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Towards a Verdian Ideal of Singing: Emancipation from Modern OrthodoxyAuthor(s): Roger FreitasSource: Journal of the Royal Musical Association, Vol. 127, No. 2 (2002), pp. 226-257Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of the Royal Musical AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3840464 .Accessed: 12/06/2013 19:48

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Journai of the Royal Musical Association, 127 (2002) ? Royal Musical Association

Towards a Verdian Ideal of Singing:

Emancipation from Modern Orthodoxy

ROGER FREITAS

On 25 March 1875, Giuseppe Verdi wrote to Giulio Ricordi, 'We don't need conductors and singers to discover new effects; for my part, I declare that no one has ever, ever, ever been able, or known how, to draw out all the effects conceived by me . . . No onel IV1 Such a statement

suggests, among other things, that Verdi had a clear aural conception of how he wanted his works performed, a sound in his head against which he measured actual realizations. Indeed, he almost never com- mended innovative performers for revealing hidden riches in his works but instead was a musical autocrat, who generally found productions convincing only in so far as they conformed to his will. Such a figure would seem to encourage the greatest efforts at stylistic fidelity in

performance. And yet only in recent years have musicologists begun to

investigate the historical performance practice of Verdi's era; among musicians themselves - particularly in the crucial area of vocal practice - even less interest has emerged.

To many in the singing profession, in fact, an investigation of past approaches seems irrelevant. Even a casual survey of recent peda- gogical literature confirms what I was always taught in my own vocal

training, namely, that 'proper' technique is based on timeless physio? logical truths. Indeed, these writings often link modern medical ter-

minology with (selective) references to 'bel canto' treatises in a move designed both to authenticate and to universalize the approach.2 And

yet recent research has begun to establish the profound changes in vocal practice since Verdi's day: Will Crutchfield has shown that vocal

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 Verdi Companion, 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 Official Journai ofthe National Association of Teachers of 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: The Structure of Singing: System and Art in Vocal Technique (New York and London, 1986); National Schools of Singing: English, French, German, and Italian Techniques of Singing Revisited (Lanham, MD, 1997); and On the Art of Singing (New York, 1996).


TOWARDS A VERDIAN IDEAL OF SINGING 227

ornamentation - and thus the technique that made it possible - per- sisted at least into the early twentieth century, and Clive Brown has

highlighted the changing characteristics of instrumental and vocal

practices from 1750 to 1900.3 In this more limited inquiry, I aim to

investigate specifically Verdi's tastes in vocal style. My results - reinforc-

ing the work of other researchers - suggest that the range of perform? ance styles Verdi knew and advocated differed radically from what is

proposed by most modern pedagogues and what is nearly always heard in opera houses today.

Unfortunately, the technique of the voice and its interpretational nuances are always the most difficult aspects of historical performance to address. With instruments, one can take the object in hand and read the treatises on its techniques: for both the original writer and the modern performer, those techniques are visually observable. Com- munication of vocal style, however, is always forced to rely on verbal

imagery, imagery that often suggests different things to different

people. And the only check on such variability, sound recording, dates back only to the very end of the nineteenth century. In light of these obstacles, even Crutchfield - easily the most accomplished scholar of historical vocalism - has focused primarily on the more tangible practice of ornamentation and has even questioned the possibility of

ascertaining vocal style before the recorded era.4 Although such dis- cretion is certainly judicious, it does not seem to me inescapable. By considering as many different kinds of evidence as possible - vocal trea? tises, reports on performances, other letters and documents - along with the earliest recordings, one should reasonably be able to push back the aural imagination. And although reliability will certainly decrease the further one goes, the process need not become much more conjectural - for the nineteenth century, at least - than other types of historical interpretation. As always, the historical researcher must simply construe the evidence in the most sensible and convincing way. Of course, the choice of that evidence for a particular investigation is important, and so, to establish the 'Verdian credentials' of the materials I have selected, I begin by briefly surveying each type.

The first and most obvious category consists of Verdi's expressed intentions, as revealed through his scores and correspondence. In fact, modern performers have sometimes judged the only requirement for an authentically Verdian performance to be strict adherence to the musical text, as given in the best editions. In support of such an

3 Crutchfield's primary contributions to the subject come in several articles: 'Vocal Orna- mentation in Verdi: The Phonographic Evidence', 19th Century Music, 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 Performing Practice 1750-1900 (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, messa di voce, registers, dynamics, and so on. For earlier generations we continue to do a lot of guesswork' (p. 112).


228 ROGER FREITAS

attitude, the composer himself is often quoted as being 'content to hear

simply and exactly what was written'.5 Yet reliance on such a statement is clearly problematic. In the first place, no score - let alone one from the nineteenth century - can communicate all the unwritten nuances that constitute a style. As Stendhal himself remarked, in reference to one of his favourite singers, 'there is no composer on earth, suppose him to be as ingenious as you will, whose score can convey with pre? cision [the] infinitely minute nuances of emotional suggestion: yet it is precisely these infinitely minute nuances which form the secret of Cres- centini's unique perfection'.6

Further, notwithstanding his protestations, Verdi himself regularly endorsed the violation of his scores, changing material (or allowing it to be changed) for the sake ofthe overall performance. He transposed arias, for example, lowering Don Alvaro's C major cabaletta in Laforza del destino ('S'incontri la morte') to Bt so that others besides Enrico Tamberlik could sing it; he wrote puntature to fit a line to a particular singer's voice, most famously in the conclusion of 'Celeste Aida' for

Giuseppe Capponi; and he always encouraged encores, the contem?

porary mark of operatic success.7 Indeed, late in life, Verdi himself even warned against the then new trend towards strict observance of the score. After hearing from Giulio Ricordi about a rhythmically rigid presentation under Toscanini, Verdi wrote, 'When I began to scandal- ize the musical world with my sins, there was the calamity of the Rondos

by the prima donnas; now there is the tyranny of the conductors of the orchestra! Bad, bad! But less bad is the first!! '8 In such an environment, the score lacks its modern unassailability and represents simply the most important of many clues to the intended realization of a work.9

What, then, of Verdi's expressed ideas on the subject of singing? His letters are indeed filled with references to singers and their relative merits, often as spirited (and quotable) as the following: '[Eugenia]

5 A 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 History ofBel Canto, trans. Frederick Fuller (Oxford, 1991), 181; originally published as Storia delbelcanto, Discanto/Contrap- punti, 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': The History ofan Opera in Letters andDocuments (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 puntature he 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, Giuseppe Verdi: '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' ('Authen- ticity in Verdi', 866). The same point is addressed by Marcello Conati in his 'Italian Romantic Opera and Musicology', Current Musicology, 27 (1979), 65-72.



