A singing lesson with Giacomo Lauri-Volpi

The great tenor Giacomo Lauri-Volpi talks about the art of singing. This lesson was recorded in 1933 at the National Phonotheque. I think that the interviewer may be Gavino Gabriel, a well-known musicologist who directed the phonotheque during that period.
I hope you enjoy it.

[@vpo2g2]

Of course it helps to be born with a voice and have a good teacher...... Lauri-Volpi's squillo was impeccable.

[@hiyadroogs]

A truly fascinating insight from one of the greatest tenors of all time. Many thanks.

[@sospello]

This is a terrific posting and very inventive to provide a translation for those who need it divided between visuals for LV and for his interviewer. Thank you so much. So was this done the same year as the filmed opera at Verona and he does a demonstration from Ugonotti as well. Ottimo!

[@pericofantasias]

Ir os a priviledge to be able to attend such an enlightened lesson by one of the be st tenors the world has produced. Thank you so much for sharing.

[@vinalandsford6966]

A brilliant technician! Obviously a man who understood beauty and nuance..... highly focused and serious-minded musician. Truly one of the finest ever!

[@Phaidra69]

Now what can i say ? Bravo Maestro !!! Apart from the musical examples he gives here, i enjoyed very much what he said about the musical knowledge a singer must have ...i totally agree with his words that we have to respect all kinds of music and to study carefully the musical pages of all nations i will add ! Great lessons from one tenor who possessed vocal health till his old age .....

[@massimocavallina1882]

Regole eterne!non ci sono possibilità di eluderle, per i ver grandi cantanti!

[@charleswebb8230]

Every singer should read this! It is much like what the great teacher Manuel Garcia taught, but he added the use of falsetto to save wear on the voice. My little addition would be DO NOT SING PARTS THAT DO NOT SUIT YOUR VOICE LV's singing is beautiful.Henry Webb

[@alexj.denton7453]

Excelent video. Id love to read a book about G. Lauri-volpi, to know him a bit more. I love his voice and character. He had an expertise over his voice

[@franzitaduz]

I always wanted to read his books on singing, but they are in Italian...... This was invaluable as a place to pause momentarily and think about the source before opening your mouth! Thank you.

[@massimoboscaini]

I'm Italian, l can translate his books for you all.

[@marjorieallworth6172]

I have Franco Corelli's last lesson just before he died and, I am so grateful to the one who posted it!!! ✨🎶

[@matthiasjacquot2018]

Could you share please ?

[@marjorieallworth6172]

@@matthiasjacquot2018 I'll send you details tomorrow x

[@matthiasjacquot2018]

@@marjorieallworth6172 AMAZING! Thanks

[@depressedlarynx]

@@marjorieallworth6172 Hi, I would also love a copy of the lesson if it isn't too much trouble for you? Thanks.

[@birgirstefansson5398]

Thank you thank you thank you !

[@DinDanMee]

He knew the secret to it...there is no modern tenor able to do what he demonstrates at 4:16 and later

[@TrovadorManrique]

Thanks for your comment. I think you are absolutely right. :)

[@colinbrigham8253]

Thank you 😔

[@meyerbeer13]

These aren't actually soft lyrical songs -- it's the way he approaches them which is interesting and different. It's funny whether or not you think of F# as a tenor passaggio or in fact you even believe in the concept of passaggio -- Lamperti didn't -- but the choice of F# for tenor is different, that's what baritones get told that F# is their most difficult note. I wouldn't say for a tenor it would normally be F# although I did know someone with a big tenor voice who said coming in on the F as the first note of "La fleur que tu m'avais jetée" (Carmen) was the most difficult part of the aria. In general, in a finished voice -- and many singers, whatever they claim to have learned about technique -- if they become famous they started with an essentially finished voice and just learned (most do not) how not to destroy it, I suspect that that was the best part of Garcia's technique. But essentially the sense of a blending of registers in a finished voice goes from the top to the bottom, it's all seamlessly blended! That's the ideal. To me the most amazing thing about Lauri-Volpi's session here is the messa di voce in Huguenots, so ethereal, like he can do what he wants to with it. I'm a baritone and I suppose his F# is my D natural. I could do pretty much what I want to with the D natural. Where you get to "if in doubt shout" territory is more like E natural.

[@flaze3]

It's interesting to see how he doesn't seem to "cover" the "ah" on G#. It sounds open, but obviously this strategy worked just fine for him!

[@MicahandModesta]

Mind you he uses particularly soft, lyrical songs. The more dramatic voices that have trouble with this could still use the fundamental idea of the open vowel, but their placement would be unique to where they feel comfortable.

