Starts with lunch at 1pm on Friday and ends at 1pm Sunday – optional lunch available

The vocal repertoire of Spain and Latin America is increasingly present on British stages. Apart from Manuel de Falla's wonderful 7 Popular Spanish Songs and, equally exciting, Enrique Granados' Tonadillas, there is much vocal repertoire to explore for any type of voice. Singers like Victoria de los Angeles, Teresa Berganza and more recently Bernarda Fink have offered us a chance to hear the beautiful music of so many interesting countries: Argentina (Carlos Guastavino, Astor Piazzolla), Mexico (Juan Ponce, Carlos Chavez), Spain (Turina, Toldra, Mompou, Rodrigo, etc), etc. There are not only songs to be discovered but also wonderful arias (we call them "romances") of Zarzuelas (Spanish popular opera), operas and cantatas.

Spanish is phonetically very straight forward and therefore you will learn how to pronounce it, sing it, and the differences between Iberian and Latin American Spanish. It will also be a forum to explore the repertoire and discover the vocal landscape of Spanish speaking countries. You will also have a chance to work on the vocal repertoire of Catalonia. Catalan is a language half way between Spanish and French, with much beautiful repertoire written for voice and piano by Toldrá, Mompou, Vives, Rodrigo, etc.

This is a course for singers of intermediate to advanced standard. The tutor will be very happy to suggest repertoire to those who need some guidance before the start of the course.