“The true method of singing is in harmony with nature and the laws of health.”
Giovanni Battista Lamperti, The techniques of bel canto, p. one
Giovanni Lamperti and his father Francesco continued the illustrious “old school Italian” banner of voice training throughout the 19th century. While the method was perhaps uncomfortably short in scientific analysis for a modern industrial world (as opposed to the emerging and competitive Garcia method), it was long in success stories that ranged from the great castrati of the seventeenth century to the many successful and successful students. teachers emerged from Lamperti studies. Consequently, the teachings of the two Lampertis have acquired “holy writing” status among many vocalists today: either appreciated or ignored for their ancient origins.
The Lamperti method could perhaps best be described as the accumulated wisdom and artistry of an accomplished but diverse and evolved profession, distilled and adapted for modern use. While both father and son expressed their share of reactionary disgust at the modern disregard for techniques and a taste for operatic legacy, they were clearly realistic in preparing their students for present conditions. Unlike his father, Giovanni even went so far as to say that there was nothing harmful to a singer’s voice when singing the strenuous demands of Wagnerian and Verdi opera. Rather, the deficiency of preparation and training was responsible for the large number of damaged voices that fell victim to the madness for a bigger, taller, louder and longer opera.
Giovanni Battista Lamperti was born in 1839 in Milan. There, she was a chorister in the great cathedral and studied singing and piano at the conservatory. A student and later companion of his father at the conservatory, Giovanni knew better than anyone the method taught by his father (who claimed descent from the great castrato-teacher Bernacchi). Appropriating it to teach his own students, Giovanni also began teaching singing at the Milan conservatory and then for 20 years in Dresden, followed by Berlin. His preferred teaching arrangement was to have three or four students present for each lesson: each would take their turn while the others watched and learned in this way. He was said to be a strict and demanding instructor who was not given to flattery, but who enthusiastically praised his students for their exceptional achievements. Many of GiovanniâEURY’s students became international opera stars, including Irene Abendroth, Marcella Sembrich, Ernestine Schumann-Heink, Paul Bulss, Roberto Stagno, David Bispham, and Franz Nachbaur.
Several father and son students became singing teachers and published singing methods that they claimed were from Lampertis. One of the father’s students explained the differences between the students’ methods like this:
“I have found very few of the former students of the great teacher who really knew how to impart the golden rules of their teachers without disfiguring them to the maximum and mixing them with what they called ‘their own artistic experience’, which of course was not and could not be much “. (Interview with MartÃn Roeder, The musical messenger, October 4, 1893.)
The Technics of Bel Canto is the only book (apart from the maxims remembered and published posthumously by student WE Brown) that Giovanni wrote on his method.
As a final note, there was a famous bad blood between the old and the young Lamperti, which eventually resulted in a bitter schism between the studios and the followers of Francesco and Giovanni. A student from both Lampertis described the hostile situation like this:
“Oddly enough, father and son never understood each other and were never on good terms. They were both very nervous, very temperamental and maybe annoyed each other. Anyway, there was jealousy between them that was never to get over. The father said that his son was not a musician, and the son responded by saying: ‘At the death of my father, he had great fame and had no money; at my death I will have a reasonable fame and a large income.’ When the misunderstanding between the two became unbearable, the young man dedicated himself to the profession of music. ” (Interview with Lena Doria Devine, New York Post. Quoted from The musical messenger, October 25, 1893.)
GB Lamperti Bel Canto techniques is available to order here: Book: $ 16.96 or Download: $ 5.95