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Most opera lovers associate the word “bel canto” with the Italian vocal school. In fact, this term has several meanings. Some of its definitions will be discussed in this article.

What is bel canto?

This word consists of two roots that come from Italian language and denoting beautiful singing. Strictly speaking, this term acquired a specific meaning only by the mid-nineteenth century.

Then some Italian writers they began to call this a style of singing that was once widespread throughout the country, but gradually lost its popularity. This style is characterized by smooth sound production, when one note gently flows into another. That is, in professional terms, singers who want to master bel canto must master the legato stroke.

Despite the smoothness and melodiousness, arias performed in this manner always sound highest degree expressively. The bel canto technique appeared simultaneously with Italian national opera. For many years their development was interconnected.

Bel Canto style

The second meaning of this term is associated with the first Italian operas, which appeared in the mid-sixteenth century. One of the founding composers of this art was Claudio Monteverdi. He wrote many operas, mainly based on subjects from ancient mythology.

This great figure in the musical arts served at the court of the Italian aristocrats Gonzago, who competed in everything, including the art of the artists they patronized, with another famous Medici clan. Monteverdi's competitors usually created operas based on works composed by Italian poets, while Claudio always wrote his masterpieces based on plays belonging to the genre of drama. Therefore, his creations were of a completely different nature. This means that there is a need for more expressive style singing.

Then the famous Italian bel canto arose. Thus, we can say that this term is usually used to describe not only the manner of performance, but also a certain genre of opera, which is characterized by drama, requiring singers to be able to convey numerous shades of human feelings.

The first virtuosos

The emergence of Italian opera coincided with the era of the emergence of a new style in art. At this time, the Baroque replaced the outdated Renaissance. In music, this transition was associated with the replacement of the polyphonic structure with a homophonic one. That is, the one that is most common today in pop music. In works of this type the solo part is dominant, and all the others are subordinate to it. In vocal art, the previously dominant choral music was replaced by operatic arias, performed, as a rule, by one soloist.

The melodies have become more developed and complex. The bel canto technique even gave rise to a whole science related to the complex music theory. This discipline is called solfeggio. Many exercises written at that time differ from operatic arias only in the absence of text. Initially, bel canto performers were exclusively men. The women's parts were sung by boys or castrati.

Style Features

Such singing began to combine virtuoso control of the singing apparatus when performing coloratura passages (such fragments that require highly developed vocal technique), softness and a refined sound of the voice in lyrical episodes. IN climaxes What happens is not an increase in the load on the ligaments, but an enrichment of the sound due to the resonators.

Breathing should remain smooth, without any force. Bel canto masters of yesteryear loved to show off their singing skills while holding a lit candle in front of their mouths. Not only should it not go out, but even any deviations of the flame to the side were unacceptable.

The connection between the Italian language and vocals

What is bel canto? First of all, this is the vocal style characteristic of Italian opera. The emphasis should be on the nationality of this art. This style of singing is closely related to the peculiarities of the phonetics of the language widespread in its homeland.

In Italian, as a rule, all consonants are pronounced, and vowels are melodious and drawn-out. The melody of speech itself in this language is very developed and varied. For this reason, most outstanding masters The masters of this technique are undoubtedly the Italians. For foreigners, as a rule, this art is not as easy for native speakers. They have to rebuild their habit of articulation, as well as intonate interrogative, negative and other phrases differently. Many even believe that Italians know some secret that helps them sing so beautifully.

There is a myth that the inhabitants of the Apennine Peninsula sacredly keep this secret and do not disclose it to representatives of other nationalities. But experts say that this secret is an empty fiction. The success of Italians in this art is explained precisely by the peculiarities of their language, which is the basis of the expressive means of the bel canto style.

Italian opera

As already mentioned, Claudio Monteverdi can be called the father of Italian opera. His immortal creations "Orpheus" and "Coronation of Poppea" are called "Shakespearean plays in music." The dramatic effect of these works is not achieved by the melody conveying the meaning of a particular phrase. She is the carrier of dramatic tension.

The first Italian operas bore little resemblance to classical examples. The main difference from later works is that the singers are not accompanied by Symphony Orchestra, but any one instrument. Most often, such performances were staged accompanied by a harpsichord.

Monteverdi's opera, as a rule, consisted of duets and terzets, as well as numerous choral numbers. Accordingly, this music contained polyphony, characteristic of the Renaissance. The same school can be attributed whole line composers who are considered to be part of the Roman operatic tradition: Emilio de Cavalieri, Domenico Mazzochi and others. During the dawn of metropolitan opera in Italy, there were two main genres: comic and pompous, lush in the Baroque style.

Later, by the mid-seventeenth century, the center of musical art moved to Venice. Claudio Monteverdi also moved there, where he created his later operas. A number of innovations appeared in the works of composers of the Venetian school, which ultimately changed the entire history of music.

Venetian innovations

The question of what bel canto is in music can be answered as follows: it is both a certain style of singing and a genre of opera. One thing to emphasize here important detail. Italian, like all other classical operas, must necessarily include such elements as aria, duet, terzetto and others. These numbers first appeared in the Venetian opera.

The first music schools

At the same time, the first special educational institutions were created to replenish the staff of opera houses. Typically, these schools admitted boys in early childhood. The training period lasted from 6 to 9 years. The students lived in dormitories at schools, which helped them fully devote themselves to studying vocal art. The regime in such musical institutions was quite harsh. Usually classes began early in the morning and continued until late in the evening.

From Monteverdi to Verdi

The works of the bel canto style were most repertoire of Italian opera houses until the mid-eighteenth century. Then the popularity of such music began to gradually fade away.

The last traces of this genre can be found in the works of Giuseppe Verdi.

Immortal vocal style

Despite the fact that the genre of bel canto opera lost its relevance in the eighteenth century, the vocal style that arose simultaneously with it continues to live today. This circumstance is explained by the fact that this singing school is based on the use of the most natural techniques for the vocal apparatus.

Namely: on smooth, and not forced breathing, and articulation characteristic of colloquial speech. Therefore, the main answer to the question: “What is bel canto?” today is: “This is one of the styles of academic vocals.”

The first stars of Italian show business

The next surge in the popularity of bel canto singers occurred in the era when gramophone recordings began to be released in large quantities. Then not only the residents of these settlements, who had the opportunity to visit theaters, but also many thousands of ordinary citizens learned about the opera stars who shone in the largest cities of the country. The first idols of the emerging Italian show business were academic singers. Recordings by such masters of this art as Enrico Caruso, Tito Schipa, and many others were distributed throughout the world in millions of copies.

Italian vocalists have become the standard of academic sound. Singers from different countries to master the art of bel canto. For example, the famous Soviet singer Muslim Magomayev was sent to Italy to improve his skills. Therefore, to the question of what bel canto is, one can give the following answer: this is a style that is the standard for many academic vocalists.

The origins of other singing schools

In the mid-twentieth century, other vocal performance techniques began to become increasingly widespread. They were based on techniques different from those used in bel canto. However, the original Italian vocal style still retains its popularity, since it is based on the most natural methods for the human voice.

However, many of these techniques still, in one way or another, use the achievements of bel canto. This happened back in the nineteenth century, when the Russian national vocal school was being formed. Then, the singers performed parts in the operas of Mikhail Glinka, composers Mighty Handful and others, the Russians combined in their own manner folk traditions with the style of Italian masters. Musicians from this country often came to Moscow and St. Petersburg on tour. Later, such world-famous vocalists as Fyodor Ivanovich Chaliapin, Sobinov, Lemeshev and Kozlovsky, despite their pronounced Russian style of singing, were fluent in the bel canto style of vocal performance.

Fun teaching techniques

At different times, there were many methods of teaching vocal art. Some of them were quite effective. Others were a collection of very strange advice.

One of these bizarre works was a manual by vocal teacher Herbert-Caesari, where aspiring singers were given the following advice:

1. Imagine that the audience is behind you and you are producing the sound from a slot on the back of your neck.
2. Draw a picture in your mind of how sound is distributed along the length of the spine, because that is where it originates.
3. Color high notes with dark tones.
4. When singing in the upper register, you need to make movements with your ears and eyebrows.
5. While playing high notes, you need to imagine that you are very frightened by something.
6. Thoughts about the smell of rotten fish help concentrate sound in the resonator zones.

Finally

This article addressed the question of what bel canto is.

IN individual chapters both the vocal style and the eponymous genre of opera were described. Bel canto, in both meanings, has enjoyed and enjoys the well-deserved love of fans of musical art. On the power of impressions that essays produce Italian composers Goncharov also wrote in his novel “Oblomov”. In one of the chapters of this book, Ilya Ilyich, touched by the aria Casta diva from the opera “Norma” by Bellini, decided to declare his love to the object of his feelings, Olga. As for bel canto in the meaning of vocal style, a great many documentaries and feature films. A huge amount of educational literature has been written on this topic. Numerous works tell about the life of the great masters of this vocal school. artistic culture. For example, the film about the life of the famous Italian singer “The Great Caruso” with another outstanding vocalist from this country, Mario Lanza, in the title role, was widely popular at one time.

PEBBLES-ARTIST

Anna Akhmatova was inspired to write the poem “Listening to Singing” by the voice of Galina Vishnevskaya. The fate of the singer was told in the opera “Galina” by the French composer Marcel Landowski. Her life had everything: poverty and glory, betrayal and great love, exile and triumphant return.

The future prima donna Galya Ivanova was born in Leningrad into a working-class family. The parents soon separated, and the girl was raised by her grandmother Daria. Gali spent her childhood in Kronstadt. For her musicality and artistry, she was nicknamed Pebble the Artist at school. 14-year-old Galina met the Great Patriotic War in Estonia, where she was visiting her father: “...it was not a retreat, but simply a stampede. We stopped and came to our senses already in Torzhok. This is how the war began for me. This is how my childhood ended.". Returning to Kronstadt, the girl found herself among almost three million blockade survivors - residents of Leningrad and its suburbs. In February 1942, grandmother Daria died.

Galina was saved by women who searched houses and apartments for those still alive. A fifteen-year-old girl ended up in a local air defense detachment, worked equally with adults, and sang in amateur performances in the evenings. By this time, the owner of a clear clear soprano had already decided: she would be a singer. In 1943, after breaking the blockade, Galina went to Leningrad, studied at a music school, and in the evenings worked as a lighting assistant in a cultural center.

