Great singers who ruined their voice early through oversinging

Publish date: 2024-05-22

Maria Callas basically destroyed her voice, although her sudden weight loss was not supposed to have helped either.

Julie Andrews overstrained hers during "Victor/Victoria" on Broadway, and had surgery to fix it--and the surgery made things even worse.

And Billy Porter ruined his by screaming too much in his early Broadway singing.

Why did Callas and Andrews destroy theirs, which so many people loved? Surely they must have been taught the techniques to conserve their voices for longer.

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by Anonymousreply 133March 17, 2022 7:35 PM

Christina Aguilera. Yes I think she had a great voice. I also know she never knew how to use it properly.

by Anonymousreply 1March 11, 2022 8:02 PM

Whitney Houston's voice was gone in her later years. Although that was more due to drugs than oversinging

by Anonymousreply 2March 11, 2022 8:04 PM

Stratas lost hers the same way as Julie.

by Anonymousreply 3March 11, 2022 8:07 PM

despite the alleged rarity,

it's surprisingly easy to fuck up the cricoarytenoid and cricothyroid joints (among other parts)

the real problem is other than ending your career due to necessary reducation of performances,

most of the preventions and solutions fall into the 50/50 alternative category

and because most realize they have a short window of opportunities, they tend to side with the extremes... (well, normal in the biz but considered shortsighted everywhere else.)

longterm recommendations: never become old, don't develop health problems, suck cock.

by Anonymousreply 5March 11, 2022 8:16 PM

R5 Just curious - what is your native language?

by Anonymousreply 7March 11, 2022 8:27 PM

Mariah Carey destroyed her voice early with that high octave ball squeeze squeek she used to do.

by Anonymousreply 8March 11, 2022 8:35 PM

Andrews at least had an adult career that spanned nearly forty-five years before she ruined her voice.

But Callas's adult career only lasted about fifteen years before her voice was shot to shit. She could have had a much longer career than she did.

by Anonymousreply 9March 11, 2022 8:36 PM

r7 l33t.

Grew up in the U.S.

in and around naval bases (society declines with exposure to the spouses of seabees.)

spending much of time surrounded by the elderly with archaic versions of engrish

and proto-internet bbs (back when there were more fruits than autists).

and that's not counting probable brain damage from general life experiences,

that's more fun to blame the poppers.

by Anonymousreply 10March 11, 2022 8:41 PM

Plenty of imitators (Scotto), but no one can replace Callas.

by Anonymousreply 11March 11, 2022 8:47 PM

Siouxsie Sioux, Courtney Love

by Anonymousreply 12March 11, 2022 8:48 PM

R9, Maria Callas died at 53.

by Anonymousreply 13March 11, 2022 8:51 PM

R12 Siouxsie started with no voice at all, then slowly developed it into something special. She had a unique voice for rock that contrasted perfectly with The Banshees’ rich instrumentation and arrangements. Sadly in later decades it I believe it just naturally lost its depth with age. It happens. She can still sing but it’s more of a bar stone and not as rich a sound.

Courtney never sang, just screeched and screamed and screamed. She could kind of do an atonal bark that was effective for her. Or a whiny whisper on ballads. Effective for what it was. But yeah, by the 00’s it was worn so thin. Plus a heavy smoker. I’m surprised she can still talk!

by Anonymousreply 14March 11, 2022 8:54 PM

Stevie Nicks had such a unique beautiful voice when she was younger. However, that kind of voice would probably not sustain itself over time, certainly not with all the drugs/alcohol.

by Anonymousreply 16March 11, 2022 8:58 PM

I’m veering off topic but I wonder how Shakira can still talk though I guess hers is more about how she breathes.

by Anonymousreply 17March 11, 2022 9:00 PM

R8 Mariah's vocal damaged actually came from the overuse of her voice in "power ballads" early in her career coupled with poor preservation techniques (allegedly Mariah rarely does vocal warm ups and other exercises that keep the voice strong and in good shape). Mariah also likes to drink which is also terrible for your vocal cords. As for her "squeaky voice," that's her whistle register which yes if she's not warming up her vocal cords will damage them too. She no longer hits those high notes live.

by Anonymousreply 18March 11, 2022 9:19 PM

How was Barbara Cook able to maintain her voice into her eighties after years of alcoholism?

by Anonymousreply 19March 11, 2022 9:28 PM

Judy Garland by 1965 -her voice was pretty much done . Drugs/Hong Kong overdose pretty much finished it . She would have rarer moments of her old greatness after this point.

by Anonymousreply 20March 11, 2022 9:31 PM

On the flip side, Johnny Mathis is 86 and GOING STRONG! He received top notch vocal training early on and learned how to preserve his voice.