Tadolini sings to perfection, and I don't want Lady Macbeth to sing at all. Tadolini has a wonderful voice, clear, flexible, strong, while Lady Macbeth's voice should be hard, stifled and dark.'10 Again, however, such remarks warrant care. In the first place, Verdi tends towards

hyperbole generally in his correspondence, and so such rhetoric begs critical reflection. But further, the composer seems to have had litde interest in the purely technical aspects of vocalism. He himself admits, T cannot [. . .] judge a singer in a room, and not even in an empty theater, without costumes and makeup'.11 Indeed, Verdi's conception of singing seems to have been so closely tied to dramatic expression that he could sometimes abuse his vocalists, as when he demanded a

run-through of the long Lady Macbeth duet - 'for the 151st time' -

minutes before the public dress rehearsal.12 The composer's comments on singing, then, invaluable as they are, cannot tell the full story: like his scores, they require a context.

To try to construct this context, to explore the elements of vocal style that Verdi did not or could not explain, I have considered the three other bodies of material alluded to above: vocal treatises, contem?

porary accounts of singers, and extant early recordings. By far the most

important vocal study for this investigation, and for nineteenth-century style in general, is the Ecole de Garcia: Traite complet de Vart du chant of Manuel Garcia II (1805-1906).13 Garcia's study is crucial for many reasons. First, he in some ways unites the nineteenth century with the

eighteenth: his primary teacher was his famous father (of the same name), who created Rossini's Almaviva and studied with Giovanni Ansani, probably a pupil of Nicola Porpora.14 Second, notwithstanding this connection, Garcia seems thoroughly steeped in his own period, revealing an intimate knowledge of contemporary composers, singers and vocal practices. His treatise, first fully published in 1847, is littered with musical examples from the contemporary operatic stage, and, as Donald Paschke observes, he incorporates the newest techniques of covered singing into his method.15 Third, Garcia was widely acknow-

ledged as the leading voice teacher in Europe, not only in the 1840s,

10 From a letter of 23 November 1848 to Salvatore Cammarano; as translated in Charles Osborne, comp., trans. and ed., Letters of Giuseppe Verdi (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, Giuseppe Verdi: II genio e le opere (Florence, 1887), 64-8. The version used here is taken from Marcello Conati, 'Verdi at the Rehearsals for Macbeth from the Memoirs of Marianna Barbieri Nini: 1847', Interviews andEncounters with Verdi, ed. Marcello Conati, trans. Richard Stokes (London, 1984), 24-8 (pp. 26-7). 13 Manuel Garcia, Ecole de Garcia: Traite complet de I'art du 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 Complete Treatise on 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 Complete Treatise, 260: the first volume ofthe Ecole de Garcia was 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 Beatrice di Tenda (1833), and Meyerbeer's Robert leDiable (1831). Paschke mentions Garcia's discussion of covered tone in his introduction to A Complete Treatise, p. ii.


230 ROGER FREITAS

when his treatise was published, but throughout his long life. His study, revised in 1856, went through numerous editions into the early twen? tieth century. And his pupils - including Maria Malibran, Pauline Viardot, Jenny Lind, Mathilde Marchesi and Charles Sandey- and their pupils in their turn - Nellie Melba, Emma Eames and Emma Calve - constituted much of the vocal elite well into the twentieth century. Even Wagner sent his niece Johanna to study with Garcia and later invited the master to come to Bayreuth as vocal coach for the inaugural festival there. Finally, with an interest in anatomy that led him to invent the laryngoscope, Garcia tends to explain his methods in an invaluably clear way, based for the first time on physiological observations. For all these reasons, then, his treatise can be considered a central document for the understanding of singing in the nineteenth century.16

To supplement Garcia, the works of Francesco Lamperti and Charles

Sandey have also been examined. In the words of Michael Scott, Francesco Lamperti (1813-92) 'was the doyen of singing teachers in Italy - to Milan what Garcia was to London'.17 Uarte del canto

appeared around 1883, although he was active much earlier.18 Charles

Sandey (1834-1922), one of the most eminent baritones of the latter half of the century, also left behind a treatise, The Art of Singing and Vocal Declamation (1908), which contributes the viewpoint ofa distin- guished, veteran performer.19

To help determine how the precepts of the pedagogues manifested themselves in practice, contemporary written commentary on singing can be illuminating. While the scattered remarks of many writers have influenced this study, Henry Chorley's Thirty Years'Musical Recollections has been a particularly bountiful source of information.20 His work covers the years 1830 to 1859 and concentrates decidedly on the music and singers of Italian opera. His observations provide an important account ofthe transitional years between the ascendancy of Rossini and that of Verdi.

But perhaps the most telling evidence of stylistic context emerges from that highly engrossing body of material, the first recordings of

singers. Of course, only vocalists active towards the end of Verdi's life survived to make recordings, and not all of these deserve consideration in reconstructing Verdian tastes. Certainly those singers with whom the

composer worked direcdy are important. The two most prominent of these are Francesco Tamagno (1850-1905), who created the role of Otello, and Victor Maurel (1848-1923), the first Iago and Falstaff. Maurel also played leading characters in the revised versions of both Simon Boccanegra and Don Carlos. Although both men had their dis-

agreements with Verdi, they represent the closest aural links to the

16 Much of the above is based on Paschke, introduction to A Complete Treatise, pp. ii-vii. 17 Michael Scott, The Record of Singing to 1914 (New York, 1977), 24. 18 Francesco Lamperti, L'arte del canto in ordine alle tradizioni classiche ed a particolare esperienza: Norme techniche e consigli agli allievi ed agli artisti (Milan and Paris, [1883]). Here, I have used the translation by one of his pupils: A Treatise on the Art of Singing, trans. J. C. Griffith (New York, n.d.). 19 Charles Sandey, The Art of Singing and Vocal Declamation (New York, 1908). 20 Henry F. Chorley, Thirty Years' Musical Recollections (London, 1862; repr. with an introduc? tion by Ernest Newman, New York, 1926).



composer. A link of a different sort is manifested in the recordings of Edoardo Garbin (1865-1943), the first Fenton. Verdi vigorously com- plains about this singer in a number of letters, but the very frequency and specificity of the criticism allow useful connections to be made between the composer's statements and Garbin's sounds.

