薮下研究室

Reading Drill No.5

Sutherland became famous for singing a particular type of opera called bel canto, which means “beautiful singing” in Italian.  Bel canto operas had been very popular in Europe in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, but had become largely ignored in the twentieth century because the grand, dramatic German operas by Richard Wagner had come to dominate the opera world.  In contrast, the main feature of bel canto is singing in a beautiful, light style.  It requires being able to sing with the same light quality from the bottom to the top of the vocal range, and the ability to sing very fast over many notes.  With intensive training, Sutherland’s voice came to perfectly suit the bel canto style, and she helped bring many almost forgotten bel canto operas back into opera houses around the world.

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