#titoschipa — Public Fediverse posts

For those who are curious as to my research reguarding Tito Schipa and Alceste Gerunda, here is the full story, along with what I found. I still have to tie up a few loose ends, but mostly, it's to satisfy my own curiosity and learn what else can be found, particularly in anyting unpublished, as I love anecdotes and whatnot. If anyone is in or from Lecce and could help me, that would be great. I am seeking more recordings by Gerunda's students, and anecdotes about him, as well as those about Schipa and his own teaching methods.

https://dandylover1.dreamwidth.org/252932.html

#anecdotes #AlcesteGerunda #BelCanto #history #Lecce #lessons #opera #singing #Schipa #TitoSchipa #VocalPedagogy

Since I am pinning this to my profile, I am shortening it dramatically. To read the post in its entirety and understand exactly what I am seeking and the research I have done so far, please go here.

https://dandylover1.dreamwidth.org/249903.html

I love opera singers from prior to the 1950's. My favourite is Tito Schipa, and I am attempting to learn what he taught and how he learned. I have his ten vocal exercises but not the booklet that came with them. I wrote to Seth Riggs, who studied under him, but he never responded. I am now researching one of Schipa's most famous teachers, Alceste Gerunda (1847-1917) since he studied with him for six years. Gerunda's teacher was Saverio Mercadante. Gerunda himself taught at the Convitto Palmieri, which now olds the Bernardini Library, prior to opening his own school in his home. I wrote to the library but never heard from them. They have two books that interest me, namely "ALCESTE GERUNDA E LA SCUOLA LECCESE DI CANTO" by Silvia Mandurino (ITES 1969) and "IN MEMORIA DEL MAESTRO ALCESTE GERUNDA NE L'AVVIVERSARIO PRIMO DE LA SUA MORTE" by Giulia) Lucrezi (Palumbo. (I found the first online, and while it is fascinating, it doesn't contain what I need.) What I am seeking is anecdotes regarding his lessons, notes he may have written, books he may have used, the pedagogy he followed, etc. I am totally blind and live in New Jersey, America, so it's not possible for me to travel to Lecce. I posted to their subreddit, but I will leave this here in case anyone in the wider community can help. If you or someone you know teaches real bel canto (no scientific or modern ideas), I would love to hear from you.

#AlcesteGerunda #Apulia #BelCanto #education #Lecce #lessons #Italy #opera #music #pedagogy #Puglia #research #SaverioMercadante #singing #teacher #teaching #TitoSchipa #VocalPedagogy #VoiceLessons

To make a very long story short, I am forty-one and became interested in opera in February of this year. I had been listening to operetta for several years by this point, with special attention to the works of Ivor Novello and Franz Lehar, always preferring original cast recordings, or at least older ones, when possible. Even now, all of the opera singers I like were born prior to 1923. I am interested in learning how to sing for pleasure, and possibly for performance, though not in full operas, as I am totally blind and I wouldn't feel comfortable doing that. I would most likely be singing Neapolitan songs, Italian art songs, a few English parlour songs, and some arias that I enjoy. I am untrained and my voice type has not yet been designated. However, , this is a post that I made reguarding my own discoveries about my vocal range. To summarise, I am a woman, but I feel most comfortable singing in the tenor range and would prefer to stay there. I don't like how high composers force contraltos to sing.

reddit.com/r/opera/comments/1k…

I adore the tenore di grazia voice type and also enjoy lyric tenors. My favourite singer is Tito Schipa, and I wish to learn what he taught, or at least, what he learned. I have the ten exercises that he recorded, including short narrations for each. I wrote about them here, with a transcription of the Italian and an English translation. This way, you will know the school of thought that I am attempting to follow. The one thing I cannot find is the booklet that came with said exercises, which offers more guidance than the record.

reddit.com/r/opera/comments/1k…

Since Schipa left little behind, I began researching his teacher, Alceste Gerunda. It is true that he technically started with Giovanni Albani, but hardly anything is written about him at all in Schipa's biography, and it seems that Gerunda was the one who gave him all of the exercises in any case.

reddit.com/r/opera/comments/1k…

reddit.com/r/opera/comments/1k…

I learned that Gerunda was born in 1847, and that his teacher was Saverio Mercadante. Neither left books, exercises, or published notes. But I found the school where Gerunda taught prior to opening a private one in his home. It has since become a library. They have two books on him that I want and that may shed light on some of his teaching practices. These are "ALCESTE GERUNDA E LA SCUOLA LECCESE DI CANTO" by Silvia Mandurino (ITES 1969) and "IN MEMORIA DEL MAESTRO ALCESTE GERUNDA NE L'AVVIVERSARIO PRIMO DE LA SUA MORTE" by Giulia) Lucrezi (Palumbo.

biblioteche.regione.puglia.it/…

Perhaps, there are anecdotes within them that can help me. They may also have the books that he used to teach, assuming he used any. I have written to them asking if they could assist me, but haven't yet received a response.