And now I'm sitting in the hall for the first time Mikhailovsky Theater and listen to " Queen of Spades» Tchaikovsky<…>The excitement, the shock that I experienced there was not just pleasure from the performance: it was a feeling of pride in my resurrected people, in the great art that makes all these half-dead people - orchestra players, singers, the public - unite in this hall, behind the walls of which The air raid siren howls and shells explode.

Galina Vishnevskaya. "Galina: Life Story"

Material from Wikipedia - the free encyclopedia

The bel canto technique was cultivated by many composers, among them Alessandro Scarlatti, Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, George Frideric Handel and Johann Adolf Hasse. In many of Scarlatti's solfeggios, it is enough to add text to turn them into arias, and vice versa.

In the first decades of the nineteenth century, the aesthetic and stylistic aspects of bel canto would be gradually abandoned until they almost completely disappeared around the middle of the nineteenth century (the last traces of this aspect of bel canto can be found in early work Giuseppe Verdi).

But with the technical-vocal aspect the situation is different. Italian Bel Canto, being a technique of free natural physiological production of sound, ideally syntonized from an acoustic point of view, represents the essence of singing, this was the main direction of the largest schools and singers until the 1930s. Enrico Caruso, Aureliano Pertile, Giacomo Lauri-Volpi, Beniamino Gigli and Tito Schipa are its most famous representatives. Their vocal technique can be fully considered bel canto. More precisely, we are talking about a technique that works deeply with the nature of the voice and makes possible the synthesis of opposites: tenderness of sound and power, piercing and roundness, brilliance and softness, flowing legato and dramatic accent, declamation and flexibility of sound.

Since the beginning of the 30s of the 20th century, new techniques based on other principles began to spread in Italy, thereby contributing to the decline of Italian bel canto.

Stages of Bel Canto Development

• the birth of Italian opera (C. Monteverdi);
• the rise of the “Neapolitan school” (Alessandro Scarlatti);
• the period of creative activity of V. Bellini and G. Donizetti;
• creativity of G. Verdi
• Verist school (Puccini, Leoncavallo, Mascagni, etc.)

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Notes

Literature

• Antonio Juvarra, "I segreti del belcanto. Storia delle tecniche e dei metodi vocali dal "700 ai nostri giorni", Curci, 2006
• Mathilde Marchesi, Bel Canto: A Theoretical and Practical Vocal Method, Dover, 1970 - ISBN 0-486-22315-9
• James A. Stark Bel Canto, University of Toronto Press, 2003 - ISBN 0-8020-8614-4
• Leonardo Ciampa The Twilight of Belcanto, AuthorHouse, 2ª ed. 2005 - ISBN 1-4184-5956-9
• Cornelius L. Reid, Bel Canto: Principles and Practices, Joseph Patelson Music House, 1950 - ISBN 0-915282-01-1
• Morozov V. P. The art of resonant singing. Fundamentals of resonance theory and technology. - M.: MGK, Center "Art and Science", 2008. - 596 p.

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Excerpt describing Bel Canto

Italian bel canto, belcanto, lit. - wonderful singing

Shiny light and graceful style singing, characteristic of Italian vocal art from the mid-17th to the first half of the 19th centuries; in a broader modern sense - the melodiousness of vocal performance.

Bel canto requires the singer to have perfect vocal technique: impeccable cantilena, thinning, virtuoso coloratura, emotionally rich, beautiful singing tone.

The emergence of bel canto is associated with the development of the homophonic style of vocal music and the formation of Italian opera (early 17th century). Subsequently, while maintaining its artistic and aesthetic basis, Italian bel canto evolved and was enriched with new artistic techniques and colors. Early, so-called pathetic, bel canto style (operas by C. Monteverdi, F. Cavalli, A. Cesti, A. Scarlatti) is based on an expressive cantilena, elevated poetic text, small coloratura decorations introduced to enhance the dramatic effect; The vocal performance was distinguished by sensitivity and pathos.

Among the outstanding bel canto singers of the second half of the 17th century. - P. Tosi, A. Stradella, F. A. Pistocchi, B. Ferri and others (most of them were both composers and vocal teachers).

By the end of the 17th century. Already in Scarlatti's operas, arias begin to be built on a wide cantilena of a bravura character and the use of expanded coloratura. so-called the bravura style of bel canto (common in the 18th century and lasted until the first quarter of the 19th century) is a brilliant virtuoso style in which coloratura predominates.

The art of singing during this period was subordinated mainly to the task of identifying the highly developed vocal and technical capabilities of the singer - the duration of breathing, the skill of thinning, the ability to perform the most difficult passages, cadences, trills (there were 8 types); singers competed in the strength and duration of sound with the trumpet and other instruments of the orchestra.

In the “pathetic style” of bel canto, the singer had to vary the second part in the da capo aria, and the number and skill of performing the variations served as an indicator of his skill; The decorations of the arias were supposed to be changed at each performance. In the “bravura style” of bel canto, this feature became dominant. Thus, in addition to perfect mastery of the voice, the art of bel canto required broad musical and artistic development from the singer, the ability to vary the composer’s melody, and improvise (this continued until the appearance of the operas of G. Rossini, who himself began to compose all the cadenzas and coloraturas).

By the end of the 18th century. Italian opera becomes the opera of “stars”, completely subject to the requirements of the show vocal capabilities singers

Outstanding representatives of bel canto were: castrati singers A. M. Bernacchi, G. Crescentini, A. Uberti (Porporino), Caffarelli, Senesino, Farinelli, L. Marchesi, G. Guadagni, G. Paciarotti, G. Velluti; singers - F. Bordoni, R. Mingotti, C. Gabrielli, A. Catalani, C. Coltelini; singers - D. Gizzi, A. Nozari, J. David and others.

The requirements of the bel canto style determined a certain system of training singers. As in the 17th century, composers of the 18th century. were also vocal teachers (A. Scarlatti, L. Vinci, G. Pergolesi, N. Porpora, L. Leo, etc.). Education was conducted in conservatories (which were educational institutions and at the same time dormitories where teachers lived with students) for 6-9 years, with daily classes from morning until late evening. If a child had an outstanding voice, he was subjected to castration in the hope of maintaining his previous voice quality after the mutation; with luck, the resulting singers had phenomenal voices and technique (see Castrati Singers).

The most significant vocal school was the Bologna school of F. Pistocchi (opened in 1700). Of the other schools, the most famous are: Roman, Florentine, Venetian, Milanese and especially Neapolitan, in which A. Scarlatti, N. Porpora, L. Leo worked.

A new period in the development of bel canto begins when the opera regains its lost integrity and receives new development thanks to the work of G. Rossini, S. Mercadante, V. Bellini, G. Donizetti. Although vocal parts in operas are still overloaded with coloratura embellishments, singers are already required to realistically convey the feelings of living characters; increasing the tessitura of the parts, b O The greater richness of orchestral accompaniment places greater dynamic demands on the voice. Bel Canto is enriched with a palette of new timbre and dynamic colors. Outstanding singers of this time are G. Pasta, A. Catalani, the sisters (Giuditta, Giulia) Grisi, E. Tadolini, G. Rubini, G. Mario, L. Lablache, F. and D. Ronconi.

The end of the era of classical bel canto is associated with the appearance of operas by G. Verdi. The dominance of coloratura, characteristic of the bel canto style, disappears. Decorations in the vocal parts of Verdi's operas remain only with the soprano, and in the composer's last operas (as later with the verists - see verismo) they are not found at all. The cantilena, continuing to occupy the main place, develops, becomes highly dramatized, and is enriched with more subtle psychological nuances. The overall dynamic palette of vocal parts changes towards increased sonority; The singer is required to have a two-octave range of smooth voice with strong upper notes. The term “bel canto” loses its original meaning; it begins to denote perfect mastery of vocal means and, above all, the cantilena.

Outstanding representatives of bel canto of this period are I. Colbran, L. Giraldoni, B. Marchisio, A. Cotogni, S. Gaillarre, V. Morel, A. Patti, F. Tamagno, M. Battistini, later E. Caruso, L. Bori , A. Bonci, G. Martinelli, T. Schipa, B. Gigli, E. Pinza, G. Lauri-Volpi, E. Stignani, T. Dal Monte, A. Pertile, G. Di Stefano, M. Del Monaco, R. Tebaldi, D. Semionato, F. Barbieri, E. Bastianini, D. Guelfi, P. Siepi, N. Rossi-Lemeni, R. Scotto, M. Freni, F. Cossotto, G. Tucci, F. Corelli, D. Raimondi, S. Bruscantini, P. Capucilli, T. Gobbi.

The bel canto style influenced most European national vocal schools, incl. into Russian. Many representatives of the art of bel canto toured and taught in Russia. The Russian vocal school, developing in an original way, bypassing the period of formal enthusiasm for singing sound, used the technical principles of Italian singing. While remaining deeply national artists, outstanding Russian artists F. I. Shalyapin, A. V. Nezhdanova, L. V. Sobinov and others were fluent in the art of bel canto.

Modern Italian bel canto continues to be the standard of classical beauty in singing tone, cantilena and other types of sound studies. The art of the best singers in the world is based on it (D. Sutherland, M. Callas, B. Nilsson, B. Hristov, N. Gyaurov, etc.).

Literature: Mazurin K., Methodology of singing, vol. 1-2, M., 1902-1903; Bagadurov V., Essays on the history of vocal methodology, vol. I, M., 1929, issue. II-III, M., 1932-1956; Nazarenko I., The Art of Singing, M., 1968; Lauri-Volpi J., Vocal parallels, trans. from Italian, L., 1972; Laurens J., Belcanto et mission italien, P., 1950; Duey Ph. A., Belcanto in its golden age, N.U., 1951; Maragliano Mori R., I maestri dei belcanto, Roma, 1953; Valdornini U., Belcanto, P., 1956; Merlin A., Le belcanto, P., 1961.

L. B. Dmitriev

Notebook of a teacher-vocalist: about singers, bel canto technique, problems of vocal pedagogy.

