# ALL voice types should have a strong chest voice. Not just low or dramatic voices.



## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

too often people use the excuse "they're a lighter voice, they shouldn't be overusing the chest voice"

this is nonsense. the range and tessitura of voices vary considerably, but every voice has the potential to develop strong, resonant, projected notes within their respective range, and this means strong chest tones for lighter voices and strong high notes for low and dramatic voices.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

If you are not already familiar with this wonderful interview with famous sopranos on a discussion of chest tones, I think it is something you would really enjoy.
Here is a sampling of "Divas and Chest Voice By Stefan Zucker".


The film clips below are excepted from Opera Fanatic: Stefan and the Divas, with Iris Adami Corradetti, Barbieri, Cerquetti, Cigna, Frazzoni, Gavazzi, Gencer, Olivero, Pobbe, Simionato; Zucker; Schmidt-Garre, dir. (1998) 93m. In English and in Italian with English subtitles. Color/B&W.

Why should opera lovers care about whether or not someone sings with chest voice? Because the affective consequences are very great. My viscera aren’t satisfied if chest isn’t used in certain passages, the phrase “un gel mi prende” (Norma), for example. Giuditta Pasta, who created Norma and became Bellini’s favorite soprano, was described by Stendhal as having a voice “not all molded from the same metallo, as they would say in Italy (i.e., it possesses more than one timbre); and this fundamental variety of tone produced by a single voice affords one of the richest veins of musical expression which the artistry of a great cantatrice is able to exploit….Madame Pasta’s incredible mastery of technique is revealed in the amazing facility with which she alternates head-notes with chest-notes.” Ludwig Rellstab (1799-1860) was a critic, essayist and poet, some of whose verses were set by Schubert. A great Pasta admirer, he described the effect of her chest tones in a performance of Norma in 1841: “Hoarse, savage sounds came out from her chest, scorn and bitterness seemed to shake the heart of the listener harshly.”

Chest voice is a means of communicating fear, rage, contempt, torment and suffering of the soul. Can you conceive of Callas without chest voice?


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

nina foresti said:


> If you are not already familiar with this wonderful interview with famous sopranos on a discussion of chest tones, I think it is something you would really enjoy.
> Here is a sampling of "Divas and Chest Voice By Stefan Zucker".
> 
> The film clips below are excepted from Opera Fanatic: Stefan and the Divas, with Iris Adami Corradetti, Barbieri, Cerquetti, Cigna, Frazzoni, Gavazzi, Gencer, Olivero, Pobbe, Simionato; Zucker; Schmidt-Garre, dir. (1998) 93m. In English and in Italian with English subtitles. Color/B&W.


I think I've seen a few clips of it. Mostly I was confused watching Fedora Barbieri talk about how she never sings in chest voice....and then proceeds to demonstrate a chest voice more powerful than modern singer alive today. clearly There are some semantic issues over how the chest voice is being defined there.



> Why should opera lovers care about whether or not someone sings with chest voice? Because the affective consequences are very great. My viscera aren't satisfied if chest isn't used in certain passages, the phrase "un gel mi prende" (Norma), for example. Giuditta Pasta, who created Norma and became Bellini's favorite soprano, was described by Stendhal as having a voice "not all molded from the same metallo, as they would say in Italy (i.e., it possesses more than one timbre); and this fundamental variety of tone produced by a single voice affords one of the richest veins of musical expression which the artistry of a great cantatrice is able to exploit….Madame Pasta's incredible mastery of technique is revealed in the amazing facility with which she alternates head-notes with chest-notes." Ludwig Rellstab (1799-1860) was a critic, essayist and poet, some of whose verses were set by Schubert. A great Pasta admirer, he described the effect of her chest tones in a performance of Norma in 1841: "Hoarse, savage sounds came out from her chest, scorn and bitterness seemed to shake the heart of the listener harshly."
> 
> Chest voice is a means of communicating fear, rage, contempt, torment and suffering of the soul. Can you conceive of Callas without chest voice?


For all my love of Joan Sutherland, she is SEVERELY lacking in this department, and I must turn to the likes of Callas, Dimitrova, Soliotis and Obraztsova to be truly satisfied.


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