Sometime in the early '80s, when I was a voice and piano major in college, I watched a certain concert on PBS: it was from 1965, Maria Callas singing with L'Orchestre National de l'ORTF, conducted by Georges Prêtre. Though I was enthralled with the whole concert, it was specifically this performance of "Oh! se una volta sola ... Ah! non credea mirarti" from Bellini's opera La Sonnambula that made the greatest and most lasting impact on me. Till that point, I had never heard any Bellini whatsoever. I had been studying voice for about three years; I was a lyric coloratura scrounging around for arias that suited my voice type but that didn't make me want to gag from sugar overload. The recommendations made to me -- "The Bell Song" from Lakmé, "Je suis Titania" from Mignon -- just didn't appeal to my poetic (that's a euphimism for "dark") temperament. When I heard Bellini's sublime phrases spin forth from my television that afternoon, I found myself in tears. Never mind that Callas, at that point in her career, was past her glorious prime. Never mind the wayward wobble, the faulty intonation, and (I later realized) that she completely forgot the words during the cello cadenza. She transfixed me. And she sold me forever on Bellini.
Many people have likened Bellini to Chopin, and I would have to concur. If you appreciate and understand the one, you'll most probably appreciate and understand the other. This understanding goes beyond the instinct for spinning the long phrase, for finding the perfect amount of rubato, for shaping and pacing fioritura and ornament. It penetrates every note, not letting even the shortest slip by without its due expressivity. The long, arching melodies which are the hallmark of both Bellini and Chopin are not mere prettiness or swoony romanticism; they are imbued with human emotion and pathos, earthbound, complex. This understanding penetrates, too, the challenging Bellini accompagnato recitativo, and knows that it is the test of a true artist. In fact, I would go further and say that any sensitive and musical singer with good technique and breath control may successfully essay a Bellini cavatina -- but it is only a true artist that illuminates a Bellini recit and shows it to be the dramatic masterpiece it is. The same understanding penetrates the linear structure beneath the showy coloratura, knows instinctively that it is fundamentally different from the coloratura of Rossini and even Donizetti, that, for all its bravura, it is essentially melodic.
All this, I heard and saw in that single performance by Maria Callas. If you have never seen this video (I remind you of the link above), you must, if only to hear how an accompagnato recitativo should be done. Of course, there is also Callas' magnetically expressive face, and the hauntingly hollow tone with which she manages to convey the fact that Amina, the character in the opera, is actually sleepwalking while singing this piece. I regret that the cabaletta, "Ah, non giunge" (after Amina wakes up) is not included in the video, but Callas' rendition of it can be found elsewhere.
Oh -- I did wind up singing "Ah! non credea ... Ah, non giunge" many times in recitals and concerts, and also Amina's first aria, and the stunning "Qui la voce" from I Puritani. To assess myself honestly, my singing was pretty, musical, my coloratura fast and clean, trills ditto, and my diction excellent; but ultimately, it was nothing to write home about. Which is why I became a coach. I gained the reputation of being something of a bel canto and Baroque champion when I worked at HGO, and if I was, I'm proud and happy to have imparted my great love for these two styles to young singers. One of my biggest rewards was whenever a singer who had not hitherto felt any significant affinity for bel canto or Baroque, would say to me one day, "I love this stuff now!" Then I was satisfied that I had done my job.
In the words of Richard Wagner, "Chi non ama Vincenzo Bellini non ama la musica (he who does not love Vincenzo Bellini does not love music)."
Rock on, Vince.
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