Freitas Verdian IdFreitas Verdian Ideal of Singingeal of Singing

Towards a Verdian Ideal of Singing: Emancipation from Modern Orthodoxy
Author(s): Roger Freitas

Source: Journal of the Royal Musical Association, Vol. 127, No. 2 (2002), pp. 226-257
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Journaiof theRoyalMusicalAssociation,127 (2002)
Towards
Emancipation
Verdian
? RoyalMusicalAssociation
Ideal
from
Modern
ROGER
FREITAS
of
Singing:
Orthodoxy
On 25 March 1875, Giuseppe

'We don't
Verdi wrote to Giulio Ricordi,
new effects;
conductors
to discover
for my part, I
need
and singers
that no one has ever, ever, ever been able, or known
declare
how, to
.
IV1
me
.
.
onel
Such
draw out all the effects conceived
No
a
statement
by
other things,
that Verdi had a clear aural conception
among
suggests,
of how he wanted
a sound
in his head against
his works performed,
which he measured
he
actual realizations.
almost
never comIndeed,
hidden
mended
for
his works
innovative
riches
in
revealing
performers
but instead
was a musical
who
found
autocrat,
generally
productions
to his will. Such a figure
only in so far as they conformed
convincing
to encourage
seem
efforts
at stylistic
in
would
the greatest
fidelity
And
have
in
recent
performance.
yet only
years
musicologists
begun to
of
the
historical
Verdi's
era;
investigate
practice
performance
among
musicians
in the crucial area of vocal practice
themselves
particularly
- even less interest
has emerged.
in fact, an investigation
To many in the singing
of past
profession,
casual
seems
Even
a
of
irrelevant.
recent
survey
approaches
pedaliterature
in my own vocal
confirms
what I was always taught
gogical
is based on timeless
that 'proper'
training,
namely,
technique
physio?
truths.
often
link modern
these
termedical
Indeed,
logical
writings
with (selective)
to 'bel canto'
references
treatises
in a move
minology
both to authenticate
and to universalize
the approach.2
And
designed
research
has begun
the profound
to establish
in
yet recent
changes
has shown
vocal practice
since Verdi's
that vocal
day: Will Crutchfield
1 The translation is taken from Martin Chusid, 'Verdi's Own Words: His
Thoughts on
Performance, with Special Reference to Don Carlos,OteUo,and Falstaff, The VerdiCompanion,ed.
William Weaver and Martin Chusid (New York, 1979), 144-92 (p. 183). Worthy of note is that
Verdi commonly uses the ellipsis in his writing; square brackets will be used to designate editorial
ellipses: [...].
2
Examples of this approach can most easily be found throughout the work of Richard Miller,
one of the most visible vocal pedagogues today, with several books and a regular column in The
Journai of Singing: The OfficialJournai ofthe National Associationof Teachersof Singing. A real expert
on the physiology of singing, Miller also regularly invokes the 'Italian school', with frequent
quotations of Francesco Lamperti. However, Lamperti's instructions, along with those of even
more seminal members of the 'Italian school' such as Manuel Garcia, are cited only when they
appear to support modern approaches; for example, Miller specifically rejects any movement of
the larynx or lack of vibrato. (See below for discussions of these issues as well as bibliographic
citations of Lamperti's and Garcia's treatises.) Some of Miller's publications include: TheStructure
of Singing: Systemand Art in Vocal Technique(New York and London, 1986); National Schoolsof
Singing: English, French,German, and Italian Techniquesof Singing Revisited(Lanham, MD, 1997);
and On theArt of Singing (New York, 1996).

TOWARDS
A VERDIANIDEALOF SINGING
227
- and thus the

that made it possible
pertechnique
into the early twentieth
has
Clive
Brown
and
century,
of
vocal
the
instrumental
and
characteristics
changing
highlighted
I aim to
from 1750 to 1900.3 In this more limited
inquiry,
practices
- reinforcresults
Verdi's
tastes
in
vocal
investigate
style. My
specifically
that the range of perform?
ing the work of other researchers
suggest
from what is
ance styles Verdi knew and advocated
differed
radically
modern
and
what
most
is
nearly always heard
proposed
by
pedagogues
in opera houses
today.
the technique
of the voice
and its interpretational
Unfortunately,
nuances
of
historical
are always the most difficult
performance
aspects
to address.
one can take the object in hand and read
With instruments,
the treatises
for both the original
writer and the
on its techniques:
Comthose
are
observable.
modern
visually
techniques
performer,
to rely on verbal
munication
of vocal style, however,
is always forced
to different
that often
different
things
imagery,
imagery
suggests
dates
And the only check on such variability,
sound recording,
people.
In light of these
back only to the very end of the nineteenth
century.
of
scholar
even Crutchfield
obstacles,
easily the most accomplished
has focused
historical
on the more
vocalism
tangible
primarily
the possibility
of ornamentation
and has even questioned
of
practice
vocal style before
the recorded
era.4 Although
such disascertaining
is certainly
cretion
it does not seem to me inescapable.
judicious,
By
- vocal trea?
kinds of evidence
as possible
as many different
considering
on performances,
other letters
and documents
tises, reports
along
be able to push
with the earliest
one should
recordings,
reasonably
back the aural imagination.
And
will certainly
reliability
although
decrease
one goes,
the process
need
much
the further
not become
- for the nineteenth
other
more conjectural
least
than
at
century,
the
researcher
of
As
historical
historical
interpretation.
always,
types
the evidence
in the most sensible
must simply construe
and convincing
the
choice
of
Of
that
for
a
evidence
course,
way.
investigation
particular
is important,
and so, to establish
credentials'
of the
the 'Verdian
I begin by briefly surveying
materials
I have selected,
each type.
The first and most obvious
consists
of Verdi's
category
expressed
In fact,
revealed
his
and
as
scores
intentions,
through
correspondence.
have
modern
the
for
sometimes
only requirement
performers
judged
an authentically
Verdian
be
strict
adherence
to
the
to
performance
in the best editions.
In support
an
musical
of such
text, as given
ornamentation
sisted at least
3 Crutchfield's
primary contributions to the subject come in several articles: 'Vocal Ornamentation in Verdi: The Phonographic Evidence', 19th CenturyMusic, 7 (1983-4), 3-54; 'Verdi
Performance: Restoring the Color', HighFidelity,33/6 (June 1983), 64-6,100-1; 'Authenticity in
Verdi: The Recorded Legacy', Opera,36 (1985), 858-66. Clive Brown, Classical and Romantic
PerformingPractice1750-1900 (Oxford, 1999).
4 See note 3 on Crutchfield's work on vocal
style. Regarding his doubts about the possibility
of grasping earlier styles, see his 'Some Thoughts on Reconstructing Singing Styles of the Past',
Journai ofthe Conductors'Guild, 10 (1989), 111-20: 'Now [the arrival of recorded sound] marked
the great dividing line, because once recordings existed, one could at last study direcdy... vibrato,
messadi voce,registers, dynamics, and so on. For earlier generations we continue to do a lot of
guesswork' (p. 112).

228
ROGERFREITAS
the composer
himself
is often quoted
as being 'content
to hear
a
and
was
written'.5
Yet
reliance
on
such
what
statement
exactly
simply
In the first place, no score - let alone one from
is clearly problematic.
- can communicate
all the unwritten
the nineteenth
nuances
century
a style. As Stendhal
in reference
that constitute
himself
to
remarked,
is
no
on
one of his favourite
'there
earth,
singers,
composer
suppose
him to be as ingenious
as you will, whose
score can convey
with pre?
of emotional
cision
[the]
suggestion:
yet it is
infinitely minute nuances
these
minute
nuances
form
the
secret
Creswhich
of
precisely
infinitely
attitude,
centini's
unique
perfection'.6
his protestations,
Verdi himself
Further,
notwithstanding
regularly
the violation
of his scores,
material
it
endorsed
(or allowing
changing
He transposed
to be changed)
for the sake ofthe
overall performance.
C major cabaletta
in Laforza
Don Alvaro's
arias, for example,
lowering
la morte')
del destino ('S'incontri
to Bt so that others
besides
Enrico
to fit a line to a particular
could sing it; he wrote puntature
Tamberlik
in the conclusion
of 'Celeste
most famously
Aida' for
voice,
singer's
and
he
the
contem?
encores,
always
encouraged
Giuseppe
Capponi;
mark of operatic
late in life, Verdi himself
success.7
Indeed,
porary
even warned
the then new trend towards
strict observance
of
against
the score. After hearing
from Giulio Ricordi
about a rhythmically
rigid
Verdi wrote,
under Toscanini,
'When I began to scandalpresentation
ize the musical world with my sins, there was the calamity
of the Rondos
of the
now there is the tyranny of the conductors
by the prima donnas;
'8 In such an
orchestra!
Bad, bad! But less bad is the first!!
environment,
and represents
the
the score lacks its modern
unassailability
simply
most important
of many clues to the intended
realization
of a work.9
His
ideas on the subject of singing?
What, then, of Verdi's
expressed
letters
are indeed
filled with references
and their relative
to singers
often
as spirited
as the following:
merits,
(and quotable)
'[Eugenia]
5A
good discussion of the 'simply and exactly' problem can be found in Crutchfield, 'Vocal
Ornamentation', 15-17.
6 Stendhal,
Life ofRossini, trans. Richard N. Coe (rev. edn, New York, 1970), 354; originally
published as ViedeRossini (Paris, 1824); as quoted in Rodolfo Celletti, A HistoryofBel Canto,trans.
Frederick Fuller (Oxford, 1991), 181; originally published as Storiadelbelcanto,Discanto/Contrappunti, 15 (Fiesole, 1983).
7 On the Forza
transposition, see Crutchfield, 'Vocal Ornamentation', 16. On 'Celeste Aida',
see Verdi's letter of 26?January 1875 to Emilio Usiglio, cited and translated in Hans Busch, coll.
and trans., Verdi's'Aida':TheHistoryofan Operain LettersandDocuments(Minneapolis, 1978), 375-7.
In the letter, Verdi is responding to Usiglio's request to allow downward transposition of the
romanza for Ernest Nicolini; Verdi vetoes the idea and instead communicates the puntaturehe
says he originally wrote for Capponi (intended to be the first Milan Radames, but replaced, on
account of illness, by Giuseppe Fancelli).
On Verdi's love of encores, see James A. Hepokoski, GiuseppeVerdi:'Falstaff, Cambridge Opera
Handbooks (Cambridge, 1983), 126.
8 From a letter of 18 March 1899 to Giulio Ricordi; as
reproduced in Franco Abbiati, Giuseppe
Verdi(Milan, 1959), iv, 638: 'Quando ho incominciato io a scandallizzare il mondo musicale coi
miei peccati, vi era la calamita dei Rondo delle prime donne, ora vi e la tirannia dei Direttori
d'orchestra! Male male! Pero meno male il primo!!'
9 Crutchfield states the
point beautifully: 'It is misleading to suppose that Verdi intended a
certain fixed result from each bit of notation: he intended, rather, that his scores should enter
the realization-system ofthe operatic theatre and that a performance should emerge' ('Authenticity in Verdi', 866). The same point is addressed by Marcello Conati in his 'Italian Romantic
Opera and Musicology', CurrentMusicology,27 (1979), 65-72.

