The tenor voice - Dealing with the high notes

Hello everyone:

Today I want to specifically talk about the high range on the tenor voices. Many tenors face a lot of difficulties when they have to sing repeatedly on the highest  part of their vocal range. For tenors who haven't developed the high notes or don't have those high pitches, singing high notes can be frustrating, overwhelming and very intimidating. 

This situation results on insecurities, low self esteem as a singer, shame and even psychological disturbances simply because tenors are required to sing a solid high C5, and in some cases a high C#5 or even a high D5. 

In the past, before the Bel Canto era, tenors were not required to sing those high notes. All the difficult arias before the Bel Canto style were written for the Castrati . In fact, many opera experts agree that the Castrati arias are the most difficult to sing due to the vocal extension, fioratura  and the length of the roles. To many hours of singing difficult vocal passages!

Here is an example of a castrato's aria:

After the decline of the Castrati and the blossom of the Bel Canto style, the tenor voice begun to have a starring role in the new Opera productions. The new repertory for tenors demanded a very flexible voice, a pure sound and most importantly the ease to sing high notes without  pushing the instrument   over the limit to create the illusion of an effortless sound.

The tenors on the Bel Canto era learned a technique using the head voice to sing these high notes without harming the instrument. This technique is well known as "covering" the sound - "coprire" or "chiaroscuro" in Italian and is also known as a "vowel modification".  This technique is achieved by mixing or blending the chest and  head voice together to create a high note that sounds full but feels completely free. Developing this technique will take time and a great effort from the singer, mostly if it's voice is not naturally high or if the singer's voice is not flexible enough naturally.  Many people confuse the concept of singing with mixing voice with pure head voice or falsetto. At the early stages working with this technique the singer's voice will sound weak, it will crack on the transition areas, mostly between the middle and high range (F4, F#4 and G4) where the bigger transition is and it will certainly sound as a falsetto or pure head voice. With time and practice the high notes will develop into a solid sound, the cracking sound will be completely gone and the singer will be able to sing up and down with the same color and power through the whole vocal range.

Luciano Pavarotti talks about covering the sound on the following video: 

Seth Riggs - The famous vocal coach of many pop stars also talks about this technique. In fact, before Seth Riggs was famous he worked as a vocal teacher in Los Angeles California training classical singers. In the following video he explains clearly how to sing using the covering sound, he called it chiaroscuro:

This is the technique many teachers don't know or don't understand completely. Just a few teachers continue teaching this technique that might take time for the male singers to learn, understand and  apply, but once the singer understands it and learns it,  singing high notes will be like a walk in the park! 

Juan Diego Flores singing A mes amis... the famous aria from Donizzetti's La fille du regiment. In this aria the tenor has to sing 9 high C5. Impossible to sing without mixing the voice adequately.