CHAPTER XXII

HOW I SING AN ARIA

To sing a song or a big aria well you must, for the time, be both the vocalist and composer of the words and music you wish to express. If I wish to sing, say, “Home Sweet Home,” I must imagine how far I am away from sunny Italy, and forget all the kindness and attention with which I am surrounded here. Then, I begin to feel the mood and homesickness coming to aid me, vocal control must do the rest in making the song effective.

Or, again, if I wish to do justice to Sir Frederick Cowen’s charming little song, “The Swallows,” I must think of a lovely sunny morning and, mentally, “Open wide my lattice, letting in the laughing breeze,” imagining all the joyous sense of life that the arrival of the swallows brings to my naturally vivacious Southern nature.

Let us, however, take the Recitative and Polonaise from that brilliantly sparkling opera “Mignon,” by Ambroise Thomas. First of all, I have to study the setting of this great aria, and then study the words, which, in English begin,

“Yes! for to-night I am Queen of the Fairies, And here my golden sceptre see; And behold these, my trophies!”

I ask myself what I might feel like were I able to become a fairy. Giving myself free rein, I sing the whole recitative much as I would speak it, only having in mind the notes, I attack them firmly, letting the conductor punctuate the whole with the accompaniment somewhat freely. In recitative, one must have fire and imagination, and, although reasonable attention must be paid to the valuation of notes--the full five beats, for example, on the long note of bars 6 and 7--it is the part of the accompanist to feel your pulse, as it were, and go with you. Now, on the same long note, be careful to carry a sense of increasing wonder, by making a _diminuendo_, then, with increasing verve, make a clean “turn” on beat four of the 8th bar, capped by a triumphant pause, and, a clean interval of the fifth with the word “trophies,” on beats one and two of bar 9.

Now we come to the actual Polacca, in which _tempo_ must be observed and all the tricks of brilliant vocal agility put into play. Remember, all these “runs” and bravura passages must be clear--every note like a fresh pea out of a pod or bullet out of a machine gun! Observe the boldness of “picking up” at the beginning of the polacca movement, and in bar 3 of this movement how smoothly the detached notes have to be sung.

Moderato tempo di Polacca (96♩)

Here, again, there must be no scooping up an octave, but a clear rise of the octave, giving the sense of all, as it were, one piece. Thus, “I--I _am_ Titania,” and repeat the same words with even greater fervour, treating all the words and music with the same mentality and as vital to the whole.

Many so-called intellectual singers prefer _Lieder_, because they cannot vocalise the fine, dashing, graceful runs of florid music, not because of its lack of intellectual requirements. What could better express the vivacious joy of a fairy queen than the triplet passages on the exclamation “_Ah!_” bars 14 and 15 of the polacca movement.

When we come to bars 29 and 30, there is the chance of a lifetime with the cadenza-like string of fifteen notes, in the neatest sets of three, and they should be as perfect as though played by Kreisler on the violin.

Later on we come to some roulade passages of six notes on the same exclamation “Ah!” (bars 43, 44, and 45) which must be sung with increasing verve, so that the wood wind of the orchestra comes running up perfectly in tune and tempo, as it were from right under your last note. Here, much depends upon the cue of the conductor, but, changing one’s manner and keeping up the growing joyfulness, you begin a new era, as it were, with the words, “Bright troops of fairies hover round me.” Thus, the aria works on, until, on the last beat of bar 54 and bar 55 there is a suggestion of

a fairy call. A dream-like waltz, in wide contrast, follows. Unless one feels this, the brilliance we have worked up is losing the value of contrast with

this shimmer, as it were, of gleaming moonlight. On this breaks the brilliant passages of the flute, which may be the task of some fairy worker in the

real fairyland! I must be wafted along in smooth subservience to the brilliance of the accompaniment for the next few bars, until I repeat the lovely melody at bar 62 when I begin to add--as scored in the part--some grace notes and florid passages, and gradually awaken until, at bar 79, I have ascended to a full top B, preceded by a “trill” or “shake,” that leads up to the brilliant burst of the orchestra back to the polacca-like movement, and to the finale. This must be one increasing triumph, over the much-talked-of top E flat, the roulades, grace notes, trills, and cadenza-like passages for sheer _joie de vivre_. Yet all this depends upon how well you have conditioned yourself, practised those tiring vowel sounds, scales, sustained

passages, to which I commend you before essaying the brilliant Polonaise from “Mignon” that has given me many triumphs, yet still calls for all I can give, as it will to the end of the chapter.