TOWARDSA VERDIANIDEALOF SINGING
229
Tadolini
to sing at
and I don't want Lady Macbeth
sings to perfection,
all. Tadolini
has a wonderful
while
voice,
clear, flexible,
Lady
strong,
Macbeth's
be hard, stifled
voice should
and dark.'10 Again,
however,
such remarks
warrant
care. In the first place,
tends
towards
Verdi
in
his
and
rhetoric
such
so
hyperbole
generally
begs
correspondence,
to have had litde
But further,
critical reflection.
the composer
seems
in the purely technical
interest
He himself
of vocalism.
admits,
aspects
T cannot
a singer
in a room,
and not even in an empty
[. . .] judge
costumes
and makeup'.11
without
Verdi's
theater,
Indeed,
conception
to have been so closely
tied to dramatic
of singing
seems
expression
a
that he could
sometimes
abuse his vocalists,
as when he demanded
- 'for the 151st time' the
duet
Macbeth
of
long Lady
run-through
minutes
the public dress rehearsal.12
The composer's
comments
before
on singing,
as they are, cannot
tell the full story: like
then, invaluable
a context.
his scores,
they require
to explore
To try to construct
this context,
the elements
of vocal style
I have considered
the three
that Verdi did not or could
not explain,
of material
to above:
contem?
other
bodies
alluded
vocal
treatises,
of singers,
and extant early recordings.
By far the most
porary accounts
and for nineteenth-century
vocal study for this investigation,
important
is the Ecole de Garcia: Traite complet de Vart du chant of
style in general,
II (1805-1906).13
Manuel
Garcia's
for many
Garcia
study is crucial
reasons.
with the
the nineteenth
First, he in some ways unites
century
his primary
teacher
was his famous
father
(of the same
eighteenth:
Almaviva
and studied
with Giovanni
who created
Rossini's
name),
a pupil of Nicola Porpora.14
Ansani,
Second,
probably
notwithstanding
this connection,
Garcia seems
in his own period,
thoroughly
steeped
of contemporary
an intimate
revealing
singers
knowledge
composers,
in 1847, is littered
and vocal practices.
His treatise,
first fully published
from the contemporary
with musical
stage, and, as
examples
operatic
Donald
he
the
of
Paschke
newest
observes,
incorporates
techniques
covered
into
acknowhis
method.15
Garcia
was
Third,
widely
singing
as the leading
voice teacher
in Europe,
not only in the 1840s,
ledged
10 From a letter of 23 November 1848 to Salvatore Cammarano; as translated in Charles
Osborne, comp., trans. and ed., Lettersof GiuseppeVerdi(New York, 1971), 59.
11 From a letter of 17
June 1892 to Giulio Ricordi; as translated in Chusid, 'Verdi's Own Words',
179.
12 This anecdote was told
by Marianna Barbieri Nini, the first Lady Macbeth, and appears in
Eugenio Checchi, GiuseppeVerdi:II genio e le opere(Florence, 1887), 64-8. The version used here
is taken from Marcello Conati, 'Verdi at the Rehearsals for Macbethfrom the Memoirs of Marianna
Barbieri Nini: 1847', InterviewsandEncounterswith Verdi,ed. Marcello Conati, trans. Richard Stokes
(London, 1984), 24-8 (pp. 26-7).
13 Manuel Garcia, Ecolede Garcia:Traite
completde I'artdu chant (Paris, 1847; repr. Geneva, 1985).
See note 15 for information on the publication history of the work.
14 Donald V. Paschke, introduction to A
CompleteTreatiseon the Art of Singing: Part Two, by
Manuel Garcia II, ed. and trans. Donald V. Paschke (n.p., 1972; repr. New York, 1975), p. iii.
15 Paschke
explains the early publication history of Garcia's treatise in his notes to Garcia, A
CompleteTreatise,260: the first volume ofthe Ecolede Garciawas published in 1840, and this part was
then reprinted with the second volume in 1847. While Garcia's musical examples include works by
such traditional composers as Handel, Mozart and Rossini, the author also draws on more contem?
porary operas, such as Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor(1835) and Linda di Chamounix(1842),
Bellini's Norma(1831) and Beatricedi Tenda(1833), and Meyerbeer's RobertleDiable(1831). Paschke
mentions Garcia's discussion of covered tone in his introduction to A CompleteTreatise,p. ii.

230
ROGERFREITAS
but throughout
his long life. His study,
when his treatise was published,
in 1856, went through
editions
into the early twen?
revised
numerous
And
his
Maria
tieth
Pauline
Malibran,
century.
including
pupils
and Charles SandeyMarchesi
and their
Viardot, Jenny Lind, Mathilde
- Nellie
Emma Eames and Emma
Calve Melba,
pupils in their turn
constituted
much
of the vocal elite well into the twentieth
century.
to study with Garcia and later
Even Wagner
sent his niece Johanna
as vocal coach for the inaugural
invited the master to come to Bayreuth
in anatomy
that led him to invent
festival there. Finally, with an interest
his methods
in an invaluably
Garcia tends to explain
the laryngoscope,
observations.
For all
clear way, based for the first time on physiological
a central
document
these reasons,
then, his treatise can be considered
in the nineteenth
of singing
for the understanding
century.16
and Charles
To supplement
Garcia, the works of Francesco
Lamperti
examined.
In
the
of
have
also
been
words
Michael
Scott,
Sandey
of
Francesco
'was
the
teachers
(1813-92)
doyen
singing
Lamperti
in Italy - to Milan
Uarte
del canto
what
Garcia
was to London'.17
he
was
active
much
around
earlier.18
Charles
1883,
appeared
although
of the latter
one of the most eminent
baritones
(1834-1922),
Sandey
half of the century,
also left behind
a treatise,
The Art of Singing and
the viewpoint
which
contributes
ofa distinVocal Declamation
(1908),
veteran
performer.19
guished,
of the pedagogues
manifested
To help determine
how the precepts
in practice,
on singing
themselves
written
commentary
contemporary
remarks
of many writers have
can be illuminating.
While the scattered
this study, Henry
influenced
Recollections
Chorley's
Thirty Years'Musical
a particularly
of information.20
has been
bountiful
source
His work
on the music
covers the years 1830 to 1859 and concentrates
decidedly
His observations
an important
and singers
of Italian
opera.
provide
the ascendancy
of Rossini and
transitional
account
ofthe
years between
that of Verdi.
But perhaps
the most telling
evidence
of stylistic
context
emerges
the
from that highly
of
first
of
material,
body
recordings
engrossing
Of
vocalists
active
towards
the
end
of
Verdi's
life
course,
only
singers.
survived
to make recordings,
and not all of these deserve
consideration
in reconstructing
Verdian
tastes. Certainly
those singers with whom the
The two most prominent
worked
are important.
of
composer
direcdy
who
these are Francesco
the
role
of
created
(1850-1905),
Tamagno
and Victor
Maurel
the first Iago and Falstaff.
Otello,
(1848-1923),
Maurel
also played
characters
in
the
revised
versions
of both
leading
both men had their disSimon Boccanegra
and Don Carlos. Although
aural links to the
with Verdi,
the closest
they represent
agreements
16 Much of the above is based on Paschke, introduction to A

CompleteTreatise,pp. ii-vii.
17 Michael Scott, TheRecord
of Singing to 1914 (New York, 1977), 24.
18 Francesco
Lamperti, L'arte del canto in ordinealle tradizioniclassicheed a particolareesperienza:
Normetechnichee consigliagli allievi ed agli artisti (Milan and Paris, [1883]). Here, I have used the
translation by one of his pupils: A Treatiseon theArt of Singing,trans.J. C. Griffith (New York, n.d.).
19 Charles
Sandey, TheArt of Singing and VocalDeclamation(New York, 1908).
20
Henry F. Chorley, Thirty Years'Musical Recollections(London, 1862; repr. with an introduc?
tion by Ernest Newman, New York, 1926).

231
A link of a different
sort is manifested
in the recordings
of
composer.
Garbin
the
first
Fenton.
comEdoardo
Verdi
(1865-1943),
vigorously
of letters,
but the very frequency
plains about this singer in a number
and specificity
allow useful
of the criticism
connections
to be made
the composer's
and Garbin's
between
statements
sounds.
In addition
to singers who worked
direcdy with Verdi, the composer's
stated preferences
the
inclusion
of a few other
artists. Here,
permit
one faces a central issue in this investigation:
however,
notwithstanding
his reputation
to have
as the arch-enemy
of *bel canto',
Verdi seems
traditional
in 1871
in
this
asked
trained
When
style.21
singers
preferred
T
about what should
be taught to aspiring
Verdi responded,
vocalists,
like the students
of music; exercises
should
to have a wide knowledge
in voice production;
in solfeggi
[i.e. agility exercises],
very long courses
I
as in the past'.22 Elsewhere,
he repeats,
Tn the teaching
of singing,
declamawould like the old-fashioned
combined
with modern
studies,
tion.'23
He even complained
tended
to ignore
that German
singers
such training:
to get fine light and shade into
'They take no trouble
their singing;
all their efforts
are directed
to bringing
out this or that
note with the utmost
Hence
their
is not the poetic
force.
singing
of their souls, but the physical
conflict
of their bodies.'24
expression
In light of contemporary
controversies
about singing
style, such state?
ments
was con?
clearly ally Verdi with what by the end of the century
the 'old school',
sidered
the approach
that had dominated
the theatres
of Italy in his youth. Confirming
such a view is the composer's
virtually
Adelina
unreserved
Patti, associated
praise for the soprano
throughout
her career with the traditional
[ten
style: Verdi raves, Tatti was then
Perfect
what she is now: perfecdy
years earlier]
organised.
equilibrium
between
singer and actress, a born artist in every sense of the word.'25
And further,
that there has perhaps never been
[Patti] is by nature an artist so complete
her equal! Oh! Oh! And Malibran?
Very great, but not always even!
Sometimes
The style of her singing was
sublime and sometimes
baroque!
not the purest, the action not always correct,
a shrill voice on the high
notes! Nevertheless,
a very great artist, marvelous.
But Patti is more
of
marvelous
actress with
voice,
complete:
purest style
singing, stupendous
a charm and naturalness
that no one else has.26
21 On Verdi as an
enemy of bel canto, see Rodolfo Celletti, 'L'interpretazione di Verdi nel
secolo XIX', Atti del 1? congressointernazionaledi studi verdiani, ed. Mario Medici (Parma, 1969),
308-13 (pp. 309-10); also Chorley, ThirtyYears'Musical Recollections,passim, but especially 182-6.
February 1871 to Giuseppe Piroli; as translated in Osborne, Letters,75.
January 1871 to Francesco Florimo; as reproduced in Abbiati, Giuseppe
Verdi,iii, 356: 'Nell'insegnamento di canto avrei voluto pure gli studj antichi, uniti alla declamazione moderna.'
24
Anonymous, 'Verdi in Wien', NeuefreiePresse(Vienna), 9 June 1875; as translated in Chusid,
'Verdi's Own Words', 180. (For further information on this passage, see note 116.)
25 From a letter of 6 October 1877 to Giulio Ricordi; as translated in Osborne, Letters,202.
26 From a letter of December 1877 to Count
Opprandino Arrivabene; as reproduced in
*
Abbiati, GiuseppeVerdi,iv, 38: [Patti] e natura d'artista cosi completa che forse non vi e stata mai
eguale! Oh! Oh! E la Malibran? Grandissima, ma non sempre uguale! Sublime talvolta e qualche
volta barocca! Lo stile del suo canto non era purissimo, non sempre corretta l'azione, la voce
stridula negli acuti! Malgrado tutto, artista grandissima, meravigliosa. Ma la Patti e piu completa.
Voce meravigliosa, stile di canto purissimo; attrice stupenda con uno charmeed un naturaleche
nissunaha!'

ROGERFREITAS
232
Needless
to say, the few recordings
made
of this great woman,
though
to the present
in her sixties, are highly valuable
study.
trained
a few other
Given
Verdi's
tastes for traditionally
singers,
vocalists widely linked with the older style have also been included
here.
For example,
Melba's
Italian debut at La Scala (16
die day after Nellie
March 1893), the critic for the Corriere della sera, Aldo Noseda,
explicidy
associated
her with
Patti:
of the great art

[Adelina Patti] remains for us the most perfect exponent
of singing. How many times last evening we told ourselves that for marvelfor seduction
of 'timbre',
for spontaneity
of
lous facility of production,
for pureness of intonation,
for the finished art of modulation,
vocalization,
Madame Melba again renewed in us the intense enjoyment
so
experienced
many years ago when listening to the diva Patti. Who else now, may we ask,
can sing like Melba?27
seems to have inherited
Patti's crown. Her
Melba (1861-1931)
Indeed,
ties to the old school
are close, as she studied
with the famous
singing
teacher
and Garcia
Mathilde
Marchesi.
the elderly
Although
pupil
Melba in his correspondence,
the singer claims
Verdi hardly mentions
that in 1893 Verdi
came backstage
at La Scala to praise her on her
The story continues
that Melba
as Gilda.
went to his
performance
at least the role of Desdemona
the next day and studied
with
apartment
him.28 Although
this information
remains
Melba's
uncorroborated,
as an artist, her connections
with the 'old school',
the
pre-eminence
with Verdi, and her relative youth at the time
of her coaching
possibility
all combine
she first entered
the studio,
to make
her recordings
a
source
of stylistic information.
relevant
Also included
on die basis of connections
to an earlier style is Mattia
Battistini
a baritone
who made his debut in 1878 and did
(1856-1928),
his technique
not retire until 1927.29 By all accounts,
to the
belonged
not surprisingly,
Verdi found him too
days of Rossini and Meyerbeer;30
him to
for the role of Iago.31 His long vocal health
allowed
'sugary'
make many recordings
at nearly his full vocal powers.
At last I turn to the results of this inquiry,
which has been organized
as
a survey
of vocal
from
the
to
the
technical
issues,
interpretative.
Crutchfield
has already
on practices
so astutely
of
(Because
reported
that
area
is
the
one
of
ornamentation,
important
aspect
performance
facets
here.)
style I do not address
Surely one of the most astonishing
ofthe
is
vocal
its
attitude
timbre.
towards
nineteenth-century
approach
27 As translated in
Agnes G. Murphy, Melba:A Biography(New York, 1909), 78. Murphy gives no
more detailed citation, and I was unable to see the original of this article myself.
28 Nellie Melba, MelodiesandMemories(Garden
City, NY, 1928), 119-20.
29 K. Kutsch and Leo Riemens,
GrofiesSangerlexikon(Bern, 1987), ii, col. 178.
J.
30 Scott, TheRecord
of Singing, 104.
31 From a letter of 11 November 1886 to Giulio Ricordi; as
reproduced in Abbiati, Giuseppe
Verdi,iv, 229.

