But as a student. I swear, every time I have a technique breakthrough I'm like, that's it, I'm gonna be a full lyric now! And then a few days later I realize that I'm not a full lyric. Maybe in ten years...maybe not.
I think one of the most common problem is that we also equate "big" voices with "big" repertoire. But I have a pretty sizeable instrument, and I sing almost entirely soubrette repertoire. I'm just now breaking into "Quando me'n vo" because up to this point it's been too big for me. I took a class on Brahms last year, and the teacher assigned me "Von ewiger Liebe" and "Liebestreu." The latter, while a little on the big side, is fine for me, but my teacher absolutely vetoed the former. When that professor heard me sing in class, he said, "Wow, I always thought of your voice as being much heavier than that!" And most of what my teacher tells me is along the lines of "lighten up" and "create a narrower space" so that I don't try to make my voice bigger and heavier than it is. But I like to think that what my friends hear as "big" will translate into "audible over an orchestra."
Also, thank you for saying that young singers should listen to light voices in ADDITION to heavier voices. I told my former teacher once that I loved Eileen Farrell, and she said, "You should be listening to Elly Ameling and Kathleen Battle!" But I don't see any reason that we can't all listen to whatever voices we want.
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