Callas’ temperament was essentially dramatic. I wonder if she instinctively gravitated to and developed a technique that produced a lot of squillo because the squillo allowed her to express what she felt inside. I saw her longtime pianist in an interview and he said, if you listen closely, she gave so much of herself that she always sang just a little bit sharp.
Callas choosed her vocal colors. For Norma she is a superor woman, and a dramatic soprano, she keeps her medium voice covered and dark. For Rosina, she add light and joy, she opens her A and makes the vowels clearer. She managed perfectly (at that time) her passagio between chest and head voice, not mixing the registers, but hiding the break by a little cover. I am not sure she breathed very low. It seems she uses her back and ribs. She could paint the whole range of colours.
Great reaction video with interesting input when analysing Callas technique! I wouldn't necessarily explain her placement as "The Callas effect" though, it's just a matter of her having the similar great technique as Birgit Nilsson, Jussi Björling, Victoria de Los Angeles, Franco Corelli, Renata Tebaldi etc did - keeping that bright, open, clear and resonating space in the sides of the back of the throat. It's supposed to be like a horizontal rectangle in back of your throat that is achived through a deep inhalation in the lower back. When you keep that space at all times, always shaping your lips around that you get that full, clear, warm sound that resonates in every direction. This is very hard to describe and teach bur is nonetheless an essential part of the bel canto technique. Today most opera singers learn to sing in a way with less space in the sides of the back of the throat and more space in the top part of the palette, but that makes the sound more narrow, less resonating, less clear and it loses it's brilliance. The chiaro in the chiaro-scuro is more lost and the singer's unique tone along with it. The voice will sound less full, less connected to the body with less core. The vibrato can even become wobbly because of the tension that is created by having all that air pressure with too little of a space. Most teachers don't teach it in school's anymore. It's very hard to understand how you have to shape the throat and lips in order to keep the ultimate clarity, resonance and integrity of the vowels, especially the closed ones like eh, u or even oo, but Callas does it perfectly here. So it IS achievable. The easiest way for me to access it has been keeping the vowels more speachlike with more graceful transitions between vowels do that the consonants isn't making you lose space as well. Then you get a more smile-like mouth shape like Callas has here when you think more natural, speachlike vowels and not narrowed ones. You pretty quickly notice that you need to shape the lips around the space in the back in order to keep it just like Callas does here. If you want to know more about this I recommend my voice teacher maestro Michael Trimble who still teaches at 86, has a great vocal technique book and very informative videos here on RUclips. He was the student of Jussi Björling, Mario del Monaco, Helge Rosswaegner, Olga Ryss and gas also sunf with Birgit Nilsson among others. He's incredible, he's devoted his life to having this golden age bel canto opera technique to be preserved. I'm very passionate about this to and that's why I wanted to share.
Thank you so much for typing this out! I clicked on the video because I'm always looking for input to improve my technique and your comment was more useful to me than the actual video (no disrespect intended - it's very individual which snippet of information can be helpful at a certain point in a singer's evolution). I luckily have found a great teacher and she's been trying to explain to me how to use the area in the back of the throat that you describe, but the way you put it made it more plastic for me. Definitely going to look into your teacher's book!
Something very important to remember about Maria Callas singing is that she was able to scale down her voice when using a microphone and she knew she was being video taped so she was calculating what the ppl would see. In the theater she would use more voice and respond to the music and other singers. It's so amazing to listen to the early Callas recordings when she would sing in the style of Ponselle and Raisa and then would change in order to sing high roles such as Il Puritani, Lucia and Armida using dark tones. I think she knew that the old way of singing was boring and the future would require a use of the voice that would not only be beautiful but be real and at the same time never lose the musical value, and the composer's style. I believe that to her was the meaning of Opera and Belcanto.
In the first phrases she interprets the marcatti written in the score, hence the feeling you describe. Bellini as an exponent of Bel Canto, composed the cavatina in a very dance like manner, hence the voice line needs to accent the beat. And mind you, she was a dramatico coloratura soprano, her low notes were heftier than most sopranos. As for the cadenza, Vaccaj holds the secret!
love the analysis..since I was inspired by callas to learn how to sing bel canto I have analyzed thoroughly callas technique.. she does not open her mouth too much. Sings with a small focus and does not have that yawny sound most opera singers have that I find repelling but she keeps it forward , direct and mostly in her nose which gives it the squillo with air always moving the vibrations forward and does not over breathe but economizes the use of air.. although I have had many coaches/ teachers my greatest teacher has always been callas .. the vocal coaches always taught over breathing ,opening the mouth wide in the ah position which I found uncomfortable and unnatural so I choose to follow Callas technique which I find is conducive to singing easily with natural expression.
