One of my pet hates...

is people who try to sing different genres using the same vocal setup.

The business of "I have a highly trained voice and it can sing anything as long as I sing how I normally sing" seems so arrogant to me. It misses the point of the existence of different genres. Classical or opera singers seem to be the worst culprits, singing "crossover" without any thought at all towards style. Maybe there are just more recordings of them around. With respect to one of my operatic colleagues, who likes this CD, Kiri te Kanawa singing Blue Skies is a no-no for me. It's that picture of a formal classical singer "letting their hair down", like your dad in a disco or a politician at a pop concert. And the absolute epitome of "I'm begging you not to do this" was the TV ad a few years ago with the three tenors singing "Jeengle Baylzah" (the Christmas song) and looking like Rottweilers about to attack in their efforts to produce volume and high notes.

Perhaps I should qualify the opening statement - people who try to sing different genres using the same vocal setup without thinking. There are some spectacular examples of people singing a genre (not their normal one) and bringing something new to it. Filippa Giordano singing "O mio babbino caro" is SO different from the norm that it is quite thought-provoking.

I suppose it's the usual battle of the music versus the text and which you prize more highly. And really there's no right or wrong about this, since different people prize different things. I think this goes back to understanding the background to a piece and why it was written.

OK, here come the generalisations: in my opinion, opera is about grand emotions, passion, and musical or instrumental writing (there are many mythic and heroic themes in opera); musical theatre is about drama, text and big emotions (often happening to ordinary people); pop/contemporary commercial music is about personal, angst, strong emotions, rebellion (often teenage, always happening to you personally).

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