FROM THE HISTORY OF VOCAL ART

The first textbook on solo singing was published at the Paris Academy in 1803. The teaching method was formed on the basis of the old Bolognese school of the 17th-18th centuries. A convenient vowel was A. It was believed that low male and female voices have two registers: chest and head; high female ones have three registers (chest, middle and head).

Professor of solo singing at the Paris Conservatory (1842-1850) J. Dupre promotes another method of training singers, which will be based on a covered sound. Convenient vowel - W. Dupre introduces the idea of ​​​​the need to form a mixed register and a covered upper register. Dupre was called a reformer. Dupre later pointed out the lowering of the larynx for a better sounding voice; At the same time, the concept of three registers was established in low voices: male and female. Dupre called the upper register the head register. The construction of the voice starts from the center. He introduced the concept of “head” voice.

M. Garcia (son), professor at the Paris Academy (1840-1850), also divides all voices into three registers: chest, falsetto (unnatural) and head. Garcia recommends setting up lowercase voices, not conversational voices. The Garcia school is scientific. Garcia does not oppose his method to the Dupre school or the practice of the Italian school, but tries to give scientific explanation all phenomena related to the construction of the voice and its control. As a wise scientist, Professor Garcia does not close questions about the voice with his method, but calls for solving problems through physics and biology.

But there are also other teachers whose methods differ from those generally recognized in Italy.

The methods of I. Corradetti and Masetti have general directions: Lots of vocalizations and complex exercises. Corradetti says that the “old” school was distinguished by a properly trained throat.” The singer's throat was like an instrument, because that was the music. A long period of training was required, starting at the age of 15 or even from early childhood(for castrati). This created a very special throat for sopranos, vocal virtuosos. It was amazing gymnastics for the larynx, but there was little art, in our understanding. This led to the decline of singing.

Students sing a lot of vocalises, characterized by a complex tonal system and dissonant sound. All this is much more difficult both for hearing and for singing tone and sound, since they must be sung not in an academic manner, but in a different way. There are excellent students who cannot do this music... After all, short chants or vocalises are one thing, real detailed melodies with words are another. Two years of preparation is not enough for this.

M. Garcia trained singers for the stage in one year!

“Vocalises are essential material for the development of vocal technical skills,” writes Mazetti about his method. Masetti considered the vowel sound A to be the most convenient. After A we moved on to O and E. Vocal exercises Masetti are complex and not always logical. Why confuse your voice on vocalises if the works will have a completely different sound? So it turns out that the method of both Coradetti and Masetti is an echo of the old school. Since Masetti's theses differed from those of Garcia, who excluded the study of vocalizations, the methods of Masetti and Coradetti were rather individual. The attitude of the experienced leading Soviet teacher Blagovidova (Odessa) to vocalises is indicative. At first she turned them into works, and then began to use them less and less.

“The basis of classical singing is covered singing,” wrote Dupre in the mid-19th century.

“The leading vowel is U,” Garcia agreed with him. “We have always sung like this!” declared leading Italian teachers.

These guidelines did not affect Maestro A. Budi (Bologna), Mazetti’s teacher. For four years (!) Mazetti sang vocalises and was one of A. Budi's best students. In fact, he did not make a singing career, he was a musician, pianist, composer... However, he was invited to teach at the Moscow Conservatory. The magnificent Russian singers A. Nezhdanova and N. Obukhova are considered Mazetti’s students. But Mazetti’s credit for the development of their vocal abilities, given the above, is highly doubtful.

In those days, singers had several teachers. The teacher whose method was more successful laid the foundation for the voice.

Maria Callas in Lauretta's aria opened both G and A in the center, but further: the notes B and C did not sound. For this, she was greatly criticized by her teacher Hidalgo. Where it's thin, that's where it breaks. You need to know these subtle places.

Broadcast about Sutherland

The singer was quickly noticed good musician, director, married her and dedicated his life to her. He trained her to be an excellent bel canto singer: dramatic and lyrical coloratura.

Opera “Cinderella” by G. Rossini, Italy, Pesaro

Cinderella - Sonia Panassi, mezzo. When performing Cavatina in the register, the soprano intensively moves her facial muscles. (Berganza sings this Cavatina, as if jokingly.) Clorinda - Ekaterina Morozova, a Russian singer from the provinces. In Moscow she graduated from the conservatory, worked in " New Opera", sang the Queen of the Night; At the Bolshoi she performed Violetta and went abroad. The prince in this production was sung by Juan Diego Floris, a lyric tenor.

“M. Callas proved that Violetta can be sung by one voice, and not two different ones in the first and fourth acts.” (Music critic)

It is difficult to respond to such absurd statements from male critics, because one cannot blame them for not being able to test this in their own voices.

In the 19th century, composers worked on operas in consultation with singers and female singers.

Herbert von Karajan, the director (husband of singer Elisabeth Schwarzkopf), admired Callas, and Elisabeth did not want to sing the parts performed by Callas. Herbert von Karajan knew how to “follow the voice,” which is so necessary for singers.

In Italy it is not customary to talk about bel canto techniques. The Bel Canto technique is a national treasure, a secret.

Gioconda's first recording became a sensation: it was impossible to believe that a singer with such a deep and dramatic voice could sing Lucia.

Critics are surprised, but you and I, singers, know that there is nothing to be surprised here: this is normal!

In the Berlin performance, M. Callas always sings in the voice of a “little girl” with a soaring open sound. Not “open”, but light sounding and that’s normal!

But, unfortunately, critics found in this sound a “weakened state” of the singer’s voice, and not the fulfillment of an acting task, and heard the first signs of fading of the voice.

Well, what do they allow themselves, these critics? What do they understand about female vocals?

Mario del Monaco sang with Callas in Norma. He complained about M. Callas that she beat him and pushed him away from the public.

Such eccentricities are forgivable in lyric tenors, but Mario del Monaco, a dramatic tenor, is almost a baritone. Not solid!

Book by Jurgen Kesting “Maria Callas”

The book is not only about Callas, it is about musicians, about singers.

“She insisted on singing everything, and she did. Today, almost every singer is trying to follow in her footsteps, but, unfortunately, without success.” (Renata Tebaldi about Maria Callas.)

“M. Callas was a reformer in the art of singing,” Lauri-Volpi.

She incorporated into her technique all the achievements of the 19th century, the century of bel canto.

M. Garcia wrote: “Study biology and physiology to understand voices.”

But people love to fantasize so much and do not see what is obvious, and tend to see what does not and cannot exist. Each singer has his own destiny.

Dramatic soprano - Nina Fomina, soloist Bolshoi Theater, sang Norma in a thick voice, and Oksana from “Cherevichki” - bright, tender, lyrical,

Puccini had an interest in the "immense pain in small souls."

Look in and be horrified.

The performance of verista music is not valued (in Italy) as highly as the music and technique of performing the music of Rossini, Donizetti, Bellini and Verdi.

In the upper register there are (notes) gradual voicing, and there are “take-off” notes. This must be taken into account. So the mezzo-soprano goes to Sol-La, and “takes off” to Do, because “movement” in the voice is also important (according to Garcia).

Dupre, Barr, and Garcia have “cover.” “We have always sung like this (in U)” - the opinion of Italian teachers.

Singing “with a smile” is used to actively contract the quadratus muscles of the face, but the main position for voice guidance is vertical, “when horizontal, the muscles get tired,” as Barra once noted. This fact is not found in our literature.

Covering is not just a technique, but a manner of classical singing (according to Dupre). The cover is “eight from the lips - 8” (according to Barra), if the vertical mouth is 0, and not “a cap on top”, as one domestic teacher believed.

Problem: How to balance the high position of the voice and the low position of the larynx?

The answer is mobility. And a high position is not constantly high, it is instantly corrected; and the position of the larynx is not always low - it changes. But it is often presented by teachers as if the high position of the sound and the low position of the larynx should not change. Voice control takes place in a fraction of a second.

W. Mozart (XVIII century) was a composer of instrumental style, but he was also very interested in the new direction of style in vocal music. He, like his contemporaries, developed a new style. G. Rossini (in the 19th century) wrote “Cavatina Figaro” in the style of “Aria with Champagne” by Don Giovanni. This is how Mozart’s genius stepped into the 19th century. In Mozart's operatic music we are delighted to find arias written in bel canto style!

Master class with Renata Scotto.

The first aspiring singer had a creeping intonation. R. Scotto tried to straighten out her voice, but it was useless: along with the descending melody, the singer’s voice “slipped” down. Great singer Renata Scotto abandoned her lesson and sadly returned to her place. Soon R. Scotto was asked to come over again. A girl with a deep voice sang a bel canto piece, but in a strange style. R. Scotto said with a sad expression on her face: “You do not have the basic singing technique to perform such a complex bel canto piece.”

Problems in nature are solved at the physical level. That's what scientists say. Therefore, M. Garcia got to the point of the problem, explaining the Italian vocal school from the point of view of physics, because man is part of nature.

But it is difficult to understand the Garcia school, because... many singers do not like: physics, biology, algebra, but really like to fantasize from scratch.

“The arias of Farlaf, Gorislava, Lyudmila were written by Glinka as if they were simple, but in reality it turned out that they were very difficult to sing freely and naturally,” - Irina Arkhipova.

There is a problem here, but here is my opinion. Farlaf's aria is pure bel canto ("patter" - according to Rossini), Gorislava's aria is strictly vertical Italian singing. But Lyudmila’s Cavatina (as well as Antonida’s Cavatina) are written in the instrumental style of the old school. Therefore, only light coloratura sopranos can handle these roles with the least risk of weakening their voice.

The Snow Maiden's aria "Walking for berries with friends" by N. Rimsky-Korsakov, like the Swan Princess's aria, also requires a strictly vertical covered performance. Young singers usually do not know what to do with the requirements of good diction and go by distorting intonation, i.e. deterioration of voice sound.

“Maria Guleghina - mezzo-soprano (?) (Odessa Conservatory) declared herself as a soprano at the Tchaikovsky competition, and sang arias for mezzo; and in Cavatina, Rosina inserted soprano cadences, which is not permissible under the terms of the competition.” (From cultural news.)

In fact, Maria Guleghina is a dramatic soprano.

“Where did you get this old Venetian school from? Where did you get this Neapolitan school of performance?” - they asked questions to Irina Arkhipova in Italy.

