Learn to sing at the Opera

Every year since September 2017, the Montpellier National Opera has launched an appeal for candidates to create an amateur choir, regardless of age or ability: the Un Air de Famille choir (Family Likeness Choir).

Throughout the year, the choristers are led by professional singing coaches (Vincent Recolin and Valérie Blanvillain) and complete two workshops a month in the same space as the opera house choir or orchestra. The goal is to perform on stage at the Opéra Berlioz in Montpellier and put on a show in front of 2,000 spectators.

Step one: put the choristers into groups according to comfortable tessitura range. The children form one choir, whereas the adults are put into groups according to their voice: women are always altos, sopranos, and mezzo-sopranos …

... and the men are tenors, baritones, and bass.

Step two: learn to sing. But how? It is breath that makes our vocal cords vibrate and which produces the sound that comes out of our mouths when we speak or sing. And to have the right breath, you need to warm up. That is why the vocal coaches start every rehearsal with a short series of exercises which the amateurs follow in good spirits. These include working on body posture (to sing, you need to be standing up straight!), stretches for the arms and neck,

Once your body is relaxed, you can begin to warm up your voice. This includes humming, whistling, then performing rising and descending scales with a piano, first with mouths closed and then open.

A lot of these choristers have never held sheet music in their hands. Luckily, the vocal coaches are there, with the help of the piano, to teach them how to read the notes and sing them, and how to read the words (sometimes in Italian or German) so that they are audible, whilst respecting the rhythm and timing.

Final step: getting up on stage. This is where the performance becomes real. The choristers have to sing in time with the orchestra, who are led in the pit by conductor Victor Jacob. But they also have to put on a show. For this, they are taught by a director who has envisioned how to use the immense stage space of the Opéra Berlioz for these 300 choristers.

Once on the stage, the choristers can rely on the support of professional artists to perform the solos.

The result is a unique adventure for these 300 amateur choristers who have learnt how to sing and put on a show from beginning to end, under professional conditions. So, who is up next?