Could I be a "sfogato soprano"?

Question

It was a pretty long e-mail but here's part of it: Obviously there's still a distance to go in terms of technique, but you're apparently young and there will be time for that.

Your voice is exceptional! Compared to other coloratura sopranos your voice is uncommonly "full" in your middle and lower registers. Then there's that freakishly high range, which could categorise you as being a "sfogato soprano" (which is a sub-type of coloratura soprano). Sfogato is the highest standardised female voice type, it's main characteristic being that it is effortlessly high. Because it's so rare, not many people use it to describe voices anymore.

Examples of sfogato sopranos include Mariah Carey, Georgia Brown in contemporary singing.

In opera there's Erna Sack, Yma Sumac, and two of my favourite sopranos--Mado Robin and Lily Pons. Have you heard of either of those two before? They are the sort of sopranos I think you could develop into, with further training.

Answer 1

Having heard your voice (unless it has changed), I would say that you would most accurately be called an unsually high lyric soprano. I think that your voice is high but I think that it has a fullness and depth to it that a normal coloratora would not have. That is not a bad thing.



Sfogato is a term with very mixed definitions. Here is one definition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soprano_sfogato. You do not fit this definition. You do fit another defintion of Sfogato which is a soprano with an unusually high range.



The important thing is to remember that fach is about marketing. You are in a fach because your voice can draw people when singing the literature. You need to consider which roles you can sing the best and where they lie. Most female voices have some coloratora capability. Not every voice lives in coloratora or should avoid heavier lyric roles. A true coloratora would not sound good and would avoid a heavier lyric or fuller sound. And ultimately, if you can sell yourself well and have an interesting enough instrument, you can try to get pieces arranged around your voice.



A lyric tenor who sounds like a lyric tenor does not sing a high A (A5) just because they can. There probably is no market and they probably don't sound good there. A dramatic who decides to sing lyric literature is going to sound disconnected. A lyric who decides to sing dramatic literature is going to sound harsh and horrible if her voice survives. Sing to the best qualities of the instrument. It is not about what you can sing but what you sound best in.



Your voice has some potentials that other instruments don't. This is true of every voice. And given that you are in school (and really special), if you can find supporting teachers, you might want to experiment with what the instrument can really do. Try something different like rather than coloratora, take an uplifting regular soprano piece and transpose it up. Make it sound like a voice crying from heaven above but with a fullness that most coloratoras can't match.



Most coloratoras are high because their voices are light and thin. Your voice is set higher but is not as thin. Use it. Spend the young years of your life learning languages, technique, what you really like performing, and learning people in the industry who will get you there. Don't assume that someone who is a professor is good or someone that is a part time opera singer/teacher is bad.



Find blogs and resources and start networking earlier. Pay people complements and win your way into their hearts. I think you are a beautiful person inside who often feels that she has to be a little different to entertain and keep friends. You don't ever need to be anyone other than yourself. You do not have to have the most provocative, silly, or creative description on Y!A and you do not have to change it once a week. You don't have to be sexigal! or the Bob. You just need to be yourself.



I think this is your love, passion, and heart. You like to show a gentle, light hearted side to the world and you like to be young. You need to realize that while being young, you can also be starting to put important things into place. You should not be a manipulator and you should always be genuine. You should always have your heart and your innocence. But you can choose how to direct those things to get what you really want. Trying to get somewhere is not about being someone else but rather about glorifying in who you are at the right opportunities.



Find people who share your love and interests. Find those people who can be your truest deepest friends. Work with this people.



You are young and you are potential. If you wake up one morning and you don't have that super unique voice, you are still special. It is your energy and your inner fire that make you so.



P.S. I really wish people would use standard names for notes. C6 is sometimes top C, high C, or soprano C. I like top C and soprano C but I tend to feel that C5 is the high C as C4 is always middle C. I do not like it that many men call everything between C4 and C5 high even though it usually is for them. The position of these notes on a keyboard is not high and it just lends confusion to when women say high and mean an octave higher or in the rare case two octaves higher. It also is confusing when men say low E and mean the E below low C and women say low E and mean the E below low C. I guess we will just have to reserve C10 as the Lexigal C.

Answer 2

Do you know, that that is not a term that I have heard very often... and even the definition is confusing: there is "abnormally high soprano" and "mezzo or contralto who can sing in the soprano range and do coloratura."



I tend to think it is the latter, mainly because the "example" of the sfogato voice is Giuditta Pasta, who sang very high, but WAS a mezzo-soprano. Apparently she could sing in the soprano range, but could not sustain the tessitura...



On that basis, the only modern sfogato I can think of is Cecilia Bartoli. (Who sings the high E, but is definitely a mezzo...). One of the other characteristics of these voices is that they are incredibly "uneven" with noticible breaks between registers.



I am sure that this singing teacher knows what he is talking baout, and you DO have a very high voice... but do not label yourself as a sfogato... Mainly because it could be interpreted in either way, and also because it sounds like sfoglia, which is a sheet of pasta...



and also, it would limit what you can do, and what roles you are offered... it would be like me saying I am a "dramatic coloratura mezzo..." what roles would I get other than Azucena and Angelina? So I decided I will call myself a coloratura contralto.... Its slightly more apt too.





AND your voice is exceptional... please dont waste it on theatre. We need more good coloratura sopranos, or else people will start thinking Katherine jenkins is good...

Answer 3

I've heard of the term before. From what I know, it does mean a coloratura soprano with an effortless high range, past F6. These sopranos usually have very light voices - hence their ability to soar up there effortlessly.



I don't know your voice well enough, but from what I've heard of those 2 clips, there's a high chance you might be one - How in the world do you sing O mio babbino caro in C MAJOR??



And your middle and lower registers are beautiful as well. You have a really sweet voice. Me thinks I still prefer you singing O mio babbino caro in the original Ab major...since your middle range is full as well. I think the overall 'mood' is very different depending on what key you sing it in, and I prefer the Ab major sound quality.