From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Bel canto
is a way of
singing
in
opera
. It comes from the
Italian
, meaning "beautiful singing".
Bel canto singing means singing beautifully, flexibly and smoothly, delivering high and low notes in a similar style so that all the notes of a singer's range sound even from top to bottom. Bel canto singing started when opera began in the 1600s, but the term "bel canto" is normally used for operas written in the early
19th century
. The operas of
Rossini
,
Bellini
and
Donizetti
need bel canto singing. The term "bel canto" was not used at the time. People only started talking about "bel canto" in the mid-to-late 19th century, when a lot of new operas by composers such as
Richard Wagner
appeared. These new operas had to have singers with big, dramatic voices if they were to sound good.
Bel canto-style operas came back into fashion in the 1950s, having been out of favour for the previous 50 or 60 years. Today, some of the most popular operas are bel canto ones. Famous bel canto singers of recent times include the
sopranos
Maria Callas
,
Joan Sutherland
,
Montserrat Caballe
,
Beverly Sills
and the
tenors
Francisco Araiza
,
Juan Diego Florez
,
Alfredo Kraus
,
Luciano Pavarotti
.
Mathilde Marchesi
was a famous 19th-century bel canto teacher.