Kaufmann’s  voice, unlike Netrebko’s, remains entirely functional. There’s no sign of fragmentation, of wobble, or other symptoms of breakdown. His immediate future seems more secure than hers. But in what roles? Given the present color and density of his instrument, one can imagine a few in a lighter-calibre McCracken mould, continuing with Otellos, Josés, even a Samson or Tannhäuser and, perhaps, his Tristan. I’ll certainly try to see his Dick Johnson next season, knowing this will all sound better in the theatre than on record, and that his presence and theatricality will have rewards.

In my last post, I mentioned a thing in common that is missing from these and many other contemporary voices. I said that this was “laryngeal energization”—not chest voice per se, though chest-related, since this energization tends to activate chest-voice response. The larynx as resonator, at the bottom of the human acoustical complex, provides the brilliance, the clarity, the ring that is present throughout the pitch ranges of all great voices, of whatever category. And within the larynx, the muscle co-ordinations responsible for glottal closure, hence phonation, also act as the valve monitoring the air pressures from below. Thus, their efficient excitation has determinative influence on both resonance and support. In addition, the correct balancing of their tensions is the fundament of registration. So the relative weakness of this element—not the presence of darkness or relaxation, which are not of themselves negative qualities, but the absence of brilliance and tensility—adversely affects all aspects of the sound, the format, the behavior, of any voice, all positive qualities notwithstanding. It is what keeps us from hearing the “true”voices of these two extraordinary artists. It has become pervasive in contemporary vocality, and that needs to change.

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Correction: It has been called to my attention that I have misspelled the name of the impressive mezzo-soprano who sang Brangäne in the recent BSO Tristan, Act 2. It is Mihoko  Fujimura, not Fugimura. My apologies to readers and, of course, the artist.

NEXT TIME: Barring something of more immediate urgency, I’ll continue with my “Before the First Lesson” series. But which of several aspects of the topic as yet uncovered will get some attention is not yet decided.

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