An Interpretive Guide to Operatic Arias: A Handbook for Singers, Coaches, Teachers, and Students

Front Cover
Penn State Press, 1983 - Music - 368 pages

A premier singer and master teacher here tells other singers how to get the most from 151 famous arias selected for their popularity or their greatness from 66 operas, ranging in time and style from Christopher Gluck to Carlisle Floyd, from Mozart to Menotti. "The most memorable thrills in an opera singer's life," according to the author's Introduction, "may easily derive from the great arias in his or her repertoire."

This book continues the work Martial Singher has done, in performances, in concerts, and in master classes and lessons, by drawing attention "not only to precise features of text, notes, and markings but also to psychological motivations and emotional impulses, to laughter and tears, to technical skills, to strokes of genius, and even here and there to variations from the original works that have proved to be fortunate."

For each aria, the author gives the dramatic and musical context, advice about interpretation, and the lyric--with the original language (if it is not English) and an idiomatic American English translation, in parallel columns. The major operatic traditions--French, German, Italian, Russian, and American--are represented, as are the major voice types--soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, baritone, bass-baritone, and bass.

The dramatic context is not a mere summary of the plot but is a penetrating and often witty personality sketch of an operatic character in the midst of a situation. The musical context is presented with the dramatic situation in a cleverly integrated way. Suggestions about interpretation, often illustrated with musical notation and phonetic symbols, are interspersed among the author's explication of the music and the action. An overview of Martial Singher's approach--based on fifty years of experience on stage in a hundred roles and in class at four leading conservatories--is presented in his Introduction. As the reader approaches each opera discussed in this book, he or she experiences the feeling of participation in a rehearsal on stage under an urbane though demanding coach and director.

The Interpretive Guide will be of value to professional singers as a source of reference or renewed inspiration and a memory refresher, to coaches for checking and broadening personal impressions, to young singers and students for learning, to teachers who have enjoyed less than a half century of experience, and to opera broadcast listeners and telecast viewers who want to understand what goes into the sounds and sights that delight them.

From inside the book

Contents

III
1
IV
3
V
6
VI
7
VIII
8
IX
10
XI
12
XIII
13
CXII
179
CXIV
181
CXV
183
CXVII
185
CXVIII
187
CXX
189
CXXI
191
CXXIII
193

XIV
15
XV
17
XVI
20
XVII
23
XVIII
26
XIX
28
XX
31
XXI
34
XXII
37
XXIII
39
XXIV
42
XXVI
44
XXVII
46
XXVIII
49
XXX
51
XXXI
53
XXXII
55
XXXIV
57
XXXVI
59
XXXVIII
64
XXXIX
66
XL
68
XLII
70
XLIII
73
XLV
75
XLVI
78
XLVIII
81
XLIX
82
L
84
LI
87
LII
89
LIV
91
LV
93
LVII
95
LIX
99
LXI
101
LXII
104
LXIII
107
LXV
108
LXVII
111
LXVIII
114
LXIX
117
LXX
120
LXXI
121
LXXII
124
LXXIII
125
LXXV
128
LXXVII
130
LXXVIII
133
LXXIX
137
LXXXI
138
LXXXIII
140
LXXXIV
142
LXXXVI
145
LXXXIX
146
XCI
148
XCIII
150
XCV
152
XCVI
154
XCVIII
155
C
157
CII
160
CIV
163
CV
165
CVI
167
CVIII
169
CIX
171
CX
174
CXI
177
CXXV
194
CXXVI
196
CXXVIII
198
CXXIX
199
CXXX
202
CXXXI
203
CXXXIII
205
CXXXV
207
CXXXVI
208
CXXXVII
210
CXXXVIII
211
CXL
213
CXLI
214
CXLII
216
CXLIV
217
CXLV
221
CXLVI
224
CXLVIII
226
CXLIX
229
CLI
231
CLII
234
CLIV
236
CLV
238
CLVII
242
CLVIII
244
CLIX
246
CLXI
249
CLXIII
251
CLXIV
254
CLXVI
256
CLXVII
259
CLXVIII
261
CLXX
263
CLXXI
266
CLXXII
269
CLXXIII
272
CLXXIV
274
CLXXV
277
CLXXVI
279
CLXXVIII
282
CLXXX
284
CLXXXI
286
CLXXXII
288
CLXXXIV
291
CLXXXVI
294
CLXXXVII
295
CLXXXVIII
297
CLXXXIX
301
CXCI
303
CXCII
306
CXCIII
308
CXCIV
310
CXCVI
312
CXCVIII
315
CC
317
CCI
321
CCIII
324
CCIV
327
CCVI
329
CCVII
332
CCVIII
334
CCX
336
CCXI
338
CCXII
341
CCXIII
343
CCXV
346
CCXVII
349
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About the author (1983)

Martial Singher was director of the voice and opera department at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, and served on the faculties of the Curtis Institute of Music, Chicago Musical College, Mannes College, and the Aspen and Marlboro Festivals. He performed with the Paris, Metropolitan, Chicago, and San Francisco Opera Companies and the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires.

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