# What exactly is the definition of Bel Canto?



## obwan (Oct 24, 2011)

Would this be an accurate description? (More or less)

A singing style which is characterized by not-so melodic lines using the beauty of the singers' voices to 'pitch' or 'sell' the song to the audience?

I aint sure if this would offend bel canto fans or not, but I consider myself a bel canto fan as well, however the few bel canto operas that I have seen thus far, (Le comte ory, barber of seville, Lucia di Lammermoore, Anna Bolena, Ernani), to be honest, although I highly esteem them, I can't 'recall' a single song from any one of them, save for the obvious Largo al factotum and the sextet from Lucia.

Contrast this to La Boheme or Tosca, or Don Giovanni, I can, at any given moment, hum the tunes to a great many of the songs from those operas. The same might be said for Iphegenie en tauride & Il trovotore (can really only remember the anvil choros) as can be said for bel canto, would these two works be thought of as bel canto also? 

I aint kidding, some of these opera singers are so good, they could sing off-pitch and it would stll sound great. Their vibrato, legato, etc etc is just so amazing they could 'sell' anything as a beautiful song....


How else would you describe bel canto? Wikipedia isn't much help on this one.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

We had a thread on this---Bel Canto Question---and I answered it in great detail, have a look.


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## Lunasong (Mar 15, 2011)

http://www.talkclassical.com/16588-bel-canto-question.html


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## obwan (Oct 24, 2011)

Well that still doesn't touch on the style of 'bel canto' opera, more limited to 'bel canto' singing.

Is there a stylistic difference between the operas of Rossini & Donizetti between other operas, apart from just requiring very skilled singers?


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Bel Canto = beautiful singing.

The issue about quality of singing where beauty of tone and beauty of voice overrides any concern for diction, or more realistic ('Verismo') concerns of coloring the voice with the text and dramatic content.

Now, go to that older thread, I think


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## obwan (Oct 24, 2011)

so Philip Glass, would be considered bel canto, as long as it had good singers singing it, as beautifully as they could?


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

obwan said:


> Well that still doesn't touch on the style of 'bel canto' opera, more limited to 'bel canto' singing.
> 
> Is there a stylistic difference between the operas of Rossini & Donizetti between other operas, apart from just requiring very skilled singers?


That's because bel canto desribes singing, I don't believe it describes the opera.


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## obwan (Oct 24, 2011)

Well I've always heard Rossini, Bellini & Donizetti described as great 'Bel Canto' composers.


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## Lunasong (Mar 15, 2011)

I am the source of links...
http://www.talkclassical.com/10411-whos-your-favourite-bel.html


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## CountessAdele (Aug 25, 2011)

Maybe I'm off base but I thought that coloratura or flexibility and speed were halmarks of the bel canto style. Rossini, Bellini, and Donizetti tended to write opera's with lots of rapid coloratura, so bel canto...right? But a role can have some coloratura without it being a 'bel canto role'...right?


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

obwan said:


> Well I've always heard Rossini, Bellini & Donizetti described as great 'Bel Canto' composers.


Yes because they must be sung in the bel canto style by singers capable of doing so.


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## MattExcell (Jun 15, 2011)

obwan said:


> the few bel canto operas that I have seen thus far, (Le comte ory, barber of seville, Lucia di Lammermoore, Anna Bolena, Ernani), to be honest, although I highly esteem them, I can't 'recall' a single song from any one of them, save for the obvious Largo al factotum and the sextet from Lucia.
> 
> Contrast this to La Boheme or Tosca, or Don Giovanni, I can, at any given moment, hum the tunes to a great many of the songs from those operas. The same might be said for Iphegenie en tauride & Il trovotore (can really only remember the anvil choros) as can be said for bel canto, would these two works be thought of as bel canto also?


I thought the Wikipedia article did a decent job of discussing the technical aspects of bel canto technique, but I'm interested in the above observation.

I find it rare that I instantly pick up a "hum-able" tune from any opera on first listening, but I certainly wouldn't apply this specifically to bel canto. I think it might take more listens to pick up all of the nuances of a bel canto piece. This could be because I find that individual bel canto components tend to be longer than equivalent Mozart, Verdi or Puccini extracts, but inevitably with ornamentation that is improvised differently by individual artists, the ornamentation of one artist may not be as memorable as that by another.

As an anecdotal example, I didn't like large swathes of Lucia, when listening to interpretations by Diana Damrau and Natalie Dessay (normally favourites of mine), but found the same tunes came alive when I heard Beverley Sills interpretation with different ornamentation.

I don't necessarily think bel canto tunes are necessarily harder to get into your head than others however. Ah! mes amis...Pour mon ames from La Fille du Regiment was in my head long before I even got to the thrilling sequence of high C's at the end of my first listen through.


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## Barelytenor (Nov 19, 2011)

Easy. It's the opposite of Can Belto.


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## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Barelytenor said:


> Easy. It's the opposite of Can Belto.


Boy, that's an old one!!


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