Cinderella, The Daughter of the Regiment, The Barber of Seville and Don Pasquale are examples of operas in the bel canto tradition. Generally referring to the classical Italian type of singing, bel canto literally means beautiful song or beautiful singing. The singer is expected to produce a lovely sound, sing in tune, achieve a perfect legato (smooth uninterrupted connection of successive notes) and create long, flowing lines. This all requires extraordinary breathe control. Rossini defined the requirements for bel canto as follows:
A naturally beautiful voice,
Effortless delivery of highly florid music, and
Mastery of style which can only be learned from listening to the best.
Most bel canto operas require a great deal of coloratura singing. This involves considerable agility and virtuosity in ornamentation including trills and rapid sequences of notes. In most bel canto operas, the musical quality is of utmost importance, and the singing techniques used to produce their glorious sounds make it difficult to articulate consonants clearly. As the result, the words are often hard to understand. The bel canto specialist, conductor Bruno Campanella, says, "when it comes to text, the ideal word, from the bel canto viewpoint, would be a word made up exclusively of vowels".
In the early nineteenth century, both opera houses and orchestras were much smaller than they are now. The singers did not need the big voices we are used to hearing today when voices must compete with a large orchestra and in a very large theatre. Thus, true bel canto fell out of style. However, since the mid-twentieth century, it has been undergoing a revival with the advent of an extraordinary group of singers with the ability and training to meet its demands. Three are described below.
An early exampleJenny Lind (1820-1887), the 'Swedish Nightingale' is still remembered today even by those not knowledgeable about opera. After an early start, she lost her voice because of overwork, and she was ordered not to open her mouth for six weeks. When she started again, she had to to begin studying from scratch. Soon she was a success all over Europe, especially in England. Hans Christian Anderson was in love with her and proposed marriage. She is reputed to have inspired several of his tales, among them The Ugly Duckling and The Emperor's Nightingale. However, her operatic career only lasted about five years, and much of her fame today is due to her association with P.T. Barnum. He brought her to America in 1850, preparing her way with a six-month publicity campaign. As a result, she was greeted in New York by a mob scene and a parade up Broadway with serenades and speeches. From there she toured the country, giving ninety-five concerts in eight months. She gave most of her share of the proceeds to charity.
Dame Joan Sutherland (1926- ) began her career in concerts and oratorios throughout her native Australia. In 1952, she won a vocal competition and moved to London, where she made her Covent Garden début in 1952. In 1954 she married conductor and fellow Australian, Richard Bonynge, who led most of her performances. Sutherland's Lucia at Covent Garden in 1959 earned her world renown, and she was soon known in Europe as La Stupenda. In 1979 she was made a Dame of the British Empire and, in 1991, was appointed a member of the Order of Merit. With a "phenomenally beautiful voice of great range, power and flexibility",* she could sing many different types of roles and, with a secure singing technique, she remained a superstar for over three decades. She sang the bel canto role of Lucia, with its demanding coloratura, for over twenty-eight years. Even when she was a grandmother, she could still be convincing as the love-struck young girl. She gave her final performances in 1990 but is still active in the operatic world.
The great modern tenor, Luciano Pavarotti, captured the public imagination as no singer since Caruso. He found his greatest joy in bel canto roles of which he said:
[Bel canto] is the best medicine for the voice, because of the discipline and the combination of qualities it requires: agility, elasticity, a smooth even flow of liquid, well-focused sound, uniformity of color, the ability to spin long, expressively legato lines ... and most important, without ever overdoing anything or giving the impression that you are over-exerting yourself. … [If singers] are interested in having a long career, they should impose on themselves the task of mastering the bel canto style like a religious duty. … I knew that if I could sing bel canto as it was meant to be sung, I would know [how to sing!]
Return to Contents Page
Revised July 2009
Please credit Lyric Opera San Diego when using this material.