Not too long ago (2009/04/05) I wrote an entry about careers and children. My personal belief is that one should not sacrifice a private life and the desire for children just in order to concentrate totally on a career. My son is a real joy to me and no career in the world would have been worth living without him. Thank goodness, however, that both, through well thought-out planning, were possible.

I just spent Mother’s Day in New York City with him. He is working there and composing music. (Please see info about Mark Roberts: www.theenrighthouse.com. Here are a couple of pictures of us together. What fun! I went to the Met, this time from the “other” side! That was also great fun revisiting the atmosphere of my experience as the Dyer’s Wife.

I will also be in New York City again for arrangements at Carnegie Hall about performing various arias or Lieder and the Mozart Requiem. The Requiem performance was received with bravos and I believe that we will try to make Carnegie Hall possible. You may hear a couple of excerpts on this website.

Excerpt of “Recordare”:

I am very pleased to announce that I will be singing the soprano solo in W.A.Mozart’s Requiem in d, KV 626 on Friday, April 23, 2010 at 7:00 p.m. in Charlottesville, Virginia, USA. Other soloists include James Taylor, Kiera Alison and Logan Newman. The production is under the direction of Andrew Shelden.

This is a great, thrilling work and Mozart’s last. There are many controversies pertaining to the writing of the work. Supposedly he had scribbled much of the Requiem on little pieces of paper and left them in the hands of Constanze, his wife and Frany Xaver Suessmayr, who reportedly helped the ailing Mozart in his final days by writing the Requiem according to Mozart’s instructions. Rumor was that Mozart was composing the Requiem for his own funeral.

At any rate, if you are in the area, please come to the performance!

I do not mean to imply that the teaching of “bel canto” (beautiful singing) applies to repertoire and not to the technique. My point is that the bel canto art of singing has no boundaries pertaining to repertoire. The usage of the term bel canto emerged in the late 17th century Italy, referring to the Italian style of singing. Throughout the next centuries, the bel canto style required a technique to support the vocal performance style of easy tonal production, inhalare la voce, legato, coloratura, etc.

I did not say “throat”, but “upper pharyngeal” area. The hard and soft palates are very important to the resonance of the voice. They belong to the feeling of inhalation including the “mask” and head resonance by reacting with the tongue and movement of the lips. For example, by using the “th” or “ng” in exercises, the resonance is activated and the tone is actually directed AWAY from the throat (We certainly do not want to produce tones in the throat! Never!) Vowels will also serve to produce the resonance that the voice requires. An “u” is a great help to inhalation of tone.

I would also never “place the tone”. As I have mentioned, I am convinced that “placing” causes tension and limits the tone to a certain area. With the feeling of inhalation and the lightness that comes from feeling tone production from above the tone, there is no reason to “place” a tone. The body support and strength allows any tone in any range possible without placing or forcing. With the correct support, the correct opening, the feeling of inhalation (that begins outside the body) and hearing the tone before one sings, the tones will come automatically. The tones will autmatically take their required “place”.

And…oh yes, the students are curious. But when they are able to visualize your instructions, they are usually convinced that it works. They hear that a breathy tone achieves clarity, they feel that the onset of the tone is so easy, and finally they hear their voices grow in size.

Dear Mr. Tondreau,
I visited your “bel canto” website. It is absolutely great!
Your questions:
Do you call it ‘bel canto’ or has it been re-badged and re-worked as something else?
I want to emphasize that this technique is NOT JUST for “bel canto” singers (for example, Bellini). As you mentioned, you also teach pop singers, I myself, am a “hoch-dramatic” singer of Wagner and Richard Strauss repertoire. As you mentioned, I have a very long singing life and have never had any vocal cord problems. Mind you, I sing the heaviest of the heavy roles: Brünnhilde, Isolde, Elektra, etc. This technique also increased the size of my voice without having to use force.
Lamperti was more concerned with the bel canto repertoire because it was the repertoire of his time.