In the meantime, I am trying to find information about the pedigogs of his time, so that I can at least learn the ideas and methods that he may have passed down to Schipa. But, of course, there were as many schools of thought as there were teachers. To make matters worse, Gerunda and Schipa themselves appeared to differ in their teaching style. While the former would tell the latter when he made mistakes in exercises, Schipa seemed to just give them and play the piano without giving much commentary. Ironically, Mercadante is said to have taught like that. From what I understand, if I did follow the regular bel canto style, I would need to work on notes, then scales and arpegios, then ornamentation, then songs/arias, all of this taking many years. It seems that Schipa didn't work on breath control, individual notes, tone, tamber, and so on with his students but went straight to vowels and scales. I don't know if this is from his own teacher or if it was his personal philosophy. I have definitely heard of the breath-first and larynx-first schools of thought, so it could stem from there.

People keep saying that i need to see a teacher, but most charge $100 or more per lesson, and at that rate, I can't afford more than two lessons per month. Plus, I want to find someone who knows the old ways, not modern ideas and terminology that I will need to unlearn. As it is, I am already studying harmony from "Harmony its theory and practice" by Ebenezer Prout, and Italian from "An Italian conversation grammar" by N Perini. It's just voice that is giving me a problem.

#AlcesteGerunda #BelCanto #Italy #Lecce #MusicTheory #NineteenthCentury #opera #SaverioMercadante #singing #TitoSchipa #VocalPedigogy

To make a very long story short, I am forty-one and became interested in opera in February of this year. I had been listening to operetta for several years by this point, with special attention to the works of Ivor Novello and Franz Lehar, always preferring original cast recordings, or at least older ones, when possible. Even now, all of the opera singers I like were born prior to 1923. I am interested in learning how to sing for pleasure, and possibly for performance, though not in full operas, as I am totally blind and I wouldn't feel comfortable doing that. I would most likely be singing Neapolitan songs, Italian art songs, a few English parlour songs, and some arias that I enjoy. I am untrained and my voice type has not yet been designated. However, , this is a post that I made reguarding my own discoveries about my vocal range. To summarise, I am a woman, but I feel most comfortable singing in the tenor range and would prefer to stay there. I don't like how high composers force contraltos to sing.

reddit.com/r/opera/comments/1k…

I adore the tenore di grazia voice type and also enjoy lyric tenors. My favourite singer is Tito Schipa, and I wish to learn what he taught, or at least, what he learned. I have the ten exercises that he recorded, including short narrations for each. I wrote about them here, with a transcription of the Italian and an English translation. This way, you will know the school of thought that I am attempting to follow. The one thing I cannot find is the booklet that came with said exercises, which offers more guidance than the record.

reddit.com/r/opera/comments/1k…

Since Schipa left little behind, I began researching his teacher, Alceste Gerunda. It is true that he technically started with Giovanni Albani, but hardly anything is written about him at all in Schipa's biography, and it seems that Gerunda was the one who gave him all of the exercises in any case.

reddit.com/r/opera/comments/1k…

reddit.com/r/opera/comments/1k…

I learned that Gerunda was born in 1847, and that his teacher was Saverio Mercadante. Neither left books, exercises, or published notes. But I found the school where Gerunda taught prior to opening a private one in his home. It has since become a library. They have two books on him that I want and that may shed light on some of his teaching practices. These are "ALCESTE GERUNDA E LA SCUOLA LECCESE DI CANTO" by Silvia Mandurino (ITES 1969) and "IN MEMORIA DEL MAESTRO ALCESTE GERUNDA NE L'AVVIVERSARIO PRIMO DE LA SUA MORTE" by Giulia) Lucrezi (Palumbo.

biblioteche.regione.puglia.it/…

Perhaps, there are anecdotes within them that can help me. They may also have the books that he used to teach, assuming he used any. I have written to them asking if they could assist me, but haven't yet received a response.

