Unit 5 | Opera Ethnography
Although Opera is accepted as a prestigious art form, this wasn’t always the case. Operatic singing emerged around the end of the 16th century but didn’t fully take off until the 17th century. New developments in vocals put heavy demand on singers, now they had to be actors as well. This required them to learn new skills and opened opportunities to become famous. Opera singers paved the way for “star culture” that is so heavily ingrained in our society and the media today. Singers are idolized and have loyal fans whose support funds their lives. What makes them so loved by fans is their power and ability to overwhelm people with emotions simply through the sound of their voice. People were drawn to this power and emotion regardless of social class, and it was through Opera that social hierarchies were broken down. Suddenly, the power of voice allowed people to see past social class and brought people together. I find this culture very interesting, because I love the power of music. I love the idea of people coming together and being emotionally attached to a sound, especially when it comes to Opera, you can’t fully understand the lyrics, so it genuinely is the heavenly sound of the voice that takes ages to perfect that can move an entire audience.
I gathered information for this cultural analysis through observing an interview with two operatic singers and by witnessing an operatic voice lesson during our lectures this week. In the interview, one of the singers gave her life story and explained how she got into singing Opera, since it is a genre that is very unique and not commonly explored by younger generations, or so I thought. The interview gave me a look into how people get into the art form, while the voice lesson showed me the dedication and the necessary attention to detail Opera requires. The aspects of this culture represent nature vs. discipline and how one takes control of their own voice. While singers are usually drawn to their talents at a young age, it takes practice and dedication to fine tune those talents.
The culture surrounding Opera is intense and dynamic. Before attending these lectures, I didn’t have much knowledge around the art and its practices, but its influence is still relevant today. In the beginning stages of Opera, there was a desire to have a higher-pitched voice, but women weren’t allowed to perform at the time. In order to achieve the feminine voice aesthetic, men would have themselves castrated before fully developing in order to stunt their vocal development. Today, these expectations of how certain voices should sound and what is determined feminine or masculine are still around. Stereotypes and expectations surrounding certain voices limit artists even today. For example, black artists are often limited to the hip-hop genre, and some well known singers have felt restricted to auto-tune to please the masses. Although this isn’t exactly the same, it is interesting how culture and societal expectations are reflected through music.
From the interview in class on Monday with a trained Opera singer, I learned how dedicated singers have to be starting at an early age. She was given voice lessons starting in 5th grade, and in 9th grade was introduced to the idea of singing in an operatic style, but was hesitant at first because Opera seems scary and weird to the average person. Once she accepted the idea that her voice called for Opera, she discovered she was a soprano due to the range in her voice. She described her intimate lessons with her teacher almost like a mentor. Vocal coaching is taught one-on-one, and is very personalized to the learning style of the singer. She emphasized the fact that singers are vessels to some other force that flows through them, and how she had to learn to suppress emotion in order to accurately express that same emotion. This concept confused me, but also made me realize how in tune you have to be with your body aside from just your vocal chords when it comes to singing Opera and conveying the right message.
Through observing the voice lesson in our lecture on Wednesday, I got to witness just how personalized these lessons are. Personally, I have never had voice lessons other than maybe a vocal coach doing a group warm-up for a musical I was in as a child, but never a committed one-on-one session like this. The vocal coach was noticing very small details I never would have thought to adjust. For example, they describe the “mona lisa smile,” which is a subtle way to change the muscles in your face to better control specific emotions and sounds in the voice.
Overall, it was heavily emphasized that the body of the singer is the sight through which culture is materialized and expressed. Both of these experiences, the interview and the voice lesson, helped me understand the voice as a mode of storytelling and a way to depict emotion. Through the exploration of operatic singing I have learned how difficult it is to control your voice and the dedication it requires in time, practice, and soul searching in order to truly express a story through the sound of your voice.