I agree with everything you said except that i do not think really puts the sound in her nose... i understand what you mean since her voice has that focus but i think she achieves that without holding it in the nose. she said her first teacher Trivella taught the french method which DID keep the voice in the nose and that De Hidalgo worked to undo that when she started studying with her
If she kept it forward and majorly in the nose, her voice would be small, nasal & constricted. You literally cannot get squillante by singing in the nose at all. Instead of a squillo sound, you’ll get a squeezed sound. I did exactly that, & all it did was block off proper airflow, make me completely nasal & over-bright; no darkness in the sound at all; completely white toned. This method hinders the voice, & can potentially damage it. That’s why we have all of these small, nasal, overly bright opera singers w/no balance in their sound. What Callas did was sing w/a low larynx, open pharynx, create an extreme amount of chest voice to get the foundation, core & strength the sound needed & certainly had. She had plenty of chiaroscuro, incredible breath management, excellent vowel formation, moderately dropped jaw, round lips, & proper positioning of the tongue to get the sound bigger, richer & darker. This isn’t something you will ever achieve by means of placement, but from all the other things I listed. Placement is merely a perception; nothing but sympathetic vibrations as a result of correct breath work, vowel shaping & development of individual registers. This is supported by many old school opera singers/teachers, including that of Richard Miller. Keyword; result, not the work to get to the result, as so many people have misconstrued & believe(d), including me.
Very interesting. Congrats. Her voice always resonates within her and actually in the audience as well. And yes, nowadays is portamenti all the time. 😅
I’m certainly in awe of Miss Callas’ instrument and ability. I very much enjoy watching and listening to her. That said, I don’t find her voice to be beautiful most of the time. It’s just a matter of personal taste and doesn’t mean I don’t believe her to have been absolutely extraordinary. My ears just find a sound like Montserrat Caballe’s so much more beautiful and pleasing. Sadly we don’t have singers like either of them around anymore. I don’t know enough about opera to understand why they changed the training singers receive. But even to me it is noticeable what we’ve lost in that choice
Maria Callas: Bel Canto is not Beautiful singing. It is a way of singing. Producing your instrument a sound that might not be too loud in sound but Penetrating. In other words you should never be afraid of having your chest voice. You must!
Thats a loaded answer..yes but the chest must NEVER be carried above f above middle C....and lower when possible. Maria went way above this on more than occasion....
@@jimbuxton2187 Well the chest must support the head and it should be. Or you will hear a howling sound like a modern opera singer which is very terrible to listen to
Love this analysis of Maria's vowels on one of my favorite arias. I notice certain vowels especially oh's she widens the mouth placement horizonally. And the high is more of a vertical placement with the soft palette very high and open. Coaches generally do not encourage horizonal placement but sometimes it is nice. Renee Fleming places vowels horizonally often creating a warm color to her timber.
Is it possible that her different "a"s and generally her vowels are related to her mother tongue, accent and pronunciation? Greek language has very clean vowels
I have been taking bel canto lessons for about a year, and I fully endorse how healthy the technique is. I used to fatigue my voice on occasion, and my last teacher exacerbated the issue by encouraging me to sing very loudly. It began to wreck my voice quite honestly, but this past year studying bel canto with an excellent teacher has given me back my voice (plus an extra fifth!).
If her technique is so great, then why does the voice always sound unnaturally hooded and impure? I don’t question her artistry, but definitely the technique, particularly given the lack of vocal beauty and the very short career.
Because Callas belongs to the Old Schooling which as per her, does not exist anymore. Trained by Elvira De Hidalgo, emphasizing that chest voice must be used as support to the Head voice. Chiaroscuro singing. Sadly as i hear your way to sing it, you sing modernly. Nasal and little to no participation of chest voice in the upper register. It's not the old school way.
