Bel Canto, Bella Lingua: The Italian Connection

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Italian Song and Speech
Ms. Blum recalls how, when training as an opera singer in Europe, she would listen to the other students in performance. She notes that the vowels of Asian languages are produced way back in the throat, and recalls that the Asian singers who lived in Germany and/or coached with German opera coaches were inaudible in performance, while those Asian singers who had Italian vocal coaches and/or were living in Italy while training had excellent vocal projection and could be heard all through an opera house. Ms. Blum, herself a student of Richard Miller, recommends practicing speaking Italian to improve the singing voice.

A case in point is Sumi Jo, coloratura soprano born and raised in Korea but who studied voice at the Santa Cecilia Academy in Rome, and who went on to pursue a major international career while residing in Rome (and presumably continuing to speak Italian), and whose voice serves as a model of bel canto style.

Because Italian speakers place the vowels in a forward position, i.e., in front of the face, it's a natural to switch from speaking to singing with ease. That is probably why so many Italians seem to be blessed with "natural" singing voices. As Richard Miller points out, "Come si parla (as one speaks) is the sum total of the wisdom of the Italian school with regard to...the formation of vowels in singing."

Italian Opera Vocabulary List
Click to hear the highlighted word spoken by a native speaker.

• aria — a solo song performed in an opera or oratorio
• arioso — a more melodic form of recitative, that in opera often bridges the gap between the sing–songy recitative and the melodic aria
• cadenza — a showy musical passage, usually inserted by a soloist just before the ending of an aria
• cantabile — in a singing style, i.e., with the melody smoothly articulated
• coloratura — florid passages either written into an aria or inserted by the singer to show the singer's dexterity and skill; a voice (usually soprano) who can sing that type of music.
• leggero — light
• libretto — the text of an opera or oratorio (literally, "little book")
• lirico — lyric
• messa di voce — the singing of one sustained note which the singer starts softly, swells to a fairly loud volume and gradually returns to a soft volume, all on one breath (regarded as one of the most skilled feats of a bel canto style singer)
• mezzo — short for "mezzo soprano," a woman's voice slightly lower in range than a soprano and usually darker in tone
• opera buffa — comic opera
• opera seria — an opera with a tragic story and/or ending (the opposite of opera buffa)
• oratorio — a vocal work on a religious theme performed in concert with soloists, chorus and instruments
• recitativo — recitative; a passage that is more like speech than singing, usually inserted before an aria to shed light on the character's state of mind or events in the plot
• soprano — soprano; the category of singing voice with the highest range, sung by women and children
• sostenuto — sustained singing; long, rather slow phrases that the singer is capable of singing on one breath, considered one of the hallmarks of bel canto singing
• spinto — voice that is heavier than a lyric voice (between lyric—light—and dramatic)
• tenore — tenor; the category of adult male voice with the highest range

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