Cool Stuff! no. 4 (Southeastern and Far Eastern Asia)

A few years ago when I was a freshmen in high school we were given the assignment to write a compare and contrast paper. I chose to write one about opera, specifically the difference between Bel Canto and Peking Opera. 

To be honest, until I wrote this paper, I had no idea that there was a specific technique to singing Peking opera. Over the years I completely forgot about this paper and my findings, so I thought it would be fun to look up more information about it. 

While in Bel Canto opera, we rely on breath control and the resonance of the opera house to project our voices over the orchestras, Peking uses a technique called Jingju utilizes a shrill upper register to be heard over the orchestra. Laosheng, or older men, sing in a natural voice while the younger men (xiaosheng) sing with falsetto. 

One similarity between Bel Canto and Peking is that a good upper register is valued. For Bel Canto, however, this mostly only applies to tenors and sopranos. 

One huge difference between Bel Canto and Peking technique is not just the way it is sung, but how it it sung. By this I mean that in Peking each singer chooses a pitch that suits them best, regardless of the composition. Singers in the same performance sing in different keys! Meanwhile in Bel Canto it's kind of the exact opposite. Sometimes regardless of what notes you like best, you sing what's been written by the composer. There is actually a section of people in La Scala who boo people who don't sing exactly what's in the score. Some people sing ornaments, which are notes that were not written by the composer but make the melody a bit more fancy. They are usually come up with by the singer's teacher or singer. 



Comments

  1. Adriana SJanuary 30, 2020 at 9:14 AM

    That is fascinating to learn about the similarities and differences of these two types of opera. That is great blog topic to write about. The fact that they sing wherever it is comfortable must be convenient. Still, with my Western ear, I would probably be driven crazy.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Richelle KinardJanuary 30, 2020 at 3:01 PM

    I never knew much about opera let alone know that there were different ways to sing it. It is pretty cool to know.

    ReplyDelete

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