What an opera-tunity! Video reveals what happens in the head and throat of a singer as he performs Wagner

An opera singer's talent could be said to have gone to his head, the Daily Mail reports.

German baritone Michael Volle performed a piece by Wagner in an MRI scanner to reveal the inner workings of his head and throat.

The technique, which uses magnetic fields and radio waves to peer into the body, has captured the mechanics of singing and could help experts solve the mysteries of how singers belt out tunes.

Professor Matthias Echternach of University of Klinikumin in Heidelberg, Germany, carried out the scan on Mr Volle.

It is hoped the test will help experts shed light on singing, as well as the acoustic resonance properties on the vocal tract.

The strange but mesmerising footage of Mr Volle singing Song to the Evening Star from Wagner's Tannhäuser, shows the different body parts responsible for making noise.

The opera, which was first performed in 1845, is based on two German legends - Tannhäuser, the legendary medieval German poet and the tale of the Wartburg Song Contest.

The plot focuses on the struggle between sacred and profane love, and redemption.

The footage obtained in the scanner goes some way to demonstrating how humans are able to produce vowel sounds by using vibrations in our vocal folds - small flaps in our voice box - that interrupt the airflow from the lungs.

These folds vibrate at a 'fundamental frequency' that determines the pitch of a sound, so that the frequency of speech is usually between 100 and 220 Hz, professional sopranos can hit high notes ranging between 250 and 1,500Hz, Scientific American reported.

Sopranos are able to project over a loud orchestra because high notes are easier to hear then low ones.
This means the technique is particularly important for tenors and basses, John Smith of the University of New South Wales in Sydney, explained.

Singers use a technique called 'resonance tuning' to turn up the volume by enhancing the vibrations of the vocal folds.

But singing is not the only activity to be explored using an MRI scanner.

In 2014, a couple kissed and had sex in the machine and the resulting videos were posted on YouTube.

In the kissing video the movement of the tongues as they enter the other person's mouth are revealed, as well as the heartbeats of the amorous people throughout.

The more revealing clip shows what sex looks like through an MRI scanner and is actually the result of a number of images being stitched together.

The purpose of the study was to discover whether imaging of the male and female genitals during coitus was feasible.