Could you tell me a little bit about how you came to learn this ‘inhaling the voice’ and perhaps who you learned it from?
I learned my technique from Hermanus Baer at Northwestern University. Hermanus Baer was a great teacher. You just had to accept EVERYTHING he said and practice his exercises. (You are right - the same exercises over and over again. This is the way I still work every day!) You had to try to do what he instructed while you were in his studio and not think, “I’ll go away and practice on my own trying to find it”. Some of his students, I think, were like that. Also, some absolutely misunderstood what Prof. Baer was teaching and didn’t listen nor ask any questions. They misunderstood “inhale” for “drink in the tones”. But I mentioned that misunderstanding in my website. I also liked the way you look into this issue on your website.
My technique comes from Gillis Bratt in Sweden. The idea of “counterpressure” is also sometimes misunderstood, but absolutely necessary to the principle of “inhalare la voce” of Lamperti’s. This was the teaching of how to keep the air back and not push up air from the diaphragm. Pushing up air is lethal to the voice, causes tension, breathy sound (the vocal cords do not close completely), wobbles, and utimately vocal death.
Also, involving the back muscles assists the diaphragm in remaining in its position and helps - together with inhaling the voice - an easy onset. The larynx is pulled to a lower and preferable position without tension. The idea is that the larynx will take the amount of air it needs, but the singer must constantly resist muscle collapse. Also, involving the back muscles helps the diaphragm to remain in its lower position and helps - together with inhaling the voice - an easy onset. Sometimes this combination of Lamperti and Bratt is called the Italian/Swedish school, which is a new term in recent times.
Does it sound like what I describe at www.thebelcantotechnique.com?
If you read in my website under “Inhalare la voce”, you will find the following:
“Inhalare la voce” is the feeling that the tones come to the singer and not be blown-out. This feeling is in the upper head and upper pharyngeal area and is ALWAYS IN MOTION. “A tone must be self-starting, self-prolonging, and self-stopping.” Lamperti Vocal Wisdom: Maxims of Giovanni Battista Lamperti.
I would like to include the upper pharyngeal area so that, as you mentioned in your website, the tone does not take on one place in the mask - which might become nasal. But I agree with you that this can be circumvented in that one thinks of the tone always in motion and never stationary. This is the reason that I will not tell my students to sing in the “mask”. By placing the tone in the mask, the tone will not remain in motion. That the tone des not have just one place, but many resonance areas is absolutely one of the most important aspects of singing. I also use hand gestures to support the image.
By the way, Lamperti was a rather humorous man. He exclaimed, when a student proudly remarked: ” I have studied with ten different teachers.”: “That is nine too many!” I hear this in my own studio when students come to me and want to study with me!
Mr. Tondreau, I don’t think that we have “lost our minds”. I think others must have a wake-up call. Listen to the singers who come to the stage and are ruined after a very short time. Listen to singers who have to force to sing over a large orchestra. I think we can do a great service. Thank you for your correspondence!

I have been spending some time at my home in Indiana lately, trying to sell my parents’ estate. It is really heart-warming how my home town, Cedar Lake, has received me as a home town girl who is successful on the opera stage.

They are absolutely wonderful people, and so I gladly sing for my home town churches in Lowell, Cedar Lake and Crown Point, giving my thanks not only to these people, but to God, who endowed me with a voice to be developed and nurtured.

Here, as you see, is a photo from Flag Day (June 14th) this year. I sang the Star Spangled Banner and God Bless America. You see me in a red dress on the left and with such political dignitaries as Robert Carnahan, Chamber of Commerce President and member of the Town Council, US Representative Rep. - Peter Visclosky, Indiana State Representative D.- Shelli Van Denburgh, State Representative Don Lehe, and State Senator Sue Landske.

It was a beautiful day!

To ensure optimal video and sound quality, it is recommended to let the videos load fully before playback (i.e. press play, then pause the video, and wait until the progress bar is at maximum before resuming playback).

I am very happy to announce that my new cd is now on cdbaby for sale and digital distribution. Of course, the great Wesendonck Lieder are well known, but it was my intention to perform and record some rather unknown works of Strauss and early works of Schreker. They are unique and extremely expressive.

One of the very few recordings of the Op. 67, from c. 1918, is the recording of the Ophelia Lieder by Elisabeth Schwarzkopf. The last three songs of the cycle, the Goethe Lieder, are hardly available, at least it does not seem to exist as an entire cycle.

The Schreker songs are very early works (189?) and very difficult to find in the recital scene. I had a great time working on these songs. They are technically difficult - both from the standpoint of vocal technique and co-ordination with the pianist.

Schreker himself was an interesting personality. I would like to quote a couple of lines from his “My character study” which appeared in April 1921 in the “Musikblaetter des Anbruch” by the Viennese Universal Edition.

He calls himself an “impressionist, expressionist, internationalist, futurist”. He says, “I am an idealist (Thank God!), symbolist and stand at the left wing of the modern (Schoenberg, Debussy)…” After a long list of what I am and what I am not, he says, “What in heaven’s name am I not? I am not yet crazy! And I have not yet written a critic!”

I was fortunate to have an excellent pianist. I hope you like the cd!

By the way, I will be singing the Dvorak Biblical Songs, Op. 99, very soon (July 11th) in Chartres, France. (Please see my entry from November, 2008.) I will also be in the Rheingau area of Germany with a church concert on August 1st.

Your audition documents should include a complete, well-written resume, a professional photo, a list of engagements (even very small roles), your repertory, and your address, telephone number and email address where you can be reached.

Include every performance no matter how small or insignificant you think it might be. Even small roles show that you have sung on stage and have experience. It should also include any contests you have won and recitals you have sung.

Address your resume to the name of the agent, artistic director, etc. and not just “Dear Sir”. Do your homework and find out with whom you are personally dealing.

It is important in professional life to have an answering machine. Being quickly reachable and available is necessary in the professional world. Please no funny recordings on your answering machine. A “Hallo, not here!”, for example, is not responsible. You want to show that you think in a business manner. A mobile telephone is of utmost importance nowadays when you have to be quickly available.

An email address is indispensable in the modern music world.

If you have any questions, please ask. I want you to be successful and I’ll try to help!!