A fermata always must be measured, and if there are two fermate close to one another in the score, you ignore one of them. He explained that there was a rhythm - these are the things you get only from that man! - a measure for the human ear, and that if a note was too long, it was no good after a while. He taught me that pauses are often more important than the music. One of the things he told me - and this is the basis of bel canto - is never to attack a note from underneath or from above, but always to prepare it in the face. He would coach us for every little detail, every movement, every word, every breath. have a reason in the composer's mind, that they are the expression of the stato d'animo of the character - that is, the way he feels at the moment, the passing emotions that take hold of him. He opened a world to me, showed me there was a reason for everything, that even fiorature and trills. an extraordinary coach, sharp as a vecchio lupo.It's the same as making a film, your gestures will be seen in close-up, so they cannot be exaggerated as they would be in a theater. For the microphone, you have to tone it down.
In the theater, you can get away with a very large, very grand phrase. We have this microphone and this magnifies all details of a performance, all exaggerations. In making a record you don't have the sense of projection over a distance as in an opera house. It takes a little more time to get into the role, but not very much more.But in the long run they will, because you must persuade them of what you're doing. You have to do it, even if people will not understand. How can you do this with only a beautiful voice? Even if you sing harshly sometimes, as I have frequently done, it is a necessity of expression. What does that mean? When you interpret a role, you have to have a thousand colors to portray happiness, joy, sorrow, fear. How will you get out of a trill? How will you get out of scales when they are written there, staring you in the face? It is not enough to have a beautiful voice. Look at your scores! There are technical things written there to be performed, and they must be performed whether you like it or not. There is no excuse for not having a trill, for not doing the acciaccatura, for not having good scales. You don't excuse things in a singer you would not dream of excusing in a violinist or pianist. A singer is no different from an instrumentalist except that we have words. It is the same attitudes and demands of Mozart and Beethoven, for example, the same approach and the same technical difficulties faced by instrumentalists.
It is, rather, the technique demanded by the composers of this style - Donizetti, Rossini, and Bellini.
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What said that impressed me was: "When one wants to find a gesture, when you want to find how to act on stage, all you have to do is listen to the music.Discussing rival soprano Renata Tebaldi, in a television interview with Norman Ross, Chicago (17 November 1957).Sometimes, I actually wish I had her voice. I admire Tebaldi's tone it's beautiful - also some beautiful phrasing.Television interview with Norman Ross, Chicago (17 November 1957).All I can say, those who don't like it shouldn't come to hear me. Some say I have a beautiful voice, some say I have not.