Alfredo Kraus Masterclass

[Webarton]

the last girl is the only one who understood.

[croar64]

regio maestro!!!!!!!

[violetavalery]

who is the last girl who looks like Sofia Loren?

[delam2]

nasal singing is not neccesarily bad... In french opera it is a neccesity...

[Miauriceful]

@delam2

It is "Maschera", not nasal singing, all the great singer use to sing in Maschera.

[poltenor]

questa prima soprano è Amarilli Nizza. Devo dire che ne ha fatta di strada

[orlando098]

His Italian is really good for a Spanish person

[nobodyimportant09]

Oh boy! another 'expert' whining about Kraus's nasality. At least this one allows that he 'was talented'. How flattering !

[MrCafiero]

OMG, no wonder the voice world is in trouble. He is not addressing what is actually going on with her voice, but rather trying to use bizarre subjective terms (that don't really exist) to fix functional, tangible problems. So sad. Ridiculous.

[ShawDAMAN]

Yes, as much as I respect and admire Kraus, (and his technique certainly seemed to work for *him,*) from all the videos I have seen he was not much of a teacher... :-|

So many of these "masterclasses" just seem to degenerate into a vehicle for the "teacher" to show of their own talent and mastery.

[RocktheStageNYC]

I don't understand a word of this but even I - a Rock voice teacher - can see and hear the 1st woman is opening her mouth way too much.

[cornificius22vain]

so, cafiero, feel free to explain what's going on with 'objective' terms that do 'exist'.

[MrCafiero]

@cornificius22vain Most of what he is trying to do is that get them to get more closure of the vocal folds on the high notes. And that is not done by forcing yourself to feel vibrations in your cheeks. That is accomplished by doing the proper exercises that condition the muscles of approximation. There is way more going on than just that, but it would take me pages to explain it all. And I have never heard single great student from Kraus.

[cornificius22vain]

@MrCafiero ok. as for 'subjective' terms, i think they are unavoidable in teaching. anyway, do you think that, independently of his teaching abilities, there is any vice in Kraus's own technique (as revealed in his singing here and elsewehere)?

[MrCafiero]

I don't think they are unavoidable at all. I know that can seem strange and would have seemed strange to me since my first teacher taught that way. It is totally unnecessary for a teacher to try to get you to the right sound based on his own subjective feelings of his own singing. You will have your own - which are absolutely important, but not until the sound is correct. Kraus was nasal, constricted and had noise in the sound. He was very talented though.

[cornificius22vain]

Nasal and constricted we can agree that he sometimes was. But a 'noise' in the sound? could you give an example?

As for 'subjective' terms, they can be very helpful for the beginning singer, since some subjective feelings are quite uniform in singers. Of course you must also have correct exercises - it goes without saying.

[MrCafiero]

Noise is anything other than the fundamental pitch and overtones. I have never had subjective terms that were helpful. They always end up getting in the way of true freedom and someone finding their fullest voice. The vocal apparatus has a proper function and that can be taught and understood without subjectivity. Feelings and images are easily misunderstood. I can know what these great singers were meaning *NOW*, but in my development it would have really messed me up to try to follow them.

[cornificius22vain]

Theoretically understood, yes, but you cannot teach someone to run by teaching thim muscular physiology.

Could you please give an instance where Kraus's voice can be heard to have 'noise' in that sense, and what the 'other' thing that is allegedly added is?

[MrCafiero]

No theory. Do runners know their physiology? Absolutely athletes understand how to correctly use their body to get the best, most efficient performance out of them. Understanding the physiology makes you able to know what exercises to use to help any number of problems. It has nothing to do with telling a student to sing based on their understanding of physiology. It is not that way in sports either. I already explained that noise is anything other than the fundamental pitch...con't

[MrCafiero]

and overtones. Nasality is noise. It is not overtones that are harmonically structured with the pitch. It is many times sounds dissonant to the pitch. Buzzing is as well etc.

[cornificius22vain]

athletes know next to nothing, just as fishes know nothing about hydrodynamics. the point is how you explain to them how to produce good sound APART from execrises.

if nasality is NOISE for you then you are abusing a precise term by your own subjective ideolect.

