The Boring Fangirl

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.

Tonight, talking with a friend, I become nostalgic, and I remembered that, when I was like 10 or 11, I was totally in love with this cute little boy:

Adorable, isn’t he?

His name is Dino and he is Croatian. Like many other little girls, he got me with this song. 

It was ten years ago, okay? Do not judge me, I was innocent and impressionable back then.

The thing is, tonight I thought about that time, I remembered him and I did a little research. I found he is my age, so I searched him in Google Images to know how he looks like nowadays. And I found this:

I don’t know about you, but he is totally my type.

And go listen to his music, it's better than everything you've heard before in metal.

I look back at pictures from the time and see how separated I was from them. I remember knowing I was different. I remember posing questions about the world to the girls playing next to me and realizing that they had never asked the same ones to themselves. That the ways we thought couldn’t be more different.

I kept myself amused with my own fanatical stories and musings in my head. I would wander the playground on a circular path, imagining a friend and being sorely disappointed when it didn’t feel as real as I’d hoped.

When I was a kid, I used to walk in lines or circles (I think this was a form of stimming) and just talk to myself. Whenever I saw a mirror, I pretended the reflection to be my very best friend, one who understood me, accepted me and really really liked me. I had very long chats with this “other me”.

At the time, I didn't have a best friend. (I'm not sure if I have one now, as much as I love all my friends.) Now that I think of it, I barely had any friends at all – a playmate or two at most. I had to fill that role for myself.