#operatic singing

One thing I do know... I've wanted to be an opera singer from the moment I saw that opening scene in Amadeus as that opera singer descends the stairs of the stage, performing her art for all the world to see, when I was a young child. To give that up for the rest of my life would shatter my soul into a million tiny pieces that can never be put back together; it would break my heart and destroy the person I am beyond recognition.

Never pull the voice away from its focus, nor push the breath up from its foundation, nor let diction leave the lips. Never disassociate these three - word, tone, and breath. The feeling of focus is like the touch of a feather within the head. The sense of breath support is like the satisfaction of a good dinner in the stomach. The sensation of good diction is like the tickle on the lips while "playing on a comb." The union of this trinity is like three children playing in a ring, holding hands. If one lets go, all are helpless. Should any one become too energetic the others are embarrassed. Word and breath are generally the guilty ones. The vibration that comes from the focus always seems small. The resonance that is started by the word usually feels large. The energy that streams from the body appears inexhaustible. When energy ceases, the union dissolves. The throat feels "open" only when diction controls vibration, resonance and breath-energy as a unit. Good diction alone excites the pneumatic action in the throat, causing it to feel "free," at the same time it commandeers the energies throughout the whole body and mind. Then singing is easy, and a pleasure to both artist and audience. Technique must touch the "quick" of your being. The voice is pneumatic. (Ventricular pouches in the larynx inflate when both false and true vocal bands (vocal-cords) approach and meet like two pairs of lips when kissing). Ventricular action is as necessary to the singing voice as the pulsation of the glottis. Therefore the voice needs both regular vibration, and full resonance before it can be controlled. This is what a "natural singer" does. The rest of us must learn to do it. The hollow feeling in head, throat and chest is an indication of ventricular preparation to sing. Why are the high tones of the majority of singers pinched and small? Because the throat is made to do double duty - control the breath current and furnish pitch of vibration. As the voice ascends to higher tones, control of breath should descend toward the pelvis. On low tones this gauging is felt at the diaphragm, and even higher. When breath is held and controlled abdominally (from waist to pelvis) the voice is free to expand on any tone high or low.

Voice and breath are like two dancers who eagerly approach each other, unite, --- and as one being express rhythm, melody, and mood of music.     Each knows what the other is thinking, feeling and doing.     Each assists the other to cause sound to glide, to run, to leap, to pause.     Each must be expert and efficient, or one will have to carry the other as a dead-weight.     Each must act as a counterpoise to the other to keep up unbroken continuity of motion.     Each adjusts itself to the intentions and movements of the other, even when contact is momentarily broken.     Contact of voice and breath must have all the degrees of energy demanded by rhythm, melody, mood of tune and text, without violence or strain.     This association becomes so intimate and pleasurable, that all rigidity and awkwardness, all pushing and pulling cease.     The union of breath and voice "brings a sensuous delight to the whole body from head to foot, as though the body were a tongue tasting something good" (Lamperti).     Voice and breath, though individual, at last become inseparable affinities. "Tone is the upper end of breath and breath is the lower end of tone," said Lamperti.

Soprano Heidi Grant Murphy in Joshua Jampol's book, "Living Opera"