What is Bel Canto, by the way?

Updated: Dec 11, 2023

'Bel canto' means beautiful singing. Or oops, alternatively, beautiful song.

Admit it, you don't have a clear idea of what it refers to, even after two terms full of bel canto opera! And you've every right to be confused.

'Bel canto' can refer to a narrow or broad range of historical periods (mid-18th to early 19th centuries - or any time this sort of music won hearts in opera.) It can be attached to a specific or wide range of composers (Rossini, Donizetti, and Bellini... but also Handel and Mozart before. Is the Queen of the Night aria bel canto? Or the Countess and Susanna's "Sull'aria"? And many list Verdi, at least till he overthrew it - see below).

'Bel canto' can describe a particular singing skill (most commonly, coloratura, which means 'an elaborate melody with runs, trills, wide leaps, or similar virtuoso-like material, or a passage of such music' says Wikipedia.) But it can also refer to a vocal technique involving a formidable suite of voice training and singing styles - and challenges - see below! Or it may designate a conceptual approach to music, emphasising voice over orchestra, and sweet, smooth, flowing melodies (doesn't sound like coloratura?) And closeness to the words, expressive colouring of meaning. On the other hand it can be applied to music for orchestra, not voice.

The term summons stereotypes (mostly unflattering) at a rate excelled by few terms, even in opera. It is associated specially with diva soprano solos, (especially in mad scenes) but tenors and baritones do it too, together or with or without the soprano, and it's often applied to duets and choruses. Often it's associated with comedies - especially with slick, quick patter songs or show-off arias. But it's probably more commonly in tragedies, as there were more of those from the 'three kings' of bel canto.

So you should of course relax about the confusions - and enjoy these beautiful melodies. But here are helpful links if you want to think it out.

Beautiful Singing is done this way

The bel canto style is not easily achieved. Sondra Radvonosky told an interviewer, "Singing bel canto is like walking on a tightrope – especially with a larger voice, like mine. So, it’s constantly living like a nun: not going out, not talking a lot."

She was preparing for Donizetti's music for Elizabeth in the Met's Roberto Devereux.

According to Lucus Meachem, baritone, "It's achieved by using sustained breath support and consistent vibrato throughout every phrase. Donizetti, Bellini, and Verdi wrote the character and the emotions into the vocal lines. That is the key to interpreting a character in this repertoire. Let the music do it for you."

There are many tutorials online to help you learn these techniques.

And two gems - 'How to Sing Bel Canto', recorded by Joan Sutherland, Luciano Pavarotti and Marilyn Horne, in relaxed conversation with Richard Bonyngne.

Here's the first video.

And here's the second.

And no I don't know where this wonderful image of the great duetters was taken. I found it on this site.

You'll find many different accounts of the training process and lists of the musical requirements for bel canto singing. But you'll also find emphasis on singing the words and their meaning in music, and music that adorns the words, with the emphasis on breathing applying beyond bel canto.

A nice example is here:

"The style is associated with beautiful melodies, silvery voices and floods of rapid notes curling their way up and down the scale, sometimes only loosely around the framework of what the composer actually wrote. Because opera singing is not amplified, one of its basic techniques is developing sufficient breath support to enable your voice to be heard in a 3,000-seat theater without a microphone."

And that ornamentation? There's a good summary here.

"As the name implies, the focus of bel canto is on the music, especially the voice. “Beauty” is the key word when it comes to bel canto. There is plenty of room for rubato (the freedom to slow down and speed up) in this style, and lead characters often have cadenzas (short passages for the solo voice in an improvised-like style) which allows them to showcase their voices. When you listen to different recordings of different interpreters of the great bel canto roles (e.g. Lucia in Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, Norma in Bellini’s Norma), you’ll notice the distinctive coloring, ornamentation, and embellishment that the singers incorporate into their interpretation of the role. In bel canto, more so than in other styles, the different sounds a singer brings to the character play a greater role in the development of that character. “Subtlety” and “nuance” are two words that come to mind when I think about bel canto."

The end of bel canto?

And then there was Verdi – and a shift from beautiful singing to dramatic action, conflict and ideological messages. Seattle Opera is one of several sources that specify the moment and the music with which he overthrew the dominant bel canto mode in Italian opera.

It's in La Traviata Act 11. Baritone and soprano - Germont pere confronts Violetta with the demand that she forego her love and life with his son, to save the family honour - and (in one of those opera moments whenyou want to yell "Don't do it!"), she accepts defeat. (Current ROH production is at right.)

The passage starts with his flowing account of his angelic daughter - "Pura siccome un angelo".

Here is a stern bourgeois Dmitri Horostovsky in his last performance (left) in the role of Giorgio Germont at the Vienna State Opera 2016.

Violetta's terrified response and defeat are played here by Mirella Freni in the towering duet with Sherrill Milnes.

Here's Callas with Mario Zanasi (ROH, 1958).

The duet between old Germont and Violetta, which takes up the bulk of the second act, is one of Verdi’s most remarkable creations. A traditional bel canto form dissolves into a massive musical structure, one which morphs a fascinating conflict into music of simple yet rapturous beauty and penetrating dramatic insight. With this duet, Verdi finally freed himself for good from the shackles of convention.

More about Verdi and the shift to verismo here.

Listen here!

Your Bel Canto full opera opportunity and concert playlist for the holiday season!

A beautiful Barber of Seville free on YouTube.

Garsington Opera staged a shiny new Barber of Seville this past northern summer. Gorgeous Seville sets and pretty good singing, with Katy Bray’s Rosina's ‘Una voce poco fa’ a highlight.