Technique for the Coloratura Soprano

I am writing this article as I have had quite a few demoralised coloraturas in this studio who feel things are not quite right and want to find out why and I thought I should post something on my website. There seems to be very little technical information out there for them and I hope this helps a bit. A coloratura voice in perfect acoustic balance is a wonderful thing!

What are the problems associated with training a coloratura voice that has been trained as a lyric soprano?

It is not unusual for coloratura voices to have been trained as lyrics. This really doesn’t work at all well since the coloratura voice does not release into the head at the same place as the lyric voice does. The lyric voice passaggio is lower than that of the coloratura voice. The coloratura passaggio is around A flat and the lyric is at around F sharp.

It is not at all helpful for the coloratura to look for what she perceives to be lyric colour in the sound at around the F sharp, as in order to do it she will tend to employ some of the techniques which have unsatisfactory results as follows:-

The singer will be able to hear her voice very well in her inner ear but, the instrument will not feel free and beauty of tone and interpretive freedom will be compromised in repertoire.

If the coloratura pushes at notes in the scale up to her passaggio then too much weight is bought up the voice and this can make some voices very unwieldy.

Tightening the mouth at the corners, known as the smile technique, cannot help a singer find vocal freedom. Pulling the mouth at the corners produces tensions in the throat and drives the sound tightly into the singer’s ear. Singers need to feel their sound not listen to it in order to acquire vocal freedom in a range of repertoire.

Sometimes the singer will say that they have attempted to keep the larynx low in the middle voice but in practise what has happened is the throat is squeezed and the back of the neck is tight. A singer should never attempt to keep the larynx low. The aim should be to allow the larynx freedom; it is incorrect to say that the larynx must be held still in one place. It needs to move slightly between notes and to do that the throat must not be tight. The larynx will feel neither low nor high. Keeping the throat free should be every singer’s goal.

To sum up the G has to be in balance with the top of the voice and must be narrow and not spread. The mouth needs to be in the oval position (oval from top to bottom) and without any tension at the corners. The coloratura needs to have her mouth open enough in the middle of the voice to be able to find balance of registration in all the vowels. She should not generally need to open her mouth more till the A flat.

How should a coloratura voice be trained?

The most common problem for the coloratura voice is how to bring in the middle of the voice in balance with the top. It is absolutely essential that Coloratura voices have exercises available to them that help bring the brilliance down from the top of the voice right down through the voice on the thin edges of the cords. Then the voice can be balanced. The coloratura soprano is the female equivalent of the Leggiero Tenor.

The Garcia Cuperto exercise is so useful but only when it is worked with accurately over a period of time. It helps to realign the whole coloratura voice even in the most difficult circumstances of vocal misuse.

The singer will find that the body will need gradually to feel the way to work in a gentle stretching way which does not overload the throat with sudden bursts of pressure breath pressure. There needs to be a steady small stream of breath and this can only come into play as the body feels its own internal ability to stretch the breathe gently and strongly but not aggressively.

The singer will find that she needs to check how much she is spreading the mouth from side to side and release into a more oval shape (that is with the long oval axis from top to bottom). This enables the muscles of neck and jaw and tongue to release. The singer needs to feel for the ring in her sound. This does not come in by trying to place the sound forward. The ring is arrived at by releasing the sides of the mouth and encouraging the body to engage on the appoggio. It is appropriate co ordination with the body that keeps the throat open and at the same time closes the cords to create phonation.

This process gradually creates sound which will carry and have colour but without tightening up at the neck and jaw and tongue. Gradually the colour will come in but without the weight. Before the colour does come in the coloratura will probably not like the sound – most often she finds it at first unsatisfying as she cannot hear her voice in her inner ear as she did before. It will sound thin to her at first most probably but as she progresses the voice will feel easier and emotionally freer in repertoire than before.

The singer can be unaware of the extent of this muscling up of the throat that can be caused by too much spreading of the mouth from side to side, and general jaw and neck tension. This tension causes a cutting off of the correct communication between body and voice so that the whole mechanism cannot flow properly and the voice is not sufficiently hooked up the body. So it is a question of coordinating things. Careful recalibration of the body - voice connections will generally help a voice shine in repertoire and solve most vocal problems.

