Aura Amorosa is no problem for me, and Mozart is a joy to sing.
A lot of this video is very good, but there are a few important aspects that you've missed. Firstly, the idea of a specialized "leggiero" voice is a fairly modern one. Most of these composers who's repertoire we would consider "leggiero" today were simply writing for tenors. Tenors at the time didn't travel far above their upper passagio in a covered full voiced sound as they do today. Instead, they switched over to head voice the way woman are still trained to do. The high F# in Puritani was sung originally in head voice, written for Rubini, who had a head voice so well developed that many could not tell where his switch happened. "Ah! mes amis" from Fille du Regiment was originally intended to be sung as a yodel, showcasing the character's peasant roots, not to showcase 9 full voices high Cs. Lets not even get into the varied standard pitches of that day, which would place a lot of these pieces at least a half tone lower than performed today. We know there was a specific stylistic change in the way tenor voices were produced, because we have comments from composers like Donizetti ,who were initially horrified when their works started being performed by tenors who were now covering for a fuller more chest voiced sound. Composers like Verdi, Puccini, and Wagner embraced it, and it is now the standard. So it's not that the voice type declined, the style of vocal production declined. The current leggiero tenors sing in the modern style, but have higher and lighter voices allowing them to sing these glorious high notes in a fuller voiced tone than originally written for.
Thanks for this. Many people confuse leggero with tenors di Grazia I believe. It has do do with agility rather than lightness in quality. The falsetto must be trained and incorporated into the full voice. If done correctly there is no detachment or change in quality, but extreme Bellini high notes are actually possible.
We don´t use falsetto it´s a very bright head voice. When singing, if we press our chest with our hands we can still feel it vibrating which doesn´t happen with falsetto since it´s a disconnected voice.
I discovered that I fall into this fach about a year ago, in my 40s, after a lifetime of singing. I was essentially mis-classified in college, and pushed my falsetto and chest voice into weird places as a result. I found that upper extension almost by accident, and gained literally half an octive without carrying any strain up with me. I didn't even know the term until I went looking for something to describe this strange new part of my range.
Oh wow! That’s amazing you were able to find that after a number of years! That must have felt great to no longer have to bring that weight up. If you don’t mind me asking, what were you classified as before?
Just to follow up, as I've been working I've gained several steps at the bottom of my range as well. I wish I'd been properly identified earlier in my singing journey, but it's fascinating to explore it now!
Thank you for a thorough presentation. I have learned so much about my instrument through this essential educational tool. Please consider putting out more content like this. Best wishes on your youtube journey.
And technique is a biiig big problem. My teacher told me the day we met that I would become good really fast because I was able to sing in tune without training, unlike his other students. But the next months made him lose his ground, because I would get stuck and not develop as fast as more "regular" tenors he teached before. I couldn't find the right places and when I did, I couldn't do it again. With few mistakes and a bit too much pressure here and there, my voice would be tired for the week.
Very informative video! I am in this voice classification, and it has indeed been a very long and grueling process. I sing rock and metal. The hardest part is getting the lower registers to not have tension and be able to project them properly (for me that's below an E4). For now, I just try not to write that low until I get the hang of it. The cool part is my true falsetto doesn't begin until an A5 (above a tenor high C5!) This was the most recent discovery in voice lessons. My voice coach and I are constantly discovering new things about my voice because it is so uncommon.
Glad you found it useful! :) Yes, getting rid of that tension is so important to getting to your true voice. I highly recommend checking out some videos by Ruth Hennessy (if you can find them) she’s really great at that. Wow that’s amazing that you can get that high full voice!! Best of luck on your vocal journey!
Wow! This is a very educative, amazing video. I'd like to ask you something. There is this singer but I just cannot tell whether he is a spinto tenor due to the pressure and tension in his voice or a leggero tenor due to the lightness. I am not sure whether youtube allows to send video links but the video title is exactly "What tenor is murat dalkilic". If you type this you will see. Please, if you have spare time, try to look at it a bit.
Glad you liked it! :) sorry for the late response, I haven’t looked at my channel recently. So, I looked at the video in question- he might be a leggiero or id say more likely just a light lyric. The pressure in his voice is forced- you can see it throughout his whole body. If he were to remove it, he’d have a light, easy sound! Hope this helps!!
@jessicawilcox3393 Thank you for your response. I personally don't think he would be a lyric tenor because this is not in the video, but basically, he's had duets with a few light lyric or full lyric tenors and Murat's (the singer we're talking about) voice is too powerful and you can't hear the lyric tenor's voice due to the power, volume and projection. And despite some of Murat's light colours, you've probably noticed too that it is a heavy voice. A light colour, yes, but heavy and pushed. This kinda points to spinto tenor perhaps. I've heard there are two types of spinto tenors: dramatic-spinto and lyric-spinto. Due to Murat's "leggiero" colour also present in his voice, especially in his regular speaking voice, my theory is basically that could he be a "leggiero - spinto tenor"? Spintos apparently can sound both dark and light and alsi have this pushed, forced effect.
It seems like opera is full of leggero tenors, simply singing the wrong repertoire. Everyone is clamouring to sing heavier roles. The real tenor voice type that has been missing now for decades are dramatic tenors.
I guess there's a lot of lyric tenors singing the wrong repertoire, but yes I agree with you that dramatic tenors are rare these days. I'm not so sure as to why.
I think every leggiero tenor suffers misclassification as Baritone unless you are fortunate to meet a good voice teacher. I am leggiero and i was fortunate to have been put in the tenor part of my choir by my choir master who was a genius. This presentation is really very lovely i wish there was more on a structured approach to developing the leggiero tenor voice.
Unlikely you'd get misclassified as a real baritone if you're a genuine high leggero voice. Those two are very far apart. In every aspect of the voice, especially the density of the voice.
Mozart doesn't have high C or even Bs but the phrases and tessitura are murder. "Un aura amarosa" is extremely difficult, much harder than arias that build to high notes climax. And you are exposed. It has to be perfect!
It’s possible you are a leggiero. Sometimes guys get misclassified if they haven’t fully developed yet or if their vocal chords aren’t fully adducting. :)
Brownlee's voice isn't very developed. He sings extremely lightly and on the edges of his vocal folds. His coloratura is very slurred and he does not employ the correct bel canto technique. He is exciting live but not for the reasons of technique.