In addition to singers who worked direcdy with Verdi, the composer's stated preferences permit the inclusion of a few other artists. Here, however, one faces a central issue in this investigation: notwithstanding his reputation as the arch-enemy of *bel canto', Verdi seems to have

preferred singers trained in this traditional style.21 When asked in 1871 about what should be taught to aspiring vocalists, Verdi responded, T should like the students to have a wide knowledge of music; exercises in voice production; very long courses in solfeggi [i.e. agility exercises], as in the past'.22 Elsewhere, he repeats, Tn the teaching of singing, I would like the old-fashioned studies, combined with modern declamation.'23 He even complained that German singers tended to ignore such training: 'They take no trouble to get fine light and shade into their singing; all their efforts are directed to bringing out this or that note with the utmost force. Hence their singing is not the poetic expression of their souls, but the physical conflict of their bodies.'24

In light of contemporary controversies about singing style, such state? ments clearly ally Verdi with what by the end of the century was con? sidered the 'old school', the approach that had dominated the theatres of Italy in his youth. Confirming such a view is the composer's virtually unreserved praise for the soprano Adelina Patti, associated throughout her career with the traditional style: Verdi raves, Tatti was then [ten years earlier] what she is now: perfecdy organised. Perfect equilibrium between singer and actress, a born artist in every sense of the word.'25 And further,

[Patti] is by nature an artist so complete that there has perhaps never been her equal! Oh! Oh! And Malibran? Very great, but not always even! Sometimes sublime and sometimes baroque! The style of her singing was 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 complete: marvelous voice, purest style of singing, stupendous actress with 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? congresso internazionale di studi verdiani, ed. Mario Medici (Parma, 1969), 308-13 (pp. 309-10); also Chorley, Thirty Years' Musical Recollections, passim, but especially 182-6. 22 From a letter of 20 February 1871 to Giuseppe Piroli; as translated in Osborne, Letters, 75. 23 From a letter of 4 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 decla- mazione 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, Giuseppe Verdi, 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 charme ed un naturale che nissunaha!'


232 ROGER FREITAS

Needless to say, the few recordings of this great woman, though made in her sixties, are highly valuable to the present study.

Given Verdi's tastes for traditionally trained singers, a few other vocalists widely linked with the older style have also been included here. For example, die day after Nellie Melba's Italian debut at La Scala (16 March 1893), the critic for the Corriere della sera, Aldo Noseda, explicidy associated her with Patti:

[Adelina Patti] remains for us the most perfect exponent of the great art of singing. How many times last evening we told ourselves that for marvel- lous facility of production, for seduction of 'timbre', for spontaneity of vocalization, for the finished art of modulation, for pureness of intonation, Madame Melba again renewed in us the intense enjoyment experienced so many years ago when listening to the diva Patti. Who else now, may we ask, can sing like Melba?27

Indeed, Melba (1861-1931) seems to have inherited Patti's crown. Her ties to the old school are close, as she studied with the famous singing teacher and Garcia pupil Mathilde Marchesi. Although the elderly Verdi hardly mentions Melba in his correspondence, the singer claims that in 1893 Verdi came backstage at La Scala to praise her on her

performance as Gilda. The story continues that Melba went to his

apartment the next day and studied at least the role of Desdemona with him.28 Although this information remains uncorroborated, Melba's

pre-eminence as an artist, her connections with the 'old school', the

possibility of her coaching with Verdi, and her relative youth at the time she first entered the studio, all combine to make her recordings a relevant source of stylistic information.

Also included on die basis of connections to an earlier style is Mattia Battistini (1856-1928), a baritone who made his debut in 1878 and did not retire until 1927.29 By all accounts, his technique belonged to the

days of Rossini and Meyerbeer;30 not surprisingly, Verdi found him too

'sugary' for the role of Iago.31 His long vocal health allowed him to 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 issues, from the technical to the interpretative. (Because Crutchfield has already so astutely reported on practices of ornamentation, that area is the one important aspect of performance style I do not address here.) Surely one of the most astonishing facets ofthe nineteenth-century vocal approach is its attitude towards timbre.

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, Melodies andMemories (Garden City, NY, 1928), 119-20. 29 K. J. Kutsch and Leo Riemens, Grofies Sangerlexikon (Bern, 1987), ii, col. 178. 30 Scott, The Record of Singing, 104. 31 From a letter of 11 November 1886 to Giulio Ricordi; as reproduced in Abbiati, Giuseppe Verdi, iv, 229.



Two basic qualities were generally recognized: in Garcia's terms, the

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

ception, Lamperti even recommending the exclusive use of the clear timbre for practice, as it makes the high notes easier, the voice sweeter and the exercise less fatiguing.33

To anyone trained in modern vocal pedagogy, this approach must

appear starding. In seemingly every modern discussion, the only approved position of the vocal mechanism, for all vocalism, is similar to Garcia's dark tone: for a singer to adopt a high larynx and low soft

palate, particularly accompanying a rise in pitch, would be considered a serious, even dangerous, fault.34 Of course, Garcia's instructions for the clear technique would yield a bright and, to our ears, probably somewhat shallow and nasal tone. Consistent with such a timbre is the common admonition to open the jaw only a modest distance, enough to insert a fingertip.35 Sandey even suggests that the natural tone

quality of the voice be left alone entirely: 'The tone may be peculiar, even to a certain extent disagreeable, but the peculiarity may .. . be turned to such account as to render it a striking specialty.. . ,'36 Clearly, the teachers were just not concerned with eliciting the 'rich' tone that has become such a central focus of modern technique.

And the recordings bear this out. When various writers say that Patti's recorded voice sounds remarkably fresh for her advanced age, they are

32 Manuel Garcia, Ecole de 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, Technique in Singing: A Program for Singers and 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, Expressive Singing, ii: Theory and Technic, Style and Interpretation, Song Repertoire, Principles of Piano Accompaniment, Solo Voice and Piano Accompaniment Recordings (3rd edn, Dubuque, IA, 1975), 45, citing Hermanus Baer, 'Establishing a Correct Basic Technique for Singing', A_4TS Bulletin, 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., away from the throat; and a lowered larynx.' 35 Santley, The Art, 56; Lamperti, A Treatise, 22. 36 Sandey, The Art, 51.


234 ROGER FREITAS

referring at least in part to her bright, girlish tone.37 Melba's early recordings, made in her forties, are sometimes even more extreme in their brilliant, almost squeaky roulades and high notes.38 Tamagno's tenor seems always 'wide open', without the darkening 'cover' above the staff that Garcia himself suggests and is universally heard today.39 And Battistini's clear baritone has much less of the dark, 'macho'

quality of a Robert Merrill or Sherrill Milnes.40 (Comparison of the Battistini excerpt with the same passage sung by Milnes really highlights the difference.)41 Garbin offers the interesting example ofa singer who clearly covers his high notes but carries the open quality to its extreme

37 Readers with access to the internet are referred to sound clip 1 at (Adelina Patti singing 'Pur dicesti' by Antonio Lotti; Gramophone and Typewriter Company (G&T), Matrix 538f, Cat. 03052 (1905); as reissued on Adelina Patti: 1843-1919, Pearl GEMM CD 9312. ? Pavilion Records ; 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 (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? lation are as follows:

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 (Francesco Tamagno singing 'Esultate!' from Verdi's Otello; G&T, Matrix 3001 FT, Cat. 52673 (1903); as reissued on Francesco Tamagno: The Complete Recordings and Three Unpublished Recordings, Opal CD 9846. ? Pavilion Records ; reproduced by permission). Text and translation are as follows:

Esultate! L'orgoglio musulmano Rejoice! The Muslim's pride sepolto e in mar, nostra e del cielo e is buried in the sea; the glory is ours and

[gloria! [heaven's! Dopo l'armi lo vinse l'uragano. After our arms, the gale defeated him.

