Singing for your Supper: What They Don't Teach in School about an Opera Career

I recently read Singing for your Supper: What They Don't Teach in School About an Opera Career. It was written by Dan Montez, a former opera singe and stage director. As the title suggests the book delves into the secrets and intricacies about a career in opera. From the voice itself or schooling to money, finances and lifestyle, this book reveals it all. It actually starts out with the more basic vocal details and builds to encompass things needed to learn a part, such as preparing a score as well as acting, eventually building to the business side as well as personal things such as how to make contacts,  lifestyle, etc. 

I will talk about the vocal side first. Something he says in his introduction is, "Your success in becoming a professional classical singer is based on your innate talent and natural singing voice than it will be on your personality, tenacity, desire and hard work."I have been saying this all along. As I have researched the singers who have become famous or professionals, of course they had beautiful natural talent, but how did they manifest to produce a beautiful career. He continues in his chapters to reiterate the importance of wanting it enough and being passionate enough to be able to work hard. Passion itself doesn't necessarily take you anywhere, but the passion can fuel the motivation for hard work and persistence, which can result beautifully and successfully. 

In Chapter 3 he talks about legato and vibrato techniques for singers. He opens with a question, "Is there a difference between vocal technique used in a choir and vocal technique used in opera singing?" The answer should be an obvious resounding yes, and any classical singer should know that. Of course in a choir everyone should blend. However, everyone's voice are not the same, so obviously some sort of modification is being placed on the voice to blend with one's neighbor, which is the exact opposite of what should be done by a solo singer. Usually, solo singers aren't advised to spend heavy amounts of time in choirs. However, Montez suggests that blending is not the worse thing for a solo singer to do to his or her voice in a choir. Rather, he says that the changing of vibrato and legato techniques for choirs is the most detrimental to an aspiring solo singer. 

In regards to vibrato, voice oscillations on a pitch, he says that one of the biggest misconceptions by young singers is that they are stuck with the vibrato they have. Meaning they are stuck with the rate at which their voice oscillates on a pitch as well as the amplitude. However, he suggests that it is completely controllable, and even in the last 50 years, after the "Golden Age," we have learned more about control of vibrato. It will take many hours and intense focus, but one can learn to control one's vibrato, and it is all in the breathing, which is all in the diaphragm. About a year ago, my voice was getting a little wobbly and heavy, at least for someone my age, and the cause was simply a lack of proper breathing before singing a phrase. As long as my breathing is healthy and under control, I no longer have even a hint of a wobble. He states that vibrato control is essential for interpretation of music. One can have a huge effect on a phrase by adjusting one's vibrato. 

In Chapter 4 he talked about vocal registration, which I found very interesting. He outlined that different "schools of teaching" (ie: italian, german, french, etc.) all have different ways of acknowledging and dealing with vocal registrations. Some do not even recognize the existence of vocal registrations, the breaks in one's voice. Montez concludes that the Italian school has the most natural and efficient way of dealing with register breaks: by almost letting them be obvious. They don't modify vowels like the German school or increasing laryngal spacing, they just let the singer cleanly sing through the break. As a singer, I naturally know where my voice changes and breaks. The voice is divided into three, the middle one or passageway being the "passagio." The passagio usually starts around C or D and ends around F or G. 

Vocal registration brought him to another important point: the different classifications of singers. An example is a dramatic tenor versus a lyric tenor. They both have the same range, but a lyric tenor has a warmer more graceful sound with a strong but not heavy timbre. A dramatic tenor on the other hand has an emotive, powerful, dramatic and heroic sound. Montez points out that often people receive roles because of the type of voice they have. If everything is the same in interpretation, range, finesse, and stamina, sometimes a lyric tenor will be chosen for a song that fits a lyric voice, and sometimes a dramatic tenor will be chosen for a song that requires a dramatic voice. Those are things the singer itself has no control over. There are many roles for all types of singers, and any kind of singer can be successful. Sometimes it's hard to recognize though that some things are not under your own control. 

This is just what the first part of the book includes, I will be post again soon about other aspects outlined in the book!