Towards a Verdian Ideal of Singing: Emancipation from Modern Orthodoxy

Abstract

To try to understand the vocal styles demanded by the famously exacting Giuseppe Verdi, I consider a wide range of evidence, including the composer's scores and letters, contemporary treatises, reports on performances, and selected early recordings. On the basis of this material, I contend that the vocal styles known and advocated by Verdi differed radically from what is proposed by most modern pedagogues and nearly always heard in opera houses today. An examination of the evidence, as it bears on specific technical and expressive procedures, sheds light on nineteenth-century vocal style, offering novel interpretative possibilities to the modern performer.

Expressive Tempo Modifications in Adelina Patti's Recordings: An Integrated Approach

“…Chorley made a similar comment when reviewing the London premiere of Rigoletto in 1853: Angiolina Bosio's style suited Verdi's music, for "by him singers are invited, not forbidden, to slacken tempo" (Chorley, 1853). Even though today's scholars tend to agree that Verdi preferred quicker tempos and objected to any arbitrary tempo modifications (Hepokoski, 1985), there seems to be sufficient evidence that it was only the useless modifications that Verdi was opposing, that is to say, those modifications that found no justification in either the lyrics or the dramatic situation (Freitas, 2002). When Verdi conducted his Messa in Köln in 1877 the critic August Guckeisen remarked that the composer indulged in a certain degree of rubato (Conati, 1980, p. 121).…”