Italian Opera: from Baroque to Verismo
25-29 May 2000
Laura Sarti
Hein Botenberg (accompanist)
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Course Fee £220 (Deposit £40) 5 days plus B & B £16 per person per night. This course will start with tea at 4 p.m.

For advanced students and aspiring professionals. Ensembles (duets, trios etc.) especially welcome.

The course will concentrate on the close relationship between the Italian language and the music it has inspired.

Clarity of declamation, understanding of text and dramatic situation will be gone into, as well as the vocal colours which the different vowels lend to the musical line, giving rise to the tonal chiaroscuro which is the essential ingredient of Italianate singing, and its principal expressive tool. The differences in style characterising Baroque practice, the Classic period (Mozart and Haydn for example) Bel Canto and later Romantic and Verismo works will also be examined.

Participants should bring at least three or four arias, one to include a recitative. Songs, cantatas etc., will also be acceptable.

Laura Sarti, mezzo-soprano, was born in Trieste, Northern Italy; her operatic career began at Glyndebourne where she was chosen by Maestro Gui for the role of Berta in a production and EMI recording of ÔThe Barber of Seville', the cast including Victoria de Los Angeles and Luigi Alva.

A founder cast member of Scottish Opera and Kent Opera, she also appeared at the Wexford, Braganz and Aix-en-Provence International Festivals encompassing over thirty roles. Her extensive broadcasting experience includes de Falla's ÔLa Vida Breve' with Margaret Price in the first colour television opera.

A professor and Fellow of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama since the 1970's she has developed an international reputation as a teacher and regularly gives masterclasses in Britain, France, Switzerland, Sweden, Germany and Ireland. Her students are drawn from all over Europe and many have gained acceptance on advanced courses at Guildhall and other leading Conservatories; they also appear with leading national and international opera companies.