"You Were Born With a Great Voice" and Other Misconceptions (Prompt 10)

Savannah

If there is one thing that is almost always guaranteed to bring the “aww” factor to television, it’s young children. Clips from talent shows such as “America’s Got Talent” and “The X Factor” showcasing possible child stars singing their hearts out are constantly circulating Facebook. A subgenre of these talented kid performers is kid opera singers. Hearing children singing opera may make for a good two minutes of television—and it’s certainly nice to see younger people interested in classical music—there are many misconceptions perpetuated through these demonstrations.

Young Jackie Evancho performing Pie Jesu and Agnus Dei on America's Got Talent

Generally people will assume that opera is simply an easy style of singing that just sounds “wobbly.” The voice is a very delicate instrument that changes and fluctuates over time. Voices are not fully developed until well into one’s mid 20’s and even early 30’s. Truthfully, unless a child is singing an appropriate operatic/classical song for their age with close monitoring of technique they run the risk of damaging their voice permanently. Most often children will perform heavy arias like Puccini’s Nessun Dorma, completely unaware of the possible vocal tragedies that may ensue. As Jennifer Rivera states in her article On Child Singing Prodigies By a Former Nine Year Old “Opera Singer,” “The reason adult opera singers are able to use their voices in a way that demonstrates the extremes of what a voice is capable of is because they study and practice for years, with fully developed adult musculature, and build up over time to heavier and heavier repertoire.” Opera singers must train often yet carefully to be capable of performing the extremes of singing that they do, and while we are excited about children having an interest in opera, we want their vocal health maintained correctly, in a way that is not possible if they are on talent shows with teachers who are not educated enough on the style to preserve a young operatic voice.

Unfortunately, big-budget TV shows have consistently perpetuated these misconceptions, whether out of ignorance or out of purposeful exploitation in the pursuit of gaining more viewers. In an article for schmopera.com on Baby “Opera Singers” & Getting Angry for the Right Reasons, Jenna Simeonov brilliantly observed that “The producers [of America’s Got Talent and it’s subsequent knock offs] have discovered that a winning recipe is Young Singer with Decent Ears + Puccini + sweeping camera angles = crazed fans.” What she is getting at is that these television shows will amp up the wow factor of an opera aria or classical piece superficially through dramatic camera angles or lighting rather than allowing the music to provide it’s own stunning display through proper presentation and context.

A performance of Puccini's Turandot at the Lyric Opera of Chicago

This is not meant to sound snobbish or pretentious. If a young singer is interested in opera that’s amazing news and hopefully they will be trained in such a way that preserves their vocal cords. There simply lies an issue in thinking that these children are accurately and healthily presenting advanced and technically challenging arias and that opera is a simple singing style. Hopefully reading this will help to provide an understanding that opera is a wonderfully profound art form that many—including myself—study years and years to properly perform.

Through researching this topic I learned just how difficult it is to sing opera at a young age without damaging your voice. I knew that typically young singers performing arias should not be singing them because it can ruin their vocal cords, but I was unsure of just how much supervision from a voice teacher it takes. I learned most of that mainly through the Jennifer Rivera article, as she spoke from her own experience being an "opera singer" as a nine year old. I think it's very important for people to understand that not only is opera a legitimate, challenging art form, but also how important it is to maintain the vocal health of young singers, so as not to ruin their voices so early in life.