Callas' technique was kind of intermediate between 'schools' of singing and also somewhat idiosyncratic. This is Opera channel, that you're clearly inspired by, released a video criticizing the "prime" Callas since she wouldn't adhere to all of their dogmas. Ever since they went offline, it hasn't been reuploaded by a Callas fan who created "This is opera archive" channel. Yet the claims, reasoning and examples presented there were consistent with the rest of their material. Callas was not simply and old school singer.
That's somehow true. I mean, I think I understand what you say and I agree that all voice is supported by chest voice, otherwise in a high note you'll have a thin, weak and probably awful sound without the chest support. The thing is, notes, high and low are not procuded vertically, but diagonally... A lower note is produced a bit forward and down in the "mask" and the high note more at the back, in upper position... So it's more a matter of creating space for it to come through. This is how it should be made. If one thinks the sound vertically, it wouldn't be able to properly sing the high note. It will crack, because the note will not be find there. The secret of bel canto is indeed to manage the chest tones, passaggio and high notes, always with chest participation. If you listen to Callas chest tones, you will see they are always placed... It's not like she does this incredible chest notes like a contralto would do, they are always sul fiato. Always. This is the only way... And yes, unfortunately you can't find it anymore. Not that is old schooling... It's the only schooling. Unfortunately there is no schooling anymore, as you can find here in RUclips in so many masterclasses that are just painful to watch. Those who know nothing can't teach... And they don't know because they were not thought, so it's actually not their fault... An uneducated public will never demand. And so things will keep going down. It's like that in all art forms. That's why a banana with adhesive tape can be considered art nowadays. In opera, we have so many bananas alike these days.
![Blox Fruits Dragon Rework Update [Full Stream]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/EqDAp8udhm0/mqdefault.jpg)
I love the way you are explaining everything, thank you so much. Never stop doing this ❤
Your analysis of Maia Callas singing "Casta Diva" was spot-on! Maria Callas was pure perfection! She well deserves the iconic status she has!!
I would'nt say pure perfection. ...I would say pure MAGIC !
Callas’ temperament was essentially dramatic. I wonder if she instinctively gravitated to and developed a technique that produced a lot of squillo because the squillo allowed her to express what she felt inside. I saw her longtime pianist in an interview and he said, if you listen closely, she gave so much of herself that she always sang just a little bit sharp.
Callas choosed her vocal colors. For Norma she is a superor woman, and a dramatic soprano, she keeps her medium voice covered and dark. For Rosina, she add light and joy, she opens her A and makes the vowels clearer. She managed perfectly (at that time) her passagio between chest and head voice, not mixing the registers, but hiding the break by a little cover. I am not sure she breathed very low. It seems she uses her back and ribs. She could paint the whole range of colours.
Great Analysis. Thank you for sharing. Even as a tenor, these techniques can help
Glad it was helpful!
Great reaction video with interesting input when analysing Callas technique! I wouldn't necessarily explain her placement as "The Callas effect" though, it's just a matter of her having the similar great technique as Birgit Nilsson, Jussi Björling, Victoria de Los Angeles, Franco Corelli, Renata Tebaldi etc did - keeping that bright, open, clear and resonating space in the sides of the back of the throat. It's supposed to be like a horizontal rectangle in back of your throat that is achived through a deep inhalation in the lower back. When you keep that space at all times, always shaping your lips around that you get that full, clear, warm sound that resonates in every direction.
This is very hard to describe and teach bur is nonetheless an essential part of the bel canto technique. Today most opera singers learn to sing in a way with less space in the sides of the back of the throat and more space in the top part of the palette, but that makes the sound more narrow, less resonating, less clear and it loses it's brilliance. The chiaro in the chiaro-scuro is more lost and the singer's unique tone along with it. The voice will sound less full, less connected to the body with less core. The vibrato can even become wobbly because of the tension that is created by having all that air pressure with too little of a space. Most teachers don't teach it in school's anymore. It's very hard to understand how you have to shape the throat and lips in order to keep the ultimate clarity, resonance and integrity of the vowels, especially the closed ones like eh, u or even oo, but Callas does it perfectly here. So it IS achievable. The easiest way for me to access it has been keeping the vowels more speachlike with more graceful transitions between vowels do that the consonants isn't making you lose space as well. Then you get a more smile-like mouth shape like Callas has here when you think more natural, speachlike vowels and not narrowed ones. You pretty quickly notice that you need to shape the lips around the space in the back in order to keep it just like Callas does here.
