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Revealed: Why You Can't Understand What An Opera Soprano Is Singing
The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 1-8-2004 | Roger Highfield

Posted on 01/07/2004 5:08:09 PM PST by blam

Revealed: why you can't understand what an opera soprano is singing

By Roger Highfield, Science Editor
(Filed: 08/01/2004)

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.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: cant; opera; revealed; singing; soprano; understand
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To: muawiyah
The "text" is irrelevant in opera

Why?

21 posted on 01/07/2004 5:31:12 PM PST by bcoffey
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To: Beelzebubba
Noted your comment on the high prices for opera tickets ~ Indiana University School of Music in Bloomington Indiana has had opera going for over half a century. There are not just several performances per year, they have several different operas performed several times per year.

The ticket prices are quite reasonable and after I retire in the area I intend to attend as many performances as I can as long as I can.

22 posted on 01/07/2004 5:31:28 PM PST by muawiyah
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To: novacation
This old oxymoron NASCAR redneck loves Opera, and there is only one real American/British language opera which is Porgy and Bess.

Italians wrote the book with Opera, with the frogs and finally the Germans following.

I read the text, and watch the captions...and when it is La Boheme, get tears in my eyes every time.

23 posted on 01/07/2004 5:31:55 PM PST by oldtimer (t)
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To: bcoffey
Give me a break. Everybody knows why the text is unimportant. This is even more the case when you've seen the same opera 25 or 30 times! Then there are those times when you just "listen" to an opera for a couple of days.

I've even stood in the seats.

24 posted on 01/07/2004 5:33:38 PM PST by muawiyah
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To: muawiyah
The "text" is irrelevant in opera.

It is hard to move the drama along without some verbiage, perhaps in a poetic form.

25 posted on 01/07/2004 5:34:12 PM PST by RightWhale (Repeal the Law of the Excluded Middle)
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To: bcoffey
In the mask and from the diaphragm.
26 posted on 01/07/2004 5:37:58 PM PST by onedoug
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To: oldtimer
"Italian's wrote the book with opera". No argument there.Don't forget that Mozart wrote operas in German and Italian.
27 posted on 01/07/2004 5:38:18 PM PST by novacation
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To: oldtimer
This old oxymoron NASCAR redneck loves Opera

I didn't know there were two of us on the face of the earth and to find us both here on FR!

28 posted on 01/07/2004 5:39:59 PM PST by Maigret
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To: mrsmith
I don't understand most opera lyrics- but I never, never have trouble understanding Gilbert and Sullivan.

Indeed, some of their patter songs can move at a truly amazing clip while remaining quite understandable. Well, intellegible anyway.

29 posted on 01/07/2004 5:41:57 PM PST by supercat (Why is it that the more "gun safety" laws are passed, the less safe my guns seem?)
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To: Maigret
Hey wait! I'm a redneck too!
30 posted on 01/07/2004 5:42:21 PM PST by novacation
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To: Beelzebubba
Try Don Giovanni, Tosca and Wozzeck.
31 posted on 01/07/2004 5:42:21 PM PST by onedoug
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To: muawiyah
Everybody knows why the text is unimportant.

Everybody but the Met and all the other opera houses that have spent a fortune installing various captioning equipment.

32 posted on 01/07/2004 5:43:10 PM PST by Hon
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To: The Shrew
What's your better half think of this?
33 posted on 01/07/2004 5:43:56 PM PST by Seeking the truth (McDonald Clan - Hired Mercenary - Have Bullhorn - Will Shout for Brew!)
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To: Hon
Did you know the Life of Verdi is now available on DVD? 4 discs and about 7 hours running time, it aired originally on PBS years ago, then on Bravo and 4 hours were added to the DVD. You can get it for a great price at deepdiscountdvd.com, though our new sealed copy did have some annoying skips and pauses on some of the discs it was well worth watching.

I've just ordered the newer DVD of Don Carlos sung in French as he evidently meant it to be sung, can't wait to see it.

34 posted on 01/07/2004 5:45:26 PM PST by Maigret
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To: blam
This can't be half as bad as trying to distinguish pop lyrics over the din of the percussion.
35 posted on 01/07/2004 5:47:48 PM PST by Agnes Heep
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To: blam
Can't these sopranos just use loudspeakers? ;)
36 posted on 01/07/2004 5:48:38 PM PST by Frohickey
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To: blam
It was kind of stunning to realize that Charlotte Church was singing in English ("Tell Me What Love Is") in her treatment of Mozart's Voi Che Sapete. Must have listened to that CD four times before I realized I was hearing my native language on that cut.
37 posted on 01/07/2004 5:49:33 PM PST by VadeRetro
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To: oldtimer
... there is only one real American/British language opera which is Porgy and Bess.

The Mikado deserves better than this. So does The Pirates of Penzance.

38 posted on 01/07/2004 5:51:46 PM PST by VadeRetro
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To: Maigret
Did you know the Life of Verdi is now available on DVD?

No I didn't. Thanks. I saw it the first time around. Great photography. Amazing that so many places from his life remain unchanged.

I don't think most people realize what an important political figure Verdi was to the Italians. He did as much to bring about the Italian Republic as anybody.

39 posted on 01/07/2004 5:55:43 PM PST by Hon
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To: Hon
Those fortunes were wasted if the purpose was to make opera more understandable.
40 posted on 01/07/2004 5:55:47 PM PST by muawiyah
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