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by Anonymousreply 21March 11, 2022 9:35 PM

Dionne Warwick sounds like shit now

by Anonymousreply 23March 11, 2022 9:39 PM

Streisand "live" in concert sounds like Andy Devine.

by Anonymousreply 24March 11, 2022 9:45 PM

Voices don't live forever; they age just like the rest of the body. Garland sang for decades; so did Andrews. They had amazing careers. Callas is, however, really is an example of someone who over-sang and didn't protect her voice. Some artists seem meant to have short but astonishing creative lives.

by Anonymousreply 25March 11, 2022 9:58 PM

I recently heard in a podcast--sorry I can't find it now--that Maria Callas suffered from a rare auto-immune disorder that affected her vocal cords as well as her body generally. I believe her Italian doctor revealed this because of the drug abuse rumors, etc. If she were alive today she could have been treated, but in her time the only medication was cortisone which can be quite toxic. I have no doubt she damaged herself by her radical dieting, etc., but there is more to the story.

by Anonymousreply 26March 11, 2022 10:31 PM

Article about Maria Callas below.

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by Anonymousreply 27March 11, 2022 10:33 PM

Steve Perry from Journey. The rasp he used combined with his range took a toll, part of why he left them. Their new singer travels with a vocal coach so he can perform without ruining himself.

by Anonymousreply 28March 11, 2022 10:34 PM

Martha Reeves. She's been sounding bad since the 1990s. Don't know what happened to cause that.

By contrast, Cal Street, the lead singer of group that followed her, sounds just fine. Both women are in the same age range.

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by Anonymousreply 29March 11, 2022 10:47 PM

Actually, Julie Andrews nearly ruined her voice in the original run of My Fair Lady. Eliza Doolittle is a very taxing role, vocally. Julie did recover, by ditching the stage after she got Mary Poppins.

by Anonymousreply 30March 11, 2022 10:48 PM

Callas was miserable at 53. She was permanently estranged from her family. Her voice was gone and the only person she had ever loved Ari was dead. She had no reason to go on living. Nothing gave her joy. One of the worst things she did was stop exercising her voice and gave herself completely to Onassis. That was a fatal mistake at such an age. She let it go and was too old to get it back.

She was so emotionally deprived as a youngster that when she was loved by somebody she cared about she let go of everything else.

Listen to her Carmen from '64. She was still a great talent and the role sat more comfortably in her range as she was getting older. She had many friends who wanted to help her but she was really inconsolable and like Garland she couldn't be helped. You have to let these people go.

by Anonymousreply 31March 11, 2022 10:49 PM

Nina Hagen is probably a good example, though I don't think she ever really cared about keeping her voice. She was trained in opera and went into punk, but up til the mid-80s could still reach her upper register. Progressively her voice has just lessened and lessened now, until she can really only "sing" in that gravelly style voice she used to joke around with in the 70s.

by Anonymousreply 33March 11, 2022 10:50 PM

Dionne Warwick had one of the most beautiful voices in Pop music. But being a chain smoker makes her sound more like Lou Rawls than anything. Tragic.

by Anonymousreply 34March 11, 2022 10:51 PM

R18, I don't think Mariah has any problems hitting whistle notes. I've seen her hit those notes live (with no playback). It's her chest voice and tone that's the most damaged and she's not pleasant to listen to now. Her upper chest voice is gone, so she lips all the belting parts to her old songs.

She will never sound this great again live.

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by Anonymousreply 35March 11, 2022 10:56 PM

Joni Mitchell. She started smoking when she was nine.

by Anonymousreply 36March 11, 2022 10:56 PM

Yoko Ono fucked up what might have been a perfectly good career as an air raid siren.

by Anonymousreply 37March 11, 2022 10:57 PM

Has Paul McCartney ruined his voice, or is it simply old age?