40 See sound clip 4 at (Mattia Battistini singing 'Eri tu', from Verdi's Un ballo in 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? lation are as follows:

Eri tu che macchiavi quell'anima, la delizia dell'anima mia .. . che m'affidi e d'un tratto esecrabile l'universo aweleni per me! Traditor! Che compensi in tal guisa dell'amico tuo primo la fe!

It was you who tarnished that soul, the delight of my soul... you who trust me and by an abominable act poison the universe for me! Traitor! That you repay in such a way the loyalty of your best friend!

41 See sound clip 5 at (Sherrill Milnes singing 'Eri tu'; London OSA 1398 (1971); as reissued on My Favorite Verdi, Pavarotti's Opera Made Easy, London 443 816- 2). For text and translation see note 40.



in his lower range. The tone is so spread and almost goat-like that even Verdi complained of the poor effect.42 Interestingly, this imperfection, which to modern ears seems

unpardonable, appears not to have much

hampered the singer's career.43 In fact, Verdi's complaint was not so much about timbre per se, but the accompanying distortion of vowels, a cardinal sin in his view. In general, then, the correspondence between the bright tone qualilty of these early twentieth-century artists and the pedagogues' approach to tone as early as the 1840s does

suggest that the overall timbral ideal during much of the nineteenth

century - and thus arguably also in the mind of Verdi - was substan-

tially brighter and thinner than is now the case. An important component of tone quality, at least in modern vocal-

ism, is the much discussed technique of vibrato. Still today this topic can ignite quarrels in the 'early music' arena, but recent suggestions that the modern prominent and continuous vibrato may even not be

typical of nineteenth-century style tends to meet with outright disdain from singers. While Verdi himself is silent on this issue (such a purely technical question probably lying outside his interests), other writers certainly are not. Like his colleagues, Garcia describes the tremolo (the term 'vibrato' is never used) as a special vocal effect that arises naturally when a singer is experiencing particularly strong emotions and that

helps express these emotions to the public. He recommends, however, that its use should be quite limited, not only because it soon becomes tiresome, but also because 'repeated use ofthe tremolo makes the voice tremulous. The artist who has contracted this intolerable fault becomes

incapable of phrasing any kind of sustained singing. It is thus that some beautiful voices have been lost to the art.'44 Writing around 1883, Lam?

perti echoes Garcia and makes an important connection between the new, more strenuous vocal production and an increase in vibrato. He cautions the singer about 'the danger of rendering his voice tremulous,

42 From letters of 16 and 20 November 1892 to Giulio Ricordi; the first as reproduced in Abbiati, Giuseppe Verdi, iv, 466, and the second as translated in Hepokoski, Giuseppe Verdi: Talstaff, 121. See sound clip 6 at (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? lation are as follows:

Ah si, da un anno. Un di felice, eterea mi balenaste innante, e da quel di tremante, vissi d'ignoto amor. Di quell'amor ch'e palpito dell'universo intero, misterioso, altero croce e delizia al cor.

Ah yes, [I have loved you] for a year. One day, happy, ethereal, you appeared before me, and since that day, trembling, I have lived with an unknown love. With that love which is the pulse of the entire universe, mysterious, unapproachable, both cross and delight to the heart.

43 Kutsch and Riemens, Orofies Sdngerlexikon, 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 Complete Treatise (trans. Paschke); this passage occurs on pages 150-1.


236 ROGER FREITAS

a defect almost always produced by forcing', and later repeats his

warning against 'the trembling ofthe voice, a defect which in the begin? ning of this century was sufficient to exclude any singer from the

stage'.45 Indeed, the newness ofthe continuous vibrato - and its initial lack of acceptance - is confirmed by Chorley when he writes (in 1862) of Henriette Clementine Meric-Lalande's 1830 London debut: 'She was a good musician, and sang with taste; but her voice - a soprano -

ere she came had contracted a habit of trembling, in those days a novel ty (would it had always remained so!) to which English ears were then averse.'46

Of course, a fundamental point of contention in the modern debate over vibrato involves the interpretation of the idea of tremulousness. Some believe that the effect complained of is the modern 'wobble' or 'bleat', i.e. an extremely wide, slow or uneven vibrato; others take these writers more literally, equating this trembling precisely with the modern acceptable vibrato. For help on this issue, the evidence of the

recordings is invaluable and, it can be added, quite compelling: the modern practice of continuous, prominent vibrato seems to play little role in the older vocal tradition.

From the operatic stage to the local church choir, the magnifying 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', a quite rapid oscillation never amounting to more than a quarter-tone; only a few strained high notes really start to waver.47 With Melba, especially in her earlier recordings, the effect is again minimal, with only an occasional 'shimmer'.48 And even at her 1926 farewell concert, given in her 65th year, her vibrato - now more con? tinuous and usually approaching (only) a semitone in width - seems still

45 Lamperti, A Treatise, 19. 46 Chorley, Thirty Years' Musical Recollections, 4. 47 See sound clip 7 at (Patti singing 'Ah! non credea mirarti', from Bellini's La sonnambuUr, G&T, Matrix 683c, Cat 03084 (1906); as reissued on Adelina Patti: 1843-1919, Pearl GEMM CD 9312. ? Pavilion Records ; 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 (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 Ah, perhaps it is he whom my spirit, solinga ne' tumulti lonely amid the tumults, godea sovente pingere often enjoyed painting de' suoi colori occulti... with its secret colours .. . Lui, che modesto e vigile He who, modest and wary, all'egre soglie ascese, came up to my sickroom door e nuova febbre accese and ignited a new fever, destandomi all'amor. awakening me to love. A quell'amor ch'e palpito To that love which is the pulse dell'universo intero.... of the entire universe.



quite minimal to modern ears.49 Battistini's recording of 'Vieni meco', made when he was 51, has the most prominent vibrato of the three, but it too never exceeds a semitone and is quite rapid.50 Even with Tamagno and Maurel - the one in ill health and the other in vocal decline -

vibrato remains a rather insignificant aspect of the sound.51 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 gradually widened. Hardly an opera singer today pos- sesses any less, and many have much more. Indeed, singers today are

usually taught to cultivate the vibrato, sometimes referred to as putting a

'spin' on the tone.52 A comparison of the same passage from 'Ah

49 See sound clip 9 at (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:

[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 ...

50 See sound clip 10 at (Battistini singing '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:

[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,

misero anch'esso, tua pieta dimostra. Prega per chi sotto l'oltraggio piega la fronte e sotto la malvagia sorte ...

