# Why do singers specialize?



## sparsity (Apr 10, 2012)

Warning: I mostly discovered classical music & opera on my own, so this may be silly. 

Anyway: I've noticed that opera singers specialize -- they sing mostly Handel, or Mozart, or Wagner, or Verdi, etc. To give a concrete example, why someone like Miah Persson never sings Verdi? Or Gheorghiu never singing Mozart? Is there any technical reason for that? Is Wagner tougher to sing than, say, Mozart? Is it a language problme?

I read an interview with Renee Fleming after her Lucrezia Borgia at the SF opera (I found her performance very boring, but the critics loved her), she seemed to say that the skills required for singing Handel are rudimentary compared to romantic operas roles.


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## sospiro (Apr 3, 2010)

sparsity said:


> Warning: I mostly discovered classical music & opera on my own, so this may be silly.
> 
> Anyway: I've noticed that opera singers specialize -- they sing mostly Handel, or Mozart, or Wagner, or Verdi, etc. To give a concrete example, why someone like Miah Persson never sings Verdi? Or Gheorghiu never singing Mozart? Is there any technical reason for that? Is Wagner tougher to sing than, say, Mozart? Is it a language problme?
> 
> I read an interview with Renee Fleming after her Lucrezia Borgia at the SF opera (I found her performance very boring, but the critics loved her), she seemed to say that the skills required for singing Handel are rudimentary compared to romantic operas roles.


I'd like to know as well.

My favourite composers are Italian, Verdi, Donizetti, Bellini etc & I've only just started listening to Handel but it sounds incredibly difficult to sing. All those twiddly bits.


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## Polednice (Sep 13, 2009)

I don't have much experience with vocal music, but I imagine it may be for similar reasons that instrumentalists also specialise in certain composers or periods. Most pianists, for example, have a very broad repertoire, but many of them come to be associated with individual styles or even composers, and it can be for a number of reasons - perhaps because they have a particular obsession with one, perhaps because they'd rather invest all their efforts in perfecting one style rather than being an all-rounder, perhaps because they are interested in lots of music equally but their natural performing style happens to fit one kind of music in particular, or perhaps chance associations made by the audience.


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## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

Not every singer is suited to every kind of operatic role etc. A ccoloratura soprano with a light, silvery sound would never be able to sing heavy Wagnerian dramatic soprano roles such as Isolde and Brunnhilde, or 
Strauss's Elektra , or Lady Mavceth in Verdi's Macbeth. 
This would be like a featherweight boxer against a heavywieght. Likewise, a Wagnerian soprano with a huge,powerful voice would sound ridiculous trying to sing soubrette soparnao roles such as Susanna in the Marriage of Figaro or Bel Canto roles like Lucia, etc. This would be like trying to kill a fly with a sledgehammer !


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## Stargazer (Nov 9, 2011)

superhorn said:


> This would be like trying to kill a fly with a sledgehammer !


Wait, that's not how most people kill flies?!


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## MAuer (Feb 6, 2011)

There are also some singers who perform a very wide range of roles rather than specializing in one particular repertoire. Placido Domingo is a perfect example of this. The tenor Jonas Kaufmann and soprano Anja Harteros are two more. It's worth noting that all three have what I would describe as a lyric spinto or "juvenile dramatic" (the German description) sound to their voices. In fullness and carrying power, these voices lie between the lighter "lyric" sound and the big, heavy "dramatic" sound, and can encompass roles in both the lyric and dramatic repertoires.


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## Moira (Apr 1, 2012)

For some it is sheer laziness. For others it is a financial thing. For still others it is an artistic statement.

We have a marvellous 'voice' in South Africa, classically trained. She hardly ever does 'serious' music because she earns much more with crossover stuff and has to work much less hard at perfecting a popular, easy item than learning and rehearsing a piece of classical music. But what a pleasure to hear her when she puts her heart into something truly worthy of her abundant talent.


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## Operadowney (Apr 4, 2012)

This is my reply from your other thread:

Well besides being comfortable in a certain style of music and devoting a lot of time to it, certain voices simply can't handle the demands of other vocal writing. For instance, the voice was a completely different entity in the time of Handel then it was in the time period immediately following Wagner's. There are stories of singers upon receiving Wagner's scores and performing them going into vocal decline, and I believe them. The technique is completely different.

I am 20 years old right now, singing a lot of Mozart. I love Mozart. Dramatically and vocally it suits me well. I would never in a million years trie to sing Verdi or Wagner, because my voice is not ready for the strains that those composers put on the voice. Maybe in fifteen years I can sing the repertoire, but for now I'm satisfied to remain in repertory that I can perform to the best of my ability.


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## AndyS (Dec 2, 2011)

superhorn said:


> Not every singer is suited to every kind of operatic role etc. A ccoloratura soprano with a light, silvery sound would never be able to sing heavy Wagnerian dramatic soprano roles such as Isolde and Brunnhilde, or
> Strauss's Elektra , or Lady Mavceth in Verdi's Macbeth.
> This would be like a featherweight boxer against a heavywieght. Likewise, a Wagnerian soprano with a huge,powerful voice would sound ridiculous trying to sing soubrette soparnao roles such as Susanna in the Marriage of Figaro or Bel Canto roles like Lucia, etc. This would be like trying to kill a fly with a sledgehammer !


