OperaLab.

Deutsch | Français | Ελληνικά

The basis of teaching classical singing should be the study then the application of the ancestral principles of the Italian School of singing. Nevertheless, it is necessary to recognize that it became impossible to perpetuate this heritage for various reasons:

1. The Age of the Italian School of Singing
   Its golden age occured several centuries ago at the time of Bel Canto. Who, at the moment, has followed this training at its source? There are currently (with the exception of certain singers) only descendants of pupils who had the privilege to study under Garcia, Lamperti, Marchesi, and other famous names of the art of singing. These often old pupils possess a knowledge and have vocal exercises which are advisable to study because they form a precious Tradition. However most were never directly in touch with the usually-quoted glorious teaching. It is the very notion of the exactness of the understanding and of the transmission of the principles that is raised, every teacher having adapted – and consequently distorted – the initial method.
2. The Particular Transmission of Principles
   The Italian School of Bel Canto was empirical and its principles passed on directly by imitation. The pupil lived mostly with their teacher and literally soaked in the art of beautiful singing. The professor worked not only on the voice, he also addressed all aspects of the singer’s personality for many years. The pupils who evolved then towards teaching carried on what had been passed on by generation to generation, mostly by oral tradition. How can we, in the current world, propose the same method? This vocal training has to evolve and has to find a new shape.
3. The Necessity to Elaborate a Teaching Method Adapted to Current Requirements and Conditions
   The traditions of Bel Canto formed the voices for the operatic art of Bellini, Donizetti, Gluck, Mozart, Rossini, and their predecessors. The composers who followed gradually adopted a vocal style which seemed to require other vocal capacities, notably in Verismo and Wagnerian scores, or even the scores in which it is necessary to know how to speak in music. The traditions and instructions for the Bel Canto operas got lost. Rather than to study the art of classical singing by the beginning and in equivalence with the physiological evolution of the voice, singers forced upon themselves a maximal vocal tension at the beginning of their careers. When these singers lost their voice, they did not choose to rectify their method of singing, but turned themselves to teaching to make a living. From this moment to the present day, we see “professors” refer, often unrightfully, to the Italian School of singing and pass on erroneous and dangerous principles. These “professors” formed in turn pupils and teachers who, without any valid competence, continue even today to destroy the vocal potential of numerous young singers.

It seems to us thus indispensable to base ourselves on the best principles of the Italian School of singing and to add the numerous scientific data (unknown at the time of Bel Canto) as well as the results of the researches of eminent teachers to elaborate a method more adapted to the requirements of the current vocal art and to the specific conditions of our time.

• The method we develop at OperaLab insists upon:

1. The study and understanding of vocal mechanisms and preservation of vocal health;
2. The posture and the breath, the Passaggio and vocal registers, the true cover of the voice, the purity and alignment of the vowels;
3. The precise identification of the true vocal category/Fach of each singer, and his/her immediate training within his/her vocal category;
4. The study and knowledge of the vocal repertoire and its specific application;
5. The globality and multi-faceted training, adapted to the actual necessities and conditions;
6. The practical application of the theoretical knowledge.

• The method we develop at OperaLab uses teaching tools and exercises from:

1. The Italian School of singing (Caruso, Garcia II, Lamperti, Marchesi, Novikova, Romani);
2. The Scandinavian School of singing (Bjoerling, Bratt, Flagstad, Hislop, Ingebjart-Isene, Nilsson, Svanholm, Lindquest, Vennard);
3. The pedagogy of carefully-selected teachers (of all disciplines).