Vieni meco, sol di rose intrecciar ti vo' la vita, vieni meco, ore penose per te il tempo non avra. Tergi il pianto, o giovinetta, dalla guancia scolorita, pensa al gaudio che t'aspetta, che felice ti fara.

Come with me, for only with roses do I wish to entwine your life; come with me, for painful hours time will not have for you. Dry your tears, O young lady, from your wan cheek; think of the joy that awaits you, that will make you happy.

51 On Tamagno's ill health and Maurel's ragged state, see Scott, The Record of Singing, 132 and 75-7. See also sound clip 11 at (Victor Maurel singing 'Era la notte', from Verdi's Otello; Fonotopia Company, Matrix XPh 583, Cat. 39042 (1904); as reissued on The Complete Adelina Patti and Victor Maurel, Marston 52011-2. ? Marston Records; reproduced by permission). Text and translation are as follows:

Era la notte, Cassio dormia, gli stavo It was night; Cassio was sleeping; I was [accanto. [standing beside him.

Con interrotte voci tradia l'intimo incanto. With interrupted words he betrayed his [inner enchantment.

Le labbra lente, lente, movea His lips moved very slowly in the abandon [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 necessity of vibrato to 'healthy' singing, see Miller, The Structure, 186-9: he includes sections entitled 'Eliminating Straight-Tone Intrusion' and 'Correcting the Vibratoless Voice'. See also Van Ambrose Christy, Foundations in Singing: A Basic Textbook in Vocal Technique and Song Interpretation (6th edn, Madison, WI, 1997), 46: 'A free tone has vibrato.'


238 ROGER FREITAS

fors'e lui' sung by Melba in 1907 and Sutherland in 1961 highlights the radical change in the employment and function of this effect.53

Further insight into the question of vibrato emerges from nine?

teenth-century discussions of the vocal trill. Garcia seems to be one of the first pedagogues to suggest that a singer trills not by rapidly alter-

nating two distinct pitches, but by allowing the vocal mechanism to oscillate, as in vibrato, but in a more controlled manner: the extreme

points of the oscillation are perceived as the two pitches of the trill. Garcia's instructions reveal not only the technique for the trill, fasci-

nating in itself, but also the necessity of confining any vibrato to an interval smaller than a semitone, lest it be confused with trilling:

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

Confirming Garcia's instructions, the trills of Patti and the astound-

ing ones of Melba (sometimes combined with dynamic change) sounded at first to my ears much like the vibrato to which I was accustomed. Careful listening, however, revealed the well-defined limits of the pitches, limits very much wider than any surrounding vibrato.55 In fact, the remarkable difference between the vibrato of Verdi's favourite

singers and that of most singers today suggests that, were Verdi to hear a modern performance of his operas, he might well complain of indis- tinct pitch and perhaps even the 'involuntary trilling' associated with old age: to his ears, so sensitive to vocal characterization, the modern manner of singing a Desdemona, for instance, might well suggest a much older woman.56

5S Compare sound clip 8 (details in note 48) and sound clip 12 at (Joan Sutherland singing 'Ah fors'e lui'; The Art of the PrimaDonna: Joan Sutherland, Decca 289 467 115-2 (1961). ? Universal Classics ; 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, Ecole de 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's Complete School of Singing [trans. anonymous] (Boston, n.d. [18??]); this passage occurs on page 67. 55 See sound clip 13 at (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 (Classical and Romantic, 517-57), and Robert Philip has considered the implications of early recordings for vibrato in instrumental playing (Early Recordings and Musical Style: Changing Tastes in Instrumental Performance, 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.



Linked closely to issues of tone quality is that of diction. Of all the virtues a singer might possess, clear enunciation was easily one of the most important to Verdi. The evidence for the composer's position is

overwhelming, as virtually every time he wrote about singers he mentioned the issue. Typical is his comment that 'Iago cannot be

performed, and is not possible, without extraordinarily fine pronuncia- tion'.57 The pedagogues also strongly emphasize clarity of word, devot-

ing considerable space to explaining the proper values of consonants and vowels.58 They make some allowances for the sake of equality in the voice - such as a consistent mouth position and a slight opening of the most closed vowels - but to a far lesser degree than is the norm today. Lamperti, in fact, still approvingly quotes the old castrato Pacchiarotti: '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? ings because of background noise. Maurel and Garbin, however, both

clearly distort certain vowels: sadly, the ageing Maurel darkens many beyond recognition, thereby compromising the diction that Verdi had held to be one of the singer's finest qualities;60 Garbin's tendency to

spread his vowels in the low range has already been mentioned.61 On the other hand, the diction of Tamagno always comes through extremely well.62 In any case, the composer's position is not in doubt: for Verdi, clarity of diction outweighs virtually all other qualities in a singer.

Also related to timbre, the question of agility in Verdian singing is a

complex one, but it offers a clue, I believe, to the composer's general notion of vocal character. It is well known that after the so-called 'middle' operas - Rigoktto, II trovatoreand La traviata- Verdi's demands for agility diminish significandy, although in Don Carlos he still calls for trills, even from the men. Of course, the tendency to reduce vocal melisma is observable across the composer's entire output. Especially intriguing, then, is his 1871 comment, quoted above, suggesting that

singers should study the demanding vocalises of the old style. A plausible explanation for this incongruity would seem to come from

the pedagogues. On the subject of 'agility ofthe voice', Garcia declares,

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 intonations; it is the only one ... which equalizes die instrument ofthe voice, and renders every portion of its extent familiar: finally, this study alone presents the means of developing the whole extent of the upper part of the 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, The Art, 53-6; Garcia, Ecole de 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 clip 6 (details in note 42). 62 See sound clip 3 (details in note 39). 63 Garcia, Garcia's Complete School, 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.


240 ROGER FREITAS

Elsewhere, Garcia makes his point even more strongly: remarking that

contemporary composers are abandoning coloratura (or, in his terms, vocalisation) for a more syllabic style, he continues,

many singers, I know, claim that the study of vocalization is completely 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 when one has more completely trained the organ in the difficulties of vocal? ization; let us say even that this suppleness is indispensable to whoever wishes to excel in the largo style. Heavy voices cannot attain perfection in any style.64

Sandey agrees and adds that the continuing study of agility is the only way to preserve the voice in the modern era.65 Lamperti likewise advises

singers to learn their craft from the older (Rossinian) style, the only one that will prepare them to negotiate the challenges of current fashions.66 For the pedagogues, the mastery of agility remained the key, the primary means of attaining not only rapid execution, but also timbral variety, dynamic flexibility and, ultimately, vocal longevity.67

Surprisingly, perhaps, a similar attitude emerges from Verdi's com? ments. Garcia's censure of

'heavy voices' strikingly parallels a complaint of Verdi's in 1892: 'In general, our singers only know how to produce a fat voice; they do not have vocal elasticity, nor clear and easy pro- nunciation, and they lack [proper] accent and breath.'68 He makes a similar criticism in die specific case of his Desdemona, Romilda Pan- taleoni:

'Signora Pantaleoni's voice, accustomed to violent parts, many times has high notes a bit too biting. I would say there is something too metallic. If she could accustom herself to singing a litde more from the head, she would produce the [necessary] attenuation, and her voice

64 Garcia, Ecole de 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 Complete Treatise, 192.) See note 67 below for Garcia's definition of vocalisation.