[MrCafiero]

WHAT athletes are you talking about? Professional athletes know. And if they don't you can bet that their TRAINERS know. Just like voice teachers *SHOULD* know. And a voice teacher has to know what sounds correlate to what physical function, so that if you get a student with a particular problem you know how to rectify it. Just like if an athlete came to a coach or trainer with weak quads. The trainer will know that they are weak and that it is affecting their performance....cont'd..

[MrCafiero]

So they then to exercises to strengthen it. It is common sense.

I am not abusing anything. Nasaility has sounds that are dissonant to the pitch. It also doesn't allow the full harmonic spectrum to be resonated. And I don't want to hear someone sing in their nose. It is UGLY!

[cornificius22vain]

well, you are right that it's ugly, but unfortunately it is not noise any more than an ugly voice is noise. As for physiology, all supposed experts i know on human singing from a physiological perspective have their basic physics wrong, go figure.

again, I am not against exercise, my point is about how to communicate the process of correct placement.

[MrCafiero]

If there are sounds dissonant to the pitch - and there are in nasality - then it is noise. And it causes constriction.

I agree that most of the "experts" have their anatomy wrong when it comes to singing. Or, they have data, but that is not enough. You have to know how to put it together correctly. And they make mistakes and don't have the right acoustical knowledge of what the correct sound is to go along with it. "Ugly", generally, is subjective. But noise is not..

[MrCafiero]

And which experts are you referring to? I probably agree with you about them! LOL!

[DAMPJ666]

no habia escuchado a nadie decir tan directo y tan cierto con tanta humildad que los cantantes estudiantes quieren llegar ya a la meta¡¡¡  no se toman el tiempo de disfrutar lo bellisimo de aprender a cantar que hermoso video

[DAMPJ666]

claro apoya toda la nota aguda en la nota anterior a esta es un genio

[chrisibzu]

El chavo de la 'Celeste' simplemente no puede porque no tiene para nada entrenado el registro agudo (ni el central jejeje), y llegar con 'centro' al Sib es simplemente imposible.

[nimmidiel]

Lo de un trono vicino al SOoOOoOOOl del pobre chico es genial xDDDDDDDDDDDDdd Kraus el mejor!

[Webarton]

The first girls problem is also that she is opening the jaw way too much, how can you stay up there in the resonance when your letting the jaw fall so low.

[Grohl85]

Simply amazing to see him teaching ^^ thx for uploading!

[Bigman240]

un trono vicino al sal

[Honken]

Like the guy wasn't doubting himself before haha.

[mezzodopera]

si.. lui è molto bravo ma quei poverini li vuole uccidere??

[bhoogren]

When they are able to transform his comments into newbehavior what a wonderful transformation.

[6justmusic9]

ma chi è , Domingo quello sfigatone di alievo con la maglia blu???

[Nemorino11]

Peccato che l'audio faccia schifo.

[HUBassProdigy]

I feel like she's a mezzo.

[OperaLover84]

Ok, her bleet is pretty much unbearable...

[rosadellest]

Ma la prima allieva non e' la Amarilli Nizza?

[796824]

This girl needs to study how to sing by not pushing the voice. Kraus is trying to tell her to keep the voice high.

[OettingerCroat]

"no hacer el paso más grande que la pierna"...

un genio de la técnica vocal!!!!

[Joeleole]

No one actually DOES what he says! He's brilliant!!! Bravo!

[sweetaliena]

none of them are good.

[xilpix]

Kraus è l'assoluto padrone e maestro della tecnica del canto.

[seba18701870]

me encantaria tener uno de sus conciertos, pero mi tenor favorito es jose carreras si tuvieras algo de él te lo agradecería mucho, sobre todo cuando era joven y tenia unos agudos maravillosos.Estoy realmente interesado

[kandutery]

busca en amazon hombre

[saribu]

Esto es muy interesante. Es sólo un fragmento. No tienes más?

[hoffschauer]

El es uno de mi tenores favoritos. Pese a su edad el sigue teniendo un gran voz, sobre todos sus agudos.Pues buscar a Franco Corelli y Jose Carreras, que desde mi punto de vista son los mejores tenores del siglo xx.

[tena2]

Hay muchas operas pero esta claro que si hablamos de don carlo, camen, y otras mas carreras y su bella voz y estilo me encantan.

Para turandot y otros roles tambien estoy muy de acuerdo con usted, la voz varonil y poderosa de corelli era totalmente calidad.