The dark side of Italian singing has been sufficiently
dwelt upon; let us now consider the bright side.
Italy owes much of her fame as the cradle of artistic song and "The
Lord's own Conservatory," to climatic and linguistic advantages.
Thanks to the mild climate, men and women can spend most of their time
in the open air, and their voices are not liable to be ruined by
constantly passing from a dry, overheated room into the raw and chilly
air of the streets. The Italians are a plump race, with well-developed
muscles, and their vocal chords share in the general muscular health
and development; so that the average voice in Italy has a much wider
compass than in most other countries; and an unctuous ease of
execution is readily acquired. Their language, again, favors Italian
singers quite as much as their climate. It abounds in the most
sonorous of the vowels, while generally avoiding the difficult U, and
the mixed vowels Oe and Ue, as well as the harsh consonants, which are
almost always sacrificed to euphony. And where the language hesitates
to make this sacrifice, the vocalists come to the rescue and
facilitate matters by arbitrarily changing the difficult vowel or
consonant into an easy one.
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