And in Madame Harshaw’s case, we’re still waiting for that to happen.

The clips suggests Kaufmann singing one way back then and another way now, but I don’t think we necessarily can draw the conclusion that “then” was right and “now” is wrong. It may be he is going to settle into an untraditional technique and sing for as long as it will work for him. Or he may continue to make adjustments as necessary, or, worst case scenario, he may “crash and burn,” as Lindoro puts it, with only 10 or 15 years of interesting, vital performances on the world’s most important opera stages to show for it.

I think excessive vocal technique talk is destructive to art; the only point of technique, after all, is to serve as a vehicle for expression. A lot of these singers that some around here are so quick to criticize as “lazy” or “unwilling to study” are in fact busy actually singing.

Then, I am going to refer you to the post where does a comparison.

I find it strange that you don’t take La Cieca’s point about your voice and his voice being entirely different things. To say that all voices develop roughly evenly over the same period is patently nonsense. Apart from all your own physical and environmental factors, it depends how much you use it too. And on top of all that is the fact that many singers manage a respectable career without ever getting the full potential out of their voices – not everybody gets the help they need to really release it fully.

But…why not just go into chest voice for this? Tebaldi sure as hell did.

Same reason Regina Resnik sang “You must investigeet Baghdad!”

Or La Cieca stills sings “Autumn in New York / Is often mingled with peen.”

Compare:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QXEjZqYhgQQ
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pUms5I_bYtY

His vocal approach is fundamentally changed – even when he sings the same rep.

His voice is overdarkened, overcovered and sounds unsupported and unfocused in this Don Carlo. His piano singing is a sort of “pop-music like” falsetto crooning, and his forte is a bellowed out scream with lots of cover to hide it up. Also he doesnt seem to sing more than mezzo forte anywhere lower than an G, therefore it seems like he undersings most of the time, then screams the high notes.

Try Armiliato if you want a good sounding Don Carlo today. He is drop-dead-ugly, but he delivers much more.

About a decade ago, I heard Kaufman as Alfredo and his voice seemed to be at the limit. How do you explain the Walters and the Lohengrins.

As you said, one’s voice was made for the rep, the other…

While we wait those 5 let us remember that we also wanted to give 5 minutes to Villazon to hear what he wanted to do, same thing with Carreras, Alvarez, Licitra, Cura, Susan Dunn, and many more.

let me know when the 5 are up.

While we also wait, let us also remember that “the voice” comes from 2 folds that are body parts and that unless something drastic happens to your body, they are not going to drastically change in a decade or less. My voice, your voice, anyone’s voice is what it is and the only way for it to change is to either let it mature naturally or change your vocal chords all together.

Now I have not heard about vocal chord transplant, so I will presume that what we hear from Jonas’ voice is the sound from his own vocal chords, the same ones that 10-12 years ago made him a Rossini and Mozart tenor of the first order, you know, the kind we’ve wanted to have since 9/17/66.

Now, given the fact that we have established that short of a complete body change (and Jonas has had the same hot-assed body since he was 25) 10 years are not a long time for the vocal chords to mature the way they seem to have; I will have to guess that there is some kind of manipulation going on to make the sound darker, richer and appear to be bigger. Where have we heard that before? I could swear that we have had that before… And what was the result?

Given the state of knowledge (or the lack thereof) in modern audiences, I think we should be a little more picky in who we choose to put in a pedestal. Given the amount of manipulation that we are subjected to by the corporations that have a stake of these artist’s recordings and appearances to sell out and sell well, I think we also have a responsibility not to appear uninformed (not my intention to call anyone dumb, or insult anyone, please do not be insulted, please) so at one point or another, these same corporations realize that we are a little more discerning that what they give us credit for and actually use their money in putting out talent worth adoring.

Are my 5 minutes up?