Steve Schwartz <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>I've also heard that Wagner is murder on voices, although George Bernard
>Shaw characteristically debunks that idea.  Is it really terrible if one
>knows how to sing? It seems to me that Verdi and Puccini, especially for
>tenors, would wear on the voice more harshly.

You are right a you are wrong at the same time.  Wagner's writing is
not inherently difficult for voices because he writes in a generally
comfortable tessitura and in a very lyrical style.  The problem lies not
in the writing, but in the performance.  Wagner's operas were written to
be performed in Bayreuth which has a wonderful acoustic and a semi-closed
opera pit which allows the voices to "ride" with the orchestra instead of
fighting through.

That's not the case when singing these roles at the Met, Chicago Lyric,
etc.  where you have to fill a big hall, AND blast through the massive
orchestration.  Verdi and Puccini can be difficult for that reason as well,
and the fact that many of the tessituras are higher can make them more
fatiguing as well.

Jonathan Knapp