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by Anonymousreply 38March 11, 2022 10:58 PM

Wasn't Mariah born with vocal nodes and she merely learned to sing around them? I may be getting that wrong, but I'm sure I read that somewhere. Would be bound to ruin a voice doing that.

by Anonymousreply 39March 11, 2022 11:00 PM

R38 Aging. My favorite male singer, ever.

by Anonymousreply 40March 11, 2022 11:00 PM

Steve Tyler. He sounds like a different person in Dream On, before he wrecked himself with substances.

by Anonymousreply 41March 11, 2022 11:06 PM

I love Annie Lennox & think she sounds great, but she lost her voice around ‘85/‘86 ( I think she had the same problem Adele had) & after she regained it, I swear it sounded like 98% of normal.

Connie Francis’s voice also changed, as a result of a nose job though.

by Anonymousreply 42March 11, 2022 11:32 PM

Mariah Carey’s voice drastically changed in 1997 . It happened during her nasty divorce. Something else was going on at that time.

by Anonymousreply 43March 11, 2022 11:43 PM

Journey as a group ruined 2 or 3 voices. Was it it just the touring schedule, or are the demands really more rigorous than they appear?

Their music seems so simple-sounding that most mistake it for triteness.

by Anonymousreply 44March 11, 2022 11:44 PM

It seems a lot of singers don't train their voice every day, which probably doesn't help. I remember some interview with Bernadette Peters where she was talking to another singer and she was horrified the other singer (someone young at the beginning of their career from memory) didn't train their voice every day.

Lene Lovich, last I looked in, can still sing pretty well and she also has spoken of how important it is to train every day.

by Anonymousreply 45March 11, 2022 11:48 PM

Does this mean Billy Porter won't try to sing again? We can only hope.

by Anonymousreply 46March 11, 2022 11:54 PM

Betty Hutton tortured her voice with her braying vocals in her Paramount musicals and had vocal nodes removed after ANNIE GET YOIR GUN which destroyed her voice. She really sounded like shit afterwards.

by Anonymousreply 47March 11, 2022 11:54 PM

R28 Steve Perry's irreplacable but their current singer, Arnel Pineda, is really freaking good. He was living in poverty in the Phillippines when the band found him from youtube like 10 years ago

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by Anonymousreply 48March 12, 2022 12:13 AM

In keeping with operatic voices, another singer who fucked up a fabulous voice in just a few years was another Greek soprano, Elena Souliotos. Her voice was truly spectacular, but she squandered it in less than 10 years due to over-singing and taking on increasingly heavy roles too quickly. There is a live performance of her in Traviata at the Aix festival, and she is astonishing in terms of dramatic characterisation, although you can hear the extremes she takes her voice to.

Closer to us, is Cheryl Studer. Another divine, pure and crystalline voice who in the late 80’s was the lyric soprano of choice for all major opera houses. She went on to perform way too much, too quickly. Within a few years, she recorded best-in-class Queen of the Night, Salome, The Empress (Frau Ohne Schatten), Senta.. You can imagine the havoc this would have caused to her voice. In the late 90’s she was unceremoniously fired from the Munich Opera house, her Homebase, due to “irreversible technical problems along her entire tessiture”. Ouch! That was the end of her trailblazing career.

On the other hand, one of today’s most astonishing voices is pop/metal singer Floor Jansen, whose fantastic technique has allowed her to sing heavy repertoire for almost 20 years with ease. Check out some of her YouTube videos with the band Nightwish.

by Anonymousreply 49March 12, 2022 12:15 AM

R44 A combination of rigorous touring and having to do many songs with high, strenuous notes, extra harmful when you sing with a scratchy rasp. It fucks up your voice.

by Anonymousreply 50March 12, 2022 12:19 AM

What happened to Jessye Norman in the '90's? She was top tier in 1990 and when she sang that Immolation Scene for Lincoln Center in 95, she was toast.

by Anonymousreply 51March 12, 2022 12:25 AM

[quote] [R9], Maria Callas died at 53.