In Italy they may not know our cultural history, but we must remember it!

At a discussion about the Russian vocal school, in response to sharp criticism, singer P. said: “Yes, we are different.”

P.I. Tchaikovsky, like other Russian composers in the 19th century, wrote correct music for singers, as was customary in Europe. Italian teachers worked in Russian conservatories, and singers were trained in correct voice control.

Italian school in Russia - teachers and singers of the 19th – 20th centuries.

Teachers: K. Everardi (student of M. Garcia), Polina Viardot-Garcia, A. Dodonov, Usatov (student of Everardi), Druzhinina (student of Viardot), Kondaurova, Rebrikov, Shatrova...

Singers: D. Smirnov, N. Khanaev, S. Lemeshev, F. Shalyapin, I. Tartakov, F. Stravinsky, M. Bocharov, G. Nisson-Saloman, Pavlovsky, Slavina, Deisha-Sionitskaya, Bragina, Zarudnaya, Baturin, Noreika, Preobrazhenskaya.

This is not a complete list!

In the lower register, a dramatic soprano has three tones. The dramatic tenor also has three tones, Enrico Caruso wrote about this. We can talk for a long time about the palette of colors of classical voices. I advise you to listen more carefully and study the recordings of great singers. You can argue for a long time on any topic and not find the truth. And all the truths are in the Garcia school of physics. We have materials on theory, but no description of practice. True, there is a description of the Neapolitan school in the materials of L.B. Dmitriev and B.M. Lushin. These are very close schools.

A light soprano is the “voice of a little girl” (in terms of timbre) and if we are talking about a man’s voice, then “the voice of a boy or young man” (but we are not talking about falsetto). These young voices live both separately and within each more established voice. What a trick! And it is also important to preserve and cherish this young voice, because the beauty and volume of your thick voice depends on the sonority of the small one. The leading Soviet teacher Blagovidova (Odessa) does not even have the methodology for building this light, high voice.

Success for a singer when a dramatic soprano develops from a thick voice (mezzo), is more difficult when from a soprano. Historically, many roles for sopranos in Russia Soviet time performed in lyric-coloratura voices. Therefore, many people perceive the word “soprano” as a light female voice. In Italy, the “soprano” voice is often a dramatic soprano, it is heard as a high mezzo-soprano, and all parts in operas have always been written for these voices.

F.I. Chaliapin sang Russian folk songs superbly. It’s a miracle how good the Russian songs performed by S.Ya. Lemeshev and N.A. Obukhova were! And, after all, they all owned an Italian school!

Young singers turned to N.A. Obukhova: “When will you teach us to sing like that, Nadezhda Andreevna? “Oh, how cunning! - she answered, laughing. “I also want to sing myself!” And she sang until the end of her days. She understood that the Bel Canto school is very difficult and, if you practice pedagogical activity, then you need to completely immerse yourself in this work. (From the memoirs of E.M. Shatrova.)

Michaela's aria was often sung by lyric sopranos. There is serious problem for a thick soprano: the non-vocal vowel E falls on the high C. The performance of Michaela's aria with Russian text may result in a temporary loss of voice.

The “Elvira Scene” from G. Verdi’s “Ernani” is dangerous for a big soprano if the singer does not speak special welcome Italian school. This technique is used in La Traviata and other operas.

When solving a complex vocal fragment, you need to choose a solution to the problem. There is not always only one solution.

Kurt Honolka - "Great Divas".

Prima Donna was the name of the leading soloist of the theater in the early 18th century in Naples.

Diva assoluta - singing everything, in all styles.

Maria Callas - diva of the 20th century.

The original is always valued over the copy. But in vocal art there is no and cannot be a pure copy, so it is very useful for a singer to listen to recordings of great singers, thereby learning vocals from them. But only with voices related in type!

FROM THE HISTORY OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF VOCAL ART

"Daphne" by Jacopo Peri - the first opera (1597).

The father of the famous scientist G. Galileo was famous musician. Kurt Honolka writes about him.

Galileo's credo: speech is the absolute mistress of harmony. This is how solo vocal art was born. It was an open call high culture polyphony in the works of Palestrina. The word was drowned in complex polyphony, in the skillful interweaving of musical lines.

Soon musical drama appeared in Italy, as new genre, where one voice stood out, capable of pronouncing words, the voice of a person (often a woman).

Monteverdi's arias, 17th century, are the beginning, the cradle of opera and vocals. This is an instrumental style, andante, wave formations.

For us, living in the 21st century, when we have heard the bright music of Rossini and Tchaikovsky since childhood, singing Monteverdi’s arias is not interesting: the rhythm of life is not the same. But this is how vocal art was born.

The 18th century is the century of reforms in vocal art. Gluck, Scarlatti, Mozart and others are in search of a new vocal style. Capricious prima donnas and prima donnas require composers to write vocal music that is comfortable for the voice.

Castrati – “ vocal virtuosos“, judging by the films about that time, they curse both their lives and the “music that they have to sing.”

The composer Gluck is called a reformer; he was the first to guess what singers needed: correct wave formations and beam formations associated with human speech. Composers do not impose their music, try to please the singers and work on vocal works in close collaboration with the singers.

The Baroque style flourishes. The Baroque style gradually passes, through selection, into a new correct favorite style of singers, which is subsequently called the Bel Canto style. The singers themselves noticed that a melody that is comfortable for the voice, with a change in tempo towards acceleration, becomes more elegant and magical. This fast style was called bel canto (“patter” according to Rossini - 19th century).

The old vocal school for cultivating a “special flexible larynx” for singers, namely castrati, who performed extraordinary virtuosic melodies, became simply unnecessary with the advent of bel canto, the need for it disappeared along with the abandonment of this wild operation for street boys. The musicians' eyes were turned to Italian singers, who endlessly supplied young wonderful singers from their midst. Experienced singers taught young ones “from the voice.”

In the 19th century, professor at the Paris Academy M. Garcia created a physical vocal school based on the Neapolitan school. M. Garcia wisely accepts all the reforms of J. Dupre, so the “Garcia school” becomes the strongest and most popular in the 19th century. But the fact that J. Dupre did not take the Garcia School seriously speaks of its complexity, because the Garcia School requires a special look at the singing voice using knowledge from physics, biology, mathematics and even medicine.

Garcia's school does not “rebuild” the voice, but re-tunes it to work correctly, like a master tuning a piano. Correct skills are deepened and reinforced, while incorrect ones are forgotten. The voice needs to be adjusted each time. Professional singers tune their voices in different ways: some - through exercises, some - through works, and some - in the process of singing.

Future soloists differ sharply from future choristers in their independence: they don’t just study, but greedily try to learn everything themselves and figure it out.

Soviet modest singing teachers were careful and careful with their voices.

Teacher Shatrova (a student of Druzhinina) actively developed voices and the repertoire was “advanced.” She analyzed individual works with the student, showing with her voice...

Classical music is physiological. (Opinion of scientists.)

A. Mozart’s aria “Come scoglio” is pure bel canto at the level of Verdi’s arias. But this is not Verdi, this is Mozart!

Apparently, the roles of Antonida and Lyudmila in M. Glinka’s operas in the first productions were sung not by dramatic sopranos, as was customary in the West, but by light coloratura ones. So the instrumental arias remained unprocessed for performance by dramatic sopranos. In Soviet times, these roles were always performed by light sopranos. This, apparently, was the desire of the Leader, who often visited the Bolshoi. In modern theater, this strict selection of singers for Glinka's operas has been forgotten, and the performance, especially of the two cavatinas, has become a problem for female voices. The instrumental style of the two cavatinas is not indicative of Russian music of the XIX century, this is rather an unfortunate exception.

There is another problem. I think it was not worth transferring the problem with castrati to Russian soil, because we did not have this phenomenon in Russia. Vanya’s party, and especially Ratmir’s, needs to be reworked for male votes. Bringing men's parties back to men is a problem that is sometimes solved in the West in favor of men. N. Rimsky-Korsakov also has male parts that can be sung by men: Lel, Nezhata.

From the book by A. Parin “About singing, about opera, about fame.”

Opinion of singer A.: “Lyubasha, a sinner, but strong feminine nature which values ​​love above faith in God. She kills Marfa not out of jealousy, but because Marfa doesn’t love Gryaznoy.”

Very strange! In my opinion, only the eldest wife of the khan in the harem can think like that.

“Zara Dolukhanova considered the romance “Shine, Shine, My Star” vulgar, sung ...”

We cannot agree with this. Romance is often sung because it is written well and is comfortable for the voice. It awakens some kind of dream in the singing person. And there is no vulgarity here: a romance beloved by the people.

“In Paris, E.V. Obraztsova was called “ the last queen Russian vocals".

Why “last”?! We won’t have our own teachers, we’ll call the Italians or we’ll study from the recordings of great singers.

The habit of singing melodies in the correct style gives the singer a taste for music written according to the laws of nature, i.e. the habit of logical constructions in vocal music is developed. Illogical constructions are unpleasantly surprising. But we have to perform this music too. I think that it is now easier for bel canto singers to cope with the Baroque style than for singers of the 18th century, who did not yet know the correct constructions of bel canto.

“The origins of Rossini’s style are that, knowing a few melodies, you can already guess what will follow next. The evil is in the correctness of Rossini’s music,” writes Stendhal.

This is not “evil”, this is joy for the singer and this is the physiological nature of the style! And a big mystery for non-singers.

Stendhal:

For Italian music Melody and harmony are important, and for German music the beauty of sounds, even those devoid of melody, is enough.

Stendhal explains this by the peculiarities of national characters. Indeed, we often observe that the sound of German music depends on the beauty of the timbre of the singer's voice.

Stendhal:

Once in Rome everyone unanimously declared that foreigners extol Mozart’s works too much.

Not all of Mozart's works are masterpieces. But how many masterpieces were created by composers of the transition period (not to mention the late one)? A. Mozart wrote many arias in a new style - bel canto, so his music will live forever.

Stendhal:

Difficulties in performance are not very significant advantages of music.

At that time (beginning of the 19th century) “Don Giovanni” “did not exist” for Italians; it was too difficult to learn due to its instrumental style.

