What is Bel Canto?

The term bel canto—beautiful singing—commonly describes the admired vocal practices (originating in Italy) that were prevalent in Europe during the period 1700–1900. But how did singing actually sound in this period? And what expressive practices did singers use to transform scores into passionate musical declamation—the fundamental aim of bel canto? These and other considerations are the subject of this project.  It brings together an international community of singer practitioners guided by a stellar research team of performers and scholars to expand knowledge of historical singing sounds and practices singing using with practice-led methodologies.

Sound recordings of 19^th-century trained singers, for example the soprano Adelina Patti (1843–1919), the bass Peter Schram (1819–1895), and baritone Jean-Baptiste Faure (1830–1914) provide evidence of singing styles belonging to a long-established continuum of practice, which were comprehensively abandoned during the early 20^th-century modernist revolution. Since that time, the term bel canto has been re-appropriated to describe modern singing practices that do not align with original bel canto ideals.

In this project, participant singers have delved into the sounds of bel canto through an innovative method which starts with imitating early recordings of 19th-century trained singers to embody their expressive practices and develop a pre-modern aesthetic (stage 1), before extrapolating backwards in time using tried and tested cyclical research methods and collaborative active experimentation (stage 2).