Coordination of Registers (Male and Female Soprano) – Old School vs. Modern Contralto/(Male) Soprano

The contralto/male soprano is one of the most misunderstood voices in opera today. Here, I show what the older technique sounded like, compared to the modern “gurgle-y“ sound of Marilyn Horne, Franco Fagioli, Cecilia Bartoli, etc. My best examples of good female Contralto singing are Clara Butt are Sigrid Onegin. I also use, as examples of good lower-mid register singing, the soprani: Emma Calvé, Rosa Ponselle, Adelina Patti, Luisa Tetrazzini, Kirsten Flagstad. Of male soprano singing, my examples are a boy soprano voice (from the Regensburger Domspatzen), Jon Vickers (ahah!), Alessandro Moreschi, and the two “pop“ singers Jeff Buckley and Klaus Nomi. What is amazing is how much Moreschi (a real male soprano) sounds like older female soprani, especially Adelina Patti (lyric soprano)! And the coordination of chest/head voice is essentially the same in all of my “good“ examples.