[@giovanni15031947]

lezione del maetro lauri-Volpi intervistato da Gavino Gabriel di Tempio Pausania.

[@orlando098]

@stefakamelpash According to Alfredo Kraus, Lauri-Volpi was a heroic tenor rather than a lyric one. Have you seen him in this video? I find it impressive that he was able to be both sweet and delicate and extremely powerful, as he chose : BC4qLbDUFtA

[@marjorieallworth6172]

✨🎶

[@caninbar]

It's interesting how consonants affect the vowel.

[@somerandomguy84]

Definitely. One of the difficulties of singing in English -- a lot of unvoiced consonants

[@ternitamas]

Invaluable information but the shaking text makes it difficult to read

[@zhannaguzhvenko8560]

con quello ha detto tutto,vedete

[@Gopher31]

often tenors will cover earlier when singing softer parts

[@Vergine082]

Please can you explain what's the difference to me ?i know it's not the same thing but what is the difference ? Thank you !

[@marjorieallworth6172]

I only had lessons from U - tube.

[@flaze3]

@maferreira1984 I have no idea what you're talking about. The note is the same... it's just named differently according to what scale it appears in. Moreover, darkness or lightness are added depending on interpretation or setting--not to do with the key of a piece... If you approach the note as two different things, it's like understanding 'plátano' and 'banana' as two different concepts, although they point out the exact same object.

[@maferreira1984]

@flaze3: they sound the same (it's enarmony, not equality of tone) only in tempered instruments or in non-tempered instruments playing along with tempered ones (say a violin accompanying a piano, v.g.), but that's just because the tempered system is, nowadays, taken as the standard one. The notes themselves are NOT the same. That's pure music theory and physics. For a practical approach, you might consider that an minor - or rather irrelevant - point. I'm just saying that the difference exists.

[@Nangis123]

So many utube experts in singing technique ,all puffing up their chests , all saying they know better .But can we hear them singing? Can we evaluate their supposed superiority ourselves by listening to their recordings? Do they have a public career as opera singers or teachers? No .They are all anonymous . So much for their expertise. And just in case you missed it folks ,this is called singing lesson ,not a lesson in technique .Singing is more than technique and this "lesson" is more about expression than technique .

[@SlavKulikov]

главное -- это то, что ученику желательно в начале мысленно чувствовать и изучать позицию всего певческого аппарата своего маэстро и копировать его эталонную гласную И, пока со временем это всё само не станет частью ученика

[@banmadabon]

@minnie888444 nel tuo caso è coma etilico...

[@maferreira1984]

@flaze3: I just now realized that you are just speculating, and don't really know much 'bout what you're talking about, right? For instance, there's the full chromatic system, in which there are 24 notes (C, C-sharp, D-flat, D and so on...), the dodecaphonic system (12 notes - enarmonics are counted once) and early-times diatonic system (6 or 7 notes). In eastern music (Japan, Arabia etc), they have plenty of notes that are aparted by less than 4,5 commas (and we call 1/4 tone, 1/8 etc)...

[@riccardobarreca8066]

Cinque anni fa ho lasciato un commento con il Nck name di Riccardo Manenti ed oggi, dopo altre esperienze, non posso che confermare quanto avevo affermato: lezione del tutto insufficiente e in un certo senso anche fuorviante.

[@Tkimba2]

Non penso che l intenzione fosse insegnare a cantare, ovviamente. Era una dimostrazione. Inutile, sicuramente. O meglio, utile a LV per sfoggiare le sue doti

[@gabrieleruffini4884]

What a pity that Lauri Volpi in that vocal condition was asked to record only a few phrases (even if extraordinary) and not the whole operas!!!!! I suppose that incompetent artistic directors of discographic studios have a long history and are not only a characteristic of today😂

[@jimdrake3436]

Until the late-1940s, when Columbia Records introduced the LP, the only disc-recording format was the 78 r.p.m. record, which played for about 4 minutes at most. Full operas were recorded on 78s, but the number of discs made them expensive to produce and unwieldy to ship, so the major record companies tended to limit their operatic output to arias and ensembles rather than complete operas.

[@antfrei1]

Here lies the problem with taking lessons from super gifted singers like Lauri Volpi. Those Fs shouldn't be so open. Any singer without the qualities of Lauri Volpi's voice would sound open and ugly. Corelli did not approach them that way.

[@jhernandez16]

Hmm. Its not about open or not. He is just singing the correct vowel. You should approximate the correct vowel as best you can in each part of your range. Some people just cannot relax the voice enough to accomplish the right vowel up top so they have to modify it. Modification is not necessary honestly.

[@Nangis123]

@antfreire anything to get FC's name in a comment?