Her last singing performance on stage was twelve years earlier--at age 41.

by Anonymousreply 52March 12, 2022 12:30 AM

Carole King lost her voice to age, though she's more known for songwriting. When she sings with James Taylor he sounds the same and she sounds rough.

by Anonymousreply 53March 12, 2022 12:32 AM

Idina Menzel blew her voice out while performing the role of Elphaba in Wicked, which is probably the hardest role vocally ever written for the Broadway stage. A singer must have an insane belting range to sing it, much less 8 times a week. Idina's voice was never the same after her Wicked run. Kristen Chenoweth is better trained and handled the grueling vocals better than Idina.

Quite a few Elphabas blew out their voices or eventually had a vocal injury. I know Idina Menzel definitely blew out her voice once when she was singing while recovering from bronchitis. I thought Stephanie J. Block turned out OK at the end, but Julia Murney's voice got strained after singing for so long. These singers should get more breaks. Breaks do wonders. I think I remember one woman who played Elphaba who had to leave for a month and when she came back her voice was considerably better.

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by Anonymousreply 54March 12, 2022 12:50 AM

[quote]which is probably the hardest role vocally ever written for the Broadway stage.

This kind of stuff really interests me. So even harder vocally than Evita? Just listening to Evita with my uneducated ears makes me think that must be bloody hard to sing.

by Anonymousreply 55March 12, 2022 12:55 AM

R50, Perry developed the scratchy rasp for some reason or another. The early stuff is pure golden tone.

Aging? trnew things out? Simple overexertion?

by Anonymousreply 56March 12, 2022 12:58 AM

Chenoweth also sang Lily Garland, which is a murderous role to sing, as well as Glinda.

I would also think playing Effie White at the level Jennifer Holliday did would eventually kill your voice.

by Anonymousreply 57March 12, 2022 1:00 AM

That should be *trying new things.

by Anonymousreply 58March 12, 2022 1:00 AM

[quote] Whitney Houston's voice was gone in her later years. Although that was more due to drugs than oversinging

Psychologically, perhaps, R2. As has been noted previously, the autopsy report found no damage to her vocal cords.

by Anonymousreply 59March 12, 2022 1:02 AM

For highest achievement in the shortest amount of time, I think Janis Joplin wins this category with one hand tied behind her back.

by Anonymousreply 60March 12, 2022 1:03 AM

^Although I just noticed on youtube, purely coincidentally, that there are tv appearances of hers on there that have been viewed over 13 million times. She's still got a big following, even though she left the scene over 50 years ago. -R60

by Anonymousreply 61March 12, 2022 1:05 AM

If you are not in good health, you are not in good voice. That includes mind AND body.

Some of these mentioned had their voices fail when their health took a hit. And then, I've heard it said that the voice has its own lifespan, and when it is gone that's it, kaput.

by Anonymousreply 62March 12, 2022 1:05 AM

Tonya Pinkins destroyed her voice with CAROLINE, OR CHANGE.

by Anonymousreply 63March 12, 2022 2:05 AM

Julie Andrews started speak-singing as early as My Fair Lady.

by Anonymousreply 64March 12, 2022 2:52 AM

While not from oversinging, Billie Holliday messed up her voice. But for some of her songs, the later rawness worked well for her.

by Anonymousreply 65March 12, 2022 2:55 AM

Cream-coloured ponies and crisp apple strudels Doorbells and sleighbells and SCHNITZEL with NOODLES

by Anonymousreply 66March 12, 2022 2:55 AM

R20 Are you sure it was 1965? That's the year Judy sang the Cole Porter medley on the Academy Awards show and killed it. I don't think there's a good recording of it but you can tell she must have sounded great live on TV.

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by Anonymousreply 67March 12, 2022 5:18 AM

How is Charlotte Church sounding these days?

by Anonymousreply 69March 12, 2022 5:27 AM

Whoops - I see Steve Perry was mentioned already - Yep!!

by Anonymousreply 70March 12, 2022 5:30 AM

[Quote]While not from oversinging, Billie Holliday messed up her voice. But for some of her songs, the later rawness worked well for her.

