Most of the singers were already using a low breath, which, when it is not happening, is often the starting point for one to make corrections. However, not all of them were consistent with this, which gave me a way to begin to coach. A singer who sometimes takes a deep breath and sometimes takes a shallow breath can never be sure which kind of breath he or she will take when the chips are down. When that long, high phrase is coming up, or that difficult run. I tried to help the singers find a way to use the deep 'aw' breath with every inhalation. We all did an exercise which should help them remember to use this kind of breath consistently.
One student, who was singing a song from a Broadway show, sounded too 'classical' for the Broadway world. She was also using a high breath, which didn't help the situation. The voice was tremulous and unsubstantial. I tried to help her find a way to sing better, using a good technique, without sounding as if she were in an operetta. It is much more difficult for classically trained female singers, opera singers, as it were, to sing pop or show songs convincingly. I remember a CD that the great Kiri Te Kanawa made some years ago. She sang 'Blue Skies', among other standards. It sounded as if the conductor or producer, on hearing her sing it the first time, said, 'Too high, Kiri! sing it lower'. And then, after it was dropped a third, 'Still too high! Lower!'. Finally her voice was at the very bottom or her range, out of focus and breathy. I then picture the producer saying, 'That's it! It's a take!' It is a miserable sounding CD of a very beautiful voice. Renée Fleming also made a disastrous 'Pop' CD a few years ago. I remember hearing it on my car radio and thinking, 'Who on earth is this awful Pop singer that was allowed to make this CD?' Again a beautiful voice trying to be something it wasn't. It is as bad as when Barbra Streisand made a recording of, I think it was, Frauen- Lieben und- Leben. Someone once threatened as a punishment, to make me listen to this over and over. Fortunately, once was enough to absolve my sin.
One of the few operatic singers who made the cross-over successfully, and brilliantly, was the great Eileen Farrell. She could sing the 'Immolation Scene' and turn right around to sing 'I've got a right to sing the blues', and be totally convincing in either fach.
Male operatic singers have a much easier time making the cross-over. Years ago, Ezio Pinza proved this when he sang the lead in the Broadway production of South Pacific opposite Mary Martin. Robert Weede made a similar successful move to Broadway when he sang the lead in Most Happy Fellow. Ira Petina was on Broadway as the Old Woman in the original production of Bernstein's Candide, but that is a very operatic piece of musical theatre and she fit right in.
Most of the other technical points I worked on in the class with these six young women included singing with a better legato line, using the messa di voce in every phrase, projecting the voice by using a visual stimulus. By this last suggestion I mean singing to a distant point that the singer looks at while singing the song. Allowing this sense of space to help project the voice without feeling that one has to push the sound.This was especially true with one of the singers who was singing quite well, but who was basically aiming the song at the floor. As soon as she was given a distant point to sing to, the song was projected and was quite beautiful.
As I have said before, I am not a fast teacher. I distrust teachers who, in the first lesson, tell a singer, 'My dear, you are not a this, you are a that'. Type-casting a singer this quickly is just not possible. Or, at least, it can be done only rarely, when a voice is so obviously a this that it could never be a that. This is why, in my opinion, a 'Hit and Run' Master Class is not an easy thing to teach. I would like to be able to follow the singer through a few more classes and see if my suggestions had borne fruit.
I enjoyed working with these young women, all of whom have obviously had good training and who are singing very well. I hope that my nit-picking was helpful to them and that my 'Hit and Run' didn't do any harm.
