ITALIAN ROOTS
What comes to mind when you reflect on the grand old tradition of bel canto Italian voice teaching?
Among opera experts, there is vibrant debate over exactly what that teaching tradition entails and the degree to which singers today should rely on it. To explore this topic, I interviewed five young Canadian artists and three of the teachers who work with them.
Most likely, there are no more passionate carriers of the old Italian fiamma than soprano Aprile Millo and her talented disciple, Niagara Falls, Ontario-based soprano Maria Vetere. During the past five summers, the two have led an intensive professional program, Operavision Academy in Busseto, Italy, a municipality intimately associated with Giuseppe Verdi. Their colleagues at the Academy include Sir Richard Bonynge, while the Museo Renata Tebaldi and the Casa Barezzi count among their cooperating institutions.
That Millo was destined to become a link to the Italian voice teaching tradition might, in 1986, have been foreshadowed by her first performance of Aida at Metropolitan Opera, with the New York Times somewhat snarkily reporting that right on stage, she “gave singing lessons to the evening’s Radames.”
Vetere, steeped in Italian culture, wrote a doctoral dissertation titled “From Verdi to Verismo: Boito and .” “I’m a Canadian girl,” she tells me, “still my heart is very much Italian. I feel it’s important for me to pass this
