Music Musing Monday - Sound or Sense?

In the past week or so I have been pondering the curious phenomenon of student singers to ask after a performance, “How did it sound?” or “Was my voice okay?”

 Not “Was my interpretation clear?” or “Was I singing correct pitches and rhythms?” or “Could you understand the text?” or “Did you believe me?”

 The acting students I work with rarely ask, after performing a monologue or role, “How did it sound?” or “Was my voice okay?” But - the moment we work on songs, those same questions arise. 

When I draw the comparison with the speaking voice, the student actors are usually amused. Sure, they will ask whether they were successful in maintaining accent and dialect in a speech or role, or whether they could be heard clearly. But the sound of their spoken voice rarely concerns them. 

Successful singing and acting both rely on a secure vocal technique. And, of course, singing and speaking voices vary enormously in their inherent timbre and beauty. But where most of us will look forward to seeing a particular actor, more because of his / her ability to tell a story and transform into character than the essential sound of his / her voice; many more of us will go to hear a singer because of the voice itself.

I have always ranked the story-telling above the sound of the voice but over the years have come to realise that people are pretty evenly split on this.

Where do you fit? Is it the essential sound or the sense of what is being sung or spoken which hooks you?