Great Singers on Great Singing: A Famous Opera Star Interviews 40 Famous Opera Singers on the Technique of Singing (Limelight)

Having sung myself in Europe, studied with Maestro Arrigo Pola in Italy and researched the vocal phenomena for many years, I found this book quite valuable, because the singers themselves are asked of what they are aware. Jerome Hines did a good job of interviewing the singers. However his questions are all oriented toward the accepted concepts of the instrument. Thus, the singers attempt to describe their perceptions to fit in with the popular theory, which by the way has never been proven. It was merely an assumption. No instrument based on the wind driven theory has ever been created that produced the simultaneous multiple frequencies of which the human vocal instrument is capable.In other words, Hines' questions confine the singer's answers to a prescribed box. And he artfully steers their answers into the grooves that he wants them to follow. Nothing wrong in that. I got the impression that Mr. Hines was endeavoring to understand finally for himself how the vocal instrument works. He was trying to explain, or get others to clarify, how all of the subjective sensations, we singers and speakers perceive, fit together to produce a voice. I admire his curiosity. And he reports in a friendly and engaging manner.Had Jerry Hines read my first book, "The Book of Singing, A Manual", which I published as a manuscript on a very limited scale in 1975, and later republished as, "How To Speak With Power", he might have asked some different questions.Trying to apply the tenants of the popularly accepted theory: air passing through the vocal cords is resonated somewhere in the masque, or head, can make a naturally balanced instrument sick and ruin it. I had experienced that first hand for fourteen years as my own beautiful natural voice was ruined by well meaning, but ill-informed teachers.That's why I began researching the voice.I was not hampered by trying to fit what I found into the existing theory. I knew that didn't work so I dared to think outside of the box. The popular theory was assumed a couple hundred years ago. Our scientific knowledge has greatly increased since then. Quantum theory deals with the very tiny, which is where the voice originates. This enabled me to contemplate how the voice worked from a whole new perspective and ask greater questions that did not have to agree with the "accepted" theories of classical science. I wasn't trying to prove someone else's theory, I was only trying to figure how my own voice worked so I could rebuild my broken instrument and accomplish my dream of singing opera.I discovered there are more components to the vocal instrument than just a diaphragm, vocal cords and some ill-defined "resonators". In Hines' otherwise excellent book, the singers often talk about solutions as if they applied to the whole range, and not just to a specific register. Obviously the confusion around the subject of registers did not originate with Hines. In my second book, which I am compiling now, I resolve the riddle of the registers. There are different solutions for different registers (there are more than three). Once you have that information you can make sense of the seeming contradictory statements made by the various singers in Hines's excellent book.Would I recommend Hines' book? Of course! Wholeheartedly. Singers need to be aware of exactly what they are doing. Putting energy in the wrong places can make an instrument sick and take it apart. On stage one is all alone, so one must be able to self correct. And in order to self correct one has to know of what the instrument is composed and how it operates. To be a great singer one must become a great athlete and learn to control the components of the instrument by her/his thoughts.

I love this book, because the author tells us intimate stories about great singers which are normally not known in the literature. The reader is taken behind the stage curtain and into the private sphere of these artists to learn more about their personal problems with their voices and their personally developped solutions and recommendations for others. I like this personal approach to the singing art very much and have to say that this book gave me as an author about Belcanto many insights how useful it is for all singers to hear more about vocal experiences on stage and vocal education from highly talented famous singers. I researched then deeper the stories of singers like Maria Callas and Joan Sutherland and many others more and took their insights to make them known in my book. I have to say thank you to Jerome Hines as his book was very inspiring for me on the way to my own book about Belcanto in Theory and Practice. Singing like Callas and Caruso: Belcanto Voice and Body Training Belcanto in Theorie und Praxis: Handbuch fuer Gesang und Buehne (German Edition)

I am a recent graduate with a vocal performance degree preparing to pursue a masters degree in opera. This book is a functional necessity for every serious singer's library. For me, I found this book to be both profoundly useful and comforting. I was fascinated by the different ways these great singers speak of and describe essentially the same concepts and techniques; it reminded me that our differing methods as singers are far more similar than sometimes it would appear. I think every singer will hit a wall at some point where the communication between teacher and student will fail and the student will require another source to explain the concept differently in order to grasp it. This book was just that source for me. I also found reading of the technical struggles and breakthroughs of singers that I deeply and admire and respect to be extremely comforting and encouraging!

If anyone wants to receive invaluable information on vocal technique, they should read this book. I learned more from this book than I learned from years of vocal study in both group and private lessons. Some of the greatest classical singers of all time share their insights into proper and effective vocal production. Through applying some of the approaches these singers utilized in their careers, I've increased my vocal resonance, volume, and breath control in just a few weeks of experimentation with the tips given by these virtuosos. I am absolutely thrilled with the results I'm getting from applying my newly acquired knowledge.

I have had the great pleasure of knowing the great Jerome Hines for a number of years, and have been a student of his as well. This book will stand as one of the greatest resources for any professional singer or fan of opera. I can't tell you how many times I've turned to the pages of this book to gain a little insight into a particular artist and their voice. But no one should ever consider a book like this as a replacement for a good teacher. As the opening sentence of the book states "This book may be dangerous to your health". Use it only as a guide into the minds of some of the worlds greatest singers, not as a blueprint to singing success. I will guard my copy of this book jealously for as long as there is a song in my heart.P.S. Maureen Cote, his first book is more of an autobiography, and is, indeed, very inspirational. It also deals with many of his personal religious experiences in an uninhibited and straightforward manner (much like Jerome himself). He can be reached through the foundation he established in Newark, New Jersey called the Opera Music Theater International.(OMTI)

A book of singing lessons and I must have read it umpteen times since I was given an oldcooy in 1989. Interested in classical singing? You should have this book. Many of the best interviewed and there's so much to learn the more you read it. Absolutely timeless and will never date.

Quick delivery, good quality book

would suit students who have been singing a while and have an interest in improing their own techniques by reading what the greatest singers in the world have to say. Wonderful tips and really will written book. Love it.

Invaluable book.

Excellent book written by a expert utilising experience from the worlds greatest singers