Long lines of musical phrases, melodic passages and graces, amazing voice control and honed beauty of virtuoso singing. At the turn of the XVI-XVII centuries, a singing school appeared in Italy, which presented the world with performing vocal technique, which the Italians, eager for elaborate terms, called bel canto (belkanto) - “beautiful singing”. It is not exaggerated to designate this period as the beginning of the flowering of theatrical vocals and the starting point for the further development of the opera genre.
The Origin of the Opera: Florence
The first operas that appeared in the described time period owe their birth to members of a small circle of lovers of ancient art, which was formed in Florence and went down in musical history under the name “Florentine Camerata”. Fans of the ancient Greek tragedy dreamed of reviving the former glory of this genre and were of the opinion that the actors did not pronounce, but sang words, using recitative, a melodic smooth transition of sounds to reproduce the text.
The first works written on the plot of the ancient Greek myth of Orpheus became the impetus for the birth of a new musical genre - opera. And the solo vocal parts (arias) that served as its component forced the singers to seriously engage in voice training, which became the reason for the appearance of the art of beautiful singing - belkanto. This implied the ability to perform long melodic fragments in a long breath while maintaining smooth sound production throughout the musical phrase.
Neapolitan school
At the end of the 17th century, the Neapolitan opera tradition was formed, which finally confirmed the art of belcanto on the stage. It was both the development of the plan of the Florentines and its change. In Naples, the main component of the play was music and singing, not poetry, which until then had been given the leading role. Such an innovation was to the taste of the audience and caused stormy delight.
Neapolitan composers structurally transformed opera. They did not refuse to use recitatives, which were divided into different types: accompaniment (accompanied by an orchestra) and dry, containing information presented in a colloquial manner to the rare harpsichord chords to maintain musical tonality. Vocal training, which has become mandatory for performers, has increased the popularity of solo numbers, the form of which has also undergone changes. Typical arias appeared in which the characters expressed their feelings in a generalized way, with reference to the situation, and not based on the image or character. Mournful, buffoonery, domestic, passionate, arias of revenge - the interior of the Neapolitan opera was filled with living content.
Alessandro Scarlatti (1660-1725)
Outstanding composer and enthusiast Scarlatti went down in history as the founder of the Naples Opera School. He created more than 60 works. The genre of a serious opera (opera seria), created by Scarlatti, with the help of a mythological or historical story told about the life of famous heroes. Opera singing pushed into the background the dramatic line of the performance, and recitations gave way to the Aryans.
The wide range of vocal parts in serious opera has expanded the requirements that opera voices had to meet. The performers improved their skills in the art of singing, although sometimes this led to curiosities - each of them wanted the composer to certainly include in the opera arias that favorably emphasized the virtues of the voice. The result was a set of unrelated solo numbers, which is why they began to call opera seria a "concert in costumes."
Beauty and craftsmanship
Another contribution of the Neapolitan opera school to the development of bel canto was the use in the vocal parts of ornamental (coloratura) ornaments of the musical palette. Coloratura was used at the end of the arias and helped performers demonstrate to the listeners the degree of voice control. Big jumps, trills, range passages, application of a sequence (repeating a musical phrase or a melodic turn in different registers or keys) - this way the expressive palette used by Belcanto virtuosos increased. This led to the fact that the degree of mastery of the singer was often evaluated by the complexity of the coloratura performed by him.
Italian music culture made high demands. The voices of famous singers were distinguished by the beauty and richness of the timbre. Vocal training helped to improve the performing technique, to achieve evenness and fluency of sound in all ranges.
The first conservatories
Demand for bel canto led to the formation of the first educational institutions in which singers were trained. Orphanages - conservatories - became the first music schools of medieval Italy. The Belcanto technique was taught in them on the basis of imitation, repetition of the teacher. This explains the high level of training of singers of that time. After all, they were trained by recognized masters, such as Claudio Monteverdi (1567-1643) or Francesco Cavalli (1602-1676).
The students were composed special exercises for the development of voice, solfeggio, which were to be repeated, improving the singing technique and developing breathing - the skills so necessary for Belcanto. This led to the fact that, starting training at the age of 7-8, by the age of 17, professional performers for opera stages left the walls of the conservatory.
Joaquino Rossini (1792-1868)
With its appearance, the Italian Belcanto predetermined the tendency for the development of opera musical culture for the next three centuries. Milestone in its development was the work of the Italian composer J. Rossini. The rhythmic energy, brilliance and mobility of the vocal parts demanded from the performers rich timbral diversity, virtuosity and an exceptional singing school. Even the singing arias and recitations in Rossini's works demanded complete surrender.
Rossini's melodism paved the way for the classic bel canto, distinguished by the completeness of phrases, gentle and airy, freely flowing smooth melody (cantilena) and sensually sublime ardor. It is noteworthy that the composer himself knew about the art of singing firsthand. In his childhood, he sang in the church choir, and in adulthood, in addition to composing, he devotedly devoted himself to pedagogical vocals and even wrote several books devoted to this issue.
Pedagogy
Italian opera singing, which became a symbol of European musical culture of the 17th-19th centuries, appeared thanks to the work of gifted innovative teachers who studied vocals and experimented with a human voice, bringing its sound to perfection. The techniques described in their works are still used in the preparation of singers.