233
the
were generally
in Garcia's
terms,
recognized:
qualities
the
dark
the
difference
and
Garcia
(sombre).
(clair)
bright
explains
in the clear
between
the two quite
as the voice
ascends
explicidy:
in a low,
also
and
remains
the
the
soft
timbre,
ascends,
larynx
palate
For
the
dark
is
relaxed
the
however,
larynx
kept low
position.
quality,
for every note, and the soft palate is raised.32 Garcia finds that both of
have their place. The bright
these timbres
gives to the chest register
but
if
leads to harshbrilliance
and
carried
to excess
intensity,
great
a roundness
ness. The dark creates
of tone and allows for the greatest
but if pushed
notes
dull. Constant
variation
too far renders
volume,
the two is seen as an important
in dramatic
between
resource
interpre?
con?
tation. Other nineteenth-century
pedagogues
agree with Garcia's
the
clear
even
use
of
the
exclusive
ception,
recommending
Lamperti
as it makes the high notes easier, the voice sweeter
timbre for practice,
Two
basic
and the exercise

less fatiguing.33
in modern
To anyone
must
trained
vocal pedagogy,
this approach
In seemingly
the only
modern
discussion,
appear
starding.
every
of the vocal mechanism,
is similar
for all vocalism,
approved
position
dark tone: for a singer to adopt a high larynx and low soft
to Garcia's
a rise in pitch, would be considered
palate, particularly
accompanying
for
a serious,
fault.34 Of course,
instructions
even dangerous,
Garcia's
the clear technique
would
and, to our ears, probably
yield a bright
somewhat
and nasal tone. Consistent
shallow
with such a timbre is the
common
admonition
to open the jaw only a modest
distance,
enough
tone
to insert
a fingertip.35
even suggests
that the natural
Sandey
'The tone may be peculiar,
quality of the voice be left alone entirely:
even to a certain
extent
but the peculiarity
may .. . be
disagreeable,
. ,'36 Clearly,
as to render it a striking specialty..
turned to such account
the teachers
with eliciting
the 'rich' tone that
were just not concerned
has become
focus of modern
such a central
technique.
bear this out. When various writers say that Patti's
And the recordings
recorded
voice sounds
fresh for her advanced
age, they are
remarkably
32 Manuel Garcia, Ecolede Garcia,i, 4 and 15.

33
Lamperti, A Treatise,11.
34 Miller, National Schools,92:
'Beyond a slight downward movement in inhalation, the larynx
lies relatively quiescent throughout the breath cycle. . . . Nor must the larynx be allowed to rise
and fall with pitch changes or with register transitions.' This view is reiterated in Miller, The
Structure,59. Also, Richard W. Harpster, Techniquein Singing: A Programfor Singersand Teachers
(New York and London, 1984), 42: 'if you are singing with the [desirable] large throat, you will
discern that: 1. The larynx is low. 2. The pharyngeal cavity is "large."3. The tongue is relaxed and
slighdy furrowed. 4. The velum is arched. 5. The mouth cavity itself is spacious.' Again, Van A.
Christy, ExpressiveSinging, ii: Theoryand Technic,Styleand Interpretation,SongRepertoire,Principlesof
Piano Accompaniment,Solo Voiceand Piano Accompaniment
Recordings(3rd edn, Dubuque, IA, 1975),
45, citing Hermanus Baer, 'Establishing a Correct Basic Technique for Singing', A_4TSBulletin,
28/4 (May-June 1972), 12-14 (p. 12): 'The completely relaxed and fully opened throat is a basic
condition for free tone. There are three factors that have a bearing on creating a greater space
in the throat: A raised soft palate, a forward position ofthe tongue, i.e., awayfrom the throat; and
a lowered larynx.'
35
Santley, TheArt, 56; Lamperti, A Treatise,22.
36
Sandey, TheArt, 51.

ROGERFREITAS
234
tone.37
Melba's
at least in part to her bright,
girlish
early
referring
in
more
made
her
sometimes
even
extreme
in
are
forties,
recordings,
roulades
and
notes.38
their brilliant,
almost
high
squeaky
Tamagno's
tenor seems
without
the darkening
'cover'
above
always 'wide open',
and
is
heard
the staff that Garcia himself
universally
today.39
suggests
And Battistini's
clear baritone
has much
less of the dark,
'macho'
Milnes.40
of a Robert
Merrill
or Sherrill
of the
(Comparison
quality
the
same
Milnes
Battistini
with
sung by
really highlights
excerpt
passage
ofa singer who
the difference.)41
Garbin offers the interesting
example
notes
carries
the
covers
his
but
open quality to its extreme
high
clearly
37 Readers with access to the internet are referred to sound
clip 1 at <www.jrma.oupjournals.org>
(Adelina Patti singing 'Pur dicesti' by Antonio Lotti; Gramophone and Typewriter Company
(G&T), Matrix 538f, Cat. 03052 (1905); as reissued on AdelinaPatti: 1843-1919, Pearl GEMMCD
9312. ? Pavilion Records <www.pavilionrecords.com>;reproduced by permission). Text and trans?
lation are as follows:
Pur dicesti, o bocca bella
quel soave e caro 4si'
che fa tutto il mio piacer.
At last you said, O lovely mouth,

that sweet and precious 'yes'
that creates all my pleasure.
In the sound clips I have used excerpts from Verdi's music whenever possible; unfortunately, Patti
never recorded any Verdi, although she certainly performed his operas regularly during her
career. But the similarity of her approach to the different kinds of music she did record (e.g.
Mozart, Bellini, parlour songs) gives one confidence that she would have treated Verdi's music in
much the same way.
38 See sound
clip 2 at <www.jrma.oupjournals.org> (Nellie Melba singing 'Caro nome' from
Verdi's Rigoletto;Victor, Matrix G4283-2, Cat. 88078 (1907); reproduced by permission of the
Historical Sound Recordings division of the Music Library at Yale University). Text and trans?
Caro nome che il mio cor
festi primo palpitar,
le delizie dell'amor
mi dei sempre rammentar!
Col pensier il mio desir
a te sempre volera,
e fin l'ultimo sospir,
caro nome, tuo sara.
Dear name who first

made my heart beat:
you must always remind me
of the delights of love!
With the thought, my desire
will always fly to you,
and even my final sigh
will be yours, dear name.
39 See sound
clip 3 at <www.jrma.oupjournals.org> (Francesco Tamagno singing 'Esultate!'
from Verdi's Otello;G&T, Matrix 3001 FT, Cat. 52673 (1903); as reissued on FrancescoTamagno:
The CompleteRecordingsand Three UnpublishedRecordings,Opal CD 9846. ? Pavilion Records
<www.pavilionrecords.com>; reproduced by permission). Text and translation are as follows:
Esultate! L'orgoglio musulmano
Rejoice! The Muslim's pride
is buried in the sea; the glory is ours and
sepolto e in mar, nostra e del cielo e
[heaven's!
[gloria!
After our arms, the gale defeated him.
Dopo l'armi lo vinse l'uragano.
40 See sound
clip 4 at <www.jrma.oupjournals.org> (Mattia Battistini singing 'Eri tu', from
Verdi's Un balloin maschera;G&T Matrix 886c, Cat. 052146 (1906); as reissued on Mattia Battistini
(1856-1928), Nimbus NI 7831. ? Nimbus Records; reproduced by permission). Text and trans?
Eri tu che macchiavi quell'anima,
It was you who tarnished that soul,
la delizia dell'anima mia .. .
the delight of my soul...
che m'affidi e d'un tratto esecrabile
you who trust me and by an abominable act
l'universo aweleni per me!
poison the universe for me!
Traditor! Che compensi in tal guisa
Traitor! That you repay in such a way
dell'amico tuo primo la fe!
the loyalty of your best friend!
41 See sound
clip 5 at <www.jrma.oupjournals.org> (Sherrill Milnes singing 'Eri tu'; London
OSA 1398 (1971); as reissued on MyFavoriteVerdi,Pavarotti's Opera Made Easy, London 443 8162). For text and translation see note 40.

TOWARDS
235
in his lower
that even
range. The tone is so spread and almost goat-like
of
this
the
effect.42
complained
Interestingly,
imperfection,
poor
ears seems
not to have much
to modern
appears
unpardonable,
In fact, Verdi's
the singer's
career.43
was not so
hampered
complaint
much about timbre per se, but the accompanying
of vowels,
distortion
a cardinal
sin in his view. In general,
the correspondence
then,
between
the bright tone qualilty of these early twentieth-century
artists
and the pedagogues'
the
to
tone
as
1840s
as
does
early
approach
nineteenth
that
the
overall
timbral
ideal
of
the
much
suggest
during
- and thus
of Verdi - was substanalso in the mind
arguably
century
than is now the case.
and thinner
tially brighter
An important
at least in modern
of tone quality,
vocalcomponent
of vibrato.
discussed
Still today this topic
ism, is the much
technique
can ignite
in the 'early music'
but recent
arena,
quarrels
suggestions
that the modern
and continuous
vibrato
prominent
may even not be
disdain
typical of nineteenth-century
style tends to meet with outright
from singers.
is silent on this issue (such a purely
While Verdi himself
Verdi
which
technical
his interests),
other writers
question
probably
lying outside
are not. Like his colleagues,
Garcia describes
the tremolo (the
certainly
term 'vibrato'
is never used) as a special vocal effect that arises naturally
when
a singer
emotions
and that
is experiencing
particularly
strong
these emotions
to the public.
He recommends,
however,
helps express
it soon becomes
that its use should
be quite limited,
not only because
but also because
use ofthe
makes the voice
tremolo
tiresome,
'repeated
this intolerable
fault becomes
tremulous.
The artist who has contracted
of phrasing
It is thus that some
incapable
any kind of sustained
singing.
beautiful
voices have been lost to the art.'44 Writing
around
1883, Lam?
an
echoes
Garcia
and
makes
connection
between
the
perti
important
in
He
more
and
an
vibrato.
strenuous
vocal
increase
new,
production
the singer about 'the danger
of rendering
cautions
his voice tremulous,
42 From letters of 16 and 20 November 1892 to Giulio Ricordi; the first as

reproduced in
Abbiati, GiuseppeVerdi,iv, 466, and the second as translated in Hepokoski, GiuseppeVerdi:Talstaff,
121. See sound clip 6 at <www.jrma.oupjournals.org> (Edoardo Garbin singing 'Un di felice',
from Verdi's La traviata;G&T, Matrix 2841-R, Cat. 52428 (1902); reproduced by permission of
the Historical Sound Recordings division ofthe Music Library atYale University). Text and trans?
Ah si, da un anno.
Ah yes, [I have loved you] for a year.

Un di felice, eterea
One day, happy, ethereal,
mi balenaste innante,
you appeared before me,
e da quel di tremante,
and since that day, trembling,
I have lived with an unknown love.
vissi d'ignoto amor.
Di quell'amor ch'e palpito
With that love which is the pulse
of the entire universe,
dell'universo intero,
misterioso, altero
mysterious, unapproachable,
croce e delizia al cor.
both cross and delight to the heart.
43 Kutsch and Riemens,
OrofiesSdngerlexikon,i, col. 1038.
44 Garcia, Ecole de Garcia, ii, 54:
Tusage reitere du tremblement rend la voix chevrotante.
L'artiste qui a contracte cet intolerable defaut devient incapable de phraser aucune espece de
chant soutenu. C'est ainsi que de belles voix ont ete perdues pour rart.' All translations from
Garcia's second volume are either taken directly or adapted from Garcia, A CompleteTreatise(trans.
Paschke); this passage occurs on pages 150-1.

ROGERFREITAS
236
and later repeats

his
by forcing',
always produced
in
ofthe
a
'the
defect
which
the
voice,
against
warning
trembling
begin?
of this century
to exclude
from the
was sufficient
ning
any singer
ofthe
the newness
continuous
vibrato - and its initial
stage'.45 Indeed,
- is confirmed
lack of acceptance
when
he writes (in 1862)
by Chorley
Meric-Lalande's
1830 London
Clementine
debut:
of Henriette
'She
and sang with taste; but her voice - a soprano
was a good musician,
in those
ere she came
a habit of trembling,
had contracted
days a
it had always remained
novel ty (would
ears were
so!) to which English
then averse.'46
a fundamental
in the modern
Of course,
debate
point of contention
of the idea of tremulousness.
over vibrato
involves
the interpretation
that the effect complained
of is the modern
Some believe
'wobble'
or
'bleat', i.e. an extremely
wide, slow or uneven
vibrato; others take these
more
this trembling
with
writers
the
literally,
precisely
equating
on
the
modern
For
this
evidence
of
the
vibrato.
issue,
acceptable
help
it
be
is
invaluable
can
the
and,
added,
recordings
quite compelling:
to
modern
of
vibrato
seems
little
continuous,
prominent
practice
play
role in the older vocal tradition.
From the operatic
the magnifying
choir,
stage to the local church
effects of age on vocal vibrato are all too familiar. Yet Patti, at 62, displays
next to none. Many of her tones are absolutely
straight, while some show
a slight 'shimmer',
never amounting
a quite rapid oscillation
to more
than a quarter-tone;
only a few strained
high notes really start to waver.47
the effect
With Melba,
in her earlier
is again
recordings,
especially
with only an occasional
'shimmer'.48
And even at her 1926
minimal,
- now more con?
farewell
concert,
given in her 65th year, her vibrato
in width - seems still
tinuous
and usually approaching
(only) a semitone
a defect
almost
45
46
Chorley, ThirtyYears'Musical Recollections,4.
47 See sound
clip 7 at <www.jrma.oupjournals.org> (Patti singing 'Ah! non credea mirarti',
from Bellini's La sonnambuUr,
G&T, Matrix 683c, Cat 03084 (1906); as reissued on AdelinaPatti:
1843-1919, Pearl GEMM CD 9312. ? Pavilion Records <www.pavilionrecords.com>; reproduced
by permission). Text and translation are as follows:
Ah! non credea mirarti
Ah! I never believed I would see you
si presto estinto, o fiore,
dead so soon, O flower;
passasti al par d'amore,
you died as did our love,
che un giorno solo duro.
which lasted but one day.
48 See sound
clip 8 at <www.jrma.oupjournals.org> (Melba singing 'Ah fors'e lui', from Verdi's
La traviata\Victor, Matrix C-4339-1, Cat. 88064 (1907); reproduced by permission ofthe Historical
Sound Recordings division of the Music Library at Yale University). Text and translation are as
follows:
Ah fors'e lui che 1'anima
solinga ne' tumulti
godea sovente pingere
de' suoi colori occulti...
Lui, che modesto e vigile
all'egre soglie ascese,
e nuova febbre accese
destandomi all'amor.
A quell'amor ch'e palpito
dell'universo intero....
Ah, perhaps it is he whom my spirit,

lonely amid the tumults,
often enjoyed painting
with its secret colours .. .
He who, modest and wary,
came up to my sickroom door
and ignited a new fever,
awakening me to love.
To that love which is the pulse
of the entire universe.

