Giacomo Puccini, “O mio babbino caro”

‘Grain’ in Vocal Performance

by Mitchell Kukura | April 12, 2021

Renée Fleming is perhaps the most reputable operatic soprano of our day. Her voice and vocal technique have been developed with years of training and experience. She recently performed Puccini’s “O mio babbino caro” with the Berliner Philharmoniker. When looking at this performance within the lenses of Roland Barthes article "The Grain of the Voice", there are several instances where Fleming exhibits this ‘Grain’ which Barthes writes about.

In "The Grain of the Voice", Barthes speaks about how describing music with adjectives is a rather limited and overused form of expression. Rather, there should be something beyond the simple adjective. A vocal performance, when of high quality, should exhibit a form of expressiveness which goes beyond simple words to describe.

Within classic Italian opera and singing, there are musical and emotional elements which are not written in the score. These elements may only stand out to highly experienced and educated vocalists. As an example, within Bel canto singing, a proper breath is not only important, but the breath can also be used as a means to emotional expression. More specifically, the inhalation, when manipulated in a certain way can portray a sense of urgency, or desperateness.

Using the performance of “O mio babbino caro” as an example, there are a few instances where Renée Fleming’s breath and inhalation portray such emotion. At 0:20 in the video above, or the eighth note pickup into m. 10 in the score, Fleming takes a gasp of air during her inhalation. This is right before the words “I want to go to Porta Rossa to buy the ring!” The gasp induces a sense of urgency within the listener, giving the performance more aspects to be absorbed. This gasp could also be interpreted as a sense of wonderment from the previous line “Oh my dear papa I like him, he is so handsome.”

Another moment of a hastened inhalation is at 0:39 or pickup into m. 14, where the vocalist is again confirming “Yes, yes, I want to go there!” The style of inhalation seems fitting within the context of the story, yet there is no direction in the score as to how one should inhale before these phrases. This is one relevant example of how an artist is performing a song with added elements which lead to more emotional storytelling. These can also be interpreted as moments of ‘Grain’.

Another performance technique Fleming uses in this recording is a forced restraint then release of air within a musical phrase. This again ties into the emotion of the lyrics. The specific moment of restraint and then release of air happens at 1:04 or m. 19. This element is interpreted by the listener as a moment of frustration – which fits perfectly in within the text of this section: “And if my love were in vain, I would go to the Ponte Vecchio, and throw myself in the Arno!” This exact same technique is used again by Fleming on the line “vorrei morir” or “I would want to die” (1:38, m. 25, beat 2). The following diagram shows the restraint and then release of air.

Another element of emotional expression within Italian operatic singing has to do with the imitation of crying. This is one of the most common ‘un-written’ dramatic effects that vocalists add to their performance. If there is one thing that is certain in operatic Italian music, it is that the vocalist must sing the notes and words within the musical phrase. However, as seen in this version of “O mio babbino caro” by Renée Fleming, there are moments of ‘crying’ added, usually just before the commencement of certain vocal phrases. Fleming inserts this crying technique at 1:08 or right before m. 20. This cry is usually pitched around the starting note of the consequent phrase. This allows it not to be too distracting for the listener, yet also add more emotional detail to the phrase.

All of these subtle details added into this performance are most likely attributed to the years of experience and training which Renée Fleming has. There is something to be said about the artists ability to add emotional characteristics to a performance, those of which are not found in the score. These elements help pull a performance further away from simple describing terms and bring it closer to the emotions felt in real life.