Belcanto is a technique of virtuoso singing. Vocal training. opera singing

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Long lines of musical phrases, melodic passages and graces, amazing voice control and honed beauty of virtuoso singing. At the turn of the 16th-17th centuries, a singing school arose in Italy, which gave the world a performing vocal technique, which the Italians, greedy to pretentious terms, gave the name bel canto (bel canto) - “beautiful singing”. Let's not exaggerate, marking this period as the beginning of the heyday of theatrical vocals and the starting point for the further development of the opera genre.

The Birth of Opera: Florence

The first operas that appeared in the described time period owe their birth to members of a small circle of lovers of ancient art, formed in Florence and entered into musical history under the name "Florence Camerata". Fans of the ancient Greek tragedy dreamed of reviving the former glory of this genre and were of the opinion that the actors did not speak, but sang the words, using recitative, a melodic smooth transition of sounds, to reproduce the text.

The first works written on the plot of the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus became the impetus for the birth of a new musical genre- operas. And the solo vocal parts (arias) that served as its integral part forced the singers to seriously engage in voice training, which was the reason for the emergence of the art of beautiful singing - bel canto. This implied the ability to perform lingering melodic fragments on a long breath while maintaining smooth sound production throughout the musical phrase.

Neapolitan school

At the end of the 17th century, the Neapolitan operatic tradition was formed, finally establishing the art of bel canto on the theatrical stage. It was both a development of the Florentine idea and a change in it. In Naples, music and singing became the main component of the performance, and not poetry, which until that time had been given the leading role. This innovation pleased the audience and caused great enthusiasm.

Neapolitan composers structurally transformed opera. They did not abandon the use of recitatives, which they divided into different types: accompanied (accompanied by an orchestra) and dry, containing information presented in a colloquial manner to rare harpsichord chords to maintain musical tonality. Vocal training, which became mandatory for performers, increased the popularity of solo numbers, the form of which also underwent changes. Typical arias appeared in which the characters expressed feelings in a generalized way, in relation to the situation, and not based on the image or character. Mournful, buffoonery, everyday, passionate, revenge arias - the inner space of the Neapolitan opera was filled with lively content.

Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725)

Outstanding composer and enthusiast Scarlatti went down in history as the founder of the Naples opera school. He created more than 60 works. The genre of serious opera (opera seria), created by Scarlatti, told about the life of famous heroes with the help of a mythological or historical plot. Opera singing pushed the dramatic line of the performance into the background, and recitatives gave way to arias.

The wide range of vocal parts in serious opera expanded the requirements that operatic voices had to meet. The performers improved in the art of singing, although sometimes this led to curiosities - each of them wanted the composer to include arias in the opera that would favorably emphasize the dignity of the voice. The result was a set of unrelated solo numbers, which is why the opera seria began to be called a “concert in costumes.”

Beauty and craftsmanship

Another contribution of the Neapolitan opera school to the development of bel canto was the use of ornamental (coloratura) decorations of the musical palette in the vocal parts. Coloratura was used at the end of arias and helped the performers demonstrate to the listeners the degree of voice control. Great leaps, trills, ranged passages, the use of sequence (repetition of a musical phrase or melodic turn in different registers or keys) - thus increased the expressive palette used by bel canto virtuosos. This led to the fact that the degree of skill of the singer was often assessedaccording to the complexity of the coloratura he performs.

Italian musical culture made high demands. The voices of famous singers were distinguished by their beauty and richness of timbre. Vocal training helped improve performance technique, achieve evenness and fluency of sound in all ranges.

First conservatories

The demand for bel canto led to the formation of the first educational institutions that trained singers. Orphanages - conservatories - became the first music schools in medieval Italy. The bel canto technique was taught in them on the basis of imitation, repetition after the teacher. This explains the high level of training of singers of that time. After all, they studied with recognized masters such as Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) or Francesco Cavalli (1602-1676).

The students were composed special exercises for the development of voice, solfeggio, which had to be repeated, improving singing technique and developing breathing - skills so necessary for bel canto. This led to the fact that, having started training at the age of 7-8, by the age of 17, professional performers for the opera stage emerged from the walls of the conservatory.

Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868)

With its appearance, Italian bel canto predetermined the development trend of opera musical culture for the next three centuries. A milestone in its development was the work of the Italian composer G. Rossini. The rhythmic energy, brilliance and mobility of the vocal parts demanded from the performers a rich timbre variety, virtuosity andexceptional singing school. Even the singsong arias and recitatives in Rossini's compositions demanded full dedication.

Rossini's melodism paved the way for the classic bel canto, distinguished by the completeness of phrases, gentle and airy clean, freely flowing smooth melody (cantilena) and sensually sublime ardor. It is noteworthy that the composer himself knew about the art of singing firsthand. As a child, he sang in the church choir, and in adulthood, in addition to composing, he enthusiastically devoted himself to vocal pedagogy and even wrote several books on this issue.

Pedagogy

Italian opera singing, which became a symbol of European musical culture of the 17th-19th centuries, appeared thanks to the work of gifted innovative teachers who studied vocals and experimented with the human voice, bringing its sound to perfection. The techniques described in their writings are still used in the preparation of singers.

