CONCLUSIONS AND REFLEXIONS
It is obvious that my type of voice is the typical example of a light tenor (tenore leggero). For this reason, my use of the chest voice in the high register is less present than when used by other type of tenors (such as lyrical tenors, Heldentenöre etc.). This does not mean that I reach the high register with full falsetto. Even for a light tenor like me the high register must be achieved in head voice, which is for the modern singers, and contrary to the opinion of García mentioned in the chapter two, a different register to the falsetto. It is for these reasons that my type of voice is considered “optimal” or “appropriate” for the interpretation of Händel's music. It should be taken into account that the experiment presented in this research could show a bigger difference between both singing techniques if a more “dramatic” voice were involved. My voice, due to its natural conditions, reminds to the ideal of bel canto voice, even when using the modern singing principles. However, there is not a real use of the bel canto technique. It is a reminiscence ─ heritage ─ of this technique, but not a real use of it. Furthermore, the aesthetic created through the years around the interpretation of baroque bel canto repertoire would not allow me to deliver music under the technical conditions described in this paper. No audience, no conductor or no critic would accept, for example, that a tenor goes into the full falsetto function in the high register. However, at the same time, nobody would assume that a “dramatic” voice with pure romantic technique is “appropriate” for the interpretation of Händel. The solution is then a “middle point”: light voices with a well-balanced use of chest voice and head register. This is indeed an adjustment to our modern technique in order to imitate the ideal of sound that the bel canto singers of the past might had.
The non-acceptance of pure bel canto technique forces us sometimes to take other solutions to perform Händel music. I experienced this situation myself. One year ago I was singing the before mentioned role of Tiridate from the opera Radamisto, in a production of the Dutch National Opera Academy and the Residentie Orkest. As I wrote in the third chapter, this role was written in a very high tessitura, probably because the diapason used by Händel on that time was around A4 = 380Hz. However, the production I sang used a diapason of A4 = 442Hz. which made the whole role extremely challenging to sing. The presence of a modern orchestra forced me to keep the strong resonated voice achieved through the modern singing technique, but the tessitura of the whole role compromised the solidity of the vocal sound in a role with three arias (two of them with the accompaniment of trumpets and horns) and many recitatives. The solution taken by the artistic direction was to transport one tone down the arias accompanied by brass instruments. With this solution, the modern singing technique ─ and the strong vocality associated to it ─ could be used without putting the singer in a vulnerable situation. As it can be appreciated in the following audio, the singing technique used for the performance was indeed the modern one, without any change into falsetto register, and with a low breathing process in order to obtain a supported and well-resonated sound. The aria is performed though in C-Major instead of in D-Major.
On that sense, the “appropriate” sound for Händel is more a matter of taste and aesthetics than a result of a purely informed singing praxis and/or implementation of the bel canto technique. It is possible to apply this situation to an extreme example: In this recording of 1962, the German tenor Fritz Wunderlich sings Händel’s “Ombra mai fu”, from the opera Xerxes. Since Händel was never part of Wunderlich’s repertoire, we can appreciate the use of pure Romantic singing technique; as he did to perform other composers like Mozart, Schumann or Strauss. However, Wunderlich adapts slightly his technique by not using the whole volume of the voice, and even reducing the use of the chest voice once the passaggio region is achieved, creating a softer and lighter sound than the one he produced when he sang later repertoire.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U3Cf8WMESo
What makes an old recording of Fritz Wunderlich no more appropriate for the actual canon of interpretation? Is it only a matter of change of musical taste? Is it about the singing technique? Until what point is it legitimate to use modern technique for the baroque singing?
All these questions become even more complicated when we talk about the second Golden Age of bel canto (19th century). In the second chapter of this research, I mentioned a wonderful moment in the middle of the 19th century, when the bel canto technique (embodied by Rubini), and the modern technique (with Duprez as its principal representation) cohabitated. I talked as well about the opera I puritani and the tenor part of Arturo, composed by Bellini specifically for Rubini. In that role, during the aria “credeasi misera”, Bellini wrote an F5!! for the tenor; an almost unreachable tone for any singer with modern singing technique. For that reason, almost all the tenors nowadays avoid this passage, substituting the F for a D5. However, what happens when the tenor decides to sing the original tone? Which is the legitimate way of performing it? I would like to finish my research with three examples of three of the best tenors from the last time singing this fragment, F5 included. It is important to notice that a D5 is sung some bars before the F. It is interesting to compare the technique used to perform the previous D5 with the technique chosen to sing the high F. All audios are linked to the moment just before the high D. The high F comes some seconds later.
The first example, the unforgettable Luciano Pavarotti, using pure falsetto (min. 4:51).
https://youtu.be/YTRgtTxM8cU?t=267
The second one, Niccolai Gedda, with a more supported falsetto than Pavarotti, closer to the before mentioned falsettone (min. 4:53)
https://youtu.be/9w_TTK7UP1c?t=269
The third audio, from the American tenor Gregory Kunde, singing the high F in full voice (4:37)
https://youtu.be/er4qNTCHZBI?t=253
Gregory Kunde was by the time of that recording the lighter tenor from all three, being a priori, for the reasons mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, the more appropriate singer for the role of Arturo. On that sense, he was the only one “allowed” to use his natural full voice for the high tone, without the need of “faking” it with falsetto, like Pavarotti or Gedda. Nonetheless, after the information given in this text: which recording could be considered more authentic? Are all three versions examples of pure bel canto? Or better said… what is exactly bel canto?