Opera Book: Preparing an Operatic Role by Marie Myerscough

FOREWORD

Ubaldo Gardini was a unique character. Those of us who were lucky enough to work with him during his years at Covent Garden learned more of bel canto, Italian and Mozart than we could have thought existed.

He had both an inexhaustible energy and a fund of knowledge, which could often wear his colleagues to a ravelling. But they took away with them as much as could be known of vowels (open and closed), double consonants and liaisons – plus how to keep them all from ‘cutting off the voice’ and therefore interfering with the true legato, which is the gift that singing renders to its devotees.

Ubaldo was a violinist by training and a mandolinist for fun. He was also an expert on Italian dialects, styles of versification and the intricacies of Italian grammar. But he could, work over, shut his book and be one of the funniest of men, recounting such stories as only his master Lorenzo da Ponte could have admitted to.

His great love was for Mozart’s operas: his dilapidated and heavily annotated scores bore witness to the hours, days and years of his study and experience. Recitativo secco was his passion: the abolition of bar lines, a cause in favour of the supremacy of theatrical declamation and the realisation of every possible nuance of Da Ponte’s masterly librettos. Students may go to the old Covent Garden recordings to hear how effective his teaching could be.

Of course, Ubaldo’s methods could be very upsetting to those who were unwilling to change what they had always done, and he himself would quickly take offence if his authority as an Italian and a musician was challenged. But there were few who quarrelled with him and, certainly, they were the worse off for not listening to him. Those who did learned to love him.

I raise my glass, on behalf of all who remember him with the joy that I do, to Maestro Ubaldo Gardini.

Sir Colin Davis conducting the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center, New York

CONTENTS

1. Profile of Ubaldo Gardini

2. MEET THE ARTISTS: Biographies & Interviews Part One
Sir Thomas Allen, Baritone
Dame Janet Baker, Mezzo-soprano
Hildegard Behrens, Soprano
Stuart Burrows, Tenor
José Carreras, Tenor
Elizabeth Connell, Soprano
John Copley, Stage Director
Ileana Cotrubas, Soprano
Ryland Davies, Tenor

3. Coaching in Opera

4. MEET THE ARTISTS: Biographies & Interviews Part Two
Mark Elder, Conductor
Renée Fleming, Soprano
Gwynne Howell, Bass
Anne Howells, Mezzo-soprano
Eugene Kohn, Accompanist & Conductor
Kazuhiro Kotetsu, Bass
Robert Lloyd, Bass
Reveka Mavrovitis, Mezzo-soprano
Yvonne Minton, Mezzo-soprano
Eiko Morishima, Accompanist & Répétiteur

5. In Conversation with Ubaldo Gardini

6. MEET THE ARTISTS: Biographies & Interviews Part Three
Akiko Nakajima, Soprano
Jessye Norman, Soprano
Yasuhiko Okuhata, Lighting Designer
Katherine Olson, Accompanist, Coach & Artists’ Manager
Kazushi Ono, Conductor
Felicity Palmer, Mezzo-soprano
Ruggero Raimondi, Bass-baritone
Akemi Sakamoto, Mezzo-soprano

7. A Personal View of Rossini by Ubaldo Gardini

8. MEET THE ARTISTS: Biographies & Interviews Part Four
Shinobu Sato, Soprano
Frederica von Stade, Mezzo-soprano
Robin Stapleton, Conductor
Keizo Takahashi, Baritone
Phillip Thomas, Accompanist & Répétiteur
Alan Titus, Bass-baritone
Sumiko Tokushima, Accompanist & Répétiteur
LeRoy Villanueva, Baritone
Lillian Watson, Soprano

9. APPENDICES
Discography
Bibliography

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