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Chapter 1
Light opera
Jacques Offenbach, Johann Strauss II, W.S. Gilbert, Sir Arthur Sullivan, Franz LehƔr, Victor Herbert, Rudolf Friml, and Sigmund Romberg
While opera dates back to the late sixteenth century, light opera began in the late seventeenth century. By the mid-eighteenth century, light opera had become opera buffo, and by the mid-nineteenth century had evolved further into operetta. Operetta thrived throughout Europe, particularly in France, whose star composer was Jacques Offenbach and in Germany/Austria, whose star composer was the Austrian Johann Strauss II. Perhaps the biggest hit operetta was The Merry Widow, by Austro-Hungarian composer Franz LehƔr. Gilbert and Sullivan created English-language operetta, which became immensely popular around the world. The works of these men were embraced, emulated, imitated and advanced by the three great American writers of operetta, Victor Herbert, Rudolf Friml and Sigmund Romberg.
In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, several important vocal styles existed, such as canto spianato, cantabile, canto fiorito and canto declamato. But by far the most important and widely respected vocal style of this time was bel canto, which translates as ābeautiful singing.ā Bel canto, which can be traced back to the sixteenth century, had become firmly entrenched as the most common operatic vocal technique by the nineteenth century. Aspects of bel canto technique include
ā¢an impeccable legato production throughout the singerās registers (a seamless range)
ā¢the use of a light tone in the higher registers
ā¢an agile, flexible technique capable of dispatching ornate elements, embellishments such as singer-supplied cadenzas
ā¢the ability to execute fast, accurate divisions (articulating rapid notes with pitch-perfect precision)
ā¢ the avoidance of aspirates and the eschewing of loose vibrato
ā¢a pleasing, well-focused timbre
ā¢a clean attack
ā¢limpid diction
ā¢graceful phrasing rooted in a complete mastery of breath control.1
Bel canto singers used the following tools to bring color and inflect their text, to be convincing in their acting:
accent, emphasis, tone of voice, register, phrasing, legato, staccato, portamento, messa di voce, tempo, vibrato, ornamentation and gesture. Bel Canto performers sang in an emphatic way, accenting individual syllables appropriately, matched register and tonal quality [ā¦] to the emotional content of the words; employed a highly articulate manner of phrasing; varied their delivery with several types of legato and staccato; liberally applied more than one type of portamento; considered messa di voce to be one of the principal sources of expression; altered tempo frequently through rhythmic rubato and the quickening and slowing of the overall time; introduced a wide variety of graces and divisions into the music they sang; and regarded gesture as a powerful tool for enhancing the effect of their delivery. They reserved vibrato, however, for heightening the expression of certain words and for gracing longer notes.2
Coming from Italian opera, bel canto is a vocal technique in which the quality of the voice is judged on the smoothness of the vocal line, both in terms of its legato quality and the lack of any perceptible register shift. The technique results in āresonance and purity of tone, consistency of tone across the registers of the voice.ā3 According to bel canto acolyte Chris Tondreau, the fours stages of the bel canto technique are 1) the lift of the throat, using the hard resonant surfaces of the vocal mechanism such as teeth and the hard palate to create vocal size, 2) placing the voice high in the face and using the mask of the face to create resonance, 3) using the visualization of the inhalation of sound and 4) holding the breath rather than using the diaphragm to force air out. In the eighteenth and early nineteenth century Italian opera singers were judged on their ornate embellishments such as trills and runs. In order to accomplish these with a sense of effortlessness, this bel canto style offered an agility through the lightness of the technique and the lack of any discernible break between registers.
As operettas were reaching the peak of their popularity in Europe, the traditional bel canto style of singing had given way to the newer verismo style, which replaced pure beauty of tone with intensity of dramatic situation, heightened emotions and the need to get the voice out over a thicker orchestral accompaniment.
By the later nineteenth century the verismo style had replaced the earlier Italian style, and opera composers were writing heavier vocal lines, pushing singers higher in their ranges, and requiring singers to extend vocal registers. Tenors, for instance needed to produce high Cs and even Ds in their full voice rather than falsetto to create the desired emotional truth and to overcome the thicker instrumental accompaniment. While bel canto singers had been judged by the beauty of line (the legato quality) and the singerās agility, verismo vocal technique was judged on the power of the voice and the emotional ātruth.ā Verismo required substantially more muscling of sound than bel canto, and frequently singers would combine techniques; the demands of such muscular singing as a sole ...
