Abstract
Singing and developing one’s voice is a long-term pursuit. The singing of Western art music is no exception. With time, vocal composition became more demanding, necessitating a high calibre of technical vocal training; the verismo and Slavic repertoire discussed in this paper are examples of this vocal demand, as they require an appropriate level of vocal training and maturity to approach. My research focuses on understanding the technical demands of this repertoire in order to better understand how to safely prepare this music. This paper includes information gathered through autoethnographic and practice-as-research methodologies, as well as historiography. These methodologies include monthly self-reflections recorded throughout the recital preparation process and relevant observations made immediately after voice lessons, coachings, and performances. Relevant experiences of professional singers recorded in biographies and auto-biographies provide further context for my own experiences. This study shows that while there may be perceived barriers to verismo and Slavic repertoire, for the burgeoning soprano in particular, these barriers do not preclude younger singers who possess the right voice type and tonal colour from beginning their studies in performing them. Every vocal genre contains particular technical demands for the style, and the verismo and Slavic repertoires are no exception. Rather, it is a matter of choosing repertoire appropriately, and approaching every vocal repertoire with vocal well-being as a top priority. In approaching the verismo and Slavic repertoires, one must strike a balance between ambition and caution. My experience through this study and preparation of repertoire is: when done in consultation with trained industry professionals, certain younger singers may have the capacity to safely approach the verismo and Slavic styles earlier than has been suggested by industry hearsay and previous literature.