65 Santley, The Art, p. xi. 66 Lamperti, A Treatise, 5-8, 26-8. 67 Garcia, Ecole de 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 vocalization to replace it with the precise phrase 'agility of the voice', and we will consider this faculty in all its respects. Thus, vocalization will 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.) 68 From a letter of 13 June 1892 to Giulio Ricordi; as reproduced in Abbiati, Giuseppe Verdi, 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.'



would also be more secure and more accurate.'69 His reproach of German singers, who he also thought favoured power over nuance, has

already been noted. With complaints so similar to those of the pedagogues, the composer's advocacy of agility training - well after his

operas required such facility - seems most explicable as an echo of the

pedagogues' solution. Verdi indeed hints that he expects coloratura

capabilities well in excess of his own demands: for example, a letter from 1852 denies any problem of agility in 'Caro nome', and another from 1856 allows that even a weak vocal talent can succeed as Violetta.70 While the composer nowhere states outright that one studies agility to master nuance, the evidence does suggest that he shared that wide-

spread nineteenth-century view. Although for reasons of drama and 'realism' Verdi eventually eliminated melismatic writing from his

operas, it seems he assumed his singers would possess not only the

agility technique itself, but the resultant attributes - flexibility, even- ness, shading - that the study of this technique conferred.

The contrast with the modern Verdian ideal is of course remarkable.

Today, many acclaimed Violettas and Leonoras offer renditions of

'Sempre libera' and 'Di tale amor' that are either sloppy or sluggish (or both), but such shortcomings are excused by the opulent tone they demonstrate elsewhere. Verdi, it would seem, preferred the opposite trade-off: he was thrilled to hear, for example, that Patti was to add Aida to her repertoire.71 That a renowned Zerlina and Amina {La sonnam- buld) could render an exemplary Aida seems almost incomprehensible today. Verdi's tastes indeed seem different from modern attitudes.

Rodolfo Celletti has asserted that, of the many 'old school' tech?

niques, Verdi most consistendy demanded the mastery of dynamic control.72 For the pedagogues, certainly, the ability to command the voice at any dynamic level, in any range, was considered a fundamental skill. Garcia instructs that, from the start, his vocalises should be

repeated at five different dynamic levels. The student is then coun- selled to practice switching between these levels at progressively shorter intervals until eventually single notes within groups of rapid semi-

quavers can be inflected dynamically.73 Of course, Garcia also leads the student through broader crescendos and diminuendos, noting that these effects should not automatically follow the melodic rise and fall.74

Finally, all the teachers emphasize the importance ofthe time-honoured

69 From a letter of 2 September 1886 to Franco Faccio; as reproduced in G[iuseppe] Morazzoni, Verdi: Lettere inedite (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, Ecole de Garcia, i, 49-50. 74 Garcia, Ecole de Garcia, i, 50; ii, 34.


242 ROGER FREITAS

messa di voce, the crescendo and diminuendo on a sustained pitch: 'without it,' Lamperti states, 'a pleasing impression can never be con-

veyed to the public.'75 That Verdi was in agreement on this issue seems clear from his scores

and letters; they leave litde doubt that he considered the ability to sing piano (as well as pp, ppp and pppp) absolutely essential, perhaps even more so than a powerful forte. He famously writes about his Iago, Tf [. . .] I were a singing actor, I would do everything with lips pursed, mezza voce\7e> (Indeed, the man he virtually demanded for the part, Victor Maurel, was said to have lost his forte long before his piano, some?

thing his recordings confirm.)77 But in Verdi's later years, a growing emphasis on powerful production - often imputed, ironically enough, to his own music - was already yielding vocalists unable to cope with the composer's demands: he became frustrated that his tenors could not negotiate the pianissimo high Bt at the end of 'Celeste Aida', and he likewise complained that, in the final scene of Otello, Tamagno 'must

always sing in a full voice; if he doesn't, his tone becomes ugly, his intonation uncertain'.78

Still, these later artists employed soft singing to a much greater extent than is typical today. As Crutchfield has noted, 'The records [the early Verdi interpreters] left behind make clear . . . that Verdi's copious pianissimo markings were not exaggerated pleas for relief from an interminable forte, as Arturo Toscanini claimed (on which basis, para- doxically, he ignored most of them)'.79 Indeed, the recordings reveal both the women (as in Patti's performance of 'Ah! Non credea' from La sonnambula)m and the men (as in Battistini's 'Eri tu'81 and Maurel's 'Era la notte'82) capable of and willing to use an intense, highly

75 Lamperti, A Treatise, 13. 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 to Follow: An Auto? biography (London, 1946), 67; as quoted in Scott, The Record of 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 clip 7 (details in note 47). 81 See sound clip 14 at (Mattia Battistini singing 'Eri tu'; for details see sound clip 4, note 40). Text and translation are as follows:

O dolcezze perdute! o memorie O lost pleasures! O memories d'un amplesso che l'essere india! of an embrace that composed my being! Quando Amelia si bella, si candida When Amelia, so beautiful, so pure, sul mio seno brillava d'amor! sparkled on my breast with love! 82 See sound clip 15 at (Victor Maurel singing 'Era la notte'; for

details see sound clip 11, note 51). Text and translation are as follows: ... ei disse poscia: ... he said then: II rio destino impreco che al Moro ti dono. I curse the wicked destiny that gave you to

[the Moor. E allora il sogno in cieco letargo si muto. And then the dream turned into blind

[lethargy.



resonated soft sound. Today, most opera singers either cannot sing sofdy or choose not to very often, especially in a high range (with the exception of a few sopranos who can 'float' their high notes). When they do make the attempt, the quality of the sound is often throaty and unfocused, suggesting a current lack of emphasis on this skill so

demonstrably important in Verdi's conception of his works.83

Closely related in the minds of the pedagogues to dynamic control was command of articulation; indeed, Garcia includes his detailed treatment of the latter subject under the overall rubric 'Du forte- piano'.84 Remarkable here is the great variety of articulatory styles that the teachers, especially Garcia, suggest. For all, the most important such style, not surprisingly, is the legato or sons lies, in which each note is held for its full length and smoothly linked to the next.85 The other

styles, using Garcia's terms, consist of the sons detaches (or staccatos), equivalent to the modern staccato and indicated by the same dots; the

sonspiques, apparendy a slighdy lengthened version ofthe staccatos and indicated by small wedges (T); the sons marques, the modern marcato, indicated by dots under a slur (recommended especially to basses); and the sons marteles, rapid repetitions of a single pitch (an effect reserved for women's voices) ,86 As with the dynamic exercises, Garcia ultimately demands the ability to make rapid alternations between styles.87

Again in this area, Verdi's scores suggest his concord with the peda? gogues. The new critical editions of Verdi's operas are revealing the fre-

quency with which the composer notated different articulations and the great variety he requested, greater even than Garcia proposes: one finds slurs, staccato dots, standard accent marks (^) and inverted v's (A), and the last three notations also under slurs. While the frequency of the notation may suggest Verdi's modernist desire to control all elements of a performance, the great diversity of articulations he

requests allies him with the old school: he expects singers to possess the same flexibility of attack that so concerns the pedagogues.