R65 She had such a tragic life. This was filmed five months before her death, and like you said, her rawness worked well for her. Maybe it's because it makes the listener empathize with both her and her songs.

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by Anonymousreply 71March 12, 2022 9:55 AM

[quote]R71 like you said, her rawness worked well for her. Maybe it's because it makes the listener empathize with both her and her songs.

Her early voice was pure, and beautiful, but unusual. Her singing style never changed, but her voice did. She was a great singer. I don't know if the rawness made anyone empathize with her. When she sang it was about the song, not about her. She interpreted a song, music and lyrics, as well as anyone ever did.

by Anonymousreply 72March 12, 2022 2:24 PM

[quote] Her early voice was pure, and beautiful, but unusual.

True, but her later voice had a “sadder, but wiser” feel to it. Yes, her interpretation never changed but the sound of the voice did. I actually prefer the later voice because it sounds more real to the type of material she sang, like Good Morning Heartache.

I wish that the producers of The Lady in Satin album had not gone with the lush orchestra because it interferes with the beauty of the rawness of her voice.

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by Anonymousreply 73March 12, 2022 3:04 PM

R73 Well, there are plenty of albums with her singing with a small combo. I don't mind that she did one "Lady In Satin" type of album. The thing about Billie that I like is that she usually didn't sing "sad". She had a light way with most songs (except darker songs) and you can hear the joy she got from singing, even "hear" her smiling in some songs (East Of The Sun, West Of The Moon - so many others). Of course, Strange Fruit and songs like that got the serious treatment they deserved. Lady Sings The Blues was an odd title for her autobiography because she wasn't a blues singer, she just sang a song that had that particular title.

by Anonymousreply 74March 12, 2022 3:28 PM

Thanks for posting that, r71, but I think I'll stick to Leontyne Price's early 60s recording as my go to.

by Anonymousreply 75March 12, 2022 4:56 PM

Did Leontyne Price ruin her voice by oversinging? Just the subject of the thread, y'know.

by Anonymousreply 77March 12, 2022 5:06 PM

Noted, r77. No, she never lost her voice. She appeared at a 9/11 memorial concert years after her retirement and brought down down the house. That's what proper breath support and healthy living can do.

by Anonymousreply 78March 12, 2022 5:15 PM

R78 Well good for her. She sounds boring.

by Anonymousreply 80March 12, 2022 7:45 PM

And yet, Yoko Ono's voice got better.

by Anonymousreply 81March 12, 2022 7:47 PM

^Or worse, depending on how you look at it.

by Anonymousreply 82March 12, 2022 7:48 PM

[Quote]And yet, Yoko Ono's voice got better.

And how did you arrive to that conclusion?

by Anonymousreply 83March 12, 2022 7:51 PM

Leontyne lost some things like ability to transition registers smoothly, but maintained her gleaming high notes in old age. Leontyne started having vocal problems around 1970-ish. I think her 1966 disaster at Lincoln Center really o pacted her.

by Anonymousreply 84March 12, 2022 8:06 PM

Opera fans ofTen cite the case of Greek soprano Elena Suliotis, who completely wrecked her voice before she was 30.

by Anonymousreply 85March 12, 2022 8:25 PM

Carly Simon's voice peaked in the late 1970s and then started to fade around 1990, getting weaker and weaker with each successive album.

by Anonymousreply 86March 12, 2022 8:51 PM

It seems that most pop-singers today either screech like a cat in heat or mumble like someone ODing on fentanyl.

by Anonymousreply 87March 12, 2022 8:51 PM

R85, Suliotis is discussed earlier in the thread.

by Anonymousreply 88March 12, 2022 9:01 PM

I don't want to derail the thread, but I'm curious... which singers have actually KEPT their voices (as well as one can) as they've aged?

I was watching some a-Ha videos on YouTube recently and was surprised that Morten Harket still sounds quite good!

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by Anonymousreply 90March 12, 2022 9:08 PM

Celine dion and melissa Manchester

by Anonymousreply 91March 12, 2022 9:08 PM

r90, Leontyne Price, as discussed earlier in the thread and criticized for being off topic.

by Anonymousreply 92March 12, 2022 9:11 PM

R90 - Morten Harket was so dreamy.

