But the urge to bend, rather than break, them can start to undermine something important about singing. Franklin singing “Nessun dorma.” Rules exist to be broken. Why not try a different interpretation?Īnd there is nothing wrong with Ms.
To them it may appear that purists are saying there is only one right way to sing a role. The horror-stricken warnings of opera purists about the perils of singing roles too large for one’s voice may make nonaficionados only more eager to stir things up. Herbert von Karajan was well known for recording operas with voices that were traditionally held to be too light for given roles. Why should the plums of the repertory be restricted to certain singers? Maria Callas, after all, laid claim to the title of “soprano assoluta,” one who can sing any role, from coloratura to Wagner, ignoring limitations of Fach. At the Metropolitan Opera this season she sang both Mimi in Puccini’s “Bohème,” a lyric role, and the coloratura showpiece Elvira in Bellini’s “Puritani.”īecause compartmentalization can be seen as limiting and restrictive, an idea seems to have formed that it is narrow-minded and that one should do one’s best to subvert it. “My teacher couldn’t understand who I am,” she said. The soprano Anna Netrebko said in an interview in December that from the time she had started to study, her voice had always lain between two Fachs, coloratura and lyric soprano. Not all voices lie squarely in one realm or another. This kind of compartmentalization never fully works. The German opera system distinguishes among some 25 voice types, from lyric coloratura soprano to basso profundo. The German word Fach covers a range of meanings, including “specialty” and “compartment.” In opera it denotes a system of accepted ideas, now codified, about what kinds of voices should sing which parts. The question raised the whole vexing issue of voice type in opera: Who can and should sing which roles? It’s known in the business as “Fach.” Franklin did she has kept the aria in her repertory. Pavarotti does, with the support, the flow of sound, the ability to hit the high notes. Pavarotti’s tenor range, which carried her into the depths of the female voice.) What’s hard is to sing it the way Mr.
What does it mean for a tune to be “difficult”? If you know how it goes, you can hum “Nessun dorma” on the street without special training, provided you find a key that is comfortable for you. “Isn’t this a very difficult aria to sing?” he asked. IN 1998 Luciano Pavarotti canceled an appearance at the Grammy Awards at the last minute, and Aretha Franklin stepped in to perform the famous tenor aria “Nessun dorma” from Puccini’s “Turandot.” A friend of mine, a pop music writer, was agog at the feat.
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