Could some popular singers have made it as opera singers, given the training?

Please don’t turn this into a “singers I hate” thread. No one really cares if you like or dislike this or that singer. What I’m asking about is vocal range and ability, and the influence of training.

In classical singing and opera, the singers go through rigorous training to develop the quality of their voices and their technique. Most popular singers (and here I’m including non-classical or operatic singers, such as rock, pop, blues, etc.) have not had operatic training and therefore could not accomplish some or all of the vocal feats of a classically trained opera singer, although they might be very talented in their own genre.

My question is, if circumstances had been different for some of those popular singers, and they had received operatic voice training with competent teachers, could they have attained a professional-quality operatic vocal technique?

Some possibilities*:

Mariah Carey: Mezzo-Soprano, vocal range G#2-A5(-F6) (C8).
Phil Anselmo: Baritone, vocal range F♯1-A5
Chris Cornell: High baritone, vocal range B1-B5
Axl Rose: Low baritone, vocal range C♯1-C♯7

  • All vocal ranges are based on the best analysis of The Range Place 2.0 forum members. They may or may not correspond to what a professional voice coach would determine.

Elvis was clearly able for Opera and could have made the transition with training.

Aretha stood in for Pavarotti when he was too ill for an awards show and it was pretty amazing.

I'm not sure if she ever had technical training?

It’s not really opera style singing, but with training, I’ll bet she could’ve.

Checking Wikipedia, Pat Benatar is a mezzo-soprano, and had trained as a coloratura before she started her career. Coloratura evidently involves operatic singing from the 18th and 19th century. When I was growing up and she had hits on the radio, they just said Pat had trained to be an opera singer, since we really didn’t care about the details.

Jackie Chan, surprisingly, started his show biz career as a professional opera singer. Granted, this was traditional Chinese opera not European opera.

Attila Csihar.

I remember on one of those. syndicated radio shows a couple decades ago Roger Daltrey of The Who said he was told that he could have made it as an opera singer if he had trained for it. He did play the main role MacHeath in a 1983 BBC production of John Gay’s ballad opera “The Beggars Opera”.
Personally, I always thought Daltrey’s range was a bit limited and he may have been exaggerating.

There’s a corollary to the OP: No opera singer should EVER sing pop.

Charlotte Church went pop star for a while (vid may be considerered NSFW)

British TV show called Pop Star to Opera Star in which pop singers try to sing opera.

Annie Haslam was trained as an opera singer before she joined Renaissance.

The first thing I thought of was the story about Pat Benetar, which leads me to suggest Kate Bush (because Pat covered Kate’s Wuthering Heights).

How about Brad Roberts of Crash Test Dummies? I have no idea if he is technically good but his is about the lowest voice I think I’ve heard. Seems like that would be suitable for opera.
.
And Jim’s Son, that’s uh, interesting about Roger Daltry ( I know you’re just relaying a story you heard) His[del] shouting[/del] singing voice has always been not only completely unappealing to me but as you mention, lacking in range.

My husband is a classically trained baritone and he has always said that Meat Loaf could have gone classical. Mr. Loaf got a crappy review at his recent Cleveland show, but he had the pipes to start with.

Cleveland’s own Screamin’ Jay Hawkins aspired to be an opera singer.

ETA: Jay Black of Jay and the Americans (a better Jay than the original, Jay Traynor, IMHO), and Gene Pitney.

I have seen the word “operatic” used to describe the voice of Geoff Tate of Queensryche. At least to my untrained ear, he sounds like the rocker with the shortest jump to opera.

How about Freddie Mercury?

Bruce Dickenson!

Popped back in to say that. He did sing an opera-type ballad in his solo career.

Glenn Danzig comes to mind. Also Freddie Mercury.

Dickinson, not Dickenson.

(And maybe Rob Halford, too?)

I can think of one fairly successful pop singer who was a voice major at Columbia (my alma mater), where he studied opera: basso Jon “Bowzer” Bauman of Sha Na Na.

Opera and doo wop are among the few musical genres in which a basso like Bauman can find steady work.

I won’t say you’re wrong about Freddy, but I should point out that most of Queen’s highest falsetto vocals were provided by drummer Roger Taylor, not by Freddy.