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by Anonymousreply 94March 12, 2022 9:21 PM

Betty Buckley is such a well-trained singer that it's especially shocking at how terrible she sounds now. I think maybe she was doing too much high belting when she was in her 40-50s and that quickened the pace of her decline. She wasn't able to hold onto her voice as long as Streisand, Bassey, LuPone or Barbara Cook were.

Barbara Cook used to do singing workshops for college theater majors and she warned them that too much belting will destroy your voice over time. I think that's what happened to Betty. LuPone and Bassey just have naturally loud voices, so they didn't suffer as much as others.

by Anonymousreply 95March 12, 2022 9:26 PM

Harry Nilsson famously wrecked his voice in the 70's. John Lennon, who he idolized, was producing his album, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Unfortunately, he ruptured a vocal cord early on during the recording, and neglected to tell Lennon. He knew that if he postponed or cancelled the project, he'd probably never get another chance to be produced by him. Instead, he carried on, though clearly something was wrong with his voice, and he reportedly was coughing up blood.

To add insult to injury, the album wasn't even a success, and Nilsson was never able to hit those soaring high notes again. His career never recovered from this debacle.

by Anonymousreply 96March 12, 2022 9:44 PM

I am a big Courtney Love fan, but she was never a "great" singer by any stretch of the imagination—at least not where vocal technicality and precision is concerned. To talk about her alongside people like Whitney Houston or Mariah Carey is laughable. Courtney tried to be mainstream, but at the end of the day, punk was where she came from, and it has remained her lot.

That being said, she has (or had) a POWERFUL voice. When she sang (or screamed, rather), it commanded one's attention 100%. There are moments in her vocal performances on the first two Hole records that are jaw-dropping. When she tried to sing in a more conventional manner, her voice always had a whiny quality about it, but I still liked it. It was distinctly her own. Her voice has not held up over the years due to a combination of chain-smoking, drugs, and poor technique, but God bless her. I remember her getting pissed off in 2010 when she put out "Nobody's Daughter" because people were making a lot of Marianne Faithfull comparisons, but if the teasers she's given from her upcoming album are any indication, she's leaning into it now.

by Anonymousreply 97March 13, 2022 8:07 AM

Callas wanted to sing every kind of role available to the female operatic voice from Rossini coloratura roles to Wagnerian dramatic sopranos to mezzo roles like Carmen. She had incredible range in that she did all those parts beautifully, but it ruined her voice before its time

There have been debates since she died as to whether she could have extended her career by taking on contralto roles, the one thing she really didn't do.

by Anonymousreply 98March 13, 2022 8:44 AM

Singing is a physical act, and singing Western music means singing unnatural pitches for humans, much too high or much too low. The speaking voice is a perfect blend of head voice and chest voice, with a range of about an octave, no more than that. If someone can sing Evita or Elphaba 8 times a week without serious damage, they are very lucky. Notably, opera singers are given breaks between performances, which some take advantage of by singing somewhere else, a big mistake.

by Anonymousreply 99March 14, 2022 3:55 AM

Elizabeth Frazier is another one who emerged out of the post-punk years. The earliest Cocteau Twins recordings she has an atonal shouting and whisper style. Apparently as the band progressed she self-taught herself to sing with vocal training cassettes and slowly transformed her voice into something spectacular. Then she became known just for her voice.

She has a solo record coming out this month (her first, remarkably). It will be interesting to see how her voice has aged.

by Anonymousreply 100March 14, 2022 11:28 AM

[quote]Notably, opera singers are given breaks between performances, which some take advantage of by singing somewhere else, a big mistake.

This reminds me. Didn't Patti LuPone sing Evita 8 times a week and then go to some midnight club on Saturday nights to do her own show on top of that? And she wondered why she had voice troubles at the time? That seems almost masochistic, haha!

by Anonymousreply 101March 14, 2022 12:34 PM

Tebaldi completely lost her voice in the early 60s due to both physical and emotional reasons (the death of her beloved mother). She retired from public performance for well over a year. She first gave her voice a months long rest and then started over, retraining her voice from scratch with the help of a famous Italian vocal teacher. When she made her comeback, her voice had changed. It was deeper and darker. Gone were the lustrous floating high notes she had been famous for and she made changes to her repertoire, omitting many of the lyrico-spinto roles she had sung before. She concentrated on heavier dramatic verismo roles like Minnie in The Girl of the Golden West and La Gioconda.

