Maria Jeritza: "Non gridare e non forzare la voce" - una grande lezione di canto

Maria Jeritza: "Non gridare e non forzare la voce" - una grande lezione di canto

Maria Jeritza: "NON GRIDARE E NON FORZARE LA VOCE" - una grande lezione di canto!

«...at twelve I was attending the "Musikschule" in Brünn [Brno]. There, aside from regular class instruction, Professor Krejci gave me private lessons twice a week. I think myself that I had a good, clear voice when a child, but Krejci was even then convinced that I had a future, and taught me with the greatest care.
He taught me one very important thing right at the start, something which every student should realize–NOT to scream, and NOT to force my voice. It is a lesson every vocal student should take to heart, for the habit of screaming and forcing the tone, if developed when the voice is forming, and persisted in, has ruinous consequences. Professor Krejci made me do a good deal of scale work. He would never let me experiment singing songs of all descriptions indiscriminately, a singing evil some teachers encourage»

[«...a dodici anni frequentavo la "Musikschule" a Brünn [Brno]. Là, al di fuori del regolare insegnamento accademico, il Prof. Krejci mi diede lezioni private due volte alla settimana. Reputo di aver posseduto, da bambina, una voce bella e pura, ma Krejci era già convinto allora che io avessi un futuro, e mi istruì con la più grande cura.
Egli mi insegnò, fin dall'inizio, una cosa molto importante, qualcosa che ogni studente dovrebbe realizzare–di NON gridare e di NON forzare la mia voce. E' una lezione che ogni studente di canto dovrebbe prendere a cuore, poiché l'abitudine a gridare e a forzare il suono, se sviluppata quando la voce è in formazione, e se prolungata, ha rovinose conseguenze. Il Prof. Krejci mi fece fare un bel po' di lavoro sulle scale. Non mi avrebbe mai permesso di provare a cantare arie di ogni genere in modo indiscriminato, un pessimo vizio canoro che alcuni insegnanti incoraggiano.»]

(Maria Jeritza, from: Frederick Martens - "The Art of the Prima Donna and Concert Singer", 1923)

[Nella foto: Giacomo Puccini con il soprano Maria Jeritza, celebre Tosca e prima interprete del personaggio di Turandot nella première americana del 1926 al Metropolitan, con Giacomo Lauri-Volpi nel ruolo di Calàf - N.B. è stata anche creatrice di diversi ruoli operistici, tra i quali Arianna in "Ariadne auf Naxos" e l'imperatrice in "Die Frau ohne Schatten" di R.Strauss, così come Marie/Marietta in "Die tote Stadt" di Erich Wolfgang Korngold]

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Maria Jeritza sull'importanza della "mezzavoce", delle 'colorature' e della saggia strategia di studio nel canto lirico:

A PERSONAL RECEIPT FOR SUCCESS IN SINGING
"(...) as regards 'what' to practice in the way of exercises I can only give you a kind of personal receipt. In the first place, it means the world and all for the student of singing to be in good hands from the very start. (...) There are fundamentals the student can obtain only from a good teacher. Teaching, good or bad, influences one's whole career, so see that your teachers are the best. (...)  
How do I practice every day? In the summer, when I am preparing new rôles, perhaps two hours a day in all; but I divide my time. I may sing for fifteen or twenty minutes, and then not sing again for an hour or so. I do my daily flexibility exercises every day, the scales at different speeds, beginning them 'mezza voce' and working up to the full sustained tone. I also sing Marchesi 'vocalises' and 'solfeggios', which include all of coloratura passages and ornaments. During the season, when I am singing on the stage, I never practice, aside from rehearsals, more than an hour a day. The purely technical exercises do not really represent a strain. I always look on them 'as' purely technical, a mechanical means of oiling the voice, making it light, easily responsive; just as the simple gymnastic exercises I use make the body flexible and supple."

[Come mi esercito ogni giorno? In estate, quando sto preparando nuovi ruoli, forse due ore al giorno in tutto; ma divido il mio tempo. Posso cantare per quindici o venti minuti e poi non cantare nuovamente per circa un'ora. Faccio i miei esercizi di flessibilità quotidiana ogni giorno, le scale a diverse velocità, iniziando ad eseguirle a 'mezza voce' e sviluppandole fino al suono pieno e sostenuto. Utilizzo anche i 'vocalizzi' e 'solfeggi' della Marchesi, che comprendono ogni sorta di passaggi e ornamenti di coloratura. Durante la stagione, quando canto sul palcoscenico, non mi alleno, a parte le prove, più di un'ora al giorno. Gli esercizi puramente tecnici non rappresentano veramente una tensione. Li considero sempre 'come' puramente tecnici, un mezzo meccanico per oliare la voce, rendendola leggera, facilmente reattiva; così come i semplici esercizi ginnici che utilizzo rendono il corpo flessibile ed elastico.]

