# Why do singers specialize?



## sparsity (Apr 10, 2012)

Sorry if this is off-topic or naive. I dont really have anybody I can talk to about these subjects--I mostly discovered classical music on my own.

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.


Oops. Just realized it is the wrong forum. 

Mods, please delete


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## Cnote11 (Jul 17, 2010)

So much naivety today! I'm interested in what information this topic will bring forth.


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## Operadowney (Apr 4, 2012)

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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