Revealed: Why You Can't Understand What An Opera Soprano Is Singing

Physicists have discovered the reason why even operas sung in English are hard to follow. A study has found that in order for sopranos to be heard above the sound of a large symphony orchestra, they tune into resonances in their vocal tract to amplify the sound at the high end of their range.

Although this enables them to make a sound that can fill the Albert Hall, it sacrifices intelligibility because the vowels sung by sopranos in full voice all sound the same.

The discovery, reported today in Nature, was made by Dr John Smith, Elodie Joliveau and Prof Joe Wolfe at the University of New South Wales, Australia. "For sopranos, the price of being heard is a loss in comprehensibility," said Dr Smith.

The physicists studied nine sopranos with an average classical training of nine years and followed up the suspicion that the singers used a resonance effect to boost high notes. "The evidence for this is that they tend to open the mouth and smile more as they sing successively higher notes," Dr Smith said.

The vocal tract (including tongue and mouth) has several resonances that boost or amplify sounds produced in the larynx and the team measured the frequencies of resonances as the sopranos sang ascending scales. In the top half of their range (but not the bottom half), the singers did indeed tune one of the resonances to match the pitch they were singing, producing more sound for the same effort.

But the vowels end up sounding nearly the same, which makes words more difficult to understand, while consonants are affected to different degrees. "The tuning of resonances from their normal values means that different sounds such as la, lore, loo, ler and lee sound very much alike in the high register," said Dr Smith.

"What we've shown is that trained sopranos boost the sound from their vocal chords by 'tuning' or adjusting the shape of their vocal tract so it matches the pitch they are singing," said Prof Wolfe.

"The effect is a little like the amplifying effect you get by singing in the bathroom," he said, adding that even if this did not occur, "the vowels would be hard to distinguish because there just isn't enough frequency information at that high pitch." He added: "It's possibly one reason why local opera houses use surtitles even when the words to an opera are in English."

The effect has been remarked on before, notably by the 19th century French composer Berlioz, whose book about orchestration even warns opera composers to take it into account.

Okay, since I am "Diva One", I guess I have to respond to this.

First of all, all operas were at one time NEW and they were almost always created to sell tickets. Even Handel, famous for writing "Messiah" was forced to write new operas and oratorios that had to sell tickets EVERY season in order to stay in business. That means that basically most operas had to be "popular" in order to be successful. They were the pop music of their day. Only in our century has that changed, and that has more to do with the rise of cheap recorded sound than it does with whether opera plots are relavant or not.

What an opera is about is just as important now as it was then. No one goes to the trouble of writing a 4 hour work of art using such diverse forces (symphonic instrumentalists, scenic and lighting designers, costumes, dancers, and of course the "divas" that sing the roles) unless they have something to say. Opera began as a concerted effort to recreate Greek drama set to music. Operas were sometimes booed and shunned off the stage, based soley on what they had to say rather than the music (Le nozze di Figaro - The Marriage Of Figaro by Mozart comes to mind). Two modern operas that have something very important to "say" have been "Dead Man Walking" and "Streetcar Named Desire". So much for the the text not being important.

PS - G&S, while a wonderful thing, is not opera. It has spoken dialogue, which technically, opera does not. Operetta does (The Merry Widow, Die Fledermaus) and is the European equivalant of G&S. The reason the patter songs can be understood is that they are always sung by the baritone - basically speaking on pitch, rather than the soprano who could never get those words across, even in her lower register.

AND - as for German being a more expressive language and easier to sing in - ask any voice student anywhere if they agree!! German is harder than English because it has much more complex vowels and consonants which are difficult for more American singers to master. Italian is the best language for singers because the language uses only "pure" vowels which don't require much modification in any register in order to be understood. Also, the language itself "sings", which means it flows from sound to sound easily and effortlessly, unlike English and German. By the way - American singers are the ONLY ones who have to master singing in every language (Italian, French, German, English and Spanish). European singers are used to singing in only their native tongue, regardless of the original language of the opera.

Now for some misconceptions about Opera Singers:

First of all, the news that sopranos "used a resonance effect to boost their volume in the higher register" - well, that is OLD news! The whole science of singing began with various treatises in the 1600's. They spend considerable time explaining how vowels are normally formed in the back of the mouth, but when singing, the vocalist has to "move" the vowels forward in order to access one of the prime resonators, the pharynx. ALL singers do this, not just sopranos! The reason it is so noticable in the soprano range is that they sing outside of the normal speaking range of most people. Our ears hear the basic pitch range that they sing in as being on the edge of " normal" both in volume and in timbre (color). Tenors modify vowels more than sopranos do, but we don't hear it as such. Listen to a recording of Pavarotti and then Domingo singing "Nessun dorma" with the Italian words in front of you. See if you hear all those closed E's and A's.....

Vowel modification (that is the voice teacher term for it) is a controversial topic in voice schools right now. Some swear against it. Some preach it. In my experience both on the stage and in my teaching studio, it is a necessary part of the process. The article is right when it points out that the result is more volume (specifically accessing the "singer formant"), and that is necessary when singing over an orchestra on a stage without mics (ps - you do NOT want to amplify a classically trained voice - it will blow the upper partials right out of your system!). That is just one result - the other is the color of the voice. Each soprano works hard to have a consistent sound at the top of the register and some, like Anna Moffo were successful in attaining that without much modification. But listen to Maria Callas, perhaps the best singing-actress ever, and tell me that it matters what vowel she is singing on the very top! The post that pointed out that the music tells you what the emotion of the words mean is exactly right. The color of the voice conveys that message as well.

Now for their weight - first of all, there are some FAT opera singers, no question about it! But most are not anymore. Most have to look the part (sometimes with the help of stage makeup which is thick, no matter where you sit). But most singers are large to begin with - this has to do with the volume of air that is available to support the sound. It also has to do with the size of the mechanism (the actual voice box varies in size considerably), and lastly with the size of the head (which is where most of the sound is amplified). You just don't have small bodies singing with huge voices. The few that exist are exceptions. I also think that the lifestyle of being an opera singer has something to do with their weight - on the road for 48 weeks out of the year; always eating out, with people who want something from you usually; and late nights at the theatre where you don't eat before a performance, but definitely afterward, around midnight generally. Sounds glamorous, but it isn't. Trust me.

So, the next time you feel like bashing opera, the art form, or opera singers - remember that without either one, your world would be rather bleak. Besides, how could we sell cars or champagne, or diamonds, or anything "classy" without opera!?

Thanks for letting me spout off!

Diva One

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