The bloom may have been off her high notes but her gravitas, temperament, understanding of verismo style and artistry were intact and she sang successfully at major houses, including the Met, for over a decade more before finally retiring in the 70s.

by Anonymousreply 102March 14, 2022 1:44 PM

Patti never did 8 performances a week in Evita. There was an alternate who did 2.

by Anonymousreply 103March 14, 2022 9:33 PM

Patti LuPone is someone whose voice has lasted an insane amount of time considering the stuff she's been asked to sing in her lifetime. She still has almost all the power of her younger voice.

by Anonymousreply 104March 14, 2022 10:50 PM

What does Robert Plant sound like nowadays?

by Anonymousreply 105March 14, 2022 11:01 PM

R105, Plant blew out his voice very early. There was a noticeable change by the early 70s. He's lost most of his range and the timbre of his voice is quite different. However, he's still (IMO) a wonderful singer. He's just made his new older-man voice work for him. And he seems to undersing most of the time. I think he's learned his lesson.

by Anonymousreply 106March 14, 2022 11:09 PM

R90, Ella Fitzgerald sounded good from her first note to her last. Of course her clarion teenage voice couldn't last, but she never lost her impeccable sense of pitch or that ... I don't know how to describe it, other than "purity"... that she had, even as her voice grew deeper and grittier.

by Anonymousreply 108March 14, 2022 11:12 PM

How's Kiri Te Kanawa's voice going?

by Anonymousreply 109March 14, 2022 11:12 PM

Patti's first alternate, Terri Klausner, actually did the US premiere of Evita in LA previews. It was a Wednesday matinee.

by Anonymousreply 110March 14, 2022 11:14 PM

Marianne Faithful but her voice sounded so much better AFTER the drugs and booze took their toll.

by Anonymousreply 111March 14, 2022 11:36 PM

[quote] ANNIE GET YOIR GUN which destroyed her voice. She really sounded like shit afterwards.

Betty Hutton sounds fantastic on her recording of “Hit the Road to Dreamland,” which was in 1956.

by Anonymousreply 112March 14, 2022 11:37 PM

Teresa Stratas apparently went to the same vocal doctors that botched Julie Andrews' voice. Andrews did have a hard time of it in "My Fair Lady", a very difficult sing in that, even though it doesn't go very high, you have to belt some numbers, sing lyrically in others, and also do a lot of yelling in the books scenes, which is basically performing all of the play of "Pygmalion", too. Kind of a lot for a 21 year old. She did have a singing teacher, and the teacher gave her a technique, but not the strongest technique. When Andrews later returned doing "Victor/Victoria" they had the keys of the songs too low for her, which probably put her voice out of kilter. She had sounded fine a few years before when she did "Putting It Together" over at Manhattan Theater Club, but those songs were in good keys for her. Singing too high or too low for one's particular voice 8x a week can cause harm to one's voice.

by Anonymousreply 113March 14, 2022 11:39 PM

You have to keep training and practicing to keep your voice in tip top shape. Singing is very muscular and it is very easy to ruin your voice if you aren’t dining properly or overcompensating in one way to make up for a deficiency elsewhere

by Anonymousreply 114March 14, 2022 11:42 PM

Sarah Vaughan also wrecked her voice with years of smoking, although she understood her limitations and pitched her songs lower as appropriate.

by Anonymousreply 116March 15, 2022 12:08 AM

[105] Plant blew his voice out in 1972 but still sounded pretty good live in 2007

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by Anonymousreply 117March 15, 2022 12:31 AM

Saw Plant live a few years ago. His voice is completely shot. The audience didn't care.

by Anonymousreply 118March 15, 2022 1:22 AM

Andrews doesn't mention in her autobiography that when she went on to do "Camelot" she made Lerner & Loewe promise to make her role fairly easy to sing. That's why she doesn't have anything as difficult as "Just You Wait" or "Show Me" in the show.

by Anonymousreply 119March 15, 2022 1:53 AM

Thanks for the posters who provided better information than I had on Patti's time singing on Evita.

by Anonymousreply 120March 15, 2022 7:26 AM

[quote]Great singers who ruined their voice

Why hasn't anyone done an "Oh, dear" post for that?

by Anonymousreply 121March 16, 2022 4:47 AM

David Sedaris has almost ruined Billie Holiday for me.

