Health: expert voice for Sanremo singers, risotto with pears and a few virtuosities

The osteopath of the stars reveals the secrets of the golden uvula: behind the scenes meditation and little water, on stage singing with the heart against stress and performance anxiety. And the Malika-style dental braces, cleared through customs in the US, are also increasingly widespread in Italy

Milan, 11 Feb. (AdnKronos Health)

On stage singing with the heart, privileging the emotional aspect to virtuosity, difficult to control under the spotlight of Sanremo. Behind the scenes vocal warm-up, meditation and concentration exercises. Avoid taking too much fluids, smoking or drinking alcohol before performing. And as the 'last supper' in view of the performance "risotto with pears: it is the secret dish of many great American artists because both ingredients retain a lot of moisture, managing to lubricate and moisten the mucous membranes well, and favoring an ideal distribution of liquids during digestion ".

This is the recipe for a winning Sanremo 'cooked' for Adnkronos Salute by Valentina Carlile, a young Milanese osteopath who treats the voice with her hands. A true authority on the subject: in the Olympus of music there are many international stars who cannot do without her 'fluid'. Just to name a few, the expert boasts collaborations with tours organized by the likes of Madonna, Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston and Lady Gaga. And yesterday Valentina didn't waste a minute of the opening night of the 65th Italian Song Festival. The first impression, "certainly evident to insiders beyond personal tastes - he explains - is the difference between the performances of artists who have been used to being on the scene for years, and who may even have experiences abroad behind them, and those of others ", more or less emerging young faces.

"The singers with a historical background - analyzes the osteopath - are much better trained to withstand and manage the tension of a difficult world showcase like the one in Sanremo", which risks instead of displacing the less 'savvy' more exposed to "an emotional impact huge". A performance anxiety that changes the voice and can betray: "Several scientific studies have found that the vocal frequency increases in proportion to emotional stress. This is why autogenic training, meditation and concentration techniques can be very useful before performing," suggests the professional. Without forgetting "the warm-up phase: research shows that it is much more useful for those who have to face a single performance, such as a song on the evening of Sanremo, than for those who have to sing several songs, for hours, in the stage of a concert" .

Better not to overdo it, stress and performance anxiety penalize technicalities

Sanremo, as we know, is a stage that under the limelight not only puts the song in the competition, but also and above all who presents it. "The attention to the image is very strong. From the dress, to the hair and makeup - continues Valentina - everything is taken care of in the smallest details as an important element as much as the song", and passed 'to X-rays' by music critics, record companies, gossip gurus and the general public. "Less experienced artists can find it hard to manage all this", so another advice from the osteopath is to "sing by leveraging more on the sensations experienced and communicated than on technicalities. Better not to look for them or in any case not to exaggerate, because by limiting them you can succeed to lighten the 'load' that weighs on the structures of the larynx and on the other fascial components involved in sound emission, and which can compromise performance ".

The road to the 'little lion' that crowns the winner of the Flower Festival, therefore, also passes through the genre of song with which an artist decides to participate: from the point of view of the voice therapist, "the lighter songs certainly have an advantage, with less virtuosity. From the Sanremo stage they come out better and the rankings of the first evening seem to confirm this ".

This happens on the one hand because "the people who listen must be competent to fully understand the value of a technicality", on the other hand because "under pressure the virtuosities are much more difficult to control. In the 'one-shot' performance". , the desire to amaze "can play tricks or take a back seat. Cheerful, sunny songs without major variations, even sung in a very high range, can therefore give greater guarantees. If it is true that the technical piece can be more beautiful to listen to expert ears, in Sanremo he could be penalized ".

Malika's device? Increasingly widespread, crucial teeth for vocal emission

And while waiting to go on stage? Better not to give in to the heat of the spotlight, recommends the osteopath of the voice. "Also due to the characteristic climatic conditions of theaters, where it is often very hot and the environment is dry, people tend to drink a lot but for artists this is a mistake to avoid. Too much water promotes gastroesophageal reflux which can cause It is difficult to control the diaphragm - warns the expert - If they drink too much, in fact, singers risk activating this crucial muscle in a digestive phase. I recommend hydrating well during the day, but not while waiting for the performance ". For the same reasons, before holding the microphone "alcohol, cigarettes and too much food should also be avoided".

For a 'doc' vocal performance, "the last meal should be eaten 3 or 4 hours before entering the scene. And risotto with pear is a recipe that helps." Valentina learned "this ritual" from some of her 'VIP' foreign patients and "then I recommended it to other artists I assist. At first they tried it out of curiosity - she says - but then they confirmed that it really works and this depends from the chemical-physical properties of rice and pear ". But be careful: "To help the voice, the risotto should not be creamed, because the cheese can cause acidity disturbances and worsen reflux".

The last comment is for the device 'sported' in prime time by Malika Ayane.

"I don't know if this is also his case - the osteopath said - but dental problems can cause variations in the emission of the voice. The dental aracata is a fundamental articulatory structure, and correcting its defects can help avoid overloads and pain in the nape of the neck. Often they depend on incorrect alignment of the teeth or on a particular structure of the maxillofacial complex. In this area there are all the resonance chambers, and creating the correct spaces is important because it helps to sing better and with less effort. During the performance the device can represent an obstacle, being a foreign body. But in most cases they are devices with update times of 18-24 months, which therefore cannot be removed to sing. Many artists have 'cleared' it in the US - Valentina testifies - and in Italy it is increasingly widespread ".

Fonte:https://www.adnkronos.com/per-una-voce-da-podio-a-sanremo-risotto-alle-pere-e-pochi-virtuosismi_5lJOFkiRfNnaFo5GtpuMjS?refresh_ce