If one of these dramatic singers,
thus hampered by difficulties, makes the slightest lapse from tonal
beauty (which may be even called for) he is judged as unmercifully as
if he were a representative of the _bel canto_, whose art consists in a
mere voice without emotion--_vox et praeterea nihil_. This is as unfair
as it is to judge Wagner's dramas by the music alone, and is, indeed a
consequence of this attitude.
It has been too much the habit in America and in England to sneer at
German singers; and it is customary if a German singer has a good
mellow voice to attribute that to his Italian method, while his
shortcomings are ascribed to the German method. This, again, is as
absurd as it is unjust; for, as I have endeavored to show, the real
German method, by insisting on an equal treatment of all the vowels,
develops a richer and more sonorous voice than the Italian method;
and, indeed, the reason why powerful dramatic voices are so rare among
Italians, is because of their one-sided preference, in their
exercises, for the easiest vowels.
When Mendelssohn travelled in Italy he noted that there were very few
good singers at the opera-houses, and that one had to go to London
and Paris to find them.
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