CNN.com - Why opera is hard to grasp, even in English - Jan. 7, 2004

New measurements show that a soprano distorts pronunciation when she opens her mouth wide and adjusts her vocal tract to hit the highest, loudest notes.

In doing so, she sacrifices the acoustical nuances that listeners require to understand the words.

"It's not our ears," said Australian physicist Joe Wolfe. "In some cases, the information simply is not there."