TOWARDS
237
to modern
ears.49 Battistini's
of 'Vieni meco',
quite minimal
recording
made when he was 51, has the most prominent
vibrato of the three, but
it too never exceeds
and is quite rapid.50 Even with Tamagno
a semitone
- the one in ill health
and Maurel
and the other
in vocal decline
vibrato remains
a rather insignificant
of
the
sound.51
aspect
All this can of course
be contrasted
with the modern
style. A singer
like Joan Sutherland,
so often identified
with the nineteenth-century
virtuoso
tradition,
began her career with a vibrato of about a semitone,
and the interval
widened.
gradually
Hardly an opera singer today possesses any less, and many have much
more.
Indeed,
singers
today are
to
cultivate
as
the
referred
to
sometimes
vibrato,
usually taught
putting
a 'spin' on the tone.52 A comparison
of the same passage
from 'Ah
49 See sound
clip 9 at <www.jrma.oupjournals.org> (Melba singing 'Ave Maria', from Verdi's
Otello;Gramophone Company, Matrix CR 419, original not issued (1926); reproduced by permis?
sion of the Historical Sound Recordings division of the Music Library at Yale University). Text
and translation are as follows:
[Ave Maria, piena di] grazia, eletta
fra le spose e le vergini sei tu,
sia benedetto il frutto, o benedetta,
di tue materne viscere, Gesu.
Prega per chi adorando a te si prostra,
prega pel peccator, per l'innocente
e pel debole oppresso e pel possente,
[Hail Mary, full ofj grace, chosen

are you among wives and virgins,
blessed be the fruit, O blessed one,
of your maternal womb, Jesus.
Pray for those who, worshipping you,
[prostrate themselves;
pray for the sinner, for the innocent one,
and for the weak and oppressed, and for the
[powerful,
also wretched, show your mercy.
Pray for those who, under abuse and
wicked fate, bow their heads ...
misero anch'esso, tua pieta dimostra.

Prega per chi sotto l'oltraggio piega
la fronte e sotto la malvagia sorte ...
50 See sound
clip 10 at <www.jrma.oupjournals.org>(Battistinisinging 'Vieni meco', from Verdi's
Ernanv,G&T, Matrix 880c, Cat. 054106 (1906); as reissued on Mattia Battistini(1856-1928), Nimbus
NI7831. ? Nimbus Records; reproduced by permission). Text and translation are as follows:
Vieni meco, sol di rose
Come with me, for only with roses
intrecciar ti vo' la vita,
do I wish to entwine your life;
vieni meco, ore penose
come with me, for painful hours
time will not have for you.
per te il tempo non avra.
Tergi il pianto, o giovinetta,
Dry your tears, O young lady,
dalla guancia scolorita,
from your wan cheek;
think of the joy that awaits you,
pensa al gaudio che t'aspetta,
che felice ti fara.
that will make you happy.
51 On
Tamagno's ill health and Maurel's ragged state, see Scott, TheRecordof Singing, 132 and
75-7. See also sound clip 11 at <www.jrma.oupjournals.org> (Victor Maurel singing 'Era la notte',
from Verdi's Otello;Fonotopia Company, Matrix XPh 583, Cat. 39042 (1904); as reissued on The
CompleteAdelina Patti and VictorMaurel, Marston 52011-2. ? Marston Records; reproduced by
permission). Text and translation are as follows:
Era la notte, Cassio dormia, gli stavo
[accanto.
Con interrotte voci tradia l'intimo incanto.
It was night; Cassio was sleeping; I was

[standing beside him.
With interrupted words he betrayed his
[inner enchantment.
His lips moved very slowly in the abandon
Le labbra lente, lente, movea

[nell'abbandono
del sogno ardente; e allor dicea, con flebil
of his ardent dream; and then he said, in a
[suono:
[faint tone:
52 On the
of
vibrato
to
see
The
he includes
186-9:
Miller,
Structure,
necessity
'healthy' singing,
sections entitled 'Eliminating Straight-Tone Intrusion' and 'Correcting the Vibratoless Voice'. See
also Van Ambrose Christy, Foundationsin Singing: A Basic Textbookin Vocal Techniqueand Song
Interpretation(6th edn, Madison, WI, 1997), 46: 'A free tone has vibrato.'

ROGERFREITAS
238
in 1961 highlights
lui' sung by Melba in 1907 and Sutherland
the
in the employment
radical change
and function
of this effect.53
Further
into the question
of vibrato
from nine?
insight
emerges
of
Garcia
discussions
the
vocal
trill.
seems
to
be one of
teenth-century
the first pedagogues
that a singer trills not by rapidly alterto suggest
two distinct
but by allowing
the vocal mechanism
to
nating
pitches,
as in vibrato,
manner:
but in a more controlled
the extreme
oscillate,
of the oscillation
are perceived
as the two pitches
of the trill.
points
Garcia's
instructions
for the trill, fascireveal not only the technique
in itself, but also the necessity
of confining
to an
any vibrato
nating
interval
smaller
than a semitone,
lest it be confused
with trilling:
fors'e
The trill is only a regular oscillation up and down which the larynx receives.
.. . Old men whose voice is unsteady present us with an example of an involuntary trill. With them the trill is, from weakness, irregular; with younger
subjects it should become
regular by flexibility. ... The voice thus shaken
at an interval of a second passes through all the intermediate
tones; but, as
it regularly confines its excursions
between two invariable limits, these two
extreme points alone call for attention.54
the trills of Patti and the astoundGarcia's
instructions,
Confirming
of Melba
with
combined
(sometimes
dynamic
ing ones
change)
at first to my ears much like the vibrato
to which I was accussounded
Careful
the well-defined
limits of
tomed.
revealed
however,
listening,
the pitches,
limits very much wider than any surrounding
vibrato.55 In
the vibrato of Verdi's favourite
difference
between
fact, the remarkable
that, were Verdi to hear
singers and that of most singers today suggests
a modern
of indishe might well complain
of his operas,
performance
with
tinct pitch and perhaps
even the 'involuntary
associated
trilling'
old age: to his ears, so sensitive
to vocal characterization,
the modern
of singing
a Desdemona,
for instance,
well suggest
a
manner
might
much older woman.56
5S
Compare sound clip 8 (details in note 48) and sound clip 12 at <www.jrma.oupjournals.org>
(Joan Sutherland singing 'Ah fors'e lui'; TheArt of thePrimaDonna:Joan Sutherland,Decca 289 467
115-2 (1961). ? Universal Classics <www.universalclassics.com>;reproduced by permission). For
text and translation see note 48. One sometimes hears the objection that it is merely the poor
acoustical recording methods that account for the reduced vibrato heard in early recordings. That
argument would seem to be refuted by the vibrato that is audible on those recordings and also by
the performances of singers such as Fernando De Lucia - recorded using the same technology whose continuous vibrato is perfecdy obvious and represents a sign of change in vocal fashions.
54 Garcia, Ecolede Garcia,i, 70: 'Le trille n'est
qu'une oscillation reguliere de bas en haut, et vice
versa,que recoit le larynx.... Les vieillards dont la voix est vacillante nous offrent l'exemple d'un
trille involontaire. Chez eux le trille est irregulier par faiblesse; chez les sujets plus jeunes, il doit
devenir regulier par flexibilite.... La voix ainsi ebranlee dans un intervalle de seconde passe par
tous les sons intermediaires; mais comme elle renferme regulierement ses excursions entre deux
limites invariables, ces deux points extremes appellent seuls rattention.' All translations here of
Garcia's first volume are taken direcdy or adapted from Manuel Garcia, Garcia'sCompleteSchoolof
Singing [trans. anonymous] (Boston, n.d. [18??]); this passage occurs on page 67.
55 See sound
clip 13 at <www.jrma.oupjournals.org> (Melba singing the cadenza from 'Ah
fors'e lui'; for full details and translation see note 48).
56 Clive Brown has conducted a detailed
investigation of vibrato in performance practice from
1750 to 1900 (Classicaland Romantic,517-57), and Robert Philip has considered the implications
of early recordings for vibrato in instrumental playing (EarlyRecordingsand Musical Style:Changing
Tastes in InstrumentalPerformance,1900-1950 (Cambridge, 1992), 97-139). In general, both
authors agree with my conclusions in this study, which focuses more specifically than do they on
vocal practices.

TOWARDS
239
to issues of tone quality is that of diction.

Of all the
Linked
closely
virtues a singer might possess,
clear enunciation
was easily one of the
most important
to Verdi. The evidence
is
for the composer's
position
he
as
time
he
wrote
about
every
singers
overwhelming,
virtually
the issue.
be
mentioned
is his comment
that 'Iago cannot
Typical
and
is
not
without
fine
performed,
pronunciaextraordinarily
possible,
tion'.57 The pedagogues
also strongly
clarity of word, devotemphasize
values of consonants
the proper
ing considerable
space to explaining
in the
and vowels.58 They make some allowances
for the sake of equality
and
a
of
the
voice - such as a consistent
mouth
position
slight opening
most closed vowels - but to a far lesser degree
than is the norm today.
in fact, still approvingly
Pacchiarotti:
the old castrato
Lamperti,
quotes
'He who knows how to breathe
and pronounce
well, knows how to sing
well.'59 Unfortunately,
diction
is often difficult
to judge
on the record?
of background
noise. Maurel
and Garbin,
both
however,
ings because
Maurel
certain
vowels:
darkens
clearly distort
sadly, the ageing
many
the diction
that Verdi had
beyond
recognition,
thereby
compromising
held to be one of the singer's
finest qualities;60
Garbin's
to
tendency
On the
spread his vowels in the low range has already been mentioned.61
the diction
other hand,
of Tamagno
extremely
through
always comes
well.62 In any case, the composer's
is not in doubt: for Verdi,
position
in a singer.
clarity of diction
outweighs
virtually all other qualities
Also related
to timbre,
of agility in Verdian
is a
the question
singing
to the composer's
one, but it offers a clue, I believe,
complex
general
notion
It is well known
of vocal
character.
that after the so-called
'middle'
La traviatademands
Verdi's
Rigoktto, II trovatoreand
operas
for agility diminish
in Don Carlos he still calls for
significandy,
although
Of course,
the tendency
to reduce
vocal
trills, even from the men.
melisma
is observable
across the composer's
entire
Especially
output.
that
then, is his 1871 comment,
above,
intriguing,
quoted
suggesting
should
the
of
the
vocalises
old
singers
study
style.
demanding
A plausible
for this incongruity
would seem to come from
explanation
the pedagogues.
On the subject of 'agility ofthe
Garcia declares,
voice',
this very complex study has not only the advantage of furnishing
the singer
with all the materials which he must later employ; it is the only one which
forms the organ for passing prompdy
and with facility through
all the
it is the only one ... which equalizes die instrument ofthe voice,
intonations;
and renders every portion
of its extent familiar: finally, this study alone
means
the
of
the whole extent of the upper part of the
presents
developing
voice without forcing the organ.63
57 From a letter of 11 November 1886 to Giulio Ricordi; as translated in Chusid, 'Verdi's Own
Words', 159.
58
Sandey, TheArt, 53-6; Garcia, Ecolede Garcia,ii, 1-44.
59 On the
opening of some vowels, see Garcia, Ecole de Garcia, ii, 2-3. The quotation of
Pacchiarotti comes from Lamperti, A Treatise,5.
60 See sound
clip 11 (details in note 51).
61 See above, and also sound
62 See sound
63 Garcia, Garcia's
CompleteSchool,28. This passage does not appear in the 1847 French edition;
presumably, it was inserted in the revised version of 1872. Not having access to that edition, I
could not include the original French of this quotation here.