Not a trifle escaped the attention of teachers. Students learned the secrets of free and easy singing breathing. Vocal training assumed moderate sound volume, short melodic phrases and narrow intervals, which made it possible to use speech breathing, characterized by a quick and deep breath followed by a slow exhalation. Complexes of exercises were developed to train uniform sound production in high and low registers. Even training in front of the mirror was part of the training course for beginner performers - excessive facial expressions and strained facial expressions betrayed the convulsive work of the voice apparatus. It was recommended to keep free, to stand upright and with the help of a smile achieve sound clear and close.
New singing techniques
Complex vocal parts, dramaturgy and theatricalization of performances posed difficult tasks for the singers. Music reflected the inner world of the heroes, and the voice became an integral part of the overall stage image. This was clearly manifested in the operas of J. Rossini and J. Verdi, whose work marked the rise of the Belcanto style. The classical school considered the use of falsetto on high notes acceptable. However, dramaturgy rejected such an approach - in the heroic scene, the male falsetto entered into an aesthetic dissonance with an emotional coloring of the action. The first to overcome this voice threshold was the Frenchman Louis Dupree, who began to use the manner of sound formation, which establishes the physiological (narrowing of the larynx) and phonetic (language in the "s-shaped" position) protection mechanisms of the vocal apparatus and is hereinafter called "covered". She allowed to form the upper part of the sound range without switching to falsetto.
Giuseppe Verdi (1813-1901)
Surveying opera vocal art, it is unthinkable to ignore the figure and creative heritage of the great Italian composer J. Verdi. He transformed and reformed opera, introduced plot contrasts and contrasts. The first of the composers took an active part in the elaboration of the plot, stage design and production. His operas were dominated by the thesis and antithesis, raged feelings and contrasts, combined everyday and heroic. A similar approach dictated new requirements for vocalists.
The composer was critical of coloratura and said that trills, foreshags and groupettos are not able to become the basis of the melody. In the compositions there are almost no ornamental decorations, remaining only in soprano parts, and later completely disappearing from opera scores. Male parties at the climax moved to the upper register using the “hidden sound” already described above. Performers of baritone parts were forced to rebuild the voice apparatus from a high tessitura (high-altitude arrangement of sounds relative to the singing range), dictated by the reflection of the emotional state of the characters. This led to the emergence of a new term - “Verdi baritone”. The work of J. Verdi, 26 beautiful operas staged at the La Scala Theater, marked the rebirth of Belcanto - the art of perfected voice possession.
World tour
Light and graceful vocal style cannot be kept within the borders of one state. Under his charm, most of Europe gradually appeared. Beautiful singing conquered the world theatrical stages and influenced the development of musical European culture. Formed opera, called "Belkant". Style pushed the boundaries of its application and stepped into instrumental music.
The virtuoso melody of F. Chopin (1810-1849) synthesized Polish folk poetry and the Italian opera bel canto. The dreamy and tender heroines of the operas by J. Masne (1842-1912) are filled with belcant charm. The influence of the style turned out to be so great that its influence on music became truly grandiose, ranging from classicism to romanticism.
Cultural mix
The founder of Russian classics was the great composer M.I. Glinka (1804-1857). His orchestral writing - sublimely lyrical and at the same time monumental - is filled with melody, in which both folk song traditions and the Belcant sophistication of Italian arias can be seen. The cantilena peculiar to them turned out to be similar to the melodiousness of long Russian songs - truthful and expressive. The predominance of the melody over the text, intralominal chants (singular accentuation of individual syllables), speech repetitions that create a length of chorus - all this in the works of M.I. Glinka (and other Russian composers) in a striking manner harmoniously combined with the traditions of Italian opera. Lingering folk songs, according to critics, deserved the title of "Russian Belcanto."
In the repertoire of stars
The brilliant era of Italian Belcanto ended in the 20s of the XX century. The military and revolutionary upheavals of the first quarter of the century crossed out the normative essence of romantic opera thinking; it was replaced by neoclassicism and impressionism, modernism, futurism and others divided into directions. And yet, the famous opera voices did not cease to appeal to the masterpieces of Italian classical vocals. The art of “beautiful singing” was brilliantly owned by A. V. Nezhdanov and F. I. Chaliapin. The unsurpassed master of this singing direction was L.V. Sobinov, who was called the Belcanto ambassador to Russia. The Great Maria Callas (USA) and Joan Sutherland (Australia), the lyric tenor Luciano Pavarotti (Italy) and the unsurpassed bass Nikolai Giaurov (Bulgaria), awarded their colleagues the title “Voice of the Century” - their art was based on the artistic and aesthetic basis of Italian Belcanto.
Conclusion
New trends in musical culture failed to overshadow the brilliance of the classic Italian Belcant opera. Young performers bit by bit look for information on proper breathing, sound production, voice sculpture and other subtleties, preserved in the notes of the masters of previous years. This is not an idle interest. The sophisticated audience woke up the need not to hear the modern reading of classical works, but to plunge into the reliable temporary space of impeccable singing art. Perhaps this is an attempt to unravel the mystery of the Belcanto phenomenon - how, in the era of the ban on female voices and the preference of a high male register, a singing direction could emerge that survived centuries and turned into a harmonious system that laid the foundation for the training of professional vocalists for several centuries.