If you want to know more about this I recommend my voice teacher maestro Michael Trimble who still teaches at 86, has a great vocal technique book and very informative videos here on RUclips. He was the student of Jussi Björling, Mario del Monaco, Helge Rosswaegner, Olga Ryss and gas also sunf with Birgit Nilsson among others. He's incredible, he's devoted his life to having this golden age bel canto opera technique to be preserved. I'm very passionate about this to and that's why I wanted to share.
Thank you so much for typing this out! I clicked on the video because I'm always looking for input to improve my technique and your comment was more useful to me than the actual video (no disrespect intended - it's very individual which snippet of information can be helpful at a certain point in a singer's evolution). I luckily have found a great teacher and she's been trying to explain to me how to use the area in the back of the throat that you describe, but the way you put it made it more plastic for me. Definitely going to look into your teacher's book!
How delicious to hear both of you 2!!!
Something very important to remember about Maria Callas singing is that she was able to scale down her voice when using a microphone and she knew she was being video taped so she was calculating what the ppl would see. In the theater she would use more voice and respond to the music and other singers. It's so amazing to listen to the early Callas recordings when she would sing in the style of Ponselle and Raisa and then would change in order to sing high roles such as Il Puritani, Lucia and Armida using dark tones. I think she knew that the old way of singing was boring and the future would require a use of the voice that would not only be beautiful but be real and at the same time never lose the musical value, and the composer's style. I believe that to her was the meaning of Opera and Belcanto.
In the first phrases she interprets the marcatti written in the score, hence the feeling you describe. Bellini as an exponent of Bel Canto, composed the cavatina in a very dance like manner, hence the voice line needs to accent the beat. And mind you, she was a dramatico coloratura soprano, her low notes were heftier than most sopranos. As for the cadenza, Vaccaj holds the secret!
My favourite aria sang by Callas is " L'altra notte in fondo al mare". Probably the best rendition, just perfect.
love the analysis..since I was inspired by callas to learn how to sing bel canto I have analyzed thoroughly callas technique.. she does not open her mouth too much. Sings with a small focus and does not have that yawny sound most opera singers have that I find repelling but she keeps it forward , direct and mostly in her nose which gives it the squillo with air always moving the vibrations forward and does not over breathe but economizes the use of air.. although I have had many coaches/ teachers my greatest teacher has always been callas .. the vocal coaches always taught over breathing ,opening the mouth wide in the ah position which I found uncomfortable and unnatural so I choose to follow Callas technique which I find is conducive to singing easily with natural expression.
I agree with everything you said except that i do not think really puts the sound in her nose... i understand what you mean since her voice has that focus but i think she achieves that without holding it in the nose. she said her first teacher Trivella taught the french method which DID keep the voice in the nose and that De Hidalgo worked to undo that when she started studying with her
If she kept it forward and majorly in the nose, her voice would be small, nasal & constricted. You literally cannot get squillante by singing in the nose at all. Instead of a squillo sound, you’ll get a squeezed sound. I did exactly that, & all it did was block off proper airflow, make me completely nasal & over-bright; no darkness in the sound at all; completely white toned. This method hinders the voice, & can potentially damage it. That’s why we have all of these small, nasal, overly bright opera singers w/no balance in their sound.
What Callas did was sing w/a low larynx, open pharynx, create an extreme amount of chest voice to get the foundation, core & strength the sound needed & certainly had. She had plenty of chiaroscuro, incredible breath management, excellent vowel formation, moderately dropped jaw, round lips, & proper positioning of the tongue to get the sound bigger, richer & darker.
This isn’t something you will ever achieve by means of placement, but from all the other things I listed. Placement is merely a perception; nothing but sympathetic vibrations as a result of correct breath work, vowel shaping & development of individual registers. This is supported by many old school opera singers/teachers, including that of Richard Miller. Keyword; result, not the work to get to the result, as so many people have misconstrued & believe(d), including me.
thank you 💐
Very interesting. Congrats. Her voice always resonates within her and actually in the audience as well. And yes, nowadays is portamenti all the time. 😅
I’m certainly in awe of Miss Callas’ instrument and ability. I very much enjoy watching and listening to her. That said, I don’t find her voice to be beautiful most of the time. It’s just a matter of personal taste and doesn’t mean I don’t believe her to have been absolutely extraordinary. My ears just find a sound like Montserrat Caballe’s so much more beautiful and pleasing. Sadly we don’t have singers like either of them around anymore. I don’t know enough about opera to understand why they changed the training singers receive. But even to me it is noticeable what we’ve lost in that choice
Maria Callas: Bel Canto is not Beautiful singing. It is a way of singing. Producing your instrument a sound that might not be too loud in sound but Penetrating. In other words you should never be afraid of having your chest voice. You must!