Some voices have a tremendous natural ability for fioratura. As this type of voice matures though this rapid note singing can sometimes be achieved on a bit too much squeeze and breath. In other words the voice will be getting bigger without the body knowing how to accommodate it. This usually acquires a release of pressure at the back of the neck and gentle and gradually deepening of the sense of co-ordination in the body.

Some coloraturas feel that they have very little sound in the middle of the voice and that the cords will not come together. This can encourage the singer then to spread the mouth in order to make colour from the throat and chest, with resulting over approximation of the vocal folds. They feel they have to do this in order to create colour in the sound. When this tongue pressure is released sometimes the vocal folds will not come together at all at first but as the voice and body feel their way forward on the correct work with the breathe then the voice will gradually release into it’s true colour. As the voice strengthens the chest tones will mix in without dragging the voice down at all.

Where is the upper passaggio for coloratura?

The upper passaggio is at around A flat. They have another release around C on into the high extension.

Coloraturas trained as mezzos!

It is not uncommon for coloratura voices to be mistakenly trained as mezzos as sometimes there can be a long extension right down towards the C below middle C. Training this voice as a mezzo is achieved by unhealthy neck and tongue, and body tension. If it is persisted in the voice can be severely damaged which takes time, patience and the right exercises to undo so that the voice can come into its own.

Does a coloratura voice mature as other voices and sing heavier repertoire and what happens to the voice at menopause?

Coloraturas can move into the dramatic soprano repertory depending on the weight of the instrument and as it matures can acquire more colour and depth naturally so long as the voice is kept in balance. It is not always easy for professional singers who are travelling and singing in different venues all the time to keep this balance.

The voice needs to be kept in balance up to and through menopause or the difficulties associated with menopause, such as dryness and los of range, are magnified. Even if there has been lack of vocal balance through and up to the menopause, the voice can be put back into balance and the top can come back with patient work. David Jones has found this to be so many times and I am seeing these problems alleviated in my studio too with this work. It is important the voice be worked every day carefully to keep it supple. Any kind of gentle stretching exercise such as yoga is also very beneficial.

Ann de Renais - Coloratura Soprano

Ann de Renais

The real depth of understanding of this type of voice I first started to gain from listening to David Jones’ teaching Ann de Renais which I have always been grateful that I was allowed to audit. I have continued to develop my teaching instincts from my own performing career and through my work teaching in my studio and David has always been incredibly generous with his own experience and knowledge of the Garcia principles which underpins my technical work. It was these exercises with which Garcia trained so many great singers of his day.

What are some suggestions for exercises for the coloratura?

It is always difficult to give exercises as always there will be a lot more to say and communicate in working with each individual singer that is impossible translate to paper. It is better on the other hand to write some thing than not at all, so here we are!

Umlaut ‘ü’ with the feeling of eh behind is a good concept to work on. Feel for the ‘eh’ as in the English word ‘met’ at the back between and behind the ears but without tongue pressure. The tongue should be left alone. Let the palate and tongue release wide as they wish to go. (try ‘ü’ with this feeling ‘1232123212321’). The ü helps the mouth stay in the oval shape in the front. Much is talked about lifting the palate but if this concept is taken too far it closes the throat at the back and sides. The palate needs to open in a balanced way up from side to side and front to back as well as up.

This concept can help the tongue release in the ‘ng’ position rather that forced onto it. The palate needs to release gently out each side between the ears with the tongue in the ‘ng’ position to help the nasal resonance gradually come in with a released tongue.

So, feeling the width across the check bones and throat and tongue make a soundless ‘ng’ just letting the body and tongue, neck and jaw release as much as you can. This may be a strange suggestion but if there is any rasping in the throat then the tongue is bunched up and needs to release. You can feel air come through your nose. How much tension can be released? There should be a gap between the teeth so that the jaw is not clamped. Feel for the lower back going back and the chest going forward in slow motion for the onset. Think of an easy mid voice pitch and gradually halfway through the out breath sing a note on the ‘ng’ softly and very gently. You should be able to go very simply from one to the other without any reactions except continual release in wide back of the neck as the body opens back and front as you sing the ‘ng’. See what reactions you get in the throat and jaw and tongue area.

