#classical singing

Opera in the 19th century was different from today, mostly because the singing technique was different. If you wanted to be an opera singer back then, you would be trained in the bel canto technique, which means no placement or in-the-mask singing. This technique is on the opposite side of the spectrum from the technique used by opera singers nowadays. You have to develop not only your head voice but also your chest voice - the combination of the two is crucial, not just for your low notes but throughout your whole range.

In Gaston Leroux’s novel, Christine told Raoul on the rooftop what exactly had changed in her voice:

I’m not very strong physically and that to begin with my voice had very little character. My low notes were naturally under-developed, the high notes were frankly quite harsh and my middle register cloudy. It was these deficiencies that papa had striven to correct and he had succeeded up to a point. But it was the Voice which finally overcame them. Gradually, I was able to increase the volume of my whole range to an extent I could never have hoped to achieve given that it was never strong to start with. I learned to deepen my breathing but crucially the Voice taught me the secret of developing the chest notes of the soprano voice.

It means that Christine had a problem with an undeveloped chest voice. Because of that, she had weak low notes (which are naturally more chesty), a cloudy middle register (you must have a well-developed chest voice to sing in your middle with ease), and harsh high notes (it’s hard to sing high without having a core in your voice). Once Christine finally developed her chest voice, her voice became more mature and more colourful, which helped her make the transition to singing Marguerite - a part that requires a more dramatic sound than Siebel (which at that time was a role for a soprano who still hadn’t fully developed her voice).

(By the way this quote shows that Leroux knew something about singing technique. Wow!)

Also, as we all know, the character of Christine was based on a real opera singer, Christine Nilsson (1843 - 1921). Unfortunately, there is no recording of Nilsson’s voice, but we can be sure that she sang with a bel canto technique. It was the one and only proper technique in the 19th century, and you couldn’t be an opera star without learning it.

this video is basically a crash course on the different styles of clasical singing and honestly all her opinions are so completely correct lmao (best moment in this video is when she completely validates my love for chamber choirs!) (also she talks about video game/movie soundtracks and the overlap in classical and folk music which is entirely my niche when i sing solo!!) (she even uses voces8 and anuna as examples :D) (SHE SHOWS STUFF FROM THE PIRATES OF PENZANCE AND THE SOUND OF MUSIC FFS)

and on top of all that she is really funny (:

also to my dutch mutuals you guys might get language jumpscared occasionally (:

just please guys, please take a look at this channel/video its so good

(honestly i just want to talk about my hobbies with you guys lol)

Well...that looks...wrong

And why does Vivaldi look like one of the Kardashians

Honestly...They could have just kept Liszt the way he was in the first place

Schostakovitch is the only one that kinda works

Clara Schumann already was a boss

Wow...They really did Elgar dirty

剛把超過十年的motto改變

Old: To live a life rather than being a live

New:

i don't really have anywhere else to put these thoughts and my cis friends just don't really get it and neither do my enbies because they're not medically transitioning and yeah

i've been on T for 10 months now!!

and the most grating part of my dysphoria beforehand was my voice. i have no words to describe my voice beforehand other than,, if the dysphoria didn't zap my brain every time i talked and practiced, i could've made a great gig as the next disney princess.

i've done classical singing my entire life. i was a mezzo soprano forcing myself to be an alto and chronically wishing i could be a tenor. i've never felt more jealousy in my life than when i was 16 and a girl in my choir was a contratenor. i would listen to the aladdin and little shop of horror soundtracks and just hold back tears sometimes before i was out to even myself. i just did not understand the gender envy i was experiencing from male singing. it felt like something was missing and i spent so much of my singing career wondering why i couldn't just get ahold of my voice. it's because i couldn't stand the sound of it no matter how polished it was. i still can't listen back to old clips of me talking, nonetheless singing. it's crazy because my voice has only been dropped for a few months but i can't imagine it any other way than the 2014 justin bieber prototype it's fell into. i love it.

i hope to get to a point i can be comfortable with my old voice, but the point of this post: my new voice is my favorite thing about myself. i genuinely love to hear myself talk. vocal training doesn't feel disheartening anymore. i'm a tenor now!!!!!

On January 14th, 1900 the opera "Tosca" by Giacomo Puccini was premiered in Rome.