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by Anonymousreply 122March 16, 2022 5:13 AM

Alice Ripley had a major personal success in "Next to Normal" and won a Tony for it. The demanding vocals along with the highly dramatic nature of the show strained her voice during the Broadway run but, perhaps realizing that this was the show of her career, she continued on to the "N2N" national tour, by the end of which the voice was in tatters. Ripley's only Broadway appearance since was a bewildering cameo in "American Psycho." She did "Sunset Boulevard" in stock and "Carrie" in Seattle, but the voice remains strained, the intonation unreliable.

by Anonymousreply 123March 16, 2022 6:43 AM

Back during rehearsals for "Girl Crazy," George Gershwin used to tell me, "Don't ever take singing lessons, Ethel… you'll ruin your voice!”

by Anonymousreply 124March 16, 2022 6:49 AM

R123, I saw Alice in Sunset Boulevard at NSMT in Beverly, MA in 2019 and her voice was fine. Nicholas Rodriguez, now in Company on Broadway, played Joe.

by Anonymousreply 125March 16, 2022 1:01 PM

“Show Me” is a nearly impossible song. Its range is too low for a legit soprano, but impossible for a belter too.

by Anonymousreply 126March 16, 2022 6:47 PM

That’s a ridiculous comment about “Show Me”. Hundreds of women have had no trouble with the song.

by Anonymousreply 127March 16, 2022 7:02 PM

It is a hard song, but I don't think it's a "nearly impossible" song.

It was absolutely perfect for Julie Andrews's vocal talents at the time--it's her biggest moment to shine vocally in the show other than "I Could Have Danced All Night."

by Anonymousreply 128March 16, 2022 7:05 PM

I remember reading Patricia Neway ruined her voice doing 8 performances a week of Menotti’s opera, “The Consul.”

And also that Len Cariou did the same in the obc of “Sweeney Todd.”

by Anonymousreply 129March 16, 2022 7:53 PM

R128 "Show Me" has a very exciting orchestration as well, and Julie really put a lot of uummph into it. I don't know if she ever did "Without You" on video (maybe on one of her old tv musical shows where she did medleys), but it's kind of a bitchy delight, too. But she didn't sing (and Elizas ever after don't sing the final note in the show) because Rex Harrison wanted to interrupt her with that little reprise of "You Did It" because he didn't want to look like a dick (or something to that effect I remember reading in Alan Jay Lerner's autobiography) by being told off by Eliza in that song. Sorry, but Higgins and Harrison were dicks. Even with that reprise.

Here's Julie reprising "Show Me" on a tv special about Lerner & Loewe in 1962. I'll take it that that's a close approximation of the original staging, for the most part, unless someone knows otherwise. In any event, her singing, movement and acting are sensational!

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by Anonymousreply 130March 16, 2022 9:58 PM

Of course, they did cut his little intro "Speak and world is full of singing... ", etc., but the guy opposite Andrews has some fun physical acting going on. You'll also notice that Andrews, after like 2 1/2 years of playing Eliza in both NY and London, does indeed do some speak-singing at times (probably influenced by hearing Harrison do it 8 x a week), though she does add a higher note than written at one point as well.

by Anonymousreply 131March 16, 2022 10:03 PM

I saw Barbara Cook in concert in 1975 and she good naturedly demurred when an audience member requested she sing "Glitter and Be Gay".

by Anonymousreply 132March 17, 2022 6:20 AM

Julian Ovenden sounded like he was on track to losing his voice when I saw him in previews in NY of "Death Takes A Holiday". Sounded liked a good voice, but bad technique. Sure enough, he withdrew from production before opening. Looks like he got a better voice teacher, as he's been doing more musicals in the UK.

by Anonymousreply 133March 17, 2022 7:35 PM

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