Another suggestion is to sing the vowel in the English word ‘fir’ and then gradually bring that to the ‘ng’. Then combine the sounds ‘firngü’. Voicing the ‘f’ will help the body find the onset. The first vowel of this combination will help to keep the tongue released wide in the ‘ng’ and ‘ü’. It helps to flair the nostrils very slightly and also to gently place your fingers pressing gently just underneath the lower lip moving it gently from side to side. If the lower lip has a tendency to tense this will affect the throat and tongue and this is a way of helping this release with the gentle massage of your finger as you sing. This exercise helps registration balance. Move your head gently around a bit if the neck feels tense as you sing:-

Here are some case histories

Case 1

A really lovely singer a mature student, whose voice had become too spread, thick and squeezed in the middle. A lot of weight was being dragged up the voice. There was a beat in the voice which did not belong to it. There again she did not have the information as to where her passaggio was or how to deal with it and so was listening out to make the voice have acoustic release at the wrong place.

The top had become tight and short of some of the notes on the very top and the whole instrument was off the body. Attention needed to be given to freeing the neck and jaw and tongue so that the sides of the mouth and muscles under the jaw could release. The corners of the mouth were too drawn out to the side and this lowers the palate and tightens the tongue. When there is tension around this area then the body cannot coordinate with the voice. The larynx was very squeezed in the throat. Moving the head as if indicating ‘no’ or ‘yes’ while singing a combination of the reflexive exercises and the Cuperto were useful tools to help free the muscles. The throat gradually released open so that the voice found the ring. Instead of the lower ribs squeezing in tightly, they stretched gently wider, bringing an elasticity and freedom which reflected in the sound moving up and down on acoustic ring instead of squeeze. This allowed her real and considerable talent to shine.

Case 2

A lovely young singer with a very extensive range was trained as a lyric. This meant that this marvellous voice when under pressure was allowing too much air through the cords up to the G in the upper passaggio.

Sometimes the cords would come apart on the way down as too much muscle grabbed it. Coming down a scale and going back up are tricky as the voice needs to come down on ring and back up a gain on ring. If the neck tenses and the jaw grabs then the natural carrying qualities and colour of the voice are obscured and this is very obvious in Italian legato line or fast singing. This kind of instrument when it is young, and even if it does not have the right help will have the strength and range to get through many different types of repertoire as it will tolerate a lot of punishment. This does not help the quality and beauty of the instrument blossom into a good career in the correct repertory.

In order for this singer to progress the breath needed to be lower so that the body engaged. The voice then is able to float on a small stream of air allowing the jaw and neck to release and the larynx to tip in such a way that narrows the passaggio. To do so a singer needs reflexive exercises that allows her to feel this rather than intellectualise it.

Case 3

A very young singer came to me who had been mistakenly trained as a mezzo resulting in a condition known as diplophonia. This is a very emotionally upsetting situation for a singer to be in of course. This is a condition where a singer sings two or more notes at once. This is caused by an overload of squeeze from the back of the neck and tongue and jaw and the body pushing at the throat. This was the first time I had come across this in my studio and with David Jones advice I was able to know what to expect. The gentle healthy vocal reflexive exercises applied intelligently and patiently are what cured it.

Case 4

A talented music theatre singer who did not realise that she had very high extension on her voice. She was stuck singing low repertoire without any technique to bring the cords together and so there was a lot of air coming through the cords and the top of the voice had disappeared and singing was becoming uncomfortable and more and more limited. With work to release the tongue and jaw and bring the breath low, a very much larger range of repertoire and work is open to her. The voice opened up at the top because exercises took the pressure off the tongue and then she was able to bring the feeling from the very top all the way down and to feel what it means to keep the body open and the cords closed.