Not a single detail escaped the attention of the teachers. Pupils comprehended the secrets of free and easy singing breathing. Vocal training assumed a moderate sound volume, short melodic phrases and narrow intervals, which made it possible to use speech breathing, characterized by a quick and deep breath followed by a slow exhalation. Complexes of exercises were developed for training homogeneous sound production in high and low registers. Even training in front of a mirror was part of the training course for novice performers - excessive facial expressions and a tense facial expression betrayed convulsive workvoice device. It was recommended to keep loose, stand straight and with the help of a smile to achieve a clear and close sound.

New singing techniques

Complex vocal parts, dramaturgy and theatrical performances posed difficult tasks for the singers. The music reflected the inner world of the characters, and the voice became an integral part of the overall stage image. This was clearly manifested in the operas of G. Rossini and G. Verdi, whose work marked the rise of the bel canto style. The classical school considered it acceptable to use falsetto on high notes. However, the dramaturgy rejected this approach - in the heroic scene, the male falsetto entered into aesthetic dissonance with the emotional coloring of the action. The first to overcome this voice threshold was the Frenchman Louis Dupre, who began to use the manner of sound production, which establishes physiological (narrowing of the larynx) and phonetic (language in the “Y-shaped” position) mechanisms for protecting the vocal apparatus and later called “covered”. It allowed to form the upper section of the sound range without switching to falsetto.

Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)

Reviewing operatic vocal art, it is unthinkable to ignore the figure and creative heritage of the great Italian composer G. Verdi. He transformed and reformed the opera, introduced plot contrasts and oppositions. He was the first of the composers to take an active part in the elaboration of the plot, stage design and production. In his operas, the thesis and antithesis dominated, feelings and contrasts raged, unitedmundane and heroic. This approach dictated new requirements for vocalists.

The composer was critical of the coloratura and said that trills, grace notes and gruppettos are not capable of becoming the basis of a melody. There are almost no ornamental decorations in the compositions, remaining only in soprano parts, and later completely disappearing from opera scores. The male parts in the climaxes were moved to the upper register using the "covered sound" already described earlier. The performers of the baritone parts were forced to rebuild the work of the vocal apparatus from a high tessitura (high- altitude arrangement of sounds relative to the singing range), dictated by the reflection of the emotional state of the characters. This led to the emergence of a new term - "Verdi baritone". The work of G. Verdi, 26 beautiful operas staged at the La Scala, marked the second birth of bel canto - the art of mastering the voice brought to perfection.

World tour

The light and graceful vocal style cannot be kept within the borders of one state. Most of Europe gradually fell under his spell. Beautiful singing conquered the world theatrical stage and influenced the development of European musical culture. An opera direction was formed, which received the name "belkanta". The style pushed the boundaries of its application and stepped into instrumental music.

The virtuoso melody of F. Chopin (1810-1849) synthesized Polish folk poetics and Italian operatic bel canto. The dreamy and gentle heroines of the operas by J. Masnet (1842-1912) are filled with belcanth charm. The influence of the style turned out to be so great that its influence on music became truly grandiose, stretching from classicism to romanticism.

Connecting cultures

The great composer M. I. Glinka (1804-1857) became the founder of Russian classics. His orchestral writing - sublimely lyrical and at the same time monumental - is filled with melody, in which both folk song traditions and the belkante sophistication of Italian arias are visible. The cantilena peculiar to them turned out to be similar to the melodiousness of drawn-out Russian songs - truthful and expressive. The predominance of the melody over the text, intra-syllable chants (singing accentuation of individual syllables), speech repetitions that create the length of the melody - all this in the works of M. I. Glinka (and other Russian composers) was amazingly harmoniously combined with the traditions of Italian opera. The lingering folk songs, according to critics, deserved the title of "Russian bel canto".

In the repertoire of stars

The brilliant era of Italian bel canto ended in the 1920s. The military and revolutionary upheavals of the first quarter of the century crossed out the normative essence of romantic operatic thinking, it was replaced by neoclassicism and impressionism, modernism, futurism and others divided into directions. And yet, the famous operatic voices never ceased to turn to the masterpieces of Italian classical vocals. The art of "beautiful singing" was brilliantly mastered by A. V. Nezhdanov and F. I. Chaliapin. The unsurpassed master of this singing direction was L. V. Sobinov, who was called the ambassador of bel canto in Russia. The great Maria Callas (USA) and Joan Sutherland (Australia), honored by colleagues with the title of "Voice of the Century", lyric tenor Luciano Pavarotti (Italy) and unsurpassed bass Nikolai Gyaurov (Bulgaria) - their art was based on the artistic and aesthetic basis of Italian bel canto.

Conclusion

New trends in musical culture have failed to outshine the brilliance of the classic Italian bel cante opera. Bit by bit, young performers seek out the information preserved in the notes of the masters of previous years about proper breathing, sound production, voice sculpture and other subtleties. This is not an idle interest. The sophisticated audience has awakened the need not to hear a modern interpretation of classical works, but to plunge into the reliable temporary space of impeccable singing art. Perhaps this is an attempt to unravel the mystery of the bel canto phenomenon - how, in the era of a ban on female voices and preferences for a high male register, a singing direction could be born that survived centuries and turned into a harmonious system that laid the foundation for the training of professional vocalists for several centuries.