Rise of the belting-sopranos

Has anyone else noticed that the latest generation of musical theatre leading actresses are all sopranos who can belt.
Audra McDonald
Kristin Chenoweth
Marin Mazzie
Victoria Clark
Christine Ebersole
Kelli O'Hara
Carolee Carmelo
Alice Ripley
Judy Kuhn
Judy Kaye (though she mostly gets belt roles now)
newcomers Erin Davie & Sierra Boggess

I find it so refreshing that (even though I love my belters) that these unique women with non-pop voices have found such success. It truly shows that people really want to hear a beautiful, flexible voice (as long as its backed up by brilliant acting too). Very reassuring.

Feel free to add or discuss.

I'm just waiting for some fake schmuck to make some stupid reply, with big words related to "vocal technique"...

but I digress.

How are you guys defining belting? I've heard conflicting reports.

I'll give that Sutton is mixed. But, I don't think many of those more experienced actresses named are true belters like Menzel and Bean. It tends to be a newer trend to belt. (and a dangerous one, to boot.)

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I actually don't listen to the 'belters' if I can avoid it. It just sounds wrong.

The only Elphaba I've heard who doesn't do that screaming is Stephanie J. Block. Her voice is really quite amazing. I saw her coming off a cold and she was still amazing.

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Here the requisite technical response - but I'm only giving it because people are curious. I'm also really over-simplifying it so please don’t suddenly jump on me with more thorough responses. No need to get super technical on everyone.

Imagine the female voice split into two distinct sections: Chest voice (the thick, darker colored middle/lower section of the voice that engages the vocal folds fully) and Head Voice (the lighter, more “legit” sounding upper range that engages more of the edges of the folds – a more “classical sound”)

The female voice (and male voice, for that matter) naturally shifts into head voice as it goes up in tonal range.

Classical or Legit singers work to strengthen their head voice so that it matches chest voice in color and power and to blend the chest into the head. Operatic singers often develop the head voice to such a serious extent that they do not have to access their chest voice at all.

Belters do quite the opposite – they pull the weight and color of the chest voice up into the higher range. They increase their breath pressure and force the voice to maintain the strength of chest voice in a higher range. They also tend to restrict the natural vibrato, creating a more “straight” sound.

While the sound is thrilling, it can also be damaging as the greater breath pressure coupled with less vibration in the cords can abrade the cords like a sand blaster . This is often why legit singers and operatic singers tend to have longer careers than strict belters (among several other reasons).

This is not to say, however, that there aren’t belters out there who have figured out how to do it in a healthy way.

I won’t even get into mixing.

I'm not sure "a lot" of singers do healthy belting... it's hard to acheive. and mixing is another beast entirely.

I think a lot of singers make it SOUND like it's healthy belting. but when they go get scoped, the results won't be too encouraging!

belting is utilizing a chest resonance but the term "belting" means something different with today's theatre generation...

Thanks to to the pop material that's been written (WICKED, LEGALLY BLONDE, BROOKLYN, Scott Alan's new stuff, etc.) girls have a skewed perception of "belting" and are experiencing vocal damage at such a younger age now.

A dear friend of mine is the Director of one of the top Music Theatre college programs in the country - he told me there is more vocal damage in this year's group of high school girls than ever before.

You can credit that to songs like "Once Upon A Time" and "Defying Gravity"

I don't blame Schwartz for writing that stuff, but the pop/contemporary theatre music is basically asking girls to BELT.

I understand it's a young girls choice to sing it. the material just encourages it though.

and you're in denial if you don't think the WICKED (majority of it) or BROOKLYN score screams belt belt belt!!!

Absoutely I think that music encourages the unknowing to belt and hurt themselves, but ultimately vocal health is the singer's responsibility.

Any time…I’m one of the few, the proud, the actor/singers who love to talk about technique.

Completely agree about the whole change of standards.

It used to be that technique was being learned and then used to create the thrill of belting. Color changes and use of exciting sounds were choices – artistic choices. I dare say that many of the young belters aren’t belting as an artistic choice…they’re just doing what they’ve heard a thousand times.
We have a whole generation of Defying Gravity cadenzas. Everyone is trying to "out-Bean" each other.

I blame Disney for a lot of this. I can't comment on Ms. Boggess as I haven’t heard her, but I've noticed that Disney tends to skew their ingénues toward a visual rather than a sound (which makes sense since you can’t draw people onto the stage).

It’s sad though. You listen to Paige O’Hara (film Bell) as compared to Susan Egan (stage bell) and you can here a difference in color. One isn’t necessarily better than the other but I think that Disney affected a shift in expectations for young singers. They could care less about health and life-span of the voice. They just want to sound young and current.

As a beginning student of voice, I'm not yet sure how belting exactly works. Everytime I hear someone sing Defying Gravity, I just cringe. It makes me feel...like OUCH. I don't see how it's not physically painful to sing in chest voice like that.

Have there been Elphabas who don't belt but mix?

So glad to hear that. I was getting really tired of the thin-toned soprano with several faces taking on all of the roles I'd come to love in the films.
This is a fun thread.