Singing Guide: Dido and Aeneas
Vocal technique, exercises, tips and relevant resources
Dido and Aeneas is a beautiful baroque opera written by Henry Purcell. The opera tells the story of the tragic love between Dido, the Queen of Carthage, and Aeneas, a Trojan prince. Dido is known for her beautiful, smooth mezzo-soprano voice, and her unique vocal technique is characterized by a warm and relaxed tone.
To learn to sing like Dido, it's important to first understand the basics of singing. Singing Carrots offers plenty of resources, including articles on voice analysis, vocal registers, breathing basics, and other vocal techniques. It is also helpful to develop breath support, as this is an essential part of producing a beautiful vocal tone. The Farinelli breathing video is a great place to start for some breathing exercises.
To sing like Dido, you will want to focus on developing an open mouth and throat while singing, as this will help you achieve that warm, relaxed tone that she is known for. Check out the Open mouth & throat article for more information on this. Additionally, Dido utilizes vibrato in her singing, a singing technique - Singing with Vibrato provides a step-by-step guide into how to create this vocal effect.
To learn some of the songs that showcase Dido's beautiful vocal technique, consider checking out the search songs feature on Singing Carrots and filter by the "Mezzo-Soprano" category to find some of her most famous arias.
Singing Carrots Pitch Training is a great tool for developing pitch accuracy, and the Vocal Pitch Monitor is a useful tool for visualizing your progress.
Overall, to sing like Dido, first you must master the basics of singing, develop your breath support, focus on achieving an open mouth and throat, and learn some of her most famous arias. With practice and dedication, you can learn to sing like this baroque opera queen.