Excerpted from BBC documentary - What Makes a Great Soprano? - narrated by Kiri Te Kanawa with Layla Claire and Renee Fleming. Laura Poe - piano and Bob Coawart - coach
He actually told her to say Ricardo instead of Ricordo. The same with tesoro, it's not tesaro, god dammit. She was actually doing it right. Never trust an english language native to teach you a romance language.
Kiri was a truly wonderful, world-class singer and artist, however, this is very questionable teaching. "Whenever in doubt, just smile" "When you breathe in, just push that tongue down in the back" I'm sorry, but, those two comments alone are in total violation of the tenets of voice science and classical voice pedagogy.
The smile is to encourage the mouth shape and sound for good pronunciation. If the suggestion and the reaction from student are hey that's so much easier (as in the video) , whos to say it's bad.
I get such a kick out of Kiri's recording of Nozze di Figaro with Herman Prey and Mirella Freni- Best opera recording ever! Dietrich Fisher-Dieskau as the Count and Ewing give priceless comic performances too.
no wonder singers sound funny in italian: ricordo, ha! no! it is as you did it first, mister expert. With an O, flat O, no intermediate sounds as in your native language.
@sirdelrio I agree that the "expert" wasn't spot on in his pronunciation, but there is definitely 2 Italianate O sounds-open and closed, the same goes for E vowels as well. Of course, both open and closed vowels need to be extremely pure, unlike English intermediate vowels.
A superb teacher with a gorgeous voice. Notice she NEVER mentions keeping the larynx low and immovable and she talks about smiling. The OLD school way.
Lol watch a video of any "old school" singer up close and you will see the larynx is in a lowered position. The lowered larynx elongates the pharynx and creates a bellowing, rich, and dark sound. I might add that lowering the larynx via depressing with the tongue (alla Kaufmann) is counterintuitive and harmful. It creates a dark sound that is throaty and muffled to a degree. Most teachers that advocate against lowering the larynx will use this one-sided point to support their argument. To lower the larynx correctly and maintain the balance in the voice takes tremendous muscle coordination and IS a pinnacle of the old school way.
jacob lahr I totally agree at last someone said it keeping the tongue flat makes the base of the tongue curl up and block the back of the throat, hence the throaty cavernous sound it produces
Old school singers would NEVER smile. That's like one of the three basic cardinal rules of the old school. Also, they would never vocalise on an M since that just makes the note small and nasal. This is a total shipwreck.
Opposite to you, right? 😂😂😂 Just stop this pathetic baying below every video on yt with people far more talented and successful than you, it gets boring 🙄