Apparendy, however, that flexibility was another element disappear- ing by the turn of the twentieth century: indeed, the early recordings demonstrate less conformity in this area than in the others to the demands of Verdi and the pedagogues. Patti and Battistini tend to sing everything with a smooth legato; only in some melismatic passages does Patti hint at a more marked style, while occasionally Battistini accents

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, Ecole de Garcia, ii, 25. 85 Ibid., ii, 7-8, 29. Lamperti, A Treatise, 15-17. Sandey, The Art, 49-50. 86 Garcia, Ecole de Garcia, i, 30-1; ii, 29-30. 87 Ibid., i, 50-1.


244 ROGER FREITAS

dramatic words more strongly. The other singers are only slightly more observant of the notated articulations: although in many cases they too

ignore the markings, often the only changes of style come at points indicated by the composer. Melba is perhaps the most conscientious: in her recording of 'Caro nome', she renders nearly every marked articulation precisely where indicated (see Example l).88 Perhaps her scrupulous approach is one reason Verdi liked her interpretation, or, alternatively, perhaps in her alleged coaching session with the com?

poser, Verdi impressed on her the importance of his markings (as he may well have tried with Tamagno and Maurel). In any case, it appears that, by the time of the recordings, the varied application of articu? lation was no longer considered a crucial skill for singers; Verdi may have tried to preserve that tradition through his detailed markings, but even these did not always induce much diversity.

The one articulatory technique that does seem to have survived intact is the portamento. Although Celletti feels that the use of this effect really began to wane at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the pedagogues discuss it in detail, often devoting an entire section to the subject.89 They clearly differentiate the portamento both from true legato singing and from scooping, or what Garcia calls the trainee. The

portamento, indicated by a slur, is defined as a 'carrying of the voice' (i.e. a glissando) from one pitch to the next in such a way that time is taken from the first note and the second arrives on time with its proper pitch and syllable.90 Legato singing, of course, involves no intermediate

pitches, while in scooping the singer anticipates the new syllable on the first pitch and glides to the second.91

All the teachers observe that the nuances of the portamento - how and when to use it - are difficult to communicate in general rules, and so the recordings offer the principal way to study the effect.92 Those of Battistini and especially Patti confirm that the portamento indeed remained popular in the bel canto tradition, with both singers display- ing an enormous variety in the technique. The amount of time taken

by the portamento, the rate of the movement between notes, the

accompanying dynamic shading and, contrary to the admonitions of the pedagogues, the placement of the syllable together provide a

myriad of ways to approach and quit a note. The effect - although initially surprising to modern ears - seems not one of carelessness or

inaccuracy, since the portamento usually carries expressive purpose. In Patti's performance of 'Voi che sapete', for example, the frequency of the effect seems aimed at transmuting what could be a simple tune into

88 See also sound clip 2 (details in note 38). 89 Celletti quotes an article in the Gazzetta musicale, 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, Ecole de Garcia, i, 29-30, and ii, 27-9. See also Lamperti, A Treatise, 16-17. 90 Garcia, Ecole de 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 (Classical and Romantic, 558-87). 92 Garcia, Ecole de Garcia, ii, 28. Lamperti, A Treatise, 16.



Example 1. Opening of 'Caro nome', from Verdi's Rigoletto; ed. Martin Chusid, The Works of Giuseppe Verdi, series 1, vol. 17 (Milan, Chicago and London, 1983), 134-7. ? 1983 by die University of Chicago and G. Ricordi & Co. s.p.a., Milan.

18

Gilda *Jk :>*?- * P'pipTp^J^u: fpip^J^g

Ca-ro no - me che il mio cor fe-sti pri - mo pal - pi

22 *&

'?'/. P'pinvp^fi^rv Lf. Mifi i ^ J^ jh f? tar, le de - li - zie del - l'a - mor mi dei sem - pre ram - men

tar! Colpen-sier il mio de - sir a te sem - pre_ vo - le

ra, e fin Pul - ti - mo_ so - spir, ca-ro no - me, tuo_ sa -

34 M m J

-

1- * JiJtflppp pf h JMJwr

38

Col pen-sier il mio de-sir a te sem-pre vo-le-ra,.

dolcissimo ^_

j''V rrrj-rf r ^PiWtfLf^u r Pr;

_ e fin l'ul- ti - mo_ mi - o _ so - spir, ca - ro_

}?* fitrt p^lJJJuJJJIj - |t

JiJ^pv^ me, tuo_ sa - ra. Col_ pen-sier il _

mio de-sir! a te sem-pre vo-le- ra,.

47 u dolce

a te_ vo4e-ra vo4e- ra.


246 ROGER FREITAS

an expression of languorous yearning;93 similarly, Battistini uses the

technique in his 'Eri tu' to intensify the delivery, with ascending slides

suggesting cries and descending ones, sighs.94 In both cases, the clarity of these singers' voices allows them to inflect the melody in this way without the sense of sloppiness that might result with a heavier

production. Among the other vocalists, the use of portamento is somewhat

reduced, with Melba maintaining it more than the others: a compari? 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 performance that the whole effect changes.95 Maurel comes next, with an occasional usage that seems more routine than expressive, while

Tamagno, whose style centres on clarion high notes, eschews the effect almost entirely. Notwithstanding this environment of change, Verdi's

praise for Patti's style and the frequently notated slurs in his scores

argue that the composer remained partial to the technique and would have expected to hear it - used expressively - rather more than one does today.

Another highly expressive effect whose use was changing during Verdi's lifetime is tempo inflection. Scholars generally agree that Verdi's overall tempos tended to be quick: both his letters and his metronome markings confirm such a view.96 But the composer's opinions on tempo modification are less clear, obscured by seemingly

98 See sound clip 16 at (Patti singing 'Voi che sapete', from Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro; G&W, Matrix 537f, Cat 03051 (1905); as reissued on Adelina Patti: 1843-1919, Pearl GEMM CD 9312. ? Pavilion Records ; reproduced by permission). Text and translation are as follows:

Voi che sapete che cosa e amor, donne vedete s'io l'ho nel cor. Quello ch'io provo vi ridiro, e per me nuovo capir nol so. Sento un affetto pien di desir, ch'ora e diletto, ch'ora e martir. Gelo e poi sento l'alma awampar, e in un momento torno a gelar.

