# Styles of dramatic singers



## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

this is more a matter of aesthetic tastes than anything, but, basically, when listening to dramatic voices, I lump them into two basic categories depending on the way their voice moves, their timbre and their singing style.

1) prone to large, percussive outbursts, shooting out high notes from nowhere, more forceful, piercing, often steelier, similar to a canon.
examples:
- Maria Callas





- Boris Christoff





- Lucia Valentini-Terrani





- Birgit Nilsson





- Mario del Monaco





- Sherill Milnes





2) just as heavy as the former category, but with a more flowing singing style, the sound is warmer, more effortless, ebbs and swells like the waves of the ocean or a steady flow of lava
examples
- Kirsten Flagstad





- Boris Shtokolov





- Oralia Dominguez





- Mykola Kondratyuk





- Joan Sutherland





- Elena Cernei





3) in-between
examples:
- Shirley Verrett
- Samuel Ramey
- James King
- Regine Crespin
- Franco Corelli 
- Jessye Norman


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

As you can see, it doesn't necessarily divide along the lines of fach, composer or even gender, but personally, I have a preference for the second category over the first. I'm awed by the presence of a voice that combines powerful, dramatic weight with a smooth, melodious delivery more than I am bellowing out high Bs and Cs in The Ring Cycle (well, as it's performed in the modern era. the golden age singers had more variety, and many would fall into the second camp).


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

This is very interesting. I see it as a matter of style and I would say there are four categories of singers here. Those who sing with the first style, those who sing with the second, those that sing with both depending on the nature of what they are singing and those who sing with neither.

I prefer singers who can (and do) sing with a range of styles and therefore are more able to interpret their roles with depth and integrity. Of the singers you mention with whom I am familiar enough to judge I would put the following into the category of being able to sing in both styles:

- Maria Callas
- Sherill Milnes
- Kirsten Flagstad
- Oralia Dominguez
- Joan Sutherland
- Shirley Verrett
- Franco Corelli

N.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

I don't see two kinds of singers here. Some singers have better legato than others; some have warmer timbres. Fine. But a singer's timbre and the way her voice moves have nothing to do with each other, and the two elements don't somehow combine to create "two kinds of singers." 

We have here a great variety of singers, as well as a variety of styles in the music you chose specifically to illustrate your point. You could have had the very same singers performing effectively very different music, which would quickly have exposed the unreality of your typology. But that is already exposed by your placing Callas at the head of a list of singers supposedly "prone to large, percussive outbursts, shooting out high notes from nowhere." She was prone to nothing of the sort; what she was prone to - as many singers are similarly prone - was matching her vocal delivery to the style of the music she sang.

The artifice here exceeds even that of the fach system.


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

The Conte said:


> This is very interesting. I see it as a matter of style and I would say there are four categories of singers here. Those who sing with the first style, those who sing with the second, those that sing with both depending on the nature of what they are singing and those who sing with neither.
> 
> I prefer singers who can (and do) sing with a range of styles and therefore are more able to interpret their roles with depth and integrity. Of the singers you mention with whom I am familiar enough to judge I would put the following into the category of being able to sing in both styles:
> 
> ...


That's a good list (though I don't know who Oralia Dominiquez is), and I see your point.

Personally, my "two kinds of singers" are these: those that have basically lyric voices with dramatic qualities, and those that have basically dramatic voices with lyric qualities. I'd put Milnes in the second category, and (say) Robert Merrill in the first.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Bellinilover said:


> That's a good list (though I don't know who Oralia Dominiquez is), and I see your point.


then you should enjoy the clip of her I posted. trust me, you won't go back



> Personally, my "two kinds of singers" are these: those that have basically lyric voices with dramatic qualities, and those that have basically dramatic voices with lyric qualities. I'd put Milnes in the second category, and (say) Robert Merrill in the first.


I always considered Robert Merrill more of a dramatic. his voice was big, opulent, commanding. To my ears, lyric baritone is more Herman Prey or Peter Mattei.


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## Bellinilover (Jul 24, 2013)

BalalaikaBoy said:


> then you should enjoy the clip of her I posted. trust me, you won't go back
> 
> I always considered Robert Merrill more of a dramatic. his voice was big, opulent, commanding. To my ears, lyric baritone is more Herman Prey or Peter Mattei.


The way I hear Merrill, he had a big, dark, _lyric_ sound; the "bigness" and "darkness" were what helped him in Verdi, I think. The thing is, I always end up comparing Merrill's voice to Leonard Warren's; and, to me, Warren had a more obviously "dramatic" sound than did Merrill. It's kind of hard to explain.

Actually, I have heard Oralia Dominiguez before; I'd just forgotten the name.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Bellinilover said:


> The way I hear Merrill, he had a big, dark, _lyric_ sound; the "bigness" and "darkness" were what helped him in Verdi, I think. The thing is, I always end up comparing Merrill's voice to Leonard Warren's; and, to me, Warren had a more obviously "dramatic" sound than did Merrill. It's kind of hard to explain.
> 
> Actually, I have heard Oralia Dominiguez before; I'd just forgotten the name.


Warren was a good example of the former type and Merrill the latter. If anything, I think Merrill had the bigger vocal weight, he was just less piercing, had a lower tessitura and sung in a smoother style.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

The Conte said:


> This is very interesting. I see it as a matter of style and I would say there are four categories of singers here. Those who sing with the first style, those who sing with the second, those that sing with both depending on the nature of what they are singing and those who sing with neither.
> 
> I prefer singers who can (and do) sing with a range of styles and therefore are more able to interpret their roles with depth and integrity. Of the singers you mention with whom I am familiar enough to judge I would put the following into the category of being able to sing in both styles:
> 
> ...


eh, Maria Callas never sounded effortless or smooth. She is exciting, tumultuous, intense, but I've never just relaxed into her voice the way I could with Elena Cernei, Kirsten Flagstad or Robert Merrill. It just doesn't have that quality regardless of the repertoire. Much more edgy, steely, raw.


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