Juan Diego Flórez on Voice

Opera Chic just scored a major interview with Juan Diego Flórez (a major league operatic tenor) and this bit jumped out at me. He's talking about his manager, whose help managing his voice (which roles he should sing) is far more important than managing opera performance dates.

Ernesto has been valuable because he’s someone with a good pair of ears, and someone with a good pair of ears hears you much better than you’re able to hear yourself. Of course, it’s hard to understand yourself how your voice is perceived. For singers, we have an ear that hears ourselves outside and inside. For instance, when you have a cold and your ears are blocked, you hear yourself more on the inside. So it’s a constant balance of the ear’s inner and outer parts, and singers tend to think of their voices in a different way. So it’s good to have somebody who you can trust and who understands your voice. I think now, I have a very good idea of how I sound and what my voice is like and this is a very good thing.

Narrowing the gap between how you think you sound and how others perceive your sound is a vital part of making a healthy connection with an audience as a performer.