Bologna, Parma, Bruson…

Hi there! This week was a crazy one. I flew on Monday to Bologna very early from Frankfurt and then took a train to Parma. The amazing city of Verdi, Toscanini’s birth place and the Teatro Regio di Parma, among other great historic building.

To start talking about the 3 days I had with Bruson is difficult. It was an adventure from the first moment setting foot at his foundation and taking the classes with the other singers as an audience. It has been almost a decade since I was last in a Masterclass with other singers present. Only when I was in Barcelona 2 weeks ago I had one Masterclass with J. Camarena and I was really nervous because I was in a student situation like since many years. Definitely a feeling I did not have for such a long time.

Being 3 days with Bruson was tough but I have to say I learnt a lot. He is a very famous Verdian Baritone with a very long career on top of the opera world. Apparently also very famous for having a very hard personality and difficult character. I went fully conscious of it and still got some sort of shock to see how bad he treated the singers that sang before me. Definitely, you need a strong conviction to keep cool and not to take personal his comments. He made all of us feel intimidated somehow by his strong way of saying things (perhaps old school). I was able to cope with it because he is not the first villain teacher I met in my life and my father was in the army and navy and a professional boxer so I know what strict means, but I felt the love of my father and the intension to help me to be a better person, whereas with Bruson you do not feel anything from him in regard of helping you to get better. More like he just is waiting for you to do what he does not want to shout at you or correct you. So definitely you need to get over that. Also he is very clever and sees who is weak or who is arrogant and he always shows who is the boss, so definitely a very toxic behaviour from him, which is around 90 years old human being but I am convince is not his age to blame for the lake of education and common sense.

Teatro Regio di Parma

However, even from this personal side if you can see beyond that, you can take from him all the experience and big respect he has for the composer, specially for Verdi and Belcanto. He demands you to sing in his lessons without any portamenti, without any chance of words or traditions made by other singers. He demands you sing exactly what is written on the music score. He demands you to sing clear text, perfect pitch and very modest in any holding tempi or allargandos. He is very clear that when a difficult passage comes where singers tend to get slower and slower, you do the opposite to keep the tempi liggero so you are able to continue the airflow and not stop the energy of the phrases and therefore helping you to get through the aria better and get still with strength towards the end of the aria where normally the high notes come. He despises the portamenti and any extra long holding notes. He made that pretty clear when other participants decided to show they could hold long notes. He also hates people singing only loud and definitely he does not tolerates when one ask something which is written on the music and he wants something else. If you go to his class you do what he says. Over the following days once he made clear you are there to learn, then, he was a bit less vocal and a bit more explaining what he wanted and at some point he even let me do 2 portamenti, so I kind of prove that I was being really responsive to his suggestions and I decided to really try to read between the lines. Over the course of the lessons I realize he says actually a lot with only saying little, perhaps not in the most friendly way but nevertheless he is really into the music and poetry of the music. But you have to be really cleaver and understand what he is not saying and then you actually realize that all what he says and shouts has a reason, not always visible or understandable for the one receiving the advice but from us a audience. I, listening back to the recordings of my lessons realized few things he said that are actually very helpful and full of truth. He just do not have the patience to explain details to you. He was very nice to me, compared to my colleagues and definitely compared to some Russian Baritone to whom he kept saying “Thank you” after his arias and did not say anything further, making the baritone sing only once and without receiving any advice or comment. When Renato sees there are so many problems he makes a quick decision of just giving up and not caring about that particular singer. It is a shame because that singer is travelling there, spending money and time, and has the wish to learn from Maestro Bruson and he gets only “Thank you”, not wonder he did not finish the course, he just did not show up anymore, going away in a very sad and frustrated state.

I sang 6 arias from my repertoire and definitely could polish them and also gave me a lot of thought and I really appreciate the things Bruson said to me. On the positive side it is great to receive advice from one of the last living legends who sang during amazing years of the opera stage and with so much knowledge to share, if you are willing to just give him full authority during the short time you take his lesson and sing for him. I feel lucky because he understood and agreed most of the time with my musicality and decisions.

I must say before each lesson I saw what he was pointing in general from other singers, I kept observing the other lessons so I could prepare my arias ahead thinking of how he would like them to hear them. So every time before my lesson I sat in a coffee and almost relearn my arias without any portamenti, without taking too much time in some phrases and do all what is written in the music. This helped me a lot to get more or less along with him and in a lot of parts that were heavy for me to sing got somehow easier just by doing what strictly is written on the music score. So I learnt a lot actually from this experience. Also from me, how to cope and keep cool under the guidance of someone who cannot control himself and be cool. The only reason I stayed and enjoyed in a weird way these classes was because I saw I could learn from him and decided to remain very stoic and to be really conscious of not taking personal any comment coming from him, because it is out of my control and certainly not my responsibility the way he behaves, and is.  

Would I take another 3 day course with him? I think “yes” because there are things I still want to ask him and thinks I believe he can help me with.

I must mentioned that the camaraderie created with the other singers was great because we all felt very supportive with each other under very stressful situation with maestro. I met fantastic singers and colleagues and we shared stories and many great lunches just talking about life, music and of course Maestro Bruson. 

After the course I had a bit less than 2 days to explore Bologna. I found its towers, cathedral, historic center so amazing and fairy tale like. It is like travelling to the past. Such an amazing place. I was too short and I hope soon I come again to stay longer in this beautiful city and keep eating the amazing food.

I brought to Germany great salami, mortadella, bread, Parmigiano. Uff, it tastes all great and I really enjoyed my daily routine going to get a Café and read and learn music and just being in Italy feels so right and so operatic. I feel always so inspired breathing Italian music and air.

I visited also the amazing Pilotta in Parma and a guided tour at Teatro Regio. It was amazing. I also discovered in a small music shop in the heart ot Bologna a book by an author I already have at home called Antoni Juvarra. The book is called “Le teorie Tecnico- Vocali di Mario del Monaco e Franco Corelli”. All I can say, every singer should have. It is so special and so on the point about singing without getting complicated and full of historic examples and book citations. If you are a singer please get it. You will not regret it and you will also understand a bit more del Monaco and Corelli and all the “Maschera” and “Affondo” ways of singing, which are one sided and caused to many problems and ruin careers over a century, all because good intensions but bad interpretations.

I keep my exercise routine and daily reading. I just came back last night from Italy and I am destroyed but it was absolutely worth to go to Bruson and Italy to learn more the Italian style and from one of the great singers from the past that still is kicking ass and has the energy to pass on his credo.

Take care and see you next week.