By Pablo A. Tariman, VERA Files
Teachers brandish it as though it were a vocal talisman and some students think it is the key to instant vocal stardom.
If you are active in the conservatory circuit, you realize very few singers live up to it. A few sing to impress, not to communicate. Still many relish the bravura moments in Puccini and Verdi arias and end up doing the opposite of bel canto.
For lack of solid technique compounded by bad teachers, some students — who wanted to absorb the angelic resonance of bel canto — end up as pedestrian singers who think acting can cover up for a singing style way below the standard of how it should sound.
The truth is bel canto is better heard than lectured.
“An Evening of Bel Canto” — the closing season concert of the MCO Foundation, Inc. heard at the Ayala Museum last Saturday — gave that special audience the essential, if, substantial qualities of the art of beautiful singing.