ROGERFREITAS
240
Elsewhere,
contemporary
vocalisation)
his point even more strongly:

that
remarking
in
his
are
coloratura
terms,
(or,
abandoning
composers
for a more syllabic style, he continues,
Garcia
makes
is completely
many singers, I know, claim that the study of vocalization
useless for whoever aspires only to the broad style of singing. This assertion
... is contrary to experience.
The broad style becomes
all the more easy
trained the organ in the difficulties of vocal?
when one has more completely
is indispensable
to whoever
ization; let us say even that this suppleness
in
wishes to excel in the largo style. Heavy voices cannot attain perfection
any style.64
study of agility is the only
Sandey
agrees and adds that the continuing
to
the
in
the
modern
era.65
likewise advises
voice
way
preserve
Lamperti
from
the
older
to
learn
their
craft
(Rossinian)
singers
style, the only
one that will prepare
them
to negotiate
the challenges
of current
the mastery
of agility remained
the key,
fashions.66
For the pedagogues,
the primary
but also
means
of attaining
not only rapid execution,
timbral variety, dynamic
vocal longevity.67
and, ultimately,
flexibility
a similar attitude
from Verdi's
com?
Surprisingly,
perhaps,
emerges
ments. Garcia's censure
of 'heavy voices' strikingly
a complaint
parallels
in 1892: 'In general,
our singers
of Verdi's
only know how to produce
a fat voice;
nor clear and easy prothey do not have vocal elasticity,
and breath.'68
and they lack [proper]
accent
He makes a
nunciation,
in die specific
Pansimilar
criticism
case of his Desdemona,
Romilda
taleoni:
Pantaleoni's
to violent
voice, accustomed
'Signora
parts, many
times has high notes a bit too biting. I would say there is something
too
to singing
a litde more from the
metallic.
If she could accustom
herself
she would
the [necessary]
and her voice
head,
attenuation,
produce
64 Garcia, Ecolede Garcia,ii, 68:

'Beaucoup de chanteurs, je le sais, pretendent que l'etude de
la vocalisation est completement [sic] inutile pour qui ne vise qu'au chant large. Cette assertion
... est contraire a l'experience. Le chant large devient d'autant plus facile, que l'on a plus
completement [sic] forme l'organe aux difficultes de la vocalisation; disons meme que cette
souplesse est indispensable a qui veut exceller dans le largo.Les voix lourdes ne peuvent arriver
a la perfection dans aucun genre.' (Translation adapted from Garcia, A CompleteTreatise,192.)
See note 67 below for Garcia's definition of vocalisation.
65
Santley, TheArt, p. xi.
66
Lamperti, A Treatise,5-8, 26-8.
67 Garcia, Ecolede Garcia,i, 29: 'Vocaliser
signifie chanter sur des voyelles. Nous restreindrons
la signification vague du mot vocalisation pour le remplacer par le mot precis d'agilite de la voix,
et nous envisagerons cette faculte sous tous ses rapports. Ainsi, vocaliser signifiera pour nous la
faculte d'enchainer librement les sons entre eux. . . . Sur toutes les voyelles tour a tour; Dans les
trois registres; Dans les deux timbres; Dans tout l'etendue de la voix; Dans tous les degres de force;
Dans tous les degres de vitesse.'
(Vocalization signifies singing on the vowels. We will restrict the vague meaning of the word
vocalizationto replace it with the precise phrase 'agility of the voice', and we will consider this
faculty in all its respects. Thus, vocalizationwill signify for us the ability to link fully [librement]the
notes to each other ... through all the vowels in turn; in the three registers; in the two timbres;
through the entire extent ofthe voice; with all the degrees of force; in all the degrees of speed.)
June 1892 to Giulio Ricordi; as reproduced in Abbiati, GiuseppeVerdi,iv,
444: 'I nostri cantanti non sanno fare in generale che la voce grossa; non hanno elasticita di voce,
ne sillabazione chiara e facile, e mancano d'accento e di fiato.'

TOWARDS
His reproach
of
and more
accurate.'69
secure
over
has
who
he
also
favoured
nuance,
singers,
thought
power
With complaints
so similar
to those of the pedaalready been noted.
- well after his
the
of
gogues,
composer's
advocacy
agility
training
- seems most
such
as
an echo of the
operas required
facility
explicable
solution.
hints
that
he
Verdi
indeed
coloratura
expects
pedagogues'
in
well
excess
his
demands:
for
a letter
of
own
example,
capabilities
from 1852 denies
of
in
'Caro
and
another
nome',
any problem
agility
as Violetta.70
from 1856 allows that even a weak vocal talent can succeed
While the composer
nowhere
states outright
that one studies
agility to
the evidence
master
does suggest
that widethat he shared
nuance,
for reasons
and
of drama
view. Although
spread
nineteenth-century
his
'realism'
Verdi
melismatic
from
eliminated
writing
eventually
it seems
he assumed
not only the
his singers
would
operas,
possess
attributes
evenitself, but the resultant
agility technique
flexibility,
that the study of this technique
conferred.
ness, shading
The contrast
with the modern
ideal is of course remarkable.
Verdian
of
acclaimed
and Leonoras
renditions
Violettas
offer
Today,
many
libera' and 'Di tale amor' that are either sloppy or sluggish
(or
'Sempre
but such shortcomings
are excused
tone they
both),
by the opulent
demonstrate
it would
the opposite
elsewhere.
Verdi,
seem, preferred
he was thrilled
trade-off:
that Patti was to add Aida
to hear, for example,
to her repertoire.71
That a renowned
Zerlina
and Amina
{La sonnamAida seems almost incomprehensible
buld) could render an exemplary
tastes indeed
from modern
seem different
attitudes.
today. Verdi's
Rodolfo
Celletti
has asserted
'old school'
tech?
that, of the many
of dynamic
the mastery
Verdi
most consistendy
demanded
niques,
the
For the pedagogues,
the ability to command
control.72
certainly,
a
in
voice at any dynamic
was
considered
fundamental
level,
any range,
be
skill. Garcia
instructs
the start, his vocalises
should
that, from
at
five
The
is
different
student
counlevels.
then
repeated
dynamic
selled to practice
between
these levels at progressively
shorter
switching
intervals
until
of
notes
within
semieventually
single
rapid
groups
can
be
inflected
Of
Garcia
also
the
leads
course,
quavers
dynamically.73
student
broader
and
crescendos
that
diminuendos,
through
noting
these effects should not automatically
follow the melodic
rise and fall.74
the importance
ofthe
time-honoured
Finally, all the teachers
emphasize
would
also
be
241
more
German
September 1886 to Franco Faccio; as reproduced in G[iuseppe]
Morazzoni, Verdi:Lettereinedite (Milan, 1929), 44: 'La voce della Sig. Pantaleoni awezza a parti
violente, ha molte volte gli acuti un po' troppo mordenti, vi mette diro cosi troppo metallo. Se
potesse abituarsi a cantare un po' piu di testa le riescirebbe piu facilmente lo smorzato, e la voce
sarebbe anche piu sicura e piu giusta.'
70
Regarding 'Caro nome', from an undated letter (from some time in 1852) to Carlo Borsi;
as translated in Chusid, 'Verdi's Own Words', 177-8. Regarding Violetta, from a letter of 11
November 1856 to Vincenzo Torelli; as translated in Osborne, Letters,113.
71 From a letter of 6 October 1877 to Giulio Ricordi; as translated in Osborne, Letters,201-2.
72 Rodolfo Celletti,
'L'interpretazione di Verdi', 311.
73 Garcia, Ecolede Garcia,i, 49-50.
74 Garcia, Ecolede Garcia,i, 50; ii, 34.

ROGERFREITAS
242
messa
di voce,
the
crescendo
and
diminuendo
on
a sustained
can never
pitch:
be conit,' Lamperti
impression
veyed to the public.'75
That Verdi was in agreement
on this issue seems clear from his scores
the ability to sing
and letters; they leave litde doubt that he considered
and
even
well
as
essential,
piano (as
pp, ppp
perhaps
pppp) absolutely
He
writes
about
his
more so than a powerful
famously
forte.
Iago, Tf
with lips pursed,
do everything
actor, I would
[. . .] I were a singing
for the part,
the man he virtually
demanded
mezza voce\7e> (Indeed,
his piano, some?
Victor Maurel,
was said to have lost his forte long before
But in Verdi's
later years, a growing
confirm.)77
thing his recordings
- often
on
enough,
ironically
production
imputed,
powerful
emphasis
vocalists
unable
to cope with
to his own music - was already yielding
could
he became
frustrated
the composer's
demands:
that his tenors
Bt
the pianissimo
end
'Celeste
and
not negotiate
at
the
of
Aida',
high
of
in
'must
he likewise
the
final
scene
Otello,
that,
Tamagno
complained
his tone becomes
ugly, his intoalways sing in a full voice; if he doesn't,
'without
states,
'a pleasing
nation
uncertain'.78
soft singing
to a much greater extent
Still, these later artists employed
has noted,
than is typical today. As Crutchfield
'The records
[the early
Verdi
left behind
make
clear . . . that Verdi's
copious
interpreters]
were not exaggerated
for relief
from an
pleas
pianissimo
markings
claimed
interminable
(on which basis, paraforte, as Arturo Toscanini
most of them)'.79
reveal
the recordings
he ignored
Indeed,
doxically,
of 'Ah! Non credea'
from
both the women
(as in Patti's performance
'Eri tu'81 and Maurel's
La sonnambula)m
and the men (as in Battistini's
to use an intense,
'Era la notte'82)
of and willing
highly
capable
75
76 From a letter of 4 November 1886 to Giulio Ricordi; as translated in Chusid, 'Verdi's Own
Words', 159.
77 The violinist Albert
Spalding writes of a performance by Maurel around 1906: 'His voice
... had gone threadbare, but the majesty of an undying art was still there. He couldn't possibly
have sung a real forte. He had to suggest it, but how he suggested it!' (From Rise toFollow:An Auto?
biography(London, 1946), 67; as quoted in Scott, TheRecordof Singing, 77.)
78 On 'Celeste Aida', see the above-cited letter of 26?
January 1875 (note 7). On Tamagno, see
Verdi's letter of 22 January 1886 to Giulio Ricordi; as translated in James Hepokoski, Giuseppe
Verdi:Vtello', Cambridge Opera Handbooks (Cambridge, 1987), 98.
79 Crutchfield,
'Authenticity in Verdi', 859.
80 See sound
81 See sound
clip 14 at <www.jrma.oupjournals.org> (Mattia Battistini singing 'Eri tu'; for
details see sound clip 4, note 40). Text and translation are as follows:
O lost pleasures! O memories
O dolcezze perdute! o memorie
of an embrace that composed my being!
d'un amplesso che l'essere india!
When Amelia, so beautiful, so pure,
Quando Amelia si bella, si candida
sul mio seno brillava d'amor!
sparkled on my breast with love!
82 See sound
clip 15 at <www.jrma.oupjournals.org> (Victor Maurel singing 'Era la notte'; for
details see sound clip 11, note 51). Text and translation are as follows:
... ei disse poscia:
II rio destino impreco che al Moro ti dono.
E allora il sogno in cieco letargo si muto.
... he said then:

I curse the wicked destiny that gave you to
[the Moor.
And then the dream turned into blind
[lethargy.

TOWARDS
243
cannot
most opera
either
resonated
soft sound.
sing
Today,
singers
in
or
not
to
a
choose
(with the
very often,
high range
sofdy
especially
When
of a few sopranos
who can 'float' their high notes).
exception
do
is
often
make
the
the
of
the
sound
throaty and
they
attempt,
quality
on
skill so
a
this
current
lack
of
unfocused,
suggesting
emphasis
in
his
works.83
Verdi's
of
demonstrably
important
conception
in the minds
control
related
of the pedagogues
to dynamic
Closely
his detailed
includes
was command
of articulation;
Garcia
indeed,
rubric
'Du fortetreatment
of the latter
under
the overall
subject
here
is
Remarkable
the
of
articulatory
styles that
great variety
piano'.84
For
most
the teachers,
the
Garcia,
all,
suggest.
important
especially
such style, not surprisingly,
is the legato or sons lies, in which each note
and smoothly
linked
to the next.85 The other
is held for its full length
consist
of the sons detaches (or staccatos),
terms,
styles, using Garcia's
staccato
and indicated
to the modern
by the same dots; the
equivalent
a slighdy lengthened
ofthe
staccatos
and
version
apparendy
marcato,
(T); the sons marques, the modern
by small wedges
and
to basses);
indicated
by dots under a slur (recommended
especially
the sons marteles, rapid repetitions
of a single pitch (an effect reserved
for women's
Garcia ultimately
exercises,
voices) ,86 As with the dynamic
demands
the ability to make rapid alternations
between
styles.87
with the peda?
his concord
scores suggest
Again in this area, Verdi's
The new critical editions
the freof Verdi's operas are revealing
gogues.
sonspiques,
indicated
the composer
articulations
and
with which
notated
different
quency
the great variety he requested,
even than Garcia proposes:
one
greater
v's (A),
finds slurs, staccato
accent marks (^) and inverted
dots, standard
the frequency
of
and the last three notations
also under
slurs. While
to control
all
the notation
modernist
desire
Verdi's
may suggest
of a performance,
of articulations
he
elements
the great
diversity
him
with
the
he
to
the
allies
old
school:
possess
requests
singers
expects
same flexibility
of attack that so concerns
the pedagogues.
that flexibility
element
was another
however,
disappearApparendy,
the
turn
of
the
the
twentieth
indeed,
ing by
century:
early recordings
in this area than in the others
demonstrate
less conformity
to the
of Verdi and the pedagogues.
demands
Patti and Battistini
tend to sing
with a smooth
does
everything
legato; only in some melismatic
passages
Patti hint at a more marked
Battistini
while
accents
style,
occasionally
83 To the
argument that Verdi's own orchestral textures do not allow much soft singing are
opposed the composer's requests for quiet playing from the instruments, an ability he felt
required extensive rehearsal: to Alberto Mazzucato, the conductor of the Milanese premiere of
Don Carlos,he writes, 'In general, I urge you to take great care with the delicate things and to
perform them so that the piani should truly be piani [...]. The lack of delicacy and [excessive]
violence are the capital sins of our orchestras because our poor players always have tired arms,
and they don't rehearse enough to perform well the delicate things and the things with few notes.'
(From a letter of 20 March 1868; as translated in Chusid, 'Verdi's Own Words', 155-6.)
84 Garcia, Ecolede Garcia,ii, 25.
85 Ibid., ii, 7-8, 29.
Lamperti, A Treatise,15-17. Sandey, TheArt, 49-50.
86 Garcia, Ecolede Garcia,i, 30-1; ii, 29-30.
87 Ibid., i, 50-1.