Of course, instrumental pieces for the human voice (Donna Anna's arias) are very difficult. It is a pity that the great Mozart was not able to completely adapt to the new style; he simply did not have enough life to rewrite these arias. But here there is a wonderful aria for Don Juan - “Aria with Champagne”, in a new style - bel canto! This is the 18th century...

Stendhal:

What an abyss of triviality the German composer usually descends into when trying to create cheerful music!

M. Callas - “absolute”.

“Absoluta” is a singer who sings all the masterpieces of the world classics. She sang everything written for dramatic soprano, all masterpieces, in all styles. She was the queen of bel canto! She revived this style of the 19th century, and now Italian teachers will not miss it!

Presenters: Pavel Tokarev, Boris Ignatov, Alexey Parin.

M. Callas once sang Orpheus' aria (mezzo), using the contralto lows of her voice to sob. The audience received the singer with delight. (Recording sounds.)

The woman sings the man's part, and everyone is delighted. This pleasure is not entirely clear to me!

In Ratmir's party it would be preferable to see and hear a man.

At the Children's Theater Lelya sang with success as a tenor.

To increase the sound volume of the wave, you need to pay attention to breathing, i.e. develop chest breathing.

Questions arise all the time about pauses in musical notation and pauses in vocal phrases. Pianists and teachers require pauses even when singing dynamically. More often than not, pauses in musical notation coincide with pauses in vocal phrases, but...

You need to understand that vocal phrasing is connected with the singer’s breathing, with the dynamics of phrase development, with energy conservation, with the singer’s calculations and with many “little things” associated with singing technique.

A musician cannot know all the specifics of voice control and cannot control the singer so much as to always tell him where to breathe.

The singer himself must know this, the teacher must teach him this. In order to perfectly perform high notes without suffocating, the singer must calculate everything exactly, like athletes do.

The singer himself is responsible for the quality of performance. Losing your breath is very harmful. Singing in small phrases is tiring. They say this: in singing there is no staccato - there is non legato. Non legato: this is when the singer makes sound intervals, but does not interrupt his breathing, i.e. it is the same if he sang legato.

The same independence of the singer is manifested in the duration of individual notes. The singer reduces the off-beat notes, he does not calculate them, the same thing is often the last notes in a phrase. If he needs to take a breath between phrases, but there is no pause, he expands the gap between phrases, reducing the duration of the notes on both sides in order to have time to take his breath.

The singer's notes serve only to indicate the phrase and all fragments of phrasing. But while singing, the singer does not have notes in his consciousness and should not have them. It represents and controls the sound wave.

This is why you should not enter into subordinate relationships with accompanists: they do not understand the problems of singers.

The relationship with the conductor is very important for the singer.

How should a singer react to rave reviews of her performance of masterpieces of vocal art?

Calmly or even with some anxiety. They set a “bar” for you, like in sports, below which you are no longer allowed to fall. But not all works are masterpieces.

A singer can win only by perfectly performing well-known, universally recognized masterpieces of vocal classics. An unknown work, even a beautifully written and perfectly performed one, can remain incomprehensible to the majority of the public, as the history of vocal art tells us.

ABOUT SOPRANO

Only a deep soprano can perform “Rosina’s Cavatina” recorded for mezzo-soprano. Lyric soprano parts can be performed by any soprano: dramatic, lyric and coloratura. An example would be: M. Callas, R. Scotto, J. Sutherland and many others. Maintaining “thickness” in the voice is very important for a singer performing a lyrical repertoire. Here we are not talking about maintaining a constantly thick timbre; rather, I am against a constant timbre.

It is important to maintain the center of the voice so that the density of sound in extremely high tones does not disappear. It is customary for us to evaluate the type of voice by repertoire, but this is wrong! Singers - dramatic sopranos, it seems, have proven this a long time ago, but errors in assessing voices continue.

The black singers performed the opera “Porgy and Bess” with classical voices so decently that it was hard to believe that this was not a “set-up.” But they were taught the culture of classical singing. Taught! And they taught.

Before Dupre's reforms, the upper register of voices was undefined: the transition was only with a soft attack, and in male voices the upper register was often falsetto, i.e. with incomplete closure of the ligaments. Dupre wrote that a thick, strong voice must be carried from below in one timbre, as high as possible with a firm attack.

In Soviet times, they tried to carry out a reform in vocal pedagogy in Russia, but they decided that it was very difficult. We agreed to study the experience of the Italian school.

A well-known countertenor promised to sing the part of Cio-Cio-san. In the West it is now fashionable. They say that in Italy there is a school for training countertenors. I think that men teach this, because... In Italy it is customary to teach by voice.

I read a funny phrase in the book “100 Operas” in the libretto of J. Bizet’s opera “Carmen”: “Song of a Terrible Husband” (!), the seguidilla and the duet of Carmen and Jose create a multifaceted image of a freedom-loving gypsy.”

I suspect that at the behest of the author, “The Song of Zemfira” (the Gypsy Woman) from Pushkin’s poem “The Gypsies,” written by P. Tchaikovsky, made its way into French opera: “Old husband, formidable husband, cut me, burn me: I am strong, I am not afraid of fire, not a sword!

Maria Callas was a singer-actress. She used the colors of her voice extensively. Gilda was previously performed by singers in lyrical voices. M. Callas sang this part in a deep voice, changing the girl’s weak character to a strong one. She rarely used only soprano paint, knowing how critics unfairly treated this, considering it a weakness of the singer’s voice.

The bel canto singer Renata Scotto has a lyric soprano with a dull timbre (according to recordings), a light lyrical coloratura with a piercing ringing tone. Once she said that she was preparing a batch of Aida. “It’s amazing,” I thought, “does R. Scott really have a dramatic soprano?” Certainly! Soon I heard her singing in a duet with a dramatic tenor and the strength of her voice was in no way inferior to his.

Our critic called Beverly Seales a light lyric soprano. B. Seales is called the American Queen of Opera. But to be called Queen, you need to be very strong singer: if soprano, then only dramatic.

M. Plisetskaya speaks very interestingly about ballet. “Not everything in dance is conscious, there are also subconscious movements and gestures, for this you need to feel the music. Once I made a short hand gesture. Someone admired this gesture. I thought about it and that’s it: the gesture disappeared.”

This is very clear to me. What unites these two forms of art? Movement! Teacher Shatrova said: “Vocal art is difficult, but ballet is more difficult... in terms of physical activity.”

J. Sutherland sang lyric-dramatic soprano in Donizetti's opera Queen Elizabeth. In terms of voice timbre, she is closer to M. Caballe. There are even contralto phrases in this part. And the final note is mi3! These are the possibilities of a dramatic soprano!

Musicologist Volkov wrote in his book that Manuel Garcia the father was a mellifluous tenor... and sang Othello! Clearly he was a dramatic, multifaceted tenor!

Apparently, the father’s toughness pushed M. Garcia the son to carefully study the Neapolitan school. My father sang with Rossini and was fond of bel canto. His son was next to him, singing in a bass voice. He soon realized that studying in the Italian (Neapolitan) school was serious, calm and joyful.

So, Garcia's school is an Italian school of bel canto, understood by a scientist (he became a professor), from the point of view of science: physics (mechanics), biology (physiology).

Kurt Honolka "Great Divas"

Maria Felicita Malibran (Garcia) was a diva for ten years. Crazy artistic temperament. The best Desdemona, who did not submit to Othello. She took three octaves, could sing both alto and soprano: Norma and Zerlina. A fiery temperament pushed Malibran’s fragile body to the most desperate actions. On stage she fell into hysterics and mental turmoil.

At the age of 28, Malibran fell from her horse, damaging her insides. She sang a concert and died 9 days later on September 23, 1837.

Maria Malibran inherited her musicality, talent, and love of theater from her father, Manuel del Popolo Garcia. M. Garcia is a tenor of world significance. He was friends and sang with G. Rossini and was his first Almaviva. His son Manuel was the best teacher of his time (died in 1906 at the age of 106 years).

Pauline Viardot (Garcia) was born in 1821. Polina had a mezzo-soprano voice, but she also sang soprano roles (Donna Anna and Norma). Once, while in St. Petersburg, I tried to sing Lyudmila.

If Viardot sang Donna Anna, the baroque role, then, as it seemed to her, she could easily sing Lyudmila. True, here the author writes that she suffered from “depletion of the ligaments.” From another source - she caught a cold. Our sopranos have often suffered and continue to suffer from the roles of both Lyudmila and Antonida.

Pauline Viardot sang Gluck's Orpheus 150 times, Gluck's Alceste. I got carried away German music. She was friends with Turgenev for 40 years, until the day of his death. "Queen of Queens" - were his last words. Polina died in 1910.

In Kurt Honolk's book, in an article about Maria Callas, we read: “Callas turned her life into dancing on a tightrope without a safety net.”

"Renata Tebaldi shocked Arturo Toscanini with her angelic voice."

And M. Callas and R. Tebaldi, both sang Aida, Santucia, Butterfly, Mimi, Tosca. But they cannot be considered real competitors: Tebaldi did not sing Medea or Lucia, etc., and her Violetta was blooming, she amazes with the rich fullness of her soprano.

Tebaldi did not take modern music seriously at all, finding it non-vocal and even destructive to the voice. (Kurt Honolka)

The first singer of the world: Maria Guleghina, Russian. Studied in Odessa. Sings in Italy the entire dramatic repertoire and in bel canto operas.

I.A. Moiseev is the creator of the dance theater. He demanded that the dancer simply not dance technically, but spiritualize every movement. Rhythm is explained in a simplified way.

Singers! You need to explain rhythm to yourself in a simplified way.

Placido Domingo. A tenor who "was originally a baritone." Director of two theaters. Conducts “Domingo competitions” and arranges for young singers.

There is nothing surprising in the fact that Domingo sang in a baritone, in my opinion.

Placido Domingo is the great tenor of our time.

Russian singer Olga Borodina (mezzo-soprano) says that she sang bel canto from a young age, by nature. Irina Arkhipova looked into her mouth and asked: “How do you do this?”

By imitation, you can learn to sing even in the bel canto style, but not everyone succeeds in comprehending this technique. Once again you can be convinced that bel canto is a perfect style, but not artificial and not alien to us Russians.