Thats a loaded answer..yes but the chest must NEVER be carried above f above middle C....and lower when possible. Maria went way above this on more than occasion....
@@jimbuxton2187 Well the chest must support the head and it should be. Or you will hear a howling sound like a modern opera singer which is very terrible to listen to
Love this analysis of Maria's vowels on one of my favorite arias. I notice certain vowels especially oh's she widens the mouth placement horizonally. And the high is more of a vertical placement with the soft palette very high and open. Coaches generally do not encourage horizonal placement but sometimes it is nice. Renee Fleming places vowels horizonally often creating a warm color to her timber.
Is it possible that her different "a"s and generally her vowels are related to her mother tongue, accent and pronunciation? Greek language has very clean vowels
I have been taking bel canto lessons for about a year, and I fully endorse how healthy the technique is. I used to fatigue my voice on occasion, and my last teacher exacerbated the issue by encouraging me to sing very loudly. It began to wreck my voice quite honestly, but this past year studying bel canto with an excellent teacher has given me back my voice (plus an extra fifth!).
You're truly wonderful, Freya❤ I cannot find the link to your ebook about breathing...
What's Freya's favorite part? What timestamp? Also, how long have you lived in Germany? What year?
*Edit:* What part of Germany? 🇩🇪
I was born in Germany and have lived here almost my entire life, except for the seven years I lived and studied voice in the U.S.
If her technique is so great, then why does the voice always sound unnaturally hooded and impure? I don’t question her artistry, but definitely the technique, particularly given the lack of vocal beauty and the very short career.
Hi please MATTEO BOCELLI & David Garret Violinist - Ave Maria in italian
Because Callas belongs to the Old Schooling which as per her, does not exist anymore. Trained by Elvira De Hidalgo, emphasizing that chest voice must be used as support to the Head voice. Chiaroscuro singing. Sadly as i hear your way to sing it, you sing modernly. Nasal and little to no participation of chest voice in the upper register. It's not the old school way.
Callas' technique was kind of intermediate between 'schools' of singing and also somewhat idiosyncratic. This is Opera channel, that you're clearly inspired by, released a video criticizing the "prime" Callas since she wouldn't adhere to all of their dogmas. Ever since they went offline, it hasn't been reuploaded by a Callas fan who created "This is opera archive" channel. Yet the claims, reasoning and examples presented there were consistent with the rest of their material. Callas was not simply and old school singer.
That's somehow true. I mean, I think I understand what you say and I agree that all voice is supported by chest voice, otherwise in a high note you'll have a thin, weak and probably awful sound without the chest support. The thing is, notes, high and low are not procuded vertically, but diagonally... A lower note is produced a bit forward and down in the "mask" and the high note more at the back, in upper position... So it's more a matter of creating space for it to come through. This is how it should be made. If one thinks the sound vertically, it wouldn't be able to properly sing the high note. It will crack, because the note will not be find there. The secret of bel canto is indeed to manage the chest tones, passaggio and high notes, always with chest participation. If you listen to Callas chest tones, you will see they are always placed... It's not like she does this incredible chest notes like a contralto would do, they are always sul fiato. Always. This is the only way... And yes, unfortunately you can't find it anymore. Not that is old schooling... It's the only schooling. Unfortunately there is no schooling anymore, as you can find here in RUclips in so many masterclasses that are just painful to watch. Those who know nothing can't teach... And they don't know because they were not thought, so it's actually not their fault... An uneducated public will never demand. And so things will keep going down. It's like that in all art forms. That's why a banana with adhesive tape can be considered art nowadays. In opera, we have so many bananas alike these days.
@@ksionc100 what were some of those criticisms?
The high tongue in the back adds more resonance to the sound. It also loosens the tongue.
What da hec R U talkin' about? 16:17
I was talking about her lips being in a slight smile position, therefore not covering her teeth.