Cecilia Bartoli Quotes

I don't sing anything that hurts my voice.

I'm a geek when it comes to my voice. I know if it hurts, something's wrong. You shouldn't feel it! It's very important to look after your voice.

I take care of my voice; I'm working out the way I would do my body, so that stays in shape.

I don't take care of my voice at all, which is one reason that I sound as bad as I do.

I know how to treat my voice to make it sound as good as it possibly can - which is still not that good.

Just the way my voice sounds now, it's always had this little hoarse thing to it. And I'd have to do vocal exercises to make my voice clear.

Seventy per cent humidity is ideal for vocal cords.

I do a lot of vocal hygiene.

It's very much like opera singers. They do the same thing. The first thing in the morning and the last thing at night, the thing they think about is their voice and how to take care of it.

There is one thing I should say, and it's important: Young Broadway singers and anybody who is an orator of any kind - lawyers who have to speak in court or pastors or anyone who has a lot of stress on their vocal cords: You should do the maintenance. You should do whatever it takes to feel fresh and good.

I've had problems with my throat over the years, playing with loud bands for years, and I've had bruised vocal chords and nodules.

If you don't make those vocal chords work, they'll go dormant on you.

Some artists just ruin their voices because they don't know any better.

But I'm pretty lucky with my voice. When I first started touring I went to see a woman to give me some coaching on how not to lose my voice. And she was just saying really your voice is a muscle so if you're using it all the time you should actually come back from tour with a stronger voice than you left with. And that's really how I find it.

There's very little I can sing now. When I asked my first voice teacher, who was the best one, "When will I know when to stop singing?" he said, "Your voice will tell you." And it is very, very difficult to sing now.

I had spent about three months where I couldn't sing at all, so that was anxiety-provoking. But after that, I went back out. I sang for two hours in my garage one day to see if I had a voice.

I try to frighten my very young colleagues into studying and understanding their voices before they attempt things that are beyond them. It's wise to take gymnastics and swimming to strengthen the body, because people don't realise what an athletic undertaking singing actually is.

Sometimes a role might be difficult on my throat.

Well, I've been lucky. I've never gotten a voice polyp. I've never gotten nodes. But I do get sick, usually every tour, and to varying degrees. Sometimes it's a sinusitis.

About 10 years ago, I took some vocal lessons. I'll bet that helped. I got a tape of exercises that the girl gave me, which I don't do anymore, but they were good. And I don't smoke.

Vocal study before age 20 is likely to be injurious, though some survive it in the hands of very careful and understanding teachers.

Something like Deckard Cain is great; it doesn't ruin your voice. But games that involve violence or battle or mutating and stuff like that really does take a toll on your voice. And I've even had to start to go to a voice guru kind of guy to do exercises to try to save and get back some of what I lost.

It's so important to me to take care of my voice. I do a lot of vocal warms-ups right before I go on.

I lost my voice for the first time. I was so bummed out, but it happens to every singer at some point in their career. I don't think most people understand, but I sing every night and sometimes we do five shows in a row, which is really bad for your voice.

You do have to be a bit careful with your voice. It is an instrument.