From the Met to Broadway: What are the stars doing when they cross genres?

De Brito performed a spectral analysis of fourteen singers. Ten were sopranos: five with a main career in Western classical singing, five in musical theatre. The other four were musical theatre belters. The author is looking at understanding what kinds of adjustments singers have to do to meet the requirements of the different styes of singing.

The study found little difference in the resonance strategies to middle voice between all the singers. Information around adaptations to vocal technique did emerge in looking at the upper head register and the lower chest register. Musical theatre singers tend to have more “hey” (F1/H2) resonance in their upper ranges while classical singers tend to have more “whoop” (F1/H1) resonance in the same range. From the chest register middle head register (G3 - C5), the singers use a wide variety of options for resonances across genres.

Resonance strategies are often predictable by the training of the singer as well as the style in which they are singing. Yet vowel modification choices vary from singer to singer. Identifying what causes the idiomatic features of classical and musical theatre singing can help singers crossover between multiple genres.

The author uses the examples of Audra McDonald as a classically trained singer working in musical theatre and Sarah Brightman as a musical theatre singer who sings classical music. “Comparing ones strategies to those of famous singers, who crossed over to sing similar repertoire, can be a learning experience.” I believe one of the goals of an intentional listening practice as a musician is to gather information about strategies used by performers working at arguably the highest level and then to translate them into your own music making. Information from technology like spectrum analyzers can also help to identify healthful, aesthetically pleasing, and stylistically appropriate approaches to their singing.