Do It Otherwise

The famous vocal teacher, Trivulzi of Milan, said: "To be a good vocal teacher depends on one's refined ear."

It was he who brought forth into the musical world so many celebrities, including the tenor Rubini, the soprano Frezzolini, and others. Frezzolini was not far from seventy when I heard her sing divinely and with a fresh young voice, the aria from "La Somnambula," vocalizing with greatest ease the runs and trills in the cadenzas. At this age, was that not proof that she had the correct tone-production and that it is possible to preserve the voice through a life-time?

Lamperti, as a youth, was the accompanist of the famous vocal teacher, Trivulzi, and in listening to the well-produced, perfect tones of Trivulzi's pupils, his ear being naturally refined, he became Trivulzi's successor, at the latter's death, and in his turn, made celebrities from common singers, thereby gaining renown as a vocal teacher. Lamperti did not say to pupils: "For this or that tone, use the crico, or thyroid, or arytenoid cartilage," but to correct a bad tone, he said simply, "Do it otherwise," and was not content until the pupil had found the right way of tone-production in a perfectly free elastic vowel, not stiffened in the throat.

Could Trivulzi and Lamperti hear of these modern anatomical teachings, they would have a good laugh in their graves.

—Cappiani, Luisa. Practical Helps and Hints for Perfection in Singing (1908).

Student of Francesco Lamperti, and founding member of The National Association of Teachers of Singing, later known as The New York Singing Teachers Association.