MOZART, Wolfgang Amadeus

Le nozze di Figaro K 492

"Hai già vinta la causa… Vedrò, mentr'io sospiro"

Joyce DiDonato, guest professor

Unai de la Rosa Hernández, student

Laïla Barnat, accompanying pianist

After the student sings the well-known recitative and aria of Count Almaviva from Le nozze di Figaro, Professor DiDonato praises his stage presence and character interpretation. She points out that they can work on singing the vowels more, as this type of aria is sometimes performed too declamated, causing the beauty of the voice and the elegance that should be conveyed to be lost. To address this, they review the text phrase by phrase with much more legato, focusing on vocal placement on the vowels. They seek a rounder sound, interpreting the words freely without strict adherence to the melodic line or tempo, simply allowing a beautiful sound to flow.
For such famous arias, the professor advises against singing them by imitating recordings. In her view, the more elegance, beauty, and space in the voice, the more comedic and fitting the character will actually become. There is no need to play the stereotypical angry Count. Since the student already has the character well integrated, if he practices this new approach for a few months, when he returns to the score, his voice will be more relaxed, with a much wider spectrum in all directions, allowing him to convey the aria's depth more effectively.

Language: English