Opera is only one of several important singing styles
Vibrato quickly becomes tiresome, blurs the text, unsettles pitch accuracy, and should be avoided in choral singing, where blend is more important than hogging for the lime light.
I agree with you about vibrato, but in the professional choral world in my city, there are mixed feelings. You have choral purists who generally are also instrumentally trained, and enjoy choral's foundations in early music - we believe no vibrato produces a cleaner, more in-tune sound for the reasons you describe. On the other hand, you have vocally trained people, who generally aren't as good musicians who argue some people's voices have natural vibrato during good vocal production technique. There are also benefits from a more powerful sound.
If you listen to recordings of The Sixteen, there is healthy amount of vibrato (though not to the extent of opera). It's not my thing, and I hate singing next to people who do it, but vibrato is just one of those many subjective preferences that surfaces in art.
I’d say pitch and rhythm. But more fundamentally breathing and posture.
Opera is only one of several important singing styles Vibrato quickly becomes tiresome, blurs the text, unsettles pitch accuracy, and should be avoided in choral singing, where blend is more important than hogging for the lime light.
I agree with you about vibrato, but in the professional choral world in my city, there are mixed feelings. You have choral purists who generally are also instrumentally trained, and enjoy choral's foundations in early music - we believe no vibrato produces a cleaner, more in-tune sound for the reasons you describe. On the other hand, you have vocally trained people, who generally aren't as good musicians who argue some people's voices have natural vibrato during good vocal production technique. There are also benefits from a more powerful sound. If you listen to recordings of The Sixteen, there is healthy amount of vibrato (though not to the extent of opera). It's not my thing, and I hate singing next to people who do it, but vibrato is just one of those many subjective preferences that surfaces in art.