There's a certain school of thought, particularly for baritones, that the larynx must be fully depressed at all times, and that the high larynx position of English choral tenors is why their voices give out in their thirties or forties. However, I'll say this: to make English intelligible with a projected voice, then you need a flexible larynx and the ability to hit all the notes with different larynx positions. So, in essence, for show singers who want a bigger sound, a depressed larynx is absolutely a really great way to add projection. How did I do it? By singing acapella in the car on the way to teach when I was young. So, it's not really a high larynx or a low larynx. I read a tenor that specialises in 19th Century singing that the flexible larynx was fairly normal back then.
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None of this came up during my rehearsals. It's more common for women to sing that way, and it's men who are supposed to sound 'manly' -- that's why people want that butch but somewhat ugly depressed sound.
Phillip was singing that way, but we got it out of him by explaining that everything is much closer and subtler in movies. He was attempting to imitate opera singers, but that's not the sound in the film itself.
Choral singers tend to be more flexible as well, but a lot of them can't really phrase in the 'dramatic' way, and lots of them simply sound too wussy.
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