Belcanto Lecture Series Metropolitan Opera Guild

Recently we attend a series of Bel Canto lecture series, organized by The Metropolitan Opera Guild. Since it is about Bel Canto, it almost always has to start with one of the Gioachino Rossini (or Bellini, who is the subject of next week).

Here's my feed back----
First of all, what is "Bel Canto"? It literally means "Beautiful singing" in Italian. If you equate "Bel Canto" with a particular type of painting...let's say "landscape", as suppose to "Figure painting" , it should be a lot easier to understand, that while the medium may be the same, the language, the expression, the reaction might be very different. In classical singing, depending on one's capacity(or "Fach"), a singer will spend years to learn all necessary component, then will focus on studying a particular feild of singing. My fach is on the lyric & coloratura side, so I probably will not attempt Wagner...

To master Bel Canto, one must:

(this is taken straight out of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bel_canto)
* an impeccable legato production throughout the singer's (seamless) range
* the use of a light tone in the higher registers,
* an agile, flexible technique capable of despatching ornate embellishments,
* the ability to execute fast, accurate divisions,
* the avoidance of aspirates and the eschewing of a loose vibrato,
* a pleasing, well-focused timbre,
* a clean attack,
* limpid diction, and
* graceful phrasing rooted in a complete mastery of breath control.
(if you can master all of the rules above, you are my god!!)

Singing isn't like doing math, where 1+1 must equal 2. Because each different person has different instrument. We will learn from the theories and methods from the masters, however our very own instrument defines our voice. Some people find their breathing more easily in Bel Canto style (by 'breathing" I meant the natural feel), some people shows more vocal advantage in Wager. The lecture began with a general coverage of Bel Canto, then it went on to introduce Rossini as one of the best composers of Bel Canto opera. Anyone can Google him and get a much better bio of him so I won't elaborate more.

What is interesting about the first lecture was that, several clips were played for us to make comparisons.

In particular, "Bel Raggio Lusinghier" by both Dame Joan Sutherland (RIP) (fast forward to 0:50)

and Joyce Didonato (love you love you love you)

an aria from "Semiramide", last opera composed by Rossini. The comparison between Sutherland, a soprano, and Didonato, a mezzo was quite interesting. Over all, Sutherland was splendid as usual with her masterful legato, high ornamentation and amazing vocal capacity...to be continued...