Maria Callas, The art of becoming a great singer

Excerpts from an amazing 1 hour long interview with Maria where she talks about her vocal training, becoming a great singer and musician, cultivating good taste as an artist...and the real meaning of bel canto.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• maria
• callas
• interview
• good
• vocal
• technique
• masterclass
• joan
• sutherland
• marilyn
• horne
• tulio
• serafin
• bel
• canto
• diva
• soprano
• assoluta
• sfogato
• elvira
• de
• hidalgo

[AfroPoli]

Callas was a real artist - intelligent, gifted, serious about what she was doing. Today, we have singers like Netrebko who cannot speak either English or German (even though she is "Austrian") not to mention Italian and French, still sings those languages (even though nobody understands the words), she sings flat and she does not care, she does not study. And by that, she insults the audience, the composers and her profession. Callas was the exact opposite. A completely different race.

[primohomme]

@AfroPoli

What happens nowadays is that the standards are much lower...can you imagine that some actually think Gruberova and Devia are the true queens of bel canto? LMAO.

[charmedone43]

"From the least talented pupil you can learn something" Powerful life quote, never stop learning. There is no doubt of why she was so great... she was wise.

[cccorsetti]

callas was so incredibly beautiful,as the picture shows

[hidalgo699]

Agree, no chest voice at all in most sopranos. Callas was the absoluta, an alto, a mezzo an a soprano in 1 voice

[babydrane]

Listen to Callas, young singers, when she said that bel canto is not about keeping it light so much as about flexibility and, I would add, maintaining a fluid legato line throughout the range. Each gesture must have meaning or purpose. This second part has given singers after her, Sutherland included, the most problems because embellishments are still seen as tricks or tasks to be done rather than as elements to, as Callas said, serve musical expression.

[babydrane]

@LohengrinT Interview confused me for Joan shouldn't discuss strong chest tones or bel canto. Neither she nor her husband could move past a superficial conception and a literal translation of bel canto. Beautiful voice, impressive technique, knows to make the music serve her voice but is less able to serve the music. Chest tones are not as dazzling or as pretty as a warm middle voice and shimmering high notes. I suspect, to be honest, that that's why they weren't that important to him or her.

[Qbendanny]

Thank You Primo for this post, it is an important post because it contains words of wisdom for the generations that follow. Callas was a genius who taught even the rabid Italians at La Scala how opera should be sung. Callas's name in Opera is like saying the *Padre Nuestro* in church. They go together. Callas had no rivals,though many needed the publicity associated with that. You know who they are. No need to name them.What Callas had you can't buy it or sell it, it is a gift from God.

[Zizibello]

@primohomme

Gruberova and Devia - the true queens of Bel Canto??

Whoever said that should be slapped repeatedly!

[AfroPoli]

@primohomme Small minds enjoy small things I guess...