Bel canto is like a tongue twister: thick and light. A large soprano, technically equipped, strives to master the technique of both dramatic coloratura and lyric coloratura. An example of this is Maria Guleghina.

"Opera Club", radio station "Echo of Moscow".

Akimo Freier is a German production director. Stages The Magic Flute at the Novaya Opera. To the question: “Who is more important: the star or the director?”, he said that there are no problems with stars, only with old singers. “The stars love to work and sing better than anyone. Singing is acrobatics!”

Each singer or singer builds her relationship with the conductor, or leaves...

Conductors, of course, don’t like to talk about this.

Anna Netrebko

A beautiful singer with a bright voice. Dramatic soprano. Anna complains that from a young age she was often told that she had no voice and, despite people’s hostility, she became a singer. She works hard, sings in the West and at the Mariinsky Theater.

Anna Netrebko in early youth There was not enough technique, so it was very difficult to raise the entire repertoire of the dramatic soprano. She sang mainly lyrical repertoire.

Teachers need to think more about singing technique. And love your students...

Olga Gurikova, as a dramatic soprano, disappeared from the horizon of Moscow singers, exhausted by the role of Elvira from Verdi's Ernani. Do you remember how the singer’s voice flowed in a powerful wave?

Having become acquainted with the aria, I immediately felt its complexity and the danger of muscle overstrain. Here, as in La Traviata, there is a special defensive technique.

R.Scotto knows this defensive technique like everyone else Italian singers, and we have to somehow guess for ourselves by listening to their recordings. Have you read how E. Obraztsova learned from the greats in order to become great herself? True, the soprano technique is the most difficult.

Ninel Tkachenko

Ninel Tkachenko sang at the Bolshoi - a dramatic soprano, she knew all the Italian techniques! However, maybe she didn’t know, but she did it.

Here I look at her record: the price is 1 ruble 45 kopecks. Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theater of the USSR, conductor M. Ermler and F. Mansurov. Who is Ninel Tkachenko? She sang in Italian and French. I read: Tosca, Mimi, Cio-Cio-San, Abigail, Aida and further: Carmen and Eboli! And, believe me, she sang beautifully! But there is not a word about her on the record.

"Opera Club", radio station "Echo of Moscow".

Questions for the American conductor James Conollon. About the music of the Bel Canto era and about singers, about Russian music and about Russian singers. The American musician answers and persuades not to worry: bel canto lives on, and Russian opera music is interesting in the West, and there are enough bel canto singers, and it is difficult to distinguish Russian singers from non-Russian ones!

The tradition of bel canto operas must be continued.

Patricia Choppe, a lyric soprano, sang the part of Violetta very gracefully and tragically in a theater in the West, but the direction, where Violetta is a street wench, was unworthy of a Verdi opera.

At the concert of N. Baskov on October 15, 2006, the great M. Caballe was present and directed the young singer - her student. Before the high note, the singer crossed himself. He hits high notes, but doesn't hold them for long. Doesn't always hit the resonance point. There is no silver in "drunk". Still, he began to sing better. He sang the aria perfectly.

Duet of Dmitry Hvorostovsky and Renee Fleming

Dmitry in the role of Germont is somewhat softer than before, but still cynical and overly cruel.

In the role of Onegin, he is depressed, but you don’t really feel sorry for him, because, apparently, he is very courageous.

Renee is charming as Tatiana.

Dmitry in the role of Don Juan is certainly very convincing.

Zerlina (in the opera) is a cunning girl who is trying to “outplay” Don Juan and marry the master to herself. Zerlina (Rene) is a simple-minded girl.

“There is only one school,” said Galina Vishnevskaya.

There is only one school, but it is difficult. Two techniques for two voices in one: a thick voice and a light, ringing voice. Two voices in one, therefore two methods.

A large pop concert was dedicated to the 30th anniversary of Nikolai Baskov

Our prominent singers, in difficult times young singer time, did not support him, for some reason not recognizing him as a classical singer. Lev Leshchenko, a universally recognized and beloved pop singer who can sing in a classical manner, defended Nikolai, saying: “If only there was a voice, but you can sing in different ways.”

Scandal at the Bolshoi

Galina Vishnevskaya was present at the new performance of “Eugene Onegin”. She did not like the new direction of the opera, in which she once shone as Tatiana. They say she said indignantly: “I won’t come to your brothel again!”

Concert dedicated to singer Galina Vishnevskaya

Singing: Vladimir Chernov - baritone, Larisa Dyatko. The singer surprised by changing the melody in the “Martha’s Fortune Telling” scene, apparently because of the high note. Makvala Kasrashvili sang Tosca. Scenes from operas with the participation of Galina Vishnevskaya were shown.

“I will work with a singer if he can sing,” says G. Vishnevskaya.

Galina Vishnevskaya left the stage at 45 years old. “The happiness from singing is gone, the book is closed.”

The singer came to opera from operetta. In an operetta, the prima's voice should be bright, strong with different timbre colors, because the operetta artist not only sings, but dances and speaks loudly.

“It is sung the same way as it is played on an instrument: higher and higher or lower and lower...”, says G. Vishnevskaya.

Maxim Mironov - lyric tenor himself tuned his voice to the bel canto style (by carefully listening to recordings of bel canto singers). Works abroad.

M. Callas and R. Scotto always strived for a variety of timbres in order to be actresses opera house and preserve imagery in vocal art. For the sake of vocal art, they always risked being unrecognizable.

Performance based on W. Mozart’s opera “Don Giovanni”

Dmitry Hvorostovsky sings both parts: Don Giovanni and Leporello. The singer's voice was enriched with new colors. Even “Aria with Champagne” sounded brighter. And in the duet with Zerlina, the singer’s voice became unrecognizable: soft, gentle.

Bartoli is a mezzo-soprano and bel canto singer who is fond of Baroque works.

Tenor Jose Carreras gives concerts of lyrical music. Such music does not overload the singer and calms the listeners.

Anna Netrebko first sang Violetta in a lyrical vein, then in the West she sang it as a dramatic soprano and was very tired, according to her. This part is not for a beginning singer.

They say about the dramatic soprano Maria Guleghina, who sings in the West and here at the Mariinsky Theater: large and light.

“They graduate from the conservatory, but don’t know how to sing in Russian,” G. Vishnevskaya.

Say a phrase with an expression, addressing someone specifically: “I LOVE you!” Then sing the same phrase, again addressing the same person. In precise performance, this will be vocal speech (see “Dictionary of errors in vocal pedagogy”).

Zara Dolukhanova: “I prefer talent to vocal perfection.”

It is often difficult to separate vocal excellence from talent, i.e. where can he be if he has no talent? To brilliantly perform Cinderella's cavatina - the most difficult vocal work - is both talent and vocal perfection. It’s another matter that a singer can intuitively achieve this vocal perfection, but this is talent!

“I didn’t need to be taught vocals: everything went by itself,” Z. Dolukhanova told A. Parin and... made an unexpected conclusion: “To maximize the singer’s self-disclosure, we must try to convince him that everything is easy.”

No, this is far from true! Spontaneous production of a classical voice such as that of Zara Dolukhanova is still a rare and happy occasion.

“The Russian school of expressive singing has always been opposed by the Western school of pure vocals,” writes Alexey Parin.

There was a time: maestro Rebrikov taught the Italian school, all vocalists in Moscow knew about it. And they sang better in theaters then, and what amateur singers there were, because we had more than one such maestro!

"Opera Club", radio station "Echo of Moscow".

Anna Netrebko, a young Russian singer, tried to sing Elvira in “The Puritans” and Amina in “Somnambulist” in Italy, but she lacked the technique.

Irina Arkhipova

“The difficult part of Eboli in “Don Carlos” by G. Verdi. It was a pleasure to hit the highest notes every time, execute passages, and win, as if you were shooting at ten.”

Great! Bravo! Only the techniques of the Italian school evoke such sensations! Here we are not talking about expressiveness, but about physiological sensations, as in sports.

Finally, E. Obraztsova admitted that G. Vishnevskaya initially helped her with singing techniques. It is unknown on what occasion, E.V. put it: “We need to help the strong.” The phrase fits exactly this occasion!

“I never followed the director’s lead! Never!" - E. Obraztsova.

“In Italy, the continuity of performance (without seams) of vocal sentences (several phrases) is highly valued” - R. Scotto.

In the program “The Tsar's Box” they showed recordings of Anna Netrebko. She looks great. Sings a lot. Learns a lot of games. He gets tired and tries very hard. She sadly says that “in Germany she is invited everywhere, but not to Italy.” She sings bel canto pieces with difficulty, and they don’t like that in Italy. Bel Canto - special technique, Anna doesn’t know her, they didn’t teach her (at that time).

A competition of young vocalists is taking place in St. Petersburg. The voices are beautiful, but the performance is strange. Thus, the famous romance by N. Rimsky-Korsakov “Captured by the rose, the nightingale...” the singer sang in a deep voice (for the first time, it seems, in the history of Russian vocals), and the vocalization was in a gentle coloratura soprano. Sorry, but this isn't a pop number, is it? Did you really hope to surprise someone with the fact that a thick soprano can sing with a light voice?

Concert of Zaur Tutov

A beautiful lyric baritone sings softly and tenderly beautiful romances, Italian songs, sometimes in the manner of a lyric tenor. Perhaps he is now one of the best performers of romances and songs. At one time he graduated from the Gnessin Academy and believes that the school there is excellent.

From the story of singers who came from Europe

South Korea is a rich country. Many people are interested in opera. Europe is full of Koreans studying classical vocals.

In the “Three Stars” concert, Anna Netrebko sang with famous tenors: the bel canto master Placido Domingo and the young and bright tenor Rollando Villazon.

Anna is currently singing the lyrical repertoire. Real success for a dramatic soprano begins with bel canto arias or cantabile arias (G. Verdi).

Anna Netrebko and Rollando Villazon sing the scene "Mimi with Rudolph." At first Anna sings in a deep voice, but suddenly changes timbre and then sings in a ringing voice. Why such negligence? Mimi, a girl with poor health, her singers always sang in a lyrical, sonorous voice.