You who know what love is: ladies, see whether I have it in my heart. What I feel, I will repeat to you, is new for me: I cannot understand it. I feel a sentiment full of desire, which now is delight and now is torment. I freeze and then feel my soul ablaze, and in a moment 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 (Ecole de Garcia, ii, 27). 95 See sound clip 17 at (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.



contradictory statements. Above, I quoted Verdi's criticism of the

tempo rigidity adopted by conductors like Toscanini. More commonly, however, the composer had the opposite to say, condemning the liberties taken by performers: he writes to Giulio Ricordi regarding rehearsals for the revised Don Carlos, 'I recommend, indeed I demand, that [Faccio, the conductor] insist above all on enunciation and keeping in time.'97 Ricordi apparendy reproduces such demands in his 1893 publication, 'How Giuseppe Verdi Writes and Rehearses', when he claims that' [Verdi] desires no phrase or rhythm to be changed by useless holds and rallentandi9.98

To sort out these inconsistencies, a context for Verdi's comments is

necessary, and here again Garcia offers a helpful starting-point." In a detailed section entided 'De la mesure', the author discusses a wide

range of temporal and rhythmic alterations available to the singer, along with the following general rule: 'Time, by the regularity of its

progress, gives music steadiness and unity; its irregularities lend the

performance some variety and interest.'100 He then describes three

types of 'time' that can govern a piece of music: at one end ofthe spec- trum, 'regular' time, where the initial beat is maintained quite steadily throughout (appropriately applied to pieces with very decided rhythms, such as songs of war); at the other end, 'free' time, where the movement follows only the natural inclinations of the prosody and the emotion (for recitative and plainchant[!]); and, between the two extremes, 'mixed' time, where frequent irregularities of movement are

employed (best for slow, sad pieces with long notes and no striking rhythms). The author then specifies four particular temporal effects and their relative suitability to the three types of time: rallentando, accelerando, ad libitumand temps derobe {tempo rubato). The first two are self-explanatory: they involve a slowing or quickening of the overall

pulse. The third refers to the freedom allowed the singer when the

accompaniment is momentarily silent: it does not affect the overall

tempo because tempo rubato is employed. That this last effect, tempo rubato, receives its own section attests to

Garcia's regard for the technique. 'The momentary prolongation of value which one gives to one or to several tones to the detriment of others is called tempo rubato'101 Garcia's effect thus mainly involves

altering the notated rhythms to give particular emphasis to certain

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'iUustrazione italiana 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, Ecole de 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 Complete Treatise, 69.) The following discussion is based on this section of Garcia (ii, 22-5). 101 Garcia, Ecole de 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 Complete Treatise, 75.)


248 ROGER FREITAS

=.&;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.cnn dfl_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.

notes; the pulse of the accompaniment never changes. The notes to receive this emphasis are the most important ones, on account of their textual accent or significance, harmonic interest or melodie promi- nence. Garcia finds this technique 'one ofthe best ways of giving color to melodies' and the only rhythmic nuance acceptable in pieces for which

'regular' time is appropriate. (He views the rallentando as out of place in such works, even at final cadences.) Figure 1 shows tempo rubato applied to an ad libitum passage. The effect is to make the declamation of the text more natural, by lengthening accented syllables and freeing the rhythms from a too metrical stiffness.

In addition to such local modifications, Garcia also describes tempo rubato applied to entire phrases. Citing both his father and Nicolo

Paganini as champions of the effect, Garcia explains that 'While the orchestra maintained the tempo regularly, they, on their part, aban- doned themselves to their inspiration to rejoin with the bass only at the moment the harmony would change, or else at the very end of the

phrase.'102 Fortunately, Garcia illustrates this description with a literally notated musical example (Figure 2). Such an effect must have

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 Complete Treatise, 77.)



produced great excitement 21s the audience awaited the moment when the singer or violinist would rejoin the accompaniment.

The recordings offer numerous examples of tempo manipulation. Patti's account of the

'Jewel Song' from Gounod's Faust demonstrates her usual command of nuance. Although the score itself calls for very litde tempo change (two instances of colla voce at the major cadences and one a tempo), she frequendy uses the rallentando to give special emphasis to important words. This slowing is often balanced by accelerandos in the following interludes (surely at her direction), thus averting any sense of lethargy and giving the piece a sense of ebb and flow.103 The same effects appear perhaps even more strikingly in her 'Voi che sapete': for the climax, she intensifies the excitement at

'sospiro e gemo' by means of a striking accelerando, and then slows

precipitously to underline (and even paint) Cherubino's admission, 'ma pur mi piace languir cosi'.104 Melba too manipulates rhythm effec?

tively, her 'Willow Song' being a tour de force in this respect. (Again, the possibility that the composer coached her in the role increases the interest ofthe performance.) Of course, Tamagno and Maurel worked 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 (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 Complete Adelina Patti and Victor Maurel, Marston 52011-2. ? Marston Records; reproduced by permission). Text and translation are as follows:

Ah! je ris de me voir si belle en ce miroir! Est-ce toi, Marguerite? Reponds moi, reponds vite! Non, non ce n'est plus toi, ce n'est plus ton visage! C'est la fille d'un roi qu'on salue au passage! Ah! s'il etait ici! S'il me voyait ainsi! Comme une demoiselle, il me trouverait belle!

Ah, I laugh at my appearance, so beautiful in the mirror! Is it you, Marguerite? Answer me, answer quickly! No, no, it's no longer you; it's no longer your face! It's the daughter of a king to whom all bow as she passes! Oh! If only he were here! If he could see me like this! Dressed like a lady, he would find me beautiful!

104 See sound clip 19 at (Patti singing 'Voi che sapete', from Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro; G&W, Matrix 537f, Cat. 03051 (1905); as reissued on Adelina Patti: 1843-1919, Pearl GEMM CD 9312. ? Pavilion Records ; reproduced by permission). Text and translation are as follows:

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.


250 ROGER FREITAS

and approach free declamation.105 Finally, Battistini's 'Eri tu' perhaps represents an extreme of licence: although his rendition is unques- tionably beautiful, the tempo modifications seem less a matter of textual or dramatic projection than vocal self-indulgence, several pas? sages being executed so slowly as to affect the musical continuity.106

Garcia's favourite effect, the rubato, also appears quite regularly on the recordings, at least in its more local variety. Patti in particular seems almost incapable of rendering the score exactly as written: she con?

stantly adjusts note values (and sometimes pitches as well) to bring out important words. Her modifications ofa passage from 'Voi che sapete' (Example 2),107 for instance, distincdy resemble Garcia's model (Figure 1): just as Garcia often lengthens notes on accented syllables, so Patti improves Mozart's faulty accentuation of 'senza' (bars