In the meantime, I am trying to find information about the pedigogs of his time, so that I can at least learn the ideas and methods that he may have passed down to Schipa. But, of course, there were as many schools of thought as there were teachers. To make matters worse, Gerunda and Schipa themselves appeared to differ in their teaching style. While the former would tell the latter when he made mistakes in exercises, Schipa seemed to just give them and play the piano without giving much commentary. Ironically, Mercadante is said to have taught like that. From what I understand, if I did follow the regular bel canto style, I would need to work on notes, then scales and arpegios, then ornamentation, then songs/arias, all of this taking many years. It seems that Schipa didn't work on breath control, individual notes, tone, tamber, and so on with his students but went straight to vowels and scales. I don't know if this is from his own teacher or if it was his personal philosophy. I have definitely heard of the breath-first and larynx-first schools of thought, so it could stem from there.

People keep saying that i need to see a teacher, but most charge $100 or more per lesson, and at that rate, I can't afford more than two lessons per month. Plus, I want to find someone who knows the old ways, not modern ideas and terminology that I will need to unlearn. As it is, I am already studying harmony from "Harmony its theory and practice" by Ebenezer Prout, and Italian from "An Italian conversation grammar" by N Perini. It's just voice that is giving me a problem.

#AlcesteGerunda #BelCanto #Italy #Lecce #MusicTheory #NineteenthCentury #opera #SaverioMercadante #singing #TitoSchipa #VocalPedigogy

Yesterday, I had a long conversation with Perplexity, as usual. We were discussing vocal ranges, opera, and operetta. Anyway, I found a video that was perfect for me to test my range. Keep in mind that I am not accustomed to these notes as numbers, as this became popular after my time of study. But to make things easier, I will use them to explain my results.

youtube.com/watch?v=feuJ7sW2g7…

Apparently, My comfortable range is F3 to C5, with an extended range of D3 to F5, with the last two top notes feeling thin. I can also hit C3, but only quietly.

I then asked to hear various contraltos. I found a few, but almost all sang high, despite obviously being able to sing lower. So I then asked about songs sung by Tito Schipa, since our ranges overlap. I know he couldn't go as high as I (sources say he couldn't hit a high C), but I have never heard him hit a low note that I can't. Perplexity recommended the following.

1. "A te, o cara" from Bellini's "I Puritani"
2. Arias from Donizetti's "L'elisir d'amore", particularly Nemorino's parts.
3. Selections from Massenet's "Werther".
4. Arias from Donizetti's "Don Pasquale", especially Ernesto's recitatives.

Then, I began to wonder if there are any songs within operetta that would match me well. I received these in reply.

1. "Vilja-Lied" from Franz Lehár's "The Merry Widow"
2. "Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise" from Sigmund Romberg's "The New Moon" (I need to find a tenor version, aas it was originally written for a baritone.)
3. "Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life" from Victor Herbert's "Naughty Marietta"
4. "I'm Falling in Love with Someone" also from "Naughty Marietta"
5. "Serenade" from Romberg's "The Student Prince"
6. "Wanting You" from Romberg's "The New Moon"
7. "Love, Come Back to Me" also from "The New Moon"

Since three of these are from the same work, and since I actually have The New Moon, both as a full modern (sadly) recording and some original songs, I am going to watch that some time soon. It will be good to take a break from opera and go back to operetta. I just have to be careful because finding such music, or I should say, full English productions with dialogue, is incredibly difficult!

At any rate, I then asked which of these songs would be good for a beginner, and Perplexity chose "Ah! Sweet Mystery of Life", "I'm Falling in Love with Someone", "Vilja-Lied", and "Serenade".

Even though I have perfect pitch and photographic musical memory (once I know a song), it will take a long time before I can sing any of these truly correctly. But what do you think about the suggestions in general? Remember, I am not studying to actually perform on stage. This is simply for the love of singing. Personally, after hearing them, I think, other than the operettas, a good starting point might be Schipa's Neapolitan songs. They seem much easier.

But realistically, before I do any of that at all, I need to work on my exercises from Madam Clara! To that end, I have asked my friend to record the first group, on pages 140 to 145. Once I learn these, I will continue to the next set and so on.

archive.org/details/youcansing…

For those who are wondering why I don't learn from Schipa himself (he taught singing and there are exercises from him online), he has an entirely different approach. The exercises (particularly the Preliminaries and Breath-Lock Physicals) in You Can Sing are good for my health and work very well for me.

#ClaraNovelloDavies #contralto #opera #operetta #TitoSchipa #VocalExercises