I don’t know of any opera where a tenor or baritone needs to sing in falsetto.
I can very well imagine the he takes singing lessons.
Dickinson was almost a fencer, not an opera singer. And he’s a pilot. A very cool dude.
Perhaps not (although there are certainly moments where one might for character reasons), but there are a few countertenor roles out there too.
Almost a fencer? He almost was made it to the Olympics.
He is also a trainspotter, I think. At least he’s hosted a television program about old engines.
It depends: most opera singers are unable to sing pop, but I think Alfredo Kraus would have been able to and his daughter Patricia does it well too. I once watched a program where the Kraus family, José Carreras and Plácido Domingo sang popular Christmas carols: the Kraus didn’t sound like “opera singers” at all, you could sing along with them; the other two? Impossible, specially Domingo - they took two songs which most people sing while playing anise bottles, washing boards and finger cymbals, and turned them into excuses to show off.
That’s true. The only one I can think of is Carmina Burana, and that’s not even an opera.
I think Art Garfunkel could’ve sung opera with the proper training. (& yeah, another vote for Freddie Mercury, too.)
I think Steve Perry, at least in his Journey days, could have trained as an opera singer.
And who knows, maybe Brad Delp?
I’m shocked that there were 13 replies before he was mentioned. The opera ballad he co-wrote is called “Barcelona”
Possibly Robert Plant (“Whole Lotta Love”) and Steven Tyler (“Dream On”).
Sarah Brightman.
IMO, Kristen Chenoweth.
I don’t know, Emmy Rossum does a pretty good job here.
Limited range, limited power, erratic pitch. Ridiculous candidate, IMO.
And no mention yet of Linda Ronstadt??
Ian Gillan of Deep Purple had the pipes for it; he did a lot of non-rock stuff, and his power and control were incredible: check out his duel with Ritchie Blackmore’s guitar from about 6.30 onwards.
Kyoof melodic/alt metal band Dir en Grey, hugely popular in Japan and with a small but dedicated following in North America. This review claims his range goes from deep baritone to high alto, but I’ve heard him live and I’d say it also includes throat singing and falsetto.
If we’re talking range, then Elvis is in there. His voice was almost unnatural in the range it could produce. Could see him doing opera with training (in fact on It’s Now or Never he sang at the same pitch of O sole mio).
I’d argue that the tenor in Carmina Burana should really be a tenor and not a countertenor; it’s supposed to be too high to sing comfortably (interestingly, the baritone in Carmina Burana has to sing a pianissimo high B).
As far as operatic countertenors go, you mostly have to go either baroque or ultra modern. The last one I heard was the White Rabbit in Unsuk Chin’s Alice in Wonderland, which made its American debut here in St. Louis last summer.
(Bolding mine) Almost certainly not. Leaving Mariah Carey aside, they are frankly ridiculous. I do not believe that, for instance, Axl Rose ever produced either a C#1 or a C#7 using any technique that could properly be called “singing”.
Don’t overestimate the importance of range in singing opera. It’s nice, certainly, but most opera singers (especially men) have perfectly decent careers with two or two and a half octaves. They might be able to vocalize over three octaves or so, but would mostly never sing at the extremes.
Re range, see above. As to your parenthetical, I have no idea what you’re saying.
Axl’s highest notes are considered “non-modal”, ie not in full voice, by the people at The Range Place 2.0. Nevertheless, he produced the sound, and with training could probably do better. For his range in more detail, check out this video – the C#7 can be heard at 11:12. On the low end, he hits vocal fry at 00:34 with a B1. He sang in the church choir as a boy, which seems to have been the extent of his vocal training – in The Dirt, Vince Neil from Motley Crue claims he taught Axl some vocal techniques, and Vince Neil ain’t exactly, uh, a great singer. It seems like Axl was born with a lot of raw talent that wasn’t developed (and, alas, is likely squandered for good by this point).