244
ROGERFREITAS
The other singers are only slightly more

words more strongly.
in many cases they too
of the notated
articulations:
although
often
the
of
at points
the
markings,
only changes
style come
ignore
the
most
indicated
the
Melba
is
conscientious:
by
composer.
perhaps
in her recording
of 'Caro nome',
she renders
nearly
every marked
indicated
her
where
articulation
l).88 Perhaps
(see Example
precisely
liked
is
one
her
reason
Verdi
or,
scrupulous
interpretation,
approach
in her alleged
session
with the com?
coaching
alternatively,
perhaps
of his markings
on her the importance
(as he
poser, Verdi impressed
it
In
tried
with
and
well
have
case,
Maurel).
any
Tamagno
appears
may
the varied
of articu?
that, by the time of the recordings,
application
skill for singers;
Verdi may
lation was no longer
considered
a crucial
his
that tradition
detailed
but
have tried to preserve
markings,
through
much diversity.
even these did not always induce
seem
to have survived
The one articulatory
that does
technique
that
the use of this
intact is the portamento.
Celletti
feels
Although
of the nineteenth
effect really began to wane at the beginning
century,
an entire section
the pedagogues
discuss it in detail,
to
often devoting
the
both
from
the subject.89
differentiate
true
They clearly
portamento
and from scooping,
or what Garcia calls the trainee. The
legato singing
as a 'carrying
of the voice'
indicated
by a slur, is defined
portamento,
from one pitch to the next in such a way that time is
(i.e. a glissando)
taken from the first note and the second
arrives on time with its proper
involves
no intermediate
of
course,
pitch and syllable.90
Legato singing,
the singer anticipates
while in scooping
the new syllable on the
pitches,
first pitch and glides to the second.91
- how
All the teachers
of the portamento
observe
that the nuances
in general
and when to use it
are difficult
to communicate
rules, and
so the recordings
offer the principal
way to study the effect.92 Those of
that the portamento
and especially
Patti confirm
indeed
Battistini
in the bel canto tradition,
remained
with both singers
popular
displayThe amount
of time taken
ing an enormous
variety in the technique.
the rate of the movement
between
the
notes,
by the portamento,
to the admonitions
of
and, contrary
dynamic
accompanying
shading
the pedagogues,
a
the placement
of the syllable
together
provide
to
The
of
and
a
note.
effect
myriad
ways
approach
quit
although
to modern
ears - seems not one of carelessness
or
initially
surprising
the
since
carries
In
inaccuracy,
portamento
usually
expressive
purpose.
the frequency
Patti's performance
of 'Voi che sapete',
for example,
of
the effect seems aimed at transmuting
what could be a simple tune into
dramatic
observant
88 See also sound

89 Celletti
quotes an article in the Gazzettamusicale,written by Alberto Mazzucato in 1842 (he
gives no more specific citation), that claims the practice of portamento had by then almost died
out ('L'interpretazione di Verdi', 312). Discussions of portamento (or, in Garcia's term, the port
devoix) appear in Garcia, Ecolede Garcia,i, 29-30, and ii, 27-9. See also Lamperti, A Treatise,16-17.
90 Garcia, Ecolede Garcia,i, 29; ii, 8.
91 Clive Brown devotes an entire
chapter to the portamento and distinguishes between the
'anticipating grace' and 'leaping grace' (Garcia's true port de voix and trainee). Again, Brown
addresses the larger part of his discussion to instrumental music (Classicaland Romantic,558-87).

TOWARDS
245
1.
of 'Caro
ed.
from
Verdi's
nome',
Example
Opening
Rigoletto;
Martin
The Works of Giuseppe Verdi, series
Chusid,
1, vol. 17 (Milan,
of
and London,
134-7.
? 1983
1983),
Chicago
by die University
and
G.
Ricordi
&
Co.
Milan.
Chicago
s.p.a.,
18
*Jk
:>*?-
Gilda
*
P'pipTp^Jû:
Ca-ro no - me che il mio
fpip^J^g
fe-sti pri - mo
cor
pal - pi
22
*&
'?'/.
P'pinvp^fi^rv
le de - li - zie
tar,
tar!
e fin Pul -
ra,
del - l'a - mor
il mio
Colpen-sier
i ^
Mifi
f?
mi dei sem - pre
Lf.
ti - mo_
de - sir
so -
te sem - pre_
no - me,
ca-ro
spir,
J^
jh
ram - men
vo - le
sa
tuo_
34
M
m
1-
JiJtflppp
pf
Col pen-sier il mio de-sir
JMJwr
a te sem-prevo-le-ra,.
dolcissimo
38
^_
r
j''V
_
}?*
rrrj-rf
fitrt
mio de-sir!
47
^PiWtfLfû
e fin l'ul- ti - mo_
p^lJJJuJJJIj
me, tuo_ sa - ra.
mi - o _ so - spir, ca
|t
JiJ^pv^
Col_ pen-sier
Pr;
-
ro_
il _
a te sem-prevo-le- ra,.
u dolce
a te_
ra.
vo4e-ra
vo4e-

ROGERFREITAS
246
an expression
Battistini
of languorous
uses the
similarly,
yearning;93
in
tu'
to
the
with
slides
his
'Eri
intensify
delivery,
ascending
technique
In
the
cries
both
and
ones,
cases,
clarity
sighs.94
suggesting
descending
of these singers'
the melody
in this way
voices
allows them to inflect
result
with
the sense
of sloppiness
that might
a heavier
without
production.
the use of portamento
is somewhat
the other
vocalists,
Among
it more than the others:
a compari?
with Melba maintaining
reduced,
son of her 'Voi che sapete'
with Patti's still reveals more portamento
than one would hear today, but so much less than in the elder singer's
Maurel comes
that the whole effect changes.95
next, with
performance
while
more
routine
than
an occasional
that
seems
expressive,
usage
clarion
eschews
the
effect
whose
centres
on
notes,
high
style
Tamagno,
of change,
Verdi's
this environment
almost
entirely.
Notwithstanding
slurs
in
scores
for
and
notated
his
Patti's
the
style
frequently
praise
to
the
the
remained
and
would
that
technique
argue
partial
composer
- rather more than one
have expected
to hear it - used expressively
does today.
use was changing
Another
whose
effect
highly
during
expressive
lifetime
that
Verdi's
is tempo
inflection.
Scholars
generally
agree
both his letters
Verdi's
overall
to be quick:
and his
tended
tempos
such
a view.96
But the composer's
metronome
confirm
markings
on tempo
are less clear, obscured
modification
by seemingly
opinions
98 See sound
clip 16 at <www.jrma.oupjournals.org> (Patti singing 'Voi che sapete', from
Mozart's Le nozzedi Figaro;G&W, Matrix 537f, Cat 03051 (1905); as reissued on Adelina Patti:
Voi che sapete
You who know
che cosa e amor,
what love is:
donne vedete
ladies, see
s'io l'ho nel cor.
whether I have it in my heart.
What I feel,
Quello ch'io provo
vi ridiro,
I will repeat to you,
e per me nuovo
is new for me:
I cannot understand it.
capir nol so.
Sento un affetto
I feel a sentiment
full of desire,
pien di desir,
ch'ora e diletto,
which now is delight
ch'ora e martir.
and now is torment.
Gelo e poi sento
I freeze and then feel
l'alma awampar,
my soul ablaze,
e in un momento
and in a moment
torno a gelar.
I go back to freezing.
94 See sound
clip 4 (details in note 40). Interestingly, one of the most striking cases of porta?
mento in Patti's performance - the falling and then rising thirds for the words 'donne vedete' appears as an example in Garcia's discussion of the effect, marked almost exacdy as Patti renders
it (Ecolede Garcia,ii, 27).
95 See sound
clip 17 at <www.jrma.oupjournals.org> (Melba singing 4Voi che sapete'; Victor,
Matrix C-4353-2, Cat. 80067 (1910); as reissued on Dame Nellie Melba:Arias & Songs 1907-1926,
Pearl, GEMM CD 9353 (now deleted). ? Pavilion Records; reproduced by permission). For text
and translation see note 93. The other important difference between these performances, of
course, is Patti's strikingly greater freedom with tempo.
96 See Chusid, 'Verdi's Own Words', 174-8, where the author cites abundant evidence
regarding Verdi's quick tempos.

247
I quoted
of the
statements.
Verdi's
criticism
Above,
contradictory
like
conductors
Toscanini.
More
rigidity adopted
by
commonly,
tempo
the composer
the libhad the opposite
to say, condemning
however,
erties
taken
he
writes
to
Giulio
Ricordi
by performers:
regarding
rehearsals
for the revised Don Carlos, 'I recommend,
I demand,
indeed
the conductor]
that
insist
all on enunciation
and
above
[Faccio,
in
in
time.'97
Ricordi
such
demands
his
keeping
apparendy
reproduces
1893 publication,
'How Giuseppe
when
Verdi Writes and Rehearses',
he claims that' [Verdi]
no phrase
or rhythm
to be changed
desires
by
useless
holds and rallentandi9.98
To sort out these inconsistencies,
a context
comments
is
for Verdi's
here
In
a
and
Garcia
offers
a
necessary,
again
starting-point."
helpful
a wide
detailed
entided
section
'De la mesure',
the author
discusses
of temporal
and rhythmic
to the singer,
available
alterations
range
rule:
the
of its
'Time,
along with the following
regularity
by
general
and unity; its irregularities
steadiness
lend the
progress,
gives music
some variety
three
and interest.'100
He then describes
performance
a piece of music: at one end ofthe
types of 'time' that can govern
spectrum, 'regular'
time, where the initial beat is maintained
quite steadily
to pieces
with
decided
throughout
(appropriately
applied
very
such as songs of war); at the other end, 'free' time, where the
rhythms,
movement
and the
follows only the natural
of the prosody
inclinations
emotion
and plainchant[!]);
the two
between
and,
(for recitative
'mixed'
of movement
are
extremes,
time, where frequent
irregularities
and no striking
with long notes
(best for slow, sad pieces
employed
The author
effects
then specifies
four particular
rhythms).
temporal
and their relative
to the three
suitability
types of time: rallentando,
ad libitumand
accelerando,
temps derobe {tempo rubato). The first two are
a slowing
of the overall
involve
or quickening
they
self-explanatory:
refers
the
The
third
to
the
freedom
the
allowed
when
pulse.
singer
is
not
silent:
does
affect
the
overall
it
accompaniment
momentarily
because
tempo
tempo rubato is employed.
That this last effect,
its own section
attests to
tempo rubato, receives
for
Garcia's
the
of
'The
regard
momentary
technique.
prolongation
value which one gives to one or to several
to the detriment
of
tones
others
is called
rubato'101
Garcia's
effect
thus
involves
tempo
mainly
the notated
to give particular
to certain
altering
rhythms
emphasis
97 From a letter of 13 December 1883 to Giulio Ricordi; as translated in Osborne, Letters,221.
98 As translated in
James Hepokoski, 'Under the Eye of the Verdian Bear: Notes on the
Rehearsals and Premiere oiFahtaff, Musical Quarterly,71 (1985), 135-56 (p. 146). According to
Hepokoski, the essay appeared in a special issue of L'iUustrazioneitaliana in February 1893,
probably as part of the publicity effort for Falstaff.
99 Neither
Sandey nor Lamperti deals with tempo inflections: their treatises are directed more
towards technical than interpretative matters.
100 Garcia, Ecolede Garcia,ii, 22: 'La mesure,
par la regularite de sa marche, donne a la musique
la fermete et l'ensemble: ses irregularites pretent a l'execution de la variete et de l'interet.' (Trans?
lation adapted from Garcia, A CompleteTreatise,69.) The following discussion is based on this
section of Garcia (ii, 22-5).
101 Garcia, Ecolede Garcia,ii, 24: 'On
appelle temps derobe la prolongation momentanee de
valeur que l'on accorde aunoua plusieurs sons au detriment des autres.' (Translation taken from
Garcia, A CompleteTreatise,75.)