Singer Mirella Freni in Russia was called a lyric soprano, but... In 2002, the singer came to Moscow with a concert. She sang many dramatic arias brightly, powerfully, clearly proving that she has excellent command of her strong voice - a dramatic soprano! Mirella Freni is actively involved in teaching.

The young lyric tenor, Juan Diego Flores, has an excellent command of the bel canto technique (sings the parts of Count Almaviva and the Prince from Cinderella).

Alexander Malinin performed with the orchestra in the Great Hall of the Conservatory

A. Malinin is a bright pop singer who has always had great success with the public. Many had no idea that his voice was a tenor, because on the stage both a tenor and a baritone can sound the same. And although Alexander has repeatedly emphasized that he is a tenor, it would not occur to anyone to compare him with N. Baskov. Nikolai Baskov has his own individual place, his own story, which has not yet unfolded in full force.

A. Malinin has his own image, his own place, his own love of the audience.

Alexey Parin talks with Renata Scotto, an outstanding singer of our time.

In Russia, Renata Scotto's recordings appeared before Sutherland's recordings, so Renata's voice was a bel canto voice, and its brightness perfectly tuned the upper register of the soprano.

Statements by R. Scotto:

“Maria Callas appeared different every time. The sound depends on the nature of the image.”

“I studied in Milan with the same teachers (as Callas).”

“Callas and Sutherland made the romantic bel canto a property of the modern opera world.”

“The teachers of bel canto survived (in Italy) and preserved themselves. Vocal technique for bel canto and Mozart's music is the development of the voice, being mobile, singing in a row from low to high notes, the ability to control wide breathing, easily moving from high to low tessitura. The voice must be trained. You can’t sing solely on the basis of your natural abilities.”

“Singers have forgotten how to sing with style.”

“The teachers sacredly kept the covenants of the past.”

“You can only sing the verist repertoire if you have the bel canto technique.”

“We saw sometimes complete disorganization of singing at Moscow master classes.”

“But what the Russians don’t have is a sense of style, an understanding of what the bel canto technique is. The teachers are to blame... The school did not want to transform...”

“I have a feeling that the Iron Curtain is to blame for everything.”

A. Parin: “It seems to me that the problem is much more complicated. Our vocal teachers are too conservative."

A. Parin states that the classic romance is disappearing.

So, part of our Russian culture is disappearing?! It is impossible to agree with this. The urban romance was leaving, but the brilliant Lyubov Kazarnovskaya came, and the romance returned. I believe that the classic romance will return! As long as Russian people are alive, they will not let the culture of our great ancestors fall and perish.

In the 19th century, Russia had European culture.

Maria Guleghina

On stage, Maria Guleghina is very different. Maria studied a lot with Professor E.N. Ivanov (Odessa). Maria Guleghina has long been considered abroad as an “absolute prima donna.” In Moscow, we hear it very rarely. M. Guleghina sang almost all of Verdi's operas. Sings in operas by Puccini, Bellini, Giordano, Mascagni.

“Patience and work” is Mary’s motto.

Our three baritones sing in the West: Sergei Leiferkus, Dmitry Hvorostovsky and Vladimir Chernov.

Vladimir Chernov sang at the Mariinsky Theater, but was not accepted into the Bolshoi Theater. “I came to the State Concert, received another refusal, but a chance meeting - I met the managers... An opera career is part of the opera business and a whim of chance.”

Dmitry Hvorostovsky dreamed of becoming a tenor: a tenor has more fame. D. Hvorostovsky's father sings a lot. The son learned to sing by listening to his father.

Nikolai Putilin – baritone, graduated from the Krasnoyarsk Conservatory, class of Professor Ioffel. He sang in Kazan, Moscow, and St. Petersburg at the Mariinsky Theater. The first teacher is Fomin.

Singer Elena Prokina says:

“In the West there is more choice. In Russia, unfortunately, this is not the case. Here in the theater there is always a main person, and all politics is subordinated only to him. There’s nothing to choose from.”

She started studying vocals in Odessa, in Blagovidova’s class. A wonderful school, simple, very close to Italian. All exercises quickly reached the student. Breathing was established, range developed. You just had to sing everything loudly. I studied for 5 years.

Elena Prokina also studied in Leningrad: at the Conservatory, as an assistant. I went to the Mariinsky Theater. Sang with Domingo.

Elena Zelenskaya - dramatic soprano. Sings at the Bolshoi Theater. He also sings in the West, in operas by Verdi and Puccini.

Marina Meshcheryakova - soprano. The debut on the stage of the Bolshoi Theater took place in 1991. She sang Antonida(!) in “A Life for the Tsar” and believed that this role suited her very well(?). A. Parin: “Antonida is not the simplest of opera roles, let’s face it.”

Amazing transformations are happening to our singers and female singers: teachers do not explain to them what the style of a piece is, and they throw everything together.

M. Meshcheryakova initially “attached” her voice to Antonida’s instrumental part, but having become acquainted with the Italian vocal music, suddenly made an amazing statement: “I don’t have the right voice to feel more organically in the Russian repertoire... Maybe I’m not quite a Russian singer.”

Maybe she suffered so much playing the role of Antonida that she decided that Russian classical singing was torture?

With conductor Andrei Chistyakov, the young singer prepared Marfa and... Norma. She already sang Norma in Stockholm!

The Russian language is not as vocal as Italian, so it is necessary to sing “according to the sound wave,” i.e. pronunciation is the second problem, but not the first.

Very competent composers worked in Russian vocal art in the 19th century; they created in high level Western culture: Glinka, Dargomyzhsky, Tchaikovsky, Borodin, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov. This is a great vocal culture!

There were some shortcomings: Antonida and Lyudmila - these parts were written in an instrumental style. But a lot of wonderful music was written, wonderful classic romances. There are parts that are unreasonably complex: Marfa (“The Tsar’s Bride”), Snegurochka, The Swan Princess.

There are also many in the West complex music and not all of it is bel canto.

Boris Pokrovsky - famous director, who used to work at the Bolshoi, says. “I won’t sing, I’m bored,” said Galina Vishnevskaya about the scene of “Tatyana’s Letters.” He scolded her.

Pokrovsky: “We wanted to suck up to Stalin and staged an opera about rural life and showed it to the leader. But Stalin didn’t like her. He asked: “How long ago was the Queen of Spades staged?” And we washed ourselves..."

Marina Domashenko

Mezzo-soprano, began her career abroad. She studied music in Kemerovo. She studied at the Yekaterinburg Conservatory with S.V. Zaliznyak. I went to a competition in Prague and received six prizes!

"Opera Club", radio station "Echo of Moscow".

Baroque music

Baroque music is the music of the pre-Belcant period. Basically it is an instrumental style. Not all singers manage to sing this music beautifully, much less love it.

Cecilia Bartoli is fond of baroque music and has opened roles in 10 operas by Antonio Vivaldi. Here the singer is subordinate to orchestral music, but she likes it.

“Is it possible to understand the singer’s free ability to fly in the clouds?” - A. Parin about C. Bartoli.

“We must learn to work on sound quality and enjoy singing” - C. Bartoli.

Of course, singers get great pleasure from singing, otherwise they wouldn’t do it, but the main thing is that others should enjoy listening to it. Bartoli, possessing in a wonderful voice mezzo-soprano, often goes into the sphere of someone else's voice - the soprano, where she cannot reach the top.

In the production of W. Mozart's opera “Everyone Does This”, Bartoli sang the soprano role. And, since the viola part was performed by a singer with a strong voice, Bartoli was not heard in the duets. The wonderful opera has lost its sound. Moreover, in the opera this part is written for a strong dramatic soprano, which Bartoli clearly does not take into account.

Bartoli behaves like a prima donna, but in the 21st century this act does not work.

For some reason, A. Parin compares O. Guryakova’s voice with coloratura sopranos: Nezhdanova, Zabella-Vrubel. O. Guryakova brilliantly performed the part of Elvira (Ernani by G. Verdi) on the stage of the Moscow theater - a very difficult part for a dramatic soprano, requiring high bel canto vocal technique.

Joseph Kaley

Lyric tenor sings in Germany, repertoire: Bellini and Puccini. School from Mario del Monaco (dramatic tenor school?). He does not speak in a bright voice, which is very harmful for a tenor.

He sings “Frederico's Lament” with a very beautiful timbre, but does not always hit the mark.

The singer's voice is unfocused, a fault of the del Monaco school, the latter was also criticized for lack of lyricism. A lyric tenor needs to sing with a soft attack and constantly monitor the sonority of his voice, and Mario del Monaco was a dramatic tenor. You need to learn the lyric tenor from a similar voice, i.e. the lyric tenor!

E.V. Obraztsova came to the Saturday evening to see the pop singers, i.e. to Nikolai Baskov.

She told him: “In classical vocals, it is not so much the technique that is important, but the soul, so that there is something to say.”

Nikolai has a soul, but to sing as a dramatic tenor, you need TECHNIQUE.

"Opera Club", radio station "Echo of Moscow".

Maxim Mironov - singer, lyric tenor. Sang in Helikon. Leaves Russia for the USA.

Sings the role of the Prince in Cinderella. Born in Tula, studied chemistry and biology. He studied at the Gnessin School. I listened to bel canto tenors a lot and realized that I could sing like that too. I went to Vladimir Devyatov’s private school. The singer is very serious and works a lot. Travels all over the world.

Bryn Festival

Bryn Toffel - bass-baritone. He sometimes sings tenor arias, but in a baritone tessitura, sometimes even changing the melody to suit his voice. In my opinion, this is uninteresting, and it also disrespects the composer’s work. This is allowed in our folk songs and urban romances, i.e. in the light genre. But is it possible to distort everyone’s favorite popular classical arias?

Meanwhile, he sings arias for bass-baritone superbly!

Renee Fleming performed at the concert. She sang all the arias for soprano amazingly beautifully, but in one thick timbre, even Zerlina. And everywhere was the magnificent Renee Fleming!

They say that Maria Guleghina cannot be called a Russian singer, because... All her work takes place abroad. Who says that? Whose opinion is this? And the fact that she studied in Russia doesn’t count either? Many Russian singers have worked and are working abroad. The great Chaliapin worked a lot abroad!

In Russia, rumors about bel canto have always been shrouded in mystery, as if the formation of this style took place in ancient times, and not in the time of Pushkin.