 

THE ROUTINE OF ACQUIRING A NEW RÔLE
"I have a regular routine when studying a new part.
-1. First comes the reading of the libretto.
-2. Then, so that I will feel entirely at home in the work, especially if it is a period opera, I read all sorts of books which will give me the atmosphere of the epoch in question. If I am to represent a character of a certain time and day, I must have a knowledge of that character's point of view and surroundings, mental and material, for a basis. Getting this basis—and I consider it very important—may cost me eight or ten days.
-3. Then comes the music. I first go over it in a purely technical way; I make note of the mechanical difficulties; the arrangement of the vocal line, breath and phrasing. I can get up the most difficult operatic rôle by heart in four or five days and sing its music in the rough.
-4. And then comes the most difficult part of all—the filing down, the polishing, the working out of every least little detail. An intricate piece of goldsmith work offers the nearest comparison, perhaps, to this part of opera study. The goldsmith has his design outlined; but he must lend the utmost clarity and beauty to every line and every curve. And so, too, every line and curve of the melody, every rise and fall of the accent, every dramatic and lyric inflection in the general design of an operatic rôle must be brought out, and brought into reletionship with the rest of the work. This is not eight-day process, but takes me from four to five weeks. I take this work very seriously; for I know of no other way of giving vitality, real human quality to a rôle. And no singer, be she ever so popular, has a right to rely on her popularity to excuse poor preparation. Even quite small rôles can be beautifully done. (...)"

STRAUSS AND PUCCINI HEROINES
"Strauss has written a part for me, and both he and Puccini have given me rôles which it has been fascinating to create. I am fond of Puccini's heroines because they are so human, because they are flesh-and-blood women whom the public loves. (...)
And just as I have studied 'La fanciulla del West', 'Tosca' and 'Il tabarro' with Puccini, so I have studied 'Ariadne' and 'Rosenkavalier', as well as 'Die Frau ohne Schatten' with Strauss. (...) To study a new part with Richard Strauss is a real experience. He and Schalk often came to my home in Vienna and would run over my rôles at the piano with me. Strauss is clearness itself when he explains, and he knows exactly which effects he wants to produce. He insists on a beautiful melody line. And he is always willing to help the singer; change a difficult interval in a vocal phrase or make any reasonable modification. (...)
I cannot understand why the modern composer so often insists on writing for the human voice as though it were an orchestral instrument of wood or brass. There is the part of the Princess, in Fritz Schrecker's opera 'Das Spielwerk der Prinzessin', which I have sung. Vocally it is one of the most terrible things ever written, I think. (...) A part like that of the Princess. . . . Well, think of a strong rubber band being stretched out full lenght, again and again and again, for hours at a time! How long would it stand the strain? And the vocal cords are really delicate, like threads. Really, after such roaring and screaming, to sing a genuine Italian or Mozart opera aria seems like a balsam to the voice. No, there seem to be no real vocal 'lines' in many modern scores."

[in: "The Art of the Prima Donna and Concert Singer" by Frederick H. Martens - D.Appleton and Company, New York, 1923]

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From Vienna in May 1923, Puccini wrote a letter to Giueseppe Adami, which indicates the type of power a singer like Maria Jeritza held over productions and over the composers who sought her talent.  He wrote:

Dear Adamino,
In hate: arrived safely.  Cool today, but very warm journey.  There is talk of “Manon” for September.  They are giving “Cappelli Bianchi” in a few days.  Eisenschitz wanted to give you a pleasant surprise.  If Jeritza accepts they will do “Manon.”  If not I shall return to my work.  But I shall stay here a little while for the festivities which they have prepared for me.  They treat me here as if I were the Kaiser or the Crown Prince.  Living is enormously dear.  My bedroom and sitting-room cost 500,000 crowns a day.  I am well.  My thoughts are on the lovely “Turandot,” lovely in her newest attire, thanks to the great “tailleur” Adamino.  And talking of beauty, last night at the Opera, in Strauss’s “Legend of Joseph” there was an ensemble of the feminine nude that would have turned the head of St. Francis.  Good-bye.  Greetings to you from us all. 

(Giuseppe Adami, ed., “The Letters of Giacomo Puccini,” Translated by Ena Makin, (London: Harrap & Co, 1931), 307).

Jeritza al MET di New York nel ruolo di Turandot