ROGERFREITAS
248
=.&;ie^^?^^m^?^
Figure 1. Example of tempo rubato, from Manual Garcia, Ecole de Garcia: Traite complet
de Vart du chant (Paris, 1847), ii, 23. London, British Library MH.2223; reproduced by
permission of the British Library.
Conle.
k\\V
ROS8IWI
y,_k_
Baibiere
Duitlo.
delvoi.cnndfl_la mi_a mvn-te qual.che mos _
_ tro
sin _
_ go _ lar
Figure 2. Example of phrase rubato, from Manuel Garcia, Ecole de Garcia: Traite complet
de Vart du chant (Paris, 1847), ii, 25. London, British Library MH.2223; reproduced by
permission of the British Library.
never changes.
The notes to
the pulse of the accompaniment
notes;
of their
receive
this emphasis
are the most important
ones, on account
interest
or melodie
harmonic
textual
accent
or significance,
promibest ways of giving color
'one ofthe
nence.
Garcia finds this technique
in pieces
for
nuance
to melodies'
and the only rhythmic
acceptable
the
as
rallentando
which 'regular'
time is appropriate.
out of
(He views
1
shows tempo rubato
Figure
place in such works, even at final cadences.)
The effect is to make the declamation
to an ad libitum passage.
applied
and freeing
of the text more natural,
accented
by lengthening
syllables
from a too metrical
the rhythms
stiffness.
Garcia also describes
In addition
to such local modifications,
tempo
his father
rubato applied
to entire
both
and Nicolo
Citing
phrases.
as champions
of the effect,
Garcia explains
that 'While the
Paganini
their
orchestra
maintained
the tempo
on
they,
regularly,
part, abanto their inspiration
doned
themselves
to rejoin with the bass only at the
moment
the harmony
or else at the very end of the
would
change,
with a literally
Garcia
illustrates
this description
phrase.'102
Fortunately,
an
effect
must
have
notated
musical
Such
2).
example
(Figure
102 Garcia, Ecole de Garcia,ii, 25: 'Tandis

que l'orchestre soutenait regulierement la mesure,
eux, de leur cote, s'abandonnaient a leur inspiration pour ne se rencontrer avec la basse qu'a
l'instant ou l'accord changeait, ou bien a la fin meme de la phrase.' (Translation taken from
Garcia, A CompleteTreatise,77.)

249
21s the audience

awaited
the moment
when
produced
great excitement
the singer or violinist
would rejoin the accompaniment.
offer numerous
The recordings
of tempo
examples
manipulation.
of the 'Jewel Song' from Gounod's
Faust demonstrates
Patti's account
of nuance.
her usual command
the score itself calls for very
Although
litde tempo
of
instances
colla
voce at the major cadences
(two
change
and one a tempo), she frequendy
uses the rallentando
to give special
to
is
often
words.
This
balanced
emphasis
important
slowing
by
in the following
at
her
accelerandos
interludes
thus
direction),
(surely
and giving the piece a sense of ebb and
averting
any sense of lethargy
in her
flow.103 The same effects
even more strikingly
appear
perhaps
the excitement
'Voi che sapete':
for the climax,
at
she intensifies
e
and
of
a
means
then
slows
accelerando,
by
'sospiro
gemo'
striking
to underline
Cherubino's
admission,
(and even paint)
precipitously
'ma pur mi piace languir
cosi'.104 Melba too manipulates
effec?
rhythm
the
tively, her 'Willow Song' being a tour de force in this respect.
(Again,
that the composer
coached
her in the role increases
the
possibility
interest
ofthe
and Maurel worked
Of course,
performance.)
Tamagno
with Verdi a great deal, and their liberties
too are extensive,
so much
so that in some places their deliveries
almost obscure
the regular pulse
103 See sound

clip 18 at <www.jrma.oupjournals.org> (Patti singing 'Ah! je ris de me voir si
belle' (Jewel Song), from Gounod's Faust, G&T Matrix 542f, original not issued (1905); as
reissued on The CompleteAdelina Patti and VictorMaurel, Marston 52011-2. ? Marston Records;
reproduced by permission). Text and translation are as follows:
Ah! je ris de me voir
Ah, I laugh at my appearance,
si belle en ce miroir!
so beautiful in the mirror!
Est-ce toi, Marguerite?
Is it you, Marguerite?
Answer me, answer quickly!
Reponds moi, reponds vite!
Non, non ce n'est plus toi,
No, no, it's no longer you;
ce n'est plus ton visage!
it's no longer your face!
C'est la fille d'un roi
It's the daughter of a king
to whom all bow as she passes!
qu'on salue au passage!
Ah! s'il etait ici!
Oh! If only he were here!
S'il me voyait ainsi!
If he could see me like this!
Comme une demoiselle,
Dressed like a lady,
il me trouverait belle!
he would find me beautiful!
104 See sound
19
at
clip
<www.jrma.oupjournals.org> (Patti singing 'Voi che sapete', from
Mozart's Le nozzedi Figaro;G&W, Matrix 537f, Cat. 03051 (1905); as reissued on Adelina Patti:
Ricerco un bene
fuori di me,
non so ch'il tiene,
non so cos' e.
Sospiro e gemo
senza voler,
palpito e tremo
senza saper.
Non trovo pace
notte ne di,
ma pur mi piace
languir cosi.
I search for an affection

outside myself;
I don't know what it holds;
I don't know what it is.
I sigh and moan
without wishing to;
I pant and tremble
without knowing why.
I find no peace
night or day,
but still I enjoy
languishing like this.

ROGERFREITAS
250
and
free declamation.105
'Eri tu' perhaps
Finally, Battistini's
approach
an
of
licence:
his
rendition
is unquesextreme
represents
although
the
modifications
seem
less
a
matter
of
beautiful,
tionably
tempo
textual
or dramatic
than
vocal
several
projection
self-indulgence,
pas?
so slowly as to affect the musical
sages being executed
continuity.106
Garcia's
the rubato,
also appears
favourite
on
effect,
quite regularly
the recordings,
at least in its more local variety. Patti in particular
seems
of rendering
almost
as written:
she con?
the score
exactly
incapable
values
as
to
note
sometimes
(and
well)
pitches
stantly adjusts
bring out
Her
modifications
ofa
from
'Voi
che
words.
important
passage
sapete'
resemble
Garcia's
model
2),107 for instance,
distincdy
(Example
notes
on
as
Garcia
often
accented
1):
(Figure
lengthens
syllables,
just
so Patti improves
Mozart's
of 'senza' (bars 53 and
faulty accentuation
the proper
in both
55) and 'languir*
(bar 60) by prolonging
syllable
I
words.
have
not
able
to
find
an
of the
been
Unfortunately,
example
it
had
rubato
on
of
the
longer
'phrase'
any
recordings:
apparendy
fallen out of fashion,
among
singers at least, by the turn ofthe
century.
it may be possible
to hypothesize
a credible
With the above evidence,
Verdian
Once
the differ?
inflection.
again,
position
regarding
tempo
ence in performance
context
between
Verdi's period
and today argues
at face value.
his reproaches
of such
inflections
against
accepting
Barbieri
Nini reports,
for example,
that at rehearsals
of Macbeth the com?
his book, indicated
and quicken?
rallentandi
poser 'gestured,
thumped
all 'useless
ing of tempi with his hand'.108 And if Verdi really opposed
holds and rallentandi',
at least as one might interpret
that phrase today,
of irritation
then Adelina
Patti's singing
would have been a source
for
him rather than enchantment.
the focus should
be on
Instead,
perhaps
the word 'useless'
here, for, as I have tried to suggest,
nearly all the
to textual or dramatic
performances
employ
purpose:
tempo inflections
a malleable
of rhythm
can lead
naturalness
of
sense
to a greater
105 See sound

clip 20 at <www.jrma.oupjournals.org> (Tamagno singing 'Niun mi tema', from
Verdi's Otettor,
G&T, Matrix 14 FT, original not issued (1903 or 1904); as reissued on Francesco
Tamagno: The CompleteRecordingsand Three UnpublishedRecordings,Opal CD 9846. ? Pavilion
Records <www.pavilionrecords.com>; reproduced by permission). Text and translation are as
follows:
E tu ... come sei pallida! e stanca, e muta,
[e bella,
pia creatura nata sotto maligna stella.
Fredda come la casta tua vita, e in cielo
[assorta.
Desdemona! Desdemona! ... Ah! ...
[morta! ... morta! ... morta!
Ho un'arma ancor!
And you ... how pale you are, and weary,

[and silent, and beautiful,
pious creature born under a malevolent star.
Cold as your chaste life, and absorbed in
[heaven.
Desdemona! Desdemona! ... Ah! ... dead!
[... dead! ... dead!
I still have a weapon!
Pria d'ucciderti ... sposa ... ti baciai.
Before killing you ... wife ... I kissed you.
Or morendo ... nell'ombra in cui mi giacio Now, dying ... in the shadows where I lie,
Un bacio ... un bacio ancora ... un altro
a kiss ... a kiss again ... another kiss ...
[bacio...
106 See sound
107 See sound
108 From xhe memoirs of Marianna Barbieri Nini (the first
Lady Macbeth), as reported in
Checchi, GiuseppeVerdi,64-8, and translated in Conati, Interviewsand Encounters,25.

TOWARDS
'Voi
2.
Example
45-67:
comparison
45
Patti's
version m
Mozartllb'^p
251
che sapete'
from Mozart's
Le nozze
and Mozart's
of Patti's performance
cer-coun
Ri -
fl
ft
cer- co un
be
|
f_J_[
be
ir
r
ne
p=p^
Ri -
fuo |f
^
ne
fuo -
di Figaro,
notation.
p
ri
j
di
P
ri
[1
di
bars
me,
U
me,
49
i^
non
if
p'p
$v
so ch'il tie - ne,
non
so
IT
P?P
r"
so ch'il tie - ne,
)J
non
P P
so cos'
f'T
l^'T
non
p ypyp p pip
p^1
So-spi-roe ge - mo sen - za vo -
rpiJ
cos' e.
N
-7n
?^^
p pl^p
So-spi-roe ge - mo sen-za vo -
e.
54
|^'7
- ler,
P
*PPPIP
pal-pi-toe tre-mo
1?
pplJ
sen-za sa-per.
?P
PPIP
P^^P
Nontro-vo pa - ce
not-te;
f'^
piJ
?pp
sen-za sa-per.
*p
ppifrp
Nontro-vo pa - ce
ppifl-p
pal - pi-to e tre-mo
ler,
p^
not - te ne
58
f'p
yp
di,
^
?pir
ma pur
mi
*
v
nn
di, ma
*
v
pur mi
pia
ir
11
pia
T
^
-
r
ce
iV
p *pu
lan - guir
co - si.
ip
Voi
r
i
ce
I'r
n
i |
l^p
lan - guir co
l?
'i
Voi
l* ^l
-
si.
J^
che sa
*h *h
che sa -
63
f'r
J
- pe - te
*
^y
pe - te
expression.
example,
utterance
ir
che
tf
Q
co - saea-
'
r j l * *"
co - saea- mor,
i
che
ir
mor,
>
p^pppp
ir
don - ne ve - de
'
* *
i.
l
don - ne ve - de
A comparison
of Patti's 'Jewel Song'
seems
least
to
(at
me) the difference
of a character
and the skilful rendition
te
'
D
te
for
with Sutherland's,
the natural
between
of a song.109
109 See sound

clip 18 (details in note 103) and sound clip 21 at <www.jrma.oupjournals.org>
(Sutherland singing 'Ah! je ris de me voir si belle'; The Art ofthe Prima Donna:Joan Sutherland,
Decca 289 467 115-2 (1961). ? Universal Classics <www.universalclassics.com>; reproduced by
permission). For text and translation see note 103.

ROGERFREITAS
252
that Verdi preferred

the former
surely it goes without
saying
tiiat vocalists
after his above-cited
recommendation
study the old
I
should
like
the
he
'then
.
continues,
[. .]
student,
young
techniques,
of music and a well-trained
who by now should have a strong knowledge
This will be singing,
not
voice, to sing, guided
only by his own feelings.
The artist will be an indi?
of such-and-such
a school,
but of inspiration.
vidual.
He will be himself,
he
still, he will be the character
or, better
in
in the opera.'110
Battistini's
has to represent
only
Perhaps
perform?
than 'inspiration'.
In
ance here would Verdi have heard more 'singing'
of
I
inflections
and
would
that
the
case,
range
tempo
any
suggest
so foreign
one finds on the other recordings,
to today's
rubato
taste,
the
demands
for
declamalie
near
heart
of
oft-cited
Verdi's
good
may
tool in projecting
a primary
the mood
tion: such freedom
constituted
and sense of the words.
And
effect:
techniques
expected
many of the vocal and musical
this article
I conclude
with a connineteenth-century
singer,
ofthe
of these
sideration
the proper coordination
principles
governing
In
remarkable
this
area
a
even
too
one
finds
surtechniques.
perhaps
and
Verdi.
If
of
Garcia
is
between
there
one
degree
agreement
prising
that epitomizes
attitudes
towards vocal
nineteenth-century
expression
of light and shade.111
the constant
modulation
style, it is chiaroscuro,
an impressive
the end of his study, Garcia enumerates
Towards
arsenal
at the singer's
of emotion:
of techniques
for the expression
disposal
Having
of the
examined
1. Physical movements.
2. The various alterations ofthe breathing.
[sighing,
3. The emotion
of the voice. [vibrato] 4. The different
sobbing, laughing]
6. The movement
timbres. 5. The alteration of articulation.
ofthe delivery.
7. The elevation
or lowering
of the tones. [orna?
[tempo modification]
8. The various degrees of intensity ofthe voice. [dynamics]112
mentation]
of this arsenal is supposed
to be governed
by the prin?
deployment
contrast:
'It
the
of
is
contrary effect that one
ciple
by preparing one effect by
the most brilliant
stand out com?
obtains
for
results;
afortewill
example,
1S A
when
a
at
3, an
only
glance
pletely
preceded
Figure
by
piano.
The