Yes - for a perfect example of this, listen to Joan Sutherland singing the Queen of the Night from Die Zauberflote. A huge, magnificent voice that could sing dazzling coloratura... but she could still not tone it down enough to sing this well


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

AndyS said:


> Yes - for a perfect example of this, listen to Joan Sutherland singing the Queen of the Night from Die Zauberflote. A huge, magnificent voice that could sing dazzling coloratura... but she could still not tone it down enough to sing this well


I find your remarks regarding Joan Sutherland somewhat mystifying. She managed to tone down her voice enough to sing music by Handel, Bononcini, Arne, Bach, Cimerosa, Haydn, Spohr and Picchini .Her voice was powerful but she was a coloratura soprano and specialized in Bellini, Donizetti, Rossini etc. 
The Queen of the Night roll is aimed at that type of voice and there is no case to tone it down. It should be fiery and imperious after all she is singing: "The Vengeance of Hell Is In My Heart"!


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## obwan (Oct 24, 2011)

I think in general it might have something to do with Opera Companies wanting/needing to cut rehearsal times by replaying the same operas in their somewhat limited repetoir and finding singers who have already performed the role a number of times.



AndyS said:


> Yes - for a perfect example of this, listen to Joan Sutherland singing the Queen of the Night from Die Zauberflote. A huge, magnificent voice that could sing dazzling coloratura... but she could still not tone it down enough to sing this well


I remember reading that Sutherland never performed the Queen of the Night. Maybe I'm wrong, perhaps it was Callas?


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

obwan said:


> I think in general it might have something to do with Opera Companies wanting/needing to cut rehearsal times by replaying the same operas in their somewhat limited repetoir and finding singers who have already performed the role a number of times.
> 
> I remember reading that Sutherland never performed the Queen of the Night. Maybe I'm wrong, perhaps it was Callas?


That's interesting because I could find nothing in my various books about her performing the roll. I had presumed that AndyS (who is very quiet) had done his homework.
I very much doubt that Callas performed the roll or the aria, I can't imagine she could manage it.


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## rgz (Mar 6, 2010)

If you are a sports fan, a good example would be to consider the role of the pitcher in baseball. Almost without exception, a MLB pitcher was also the best hitter on his high school and possibly college team, yet an average pitcher in the majors has a success rate at batting scarecely half that of a good hitter. All the time spent working on pitching means the other skills degrade. So, is it better to be good at one thing or fairly mediocre at several?
Once you decide to specialize, one trains the voice and technique to be suited to a particular fach (specialized vocal type) and repertoire. Of course, biology and genetics plays a part too; even had Natalie Dessay decided at age 20 that she wanted to sing Brunnhilde, it would never happen no matter how much she trained. Ditto if Deb Voigt had decided that her goal was to sing Lucia ... although I'd be interested in hearing such a spectacle in a masochistic kind of way.
Another way to think about it is, why isn't the Olympic champion at the 100 m dash also the winner in the marathon? I mean, they're both just running as fast as you can, right?


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## eorrific (May 14, 2011)

Didn't Rolando Villazon sing some Baroque arias some time ago? It was unacceptable, but he did it.


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## Moira (Apr 1, 2012)

Someone once gave me a special present. Michael Bolton singing opera. It is called "My Secret Passion". I keep it to amuse and/or horrify people. Even my niece, a Michael Bolton fan, wrinkled her nose when hearing his renditions.


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## MAuer (Feb 6, 2011)

eorrific said:


> Didn't Rolando Villazon sing some Baroque arias some time ago? It was unacceptable, but he did it.


I know he recorded some of Handel's Italian arias. Reviews of the recording were mixed. I have the CD and rather enjoy it (probably not too surprising, since I like Handel's music).


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## obwan (Oct 24, 2011)

My apologies for having a Homer Simpson moment. It as Callas, not Sutherland, that never performed the Queen of the Night. Sorry, my bad.


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## eorrific (May 14, 2011)

MAuer said:


> I know he recorded some of Handel's Italian arias. Reviews of the recording were mixed. I have the CD and rather enjoy it (probably not too surprising, since I like Handel's music).


Ah! That was it. Saw him recording that CD at YouTube. He sounded out of place singing Handel. Of course I have no idea about the subject matter being unfamiliar with Baroque.

How did you find Villazon's singing (compared to other interpretation, for example)? Was it really acceptable or was it only because it's Handel.


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## AndyS (Dec 2, 2011)

moody said:


> That's interesting because I could find nothing in my various books about her performing the roll. I had presumed that AndyS (who is very quiet) had done his homework.
> I very much doubt that Callas performed the roll or the aria, I can't imagine she could manage it.


Sorry, I've been on a Hebridean island without Internet access since Wednesday

I'll have to have a look. She maybe didn't perform the role but I've definitely heard her singing the second aria from die Zauberflote somewhere. I'm maybe making it up but I'm sure I've heard it

EDIT: Sutherland, not Callas. My point is, it's not something I felt she sang well, the only thing I've listened to Dame Joan singing that I feel I can say that about


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## MAuer (Feb 6, 2011)

eorrific said:


> Ah! That was it. Saw him recording that CD at YouTube. He sounded out of place singing Handel. Of course I have no idea about the subject matter being unfamiliar with Baroque.
> 
> How did you find Villazon's singing (compared to other interpretation, for example)? Was it really acceptable or was it only because it's Handel.


It was probably a combination of both. I find the basic sound of Villazon's voice attractive, although there are other tenors I prefer. For Handel's music, Fritz Wunderlich would be my top choice. I wish his recordings of _Serse_ and _Giulio Cesare _were sung in the original Italian instead of German translation. If they were, I would have added them to my collection long ago. And there are some other tenors -- Luigi Alva in particular -- whose voices I just can't warm to. He sings the title role in the recording of _Serse_ I do have, and I can't say listening to him is a particularly pleasant experience.


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## Aksel (Dec 3, 2010)

eorrific said:


> Didn't Rolando Villazon sing some Baroque arias some time ago? It was unacceptable, but he did it.


He did do a recording of Vivaldi's Ercole sul Termodonte a little while back. Perhaps not the most stylistic singing, but very, very exiting.


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