Mario Del Monaco - O paradiso -L'Africaine Meyerbeer - 33 years old

Mario Del Monaco (July 27, 1915 - October 16, 1982) was only 33 when he recorded this. You can hear the great register balance in his voice that he lost a bit after his car accident. Nevertheless he was always great!

Here is an interview of Mario Del Monaco in 1981, he was 65. In the beginning he is talking about training a student he was working with at the time:

"What can one do in so short a time? One can show the way up to a point, but there is no opportunity to work. This is the problem today with all those who arrive too fast at the goal. He [the student] has already developed trouble in the top of his voice because of heavy roles he has undertaken, and I am trying to correct this. Too much too soon. I am happy looking back that I did not have an easy time at first, and that I had to to find myself.

It was lucky I did not become a star overnight, but had to fight for my success. I studied singing for ten years. I was studying violin in Pesaro when it was discovered I had a big voice. At the age of 13 it was already established that I was a tenor. My father first sent me to study voice at 14 with Maestro Raffaelli, who--incredibly--made me sing almost at once in a small, lovely new theater at Mondolfo Marotta. I was very thin then, and the next teacher almost ruined me. Basing her opinion on my physique, she sincerely believed I was a light tenor and made me study Don Pasquale and Il Matrimonio Segreto. My voice got smaller and smaller, and I was very worried.

Lamberto Gardelli was a fellow student at the conservatory and advised me to change teachers. I went to Maestro Melocchi at the conservatory and he did wonders, reconstructing the voice to its original form. With him I studied several years until 1936 I won a scholarship for advanced students at the Rome Opera. In Rome they were convinced I was a lyric tenor, and the same thing happened--my voice got small and constricted. It took a lot to persuade Maestro Melocchi to take me on again, as he had disapproved very strongly of the Roman experiment.

For a tenor to go on singing leads until he is sixty, in good condition, is something of an achievement, and I am proud of it. To sing well is not only difficult, one wonders at times whether it is a lost art. However many people may disagree with me, let me tell you that the abuse of pianos and pianissimos end by becoming the cancer of a voice. Twice in my beginnings I almost lost my instrument by using this system of reducing and reducing the voice. It works for light voices, but not for large ones. A solid instrument must open the larynx a lot, or it loses the support. Listen to Caruso's recordings--he always sang full voice. To make the sound pliable, smooth and mellow is another matter and this is what I worked toward during my entire professional life. It is very much like a person who becomes hooked on remaining thin and eats very little. Eventually the stomach becomes smaller and to enlarge it again is impossible."

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Mario
• Del
• Monaco
• paradiso
• -L'Africaine
• Meyerbeer
• -opera
• dramatic
• tenor
• aria
• bel
• canto
• Melocchi

[GermanOperaSinger]

Thanks for the info - undersinging is equally dangerous as oversinging. Melocchi's methods are so misunderstood. I have no idea what his secret was but I know for sure what it wasn't - forced larynx depression - and sadly that's what most people believe it to be!

[MrCafiero]

You've got that right. And there is no secret. He knew the right exercises that brought about correct development of the muscles and balance. He was for a relaxed lowered larynx from what I understand. But as with all great teachers so many distort due to ignorance. I know many who studied with my teacher that when I talk to them about the technique are often times way off on what he was doing. WAY OFF! So was the case of Melocchi.

[rdargenio]

Bravo Mario. Bellississima!

[bigus]

obvious differences here. he wasn't pushing or over singing. i dont think mdm ever really had a problem with pushing more trying to make the top too big and weighty with the laryngeal depression, but i dont hear that here at all, just good easy singing.

[Herur22]

Very beautiful.

[ShawDAMAN]

I always liked this recording. Incredible singer.

[aaronsande]

Remarkable, to be so delicate with that remarkably massive instrument he had! Bravo!

[jfsanin]

Very good video.jfsanin