Opera voices are trained to have the power to sing without microphones, and they are LOUD. It is a technique that can be learned. (You can read my point of view on voice training on the 'can anyone learn to sing' thread.) I know that when I stand up in a session to my full 5'2" height and suddenly start singing in a loud volume, I sometimes see surprised expressions. It's all in the technique, and the lower range of a man's voice can project even better than a soprano range like mine, if you know what to do. When I sing shanties or drinking songs in a lower chest voice, it can carry over crowd noise. (Remember Ethel Merman?) Even in the head voice at a higher range, the sound carries enough to usually get people's attention. If the audience is just plain rowdy, though....that's another problem. alice, montana