Opera on the Move in the Nordic Countries during the Long 19th ...

28 Juvas Marianne Liljas
the historical background as an exposé of the history of vocal pedagogy.
She describes the rise and fall of the Bel Canto tradition, and outlines the
dominant singing schools in 1850s Europe. From a Swedish perspective
she describes how vocal training developed at the Royal Swedish <strong>Opera</strong>,
ending with an overview of the situation in Stockholm around the end of the
nineteenth century (cf. Liljas 2007, pp.71-203 with further references).
David Björling’s singing ideal was related to the existing norm at the
time, when there were demands for the reformation of opera education.
There was heightened interest in the natural or simple as opposed to the
constructed and artificial, thereby challenging the prestigious training in
Paris that up until the turn of the century had been highly valued in the
context of vocal pedagogy.
Two of the most influential singing schools from the mid-1800s were the
Garcia School in Paris and the Lamperti School in Italy and Germany. They
differed markedly in emphasis. Whereas the Lamperti School was resurrected
from the remnants of (lost) knowledge from the Old Italian School, Manuel
Garcia Jr. (1805-1906) shaped a singing school constructed upon scientific
principles. This was a reaction to the failure to document the methods of castrato
pedagogy. In his research based on clinical studies of the voice organs,
Manuel Garcia Jr. attempted to produce a visual representation and clearer
pedagogical instructions. The result was a historical dichotomy between the
older audio-based educational traditions and the scientific system that developed
in the field of vocal pedagogy (Stark 1999 preface, pp. 3-20; Celletti
1991, pp. 112-115; Fuchs 1963, p. 64; Liljas 2007, pp. 92-96).
The differences in pedagogical approach between the Garcia School and
the Lamperti School were a topic of heated discussion in Europe. (Stark
1999 p. 43)
At the turn of the nineteenth century the pedagogy for which the Garcia
School had become famous was problematized. This behaviourally oriented
vocal pedagogy was defined as the modern local effort school of singing. In the
background were prominent voice physiologists and singing pedagogues
who doubted the vocal health of singers trained within this school, the glottal
blast, coup de la glotte, being considered the most harmful (Stark 1999
s. xxiii-xxiv, pp. 17-20; Liljas 2007, p. 157). The focus in the discussion that
raged about “the decadence of the singing art” was on the qualities that
were lost when the modern and more conformist education ideal pushed
aside audio-centred vocal education. The lost vocal tradition referred to
The Old Italian School (Stark 1999, pp. 19f, 52f; Celletti 1991). 19