I think it is naive to believe that humanity is so ignorant and primitive that it would not try to find the keys to the mystery of the classical singing voice (and to bel canto).

Jesy Norman is a black woman who sings with a beautiful, strong, classical voice - a dramatic soprano.

Every wonderful singer has his own story.

Tenor Zurab Sotkilava talks about serious technique that develops the voice. Sotkilava believes that neither Domingo nor Pavarotti could sing at the Bolshoi, because here you need to sing, not shout. But Sotkilava loves to grumble...

"Opera Club", radio station "Echo of Moscow".

The world's best bel canto - Renata Scotto.

Renata Scotto studied as a mezzo-soprano. She has covered the entire repertoire for dramatic soprano, and in all styles she is a very bright singer.

Broadcast on "Culture". Donizetti's opera "Daughter of the Regiment" in Tyrrol. The performance was held at a high level. But after the performance, Zurab Sotkilava spoke and said that he was not impressed (!) by tenor Jose Flores. He likes: Pavarotti, Correras, Domingo - real tenors! He mistakes Flores “for a young man whose mutation has not yet completely passed.” This cannot be called anything other than unjustified arrogance!

José Flores is a lyric bel canto tenor recognized as one of the best tenors in the world.

May 5, 2007 Anna Netrebko was recognized this year as a popular Russian person, along with chess player and politician G. Kasparov. In Kovengardan Anna sang Gilda in Rigoletto, three Violettas in Munich, and in Salzburg - Donna Anna. Anna is received in Germany and America.

Anna calls herself a gypsy (from her father). He often sings in a duet with Rollando Villazon.

Anna Netrebko praises the Russian vocal school, but sometimes for some reason she feels sad... She doesn’t want to sing Tatyana.

Anna Samuil carefully sings Violetta, Musetta and other arias in a lyrical vein and, apparently, will be a stable singer.

"Opera Club", radio station "Echo of Moscow".

The great tenor Luciano Pavarotti. The arias of the pre-Belcant period are heard. Here the voice does not find opportunities to unfold in all its glory. Next they sound: Tonio's aria from Donizetti's "Daughter, the Regiment", Richard Recardo's aria from Verdi's "Un ballo in maschera", Manrico's aria from "Il Trovatore".

You experience real pleasure from the sound of Pavarotti’s beautiful, richly colored voice in bel canto operas. Compare and feel the difference.

Abroad, especially in Italy, there is a strong opinion that classical vocals are not taught in Moscow.

TV channel culture. Vladimir Chernov talks about himself.

He studied at the Moscow Conservatory. He was very obedient. The teacher convinced him that he was a tenor, but time showed that he was still a baritone. Sings abroad: Figaro, Shelkalova.

There are three types of baritones found in nature: lyrical, dramatic and lyric-dramatic. The voice is determined by its “center of gravity.” Baritone is the central voice.

The lyric baritone often sings the tenor part in the choir, since it is almost no different in timbre from the tenor. It is also gentle and lyrical, and more reliable.

There are usually many dramatic baritones (strong and bright), but lyric-dramatic baritones are rare. Perhaps, due to their youth, they are mistaken for tenors and thereby slow down the development of their nature?

Chernov’s main teacher, according to him, is the great Chaliapin.

In my opinion, this is not very correct, because... this practice can “heavien” the singer’s voice. It is better to learn from soft baritones.

What a weirdo! But he is very nice and speaks softly, whispering like Chumak. So cutesy and flirtatious, like a lyric tenor. He mentioned some kind of squiggle in his mouth, I didn’t understand. And he immediately said: “Don’t understand? And you will never understand!” He praised the teachers and even cried.

We once broadcast the opera “Eugene Onegin” from Paris, where V. Chernov sang with Olga Guryakova. The staging of the opera was somehow strange. Olga was a very convincing Tatiana, and Chernov was an unusual Onegin with a soft voice and lush hair. But in the last act he suffered so much that he made us believe that this was the real Onegin!

Even in our literature they wrote that Italian teachers worked in Russia who knew how to “set” voices “from scratch.”

“We lost, we lost,” V. Chernov sadly repeated.

Someone loses, and someone finds!

In Italy they carefully preserve and protect the secrets of bel canto; they are not allowed to talk about it there.

Anna Netrebko says that she tries not to play herself, but does not take into account that the main color of the image is the timbre of her voice. If a singer sings all the parts with the same timbre, then no one will guess that she is not playing herself. All the heroines will differ little from each other.

Zara Dolukhanova died (at 89 years old). She really didn't understand her voice sometimes. They reminded and showed how she suddenly felt that her beautiful mezzo had turned into a soprano. She carefully hits a high note with a soprano timbre, but it is only A (the soprano goes much higher). Voice type is not determined by timbre.

Zara Dolukhanova had a unique voice: a beautiful mezzo-soprano, natural production, high palate, strong vibrato (at the singer’s request), a beautiful trill. They say she was a childishly naive person. She sang a lot on the stage, on the radio, and toured a lot. Later she worked at the Gnessin Institute as a teacher.

Zara Dolukhanova was a sincere person. Her voice was magical when she sang Rossini’s Cinderella and Grieg’s Hut. There are recordings of her wonderful voice left.

Alexander Vedernikov

Alexander Vedernikov talks about his creative life. For the first time, the singer and teacher lifted the curtain on the lives of Soviet classical singers. He spoke about the difficulties of teaching vocals, about difficult relationships with teachers, and then with conductors in theaters.

The singer was lucky to get an internship at La Scala. Our young singers went to Italy, in exchange for teaching ballet to Italian dancers by our teachers, i.e. it was a cultural exchange.

Vedernikov realized that you need to sing not with your throat, but with “air.”

Recordings of his recording were played: Susanin, Boris, Farlaf - everything is excellent, everything is unrecognizably at a high level. The singer always sang Varlaam in a manner close to folk, which is quite justified, but other recordings either did not sound or sounded very rarely, and there was a wrong opinion about the singer’s voice as not quite classical.

I really liked Boris's makeup - it was a stunningly accurate face of the Russian Tsar.

Vedernikov even left the Bolshoi Theater because... I couldn’t agree with the conductor. None of our singers were so frank and honest.

Evgeniy Nesterenko sings arias with “air”, and Russian songs with clear diction.

Now there is such a hobby: teaching children classical vocals. A 14-year-old boy can be taught to sing in a male voice, but... Learning classical vocals requires great independence and maturity. The singer can't hear himself! And such a “deaf” person can be offended very easily. At this age, he is not yet able to figure out who is right and who is wrong. And it's even dangerous!

We often don’t like young talents; they consider them upstarts and envy them. Example: N. Baskov. Not everyone can withstand such pressure.

Successes at an early age inspire, and small failures - even just lies and inattention from adults - expose and painfully wound a still fragile soul.

Nikolai finally sang at the full strength of his voice, not afraid of high notes! Lensky impresses him.

Nikolai Baskov was very criticized for pop singing. It’s as if they don’t remember the performances of the handsome Karel Gott, a Czech pop singer - a tenor with a completely classic voice. He sang pop songs beautifully, brilliantly performed Italian songs in a classical manner, and more. Once at a concert he performed the Russian “bass” folk song“Along along Piterskaya”! And he laughed all the time: “Well, that’s my character!”

January 2008 Anna Netrebko and Rollando Villazon sing.

Rollando Villazon is a brilliant tenor and sings everything to a high standard.

Juliet's waltz is first sung by the singer as if it were Anna's waltz - with a thick timbre; soon the singer switches to a lyric soprano and easily sings this graceful aria.

The scene from “Iolanta” is very surprising with its flaw. Apparently, Anna did not understand the image of the blind girl: at first she plays her innocence and naivety, but in the very first duet she suddenly abruptly changes the girl’s character to her usual one: strong and decisive character Anna Netrebko.

The image of Mimi in a thick timbre is very inferior in comparison with the gentle lyrical timbre accepted in the world of art, depicting a dreamy, gentle girl in poor health.

On January 8, 2008, V. Vinokur and his ensemble performed on television with a satirical number about how “the classical singer and ballerina were thrown onto the stage.”

Anniversary (70 years) of Evgeniy Nesterenko.

He always sang beautifully with his wide, rich bass, especially Italian arias. But, having become a teacher, he wrote a dissertation on the topic of diction. And now he sings Russian songs, emphasizing every word. I remember someone accurately defined such singing as “the movement of the Commander’s Statue.”

Anna Netrebko often comes to the Mariinsky Theater to sing in operas: “Don Giovanni”, in “La Traviata”. Anna very diligently sings the instrumentally complex part of Donna-Anna, preparing the “Russian Album of Anna Netrebko” with classical romances.

Anniversary of A. Vedernikov.

A.Vedernikov talks about new production opera "Boris Godunov". He really doesn't like this production. A. Vedernikov believes that “fashionable” directors should not work in the main theater. The whole production works towards destruction. I also don’t like the production of the opera “Eugene Onegin”. The director pulls the blanket over himself. There is a struggle in the theater over the first cast.

The singer talks about himself. He performed a lot in concerts, independently prepared the part of Boris and other parts and sought performances. He sang a lot of sacred music, even when it was punishable.

In the new production of the opera “Othello” at the Mariinsky Theater, the Moor Othello strangles Desdemona not while lying down, but while standing, using a gangster technique.

Nikolai Baskov sang with great success in one of the theaters in Europe, the role of Canio from the opera “Pagliacci”. At 32 years old, tenors have never sung such a complex dramatic role!

Recital by Rollando Villazon

“I am the whole instrument, not just my voice,” says the singer. Performing Werther's aria, he suffers so much that his face becomes beautiful and very sensual. He sings, giving himself completely to the music with great joy. This joy of his is transmitted to the public. After performing the aria, he runs to the dressing room and... jumps, jumps. “This is how I relax, relieve tension,” says the singer, rejoicing like a child.

Villazon - you are a miracle!

"Opera Club", radio station "Echo of Moscow".

Salzburg. Festival. Anna Netrebko sings Donna Anna in Don Giovanni, and Suzanne in The Marriage of Figaro. “Suzanne's Serenade” is highly regarded here, and Anna sings it softly, not thickly and very beautifully. This means that Anna can sing in different timbres.