Transcriber: Robert Tucker Reviewer: Melina Wolaniuk
The sound of the modern opera singer
has its origins in the heinous act of castrating ten-year-old boys.
What exactly do I mean by this, and what is a castrato anyway?
Well, if we look to popular culture, there are a few references.
For example, in the popular film series 'Pirates of the Caribbean',
Jack Sparrow describes Will Turner as a castrato,
even commenting on his 'lovely singing voice'.
Or perhaps you're 'Game of Throne' fans,
and you're familiar with the dry sarcasm of the eunuch, Varys.
It's not known when castration
for the purposes of singing came into being.
But castrati, or eunuchs, have been a part of human culture
since ancient civilizations.
For example, in the Byzantine court,
they would frequently castrate their male servants,
so that they could not be involved in any scandalous activities
with the royal ladies.
So let me take you back in time.
You're no longer in the Theatre Royal in Glasgow,
you're in the Theatre Royal in London,
and it's 1774.
You're waiting for the leading man to come out on stage,
and as he comes out,
you notice that he does not look like an ordinary man,
rather he's very tall, he has very long limbs,
and he has a massive barrel chest and no facial hair.
And as he opens his mouth to sing,
what comes out is not the sound of a man,
nor of a woman:
it is none other than the operatic castrato.
And as he sings, you cry and you cheer,
for he is the star of the operatic stage.
But his voice can only exist by a man-made creation,
by cutting off those parts
that would allow him to lead an ordinary life
of marrying and having children.
And while the sacrifice may seem so little now that he's an operatic star,
it's so much, not just to the person, but the future of opera singing.
And this is because the popularity of the castrato was so vast
that every singer, no matter if they were a non-castrated man or a woman,
had to match the vocal quality and sound of their castrated colleagues
by utilizing the same training techniques.
So, what did a castrato sound like?
Well, we only have one recording,
the last castrato, Alessandro Moreschi, from 1922.
But he was not an opera singer, rather he sang for the Sistine Chapel.
Even so, it is a glimpse
into what one of these creatures may have sounded like.
(Audio recording of Alessandro Moreschi
singing the Bach/Gounod setting of the 'Ave Maria')
[Audio recording ends]
An odd sound indeed.
Hard to imagine why it would be so popular.
And yet, if you listen closely, you can hear many of the techniques
that modern opera singers will utilize to achieve their recognizable sound.
(Sings beginning of the 'Ave Maria')
(Applause)
Thank you. Talks not over yet!
So, to achieve this sound
what I have to do,
is I lift the soft palate at the back of my mouth
to create an open throat.
I then breathe deeply into my core,
which allows the air to come up fast and furious
for maximum projection into the back of the theatre.
At the same time, I have to do this while keeping relaxed in my body,
as any amount of tension
could cause damage to the tiny muscles that surround my larynx.
And the reason why I do this
is that I've been told throughout my many years of training
that this is the most natural way to sing.
But the sound I'm producing is not natural at all;
rather it has come down to me from the 18th century castrato.
In Britain, prior to the popularity of the castrati,
they prized a much more diverse colour palette, or sound palette,
similar to our modern pop stars.
But now modern opera singers, by and large, sound the same,
with only a few differences in vocal timbre
that can make them distinguishable.
And I liken this to modern female bodybuilders,
where, by and large, their muscle definition and tone
is the same between each bodybuilder,
but differences in their hair and makeup make them distinguishable.
Now, there are a few famous singers who have succumb to extreme vocal issues,
such as vocal nodules,
which if left untreated can result in the loss of the singing voice entirely,
or can even turn cancerous.
Singers such as a Adele, Russell Watson and Julie Andrews
have all developed vocal nodules throughout their career.
And while Adele and Watson have had these successfully operated on,
Julie Andrews was not as lucky.
And many will say that the reason for the development of these vocal nodules
is down to bad vocal training or no vocal training at all.
However, Luciano Pavarotti, he developed vocal nodules early in his career,
which forced him to consider giving up singing entirely.
But as soon as he made this decision, the vocal nodule disappeared.
This allowed him to realize that it was nothing to do with his physical voice,
rather it was the psychological pressure to sing consistently well.
Typically, opera singers will endure 10 to 15 years of intensive vocal training
with few actually achieving a successful career,
and fewer still achieving star-studded status.
And we can see this in the castrati as well.
For all the thousands of boys
who were castrated throughout the 18th century in Italy,
only a few would actually develop a good enough voice
in order to consider an operatic career.
This meant that the majority of boys,
they would go throughout their life
without the hope of having a career or the family.
But many would end up becoming music teachers or vocal teachers,
or they would work in the Church.
But there's one thing that has not come down to us
from the castrati vocal education.
And that is that they constantly promoted
that each individual singer should understand the limitations of their voice
and utilize the techniques
in order to develop the unique and individual qualities of their voice.
It was never expected that every singer would sound the same,
nor that every singer would give the same performance
every night of their career.
That expectation has come down to us
from the 20th century invention of recorded technology.
But singers should be prized for their individuality
and their creative talent.
And giving singers the freedom to adapt live performance
to suit the unique qualities of their voice depending on night
will relieve the expectation of unrealistic consistency.
The castrati may have been physically castrated,
but the modern opera singer is psychologically castrated.
And this demands a change in cultural expectation
where individuality is prized over conformity.
Thank you very much.
(Applause)