February 1871 to Giuseppe Prioli; as translated in Osborne, Letters,
175-6.
111 Celletti
('L'interpretazione di Verdi', 312) has already noted that a more 'word-to-word*
application of vocal nuances seems typical of the nineteenth century, although he finds little in
that approach to benefit Verdi's music.
112 Garcia, Ecole de Garcia, ii, 50: '1? Les mouvements de la
physionomie. 2? Les alterations
diverses de la respiration. 3? L'emotion de la voix. 4? Les differents timbres. 5? L'alteration de
l'articulation. 6? Le mouvement du debit. 7? L'elevation ou l'abaissement des sons. 8? Les divers
degres d'intensite de la voix.' (Translation adapted from Garcia, A CompleteTreatise,143.) The
explanations presented in brackets here summarize Garcia's later explanation of this list (ii,
51-9).
113 Garcia, Ecolede Garcia,ii, 34: *C'esten
preparantun effetparVeffetcontraireque l'on obtient les
resultats les plus brillants: par exemple, un fortene ressortira completement [sic] qu'a la condition
d'etre precede d'un piano.' (Translation adapted from Garcia, A CompleteTreatise,99.) In the same
passage, Garcia makes the following - still pertinent - observation: 'C'est une erreur commune
a plusieurs artistes de croire que Thabilete consiste a donner une extreme vigueur a toutes les
parties de l'execution indistinctement. Lorsque tout est energique, l'energie ne se trouve en
realite nulle part'

253
from one of the annotated

that concludes
Garcia's
excerpt
passages
contrasts
demonstrates
how
he
those
treatise,
just
regularly
expected
- to
the chiaroscuro
shadings
appear.
Of course,
Garcia was after more than a mere kaleidoscope
of vocal
the purpose
effects:
of the chiaroscuro
was to communicate
emotions
more
And to determine
how to do so, in his
effectively.
precisely
'one
those
themselves:
sentiments
had to experience
view, singers
in us only the emotions
understands
that the artist produces
analogous
to those
which
he feels himself'.114
To this end,
Garcia
advocates
all
the
find
the
colours
text
aloud
with
abandon
to
reading
passionate
in
in
dramatic
scene
the
or
the
voice,
produced
speaking
envisaging
the mind's
resources
it.115 By focusing
vocal
the numerous
eye so as to imitate
on specific
he argues,
could
emotions,
singers
produce
effects.
powerful
the
Garcia's strategies
find echoes
in Verdi's
own comments.
Indeed,
a word very close to 'chiaroscuro'
chooses
to characterize
composer
in his (presumably
on
in general:
interview
translated)
good singing
he comGerman
vocalists
above, but worth repeating
here),
(quoted
into
to get fine shading
plains that 'they take no trouble
[Schattirung]
their singing;
all their efforts
are directed
to bringing
out this or that
note with utmost force. Hence
their singing
is not the poetic expression
of their souls, but the physical
In bemoanconflict
of their bodies.'116
and the resulting
weak effect, Verdi almost pre?
ing this lack of nuance,
the comments
of Lamperti,
who, without
cisely anticipates
restricting
his criticism
that the voices ofthe
new 'natural'
to oltramontani,
suggests
'will always be cold, and in spite of their strength
and sonority,
singers
in true dramatic
accent,
always without
expression,
always wanting
and incapable
of varying their character'.117
Verdi and the
monotonous,
seem to agree that nuance
lies at the heart of expression.
pedagogues
Of course,
the composer
also concurs
on the idea of
with Garcia
emotion.
as
above, Verdi calls for
interpretation
through
Again,
quoted
.. The artist
his model vocalist 'to sing, guided
his
own
only by
feelings..
will be . . . himself,
he
better
he
will
be
the
character
has to rep?
or,
still,
in the opera.'118
resent
A concrete
of
this
philosophy
application
114 Garcia, Ecole de Garcia,ii, 49: 'On

comprend done que l'artiste ne produise sur nous que
des expressions analogues a celles qu'il ressent lui-meme'. (Translation adapted from Garcia, A
CompleteTreatise,138.)
116 This interview, entitled 'Verdi in Wien', was
originally published in German in Neuefreie
Presse(Vienna), no. 3874 (9 June 1875; as cited above) and was quickly reprinted in the source to
which I had access, Signalefur die musikalischeWelt (Leipzig), 33 (1875), 465-7. The key first
sentence appears as 'Sie geben sich keine Muhe, eine schone Schattirung in den Gesang zu
bringen, ihr ganzes Bestreben ist dahin gerichtet, diese oder jene Note mit groBer Kraft
hervorzustoBen.' The German is naturally the basis of later translations, such as that by Conati
(InterviewsandEncounters,109), who contracts 'eine schone Schattirung in den Gesang zu bringen'
to just 'to render nuance'. Chusid gives the passage more faithfully ('Verdi's Own Words', 180)
as 'to get fine light and shade into their singing'. Chusid's translation suggests that he too may
have thought Verdi's original word was in fact 'chiaroscuro'.
117
February 1871 to Giuseppe Piroli; as translated in Osborne, Letters,
175-6.

ROGERFREITAS
254
IU->uIuIh$.
ASSUR.liH.-it
/ ^^ ^*'?>*
ROSSINI,
Scrairamuie
A.i..
S?y.??
??*<?
Si. vi sara\ti>dt:l.t;i,
iovivoan.co
. rn, ioso.lokts.to
mcnace
brusque,brfcve.
peri gno. t.ii*i.
Mirprise.
Figure 3. Excerpt from one of the concluding examples from Manuel Garcia, Ecole de
Garcia: Traite complet de Vart du chant (Paris, 1847), ii, 103-4. London, British Library
MH.2223; reproduced by permission of the British Library.
in the composer's
mentioned
of Tadolini
as
emerges
previously
critique
- insufhe
whose
finds
Macbeth,
Lady
singing
inappropriately
elegant
and dark' - for the role. Surprisingly,
'hard, stifled
ficiendy
perhaps,
Garcia
too advocates
when
the drama
or character
'ugly'
singing
it. Having
demands
recommended
the appropriate
tone colours
for a
of passages
number
from Rossini's
Otello and Semiramide, he continues,
if in these examples we should try to change the characteristics
ofthe voice
- the
- the effect would become
the
the
the
dull
dark,
brilliant,
bright,
detestable.
This mistaken usage demonstrates
why sounds which please in
certain movements
elsewhere;
displease
why the unvarying
singer recites
certain
well.
The
and
brilliant
used out of
timbre,
only
bright
passages
place, seems shrill; the bright and dull timbre, silly; the dark and brilliant

TOWARDS
255
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Figure 3 continued
timbre sounds like grumbling;
of hoarseness.119
the dark and dull timbre
produces
the effect
119 Garcia, Ecole de Garcia,ii, 54:

'Essayons de changer dans ces exemples les caracteres de la
voix, le clair, le sombre,I'eclatant,le mat, et l'effet deviendra detestable. Cet emploi fait a contre-sens
explique pourquoi les sons qui plaisent dans certains mouvements, deplaisent ailleurs; pourquoi
le chanteur uniforme ne dit bien que certains passages. Le timbre clair et eclatant, mis hors de
sa place, semble criard; le timbre clair et mat, niais; le timbre sombre et eclatant semble grondeur;
le timbre sombre et sourd produit l'effet de l'enrouement.' (Translation adapted from Garcia,
A CompleteTreatise,154.)

256
ROGERFREITAS
a sound
that might
be ugly in one place is perfectly
words,
taskat which Tadolini
in
the
another;
apparendy
singer's
appropriate
failed - is to recognize
which quality the drama requires.
in privileging
drama
Verdi seems
to go even further
over vocalism
'Voice alone,
however
beauti?
when he writes of the character
Amneris,
vocal finesse
ful [...]
is not enough
for this role. So-called
means litde
to me. I like to have roles sung the way I want them, but I can't provide
the "je ne sais quoi" that one might call the
the voice, the temperament,
"to be possessed
It's
understood
what
is
usually
by the phrase,
by
spark.
in this case
Verdi's
the devirV120
But again Garcia anticipates
attitude,
in his description
ofthe
so-called
style', where 'it is neces?
'declamatory
the
actor must constandy
a
to
have
a
soul
of
fire,
power;
sary
gigantic
to find such a quintesthe singer'.121
dominate
One may be surprised
sentiment
of bel canto, but
'Verdian'
by the maestro
sentially
expressed
at
his
most
even
the parallel
further
Verdi stands
that,
radical,
argues
In other
If he
the central
tradition
of nineteenth-century
vocalism.
over
the
florid
in
his
the
declamatory
eventually
style
privileges
operas,
in the full tradition.
the composer
still desires singers trained
I would even dare to suggest
that Verdi's
Indeed,
regular batdes with
much
at
a
new
kind of vocalist
seem
aimed
not
so
as
producing
singers
of approach
that - ideally
at trying to recapture
the skills and flexibility
to vocal style, Verdi
at least - characterized
the old school:
with respect
than innovatory.
in fact) seems more conservative
And
(like Wagner,
in this essay, that his tastes and expecthat means,
as I have contended
from modern
rather than
tations
differed
markedly
Today,
practices.
of tone
is prized;
and diction,
richness
of
instead
clarity of timbre
stentorian
and articulatory
flexibility,
dynamic
power excites
applause;
and in place of nuance
and chiaroscuro,
broad effects
are the norm.
I do not mean to suggest
that Verdi's
With these observations,
tastes
static and
and those presented
on the modern
stage are two historically
distinct
and we
styles: clearly,
every era is characterized
by transition,
of a nineteenth-century
some characteristics
I
still maintain
approach.
have tried to argue here, however,
in
terms
ofa
number
of
that,
specific
of Verdian
and modern
the intersection
vocal
stylistic
parameters,
'ideals'
is rather smaller
than is commonly
supposed.
Verdi's
beloved
Will we ever hear a singer emulate
Patti rather than
Sutherland
or Callas? Would we even want to? Crutchfield
is dubious,
that
an
for
its
lack
such
would
be
censured
of taste.122
fearing
attempt
For my part, I find taste to be a malleable
influenced
thing, readily
by
new approaches,
from
skilled
and imaginative
they come
provided
artists. But my real hope for this sort of research
is that by developing
- let it be said
a better understanding
of nineteenth-century
style, and
within
120 Letter of 10
July 1871 to Giulio Ricordi; as translated in Osborne, Letters,178.
121 Garcia, Ecolede Garcia,ii, 70: 'il faut une ame de feu, une
puissance gigantesque; l'acteur
doit constamment dominer le chanteur'. (Translation adapted from Garcia, A CompleteTreatise,
201.)
122 Crutchfield, 'Vocal Ornamentation', 4, where he is
citing the opinion of Howard Mayer
Brown, 'Performing Practice', The New GroveDictionary of Music and Musicians (London, 1980),
xiv, 370-93 (p. 390).

TOWARDS
257
- the intentions
broaden
familiar
of so wilful a figure as Giuseppe

Verdi, we might at least
this
enrich
which
the interpretative
through
spectrum
so
is
repertoire
regularly
presented.
and
ABSTRACT
To try to understand
the vocal styles demanded
by the famously exacting
the composer's
Giuseppe Verdi, I consider a wide range of evidence, including
and
scores and letters, contemporary
treatises, reports on performances,
On the basis of this material, I contend that the vocal
selected early recordings.
styles known and advocated by Verdi differed radically from what is proposed
and nearly always heard in opera houses today.
by most modern pedagogues
An examination
of the evidence,
as it bears on specific technical and expresvocal style, offering novel
sive procedures,
sheds light on nineteenth-century
to the modern performer.
interpretative
possibilities


Freitas Verdian IdFreitas Verdian Ideal of Singingeal of Singing

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Towards a Verdian Ideal of Singing: Emancipation from Modern Orthodoxy

Author(s): Roger Freitas

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Journaiof theRoyalMusicalAssociation,127 (2002)

On 25 March 1875, Giuseppe

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- and thus the

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TOWARDSA VERDIANIDEALOF SINGING

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16 Much of the above is based on Paschke, introduction to A

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TOWARDSA VERDIANIDEALOF SINGING

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of the great art

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TOWARDSA VERDIANIDEALOF SINGING

and the exercise

32 Manuel Garcia, Ecolede Garcia,i, 4 and 15.

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At last you said, O lovely mouth,

Dear name who first

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42 From letters of 16 and 20 November 1892 to Giulio Ricordi; the first as

Ah yes, [I have loved you] for a year.

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and later repeats

Ah, perhaps it is he whom my spirit,

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[Hail Mary, full ofj grace, chosen

misero anch'esso, tua pieta dimostra.

It was night; Cassio was sleeping; I was

Le labbra lente, lente, movea

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to issues of tone quality is that of diction.

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his point even more strongly:

64 Garcia, Ecolede Garcia,ii, 68:

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... he said then:

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The other singers are only slightly more

88 See also sound

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del - l'a - mor

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TOWARDSA VERDIANIDEALOF SINGING

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102 Garcia, Ecole de Garcia,ii, 25: 'Tandis

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TOWARDSA VERDIANIDEALOF SINGING

21s the audience

103 See sound

I search for an affection

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105 See sound

And you ... how pale you are, and weary,

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