There is a legend, or truth, that one very famous Russian opera singer could break a crystal glass with his voice. In any case, he is considered to have had the most powerful voice of all singers of that time.
I guess I thought my response was obviously about volume, rather than emotional expression. Of course, the human voice is the most expressive of all instruments, this goes without saying. But as far as sheer power in the sense of volume - not even close. The human voice is simply not capable of the decibel levels of brass and percussion instruments, unless of course it is electronically amplified.
Trained human voice can get up to 124dB and in opera often does (recording eng of MET says 120dB: http://www.metoperafamily.org/guild/diva/question.aspx?id=15).
Shouting Guinness Record is 128dB.
Not many instruments can do that. Loudest string instrument is the smallest one - violin=86dB French Horn (do you play it?) goes up to 114dB while trumpet might go around 140dB because sound is very concentrated. Drum set is about 115dB.
124dB that opera singer can produce is on the threshold of pain. Opera singers have sung with an orchestra without microphones. Many damaged their own hearing (150dB inside of the head). Pain threshold and loss of hearing was probably the reason why they haven't been trained for even louder voice - today we have microphones.
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