| “I am not good with words,
but there is one thing I would ask of you: that our
efforts not be wasted, that you do not forget what little
I have given you. Take it and apply it to other scores,
so that your phrasing, your diction, your knowledge,
and your courage will be stronger – especially
your courage. Do not think singing is an easy career.
It is a lifetime’s work; it does not stop herte.
As future colleagues, you must carry on. Fight bad tradition;
remember, we are servants to those better than us –
the composers. They believed; we must believe”.
“Whether I continue singing or
not doesn’t matter. What matters is that you use
whatever you have learned wisely. Think of the expression
of the words, of good diction, and of your own deep
feelings. The only thanks I ask is that you sing properly
and honestly. If you do this, I will feel repaid”.
So Maria Callas on 16th 1972, at the
end of her Masterclass at the Jiuillard School of Music
in New York. A recurring wish of good luck towards young
singers, because they represent the future for music
and opera, and perhaps also because the beginning of
a career is never easy, not even for the outstanding
primadonna.
Everybody must dedicate themselves,
go far and beyond themselves, suffering hugely before
reaching the top. Maria Callas, in Terence Mc Nelly’s
“Masterclass”, which was successfully performed
all over the world, shows her partiality, among her
students from New York, for a young tenor, originally
born Italian.
We want to start our gallery dedicated
to young lyric singers with a 25 years old Roman
tenor, who has already gained recognition,
particularly in July in Martina Franca performing Eraclide,
King of Agrigento, in “I giochi di Agrigento”
by Giovanni Paisiello, the opera that marked the opening
of the Fenice Theatre on May 16th 1792 and was never
performed again.
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Marcello
Nardis has succeded in facing up to the
difficult comparison with the famous Giacomo David,
the best tenor at the end of the 18th century.
His interpretation of Eraclide
at the Fenice Theatre was musically brilliant,
reaching the full range of high notes. A real
star of his time, Giacomo David “was a truly
vigorous declaimer and a first class virtuoso
– Rodolfo Celletti writes – His major
skill consisted in his agile cleverness, based
on vocal passages performed with a full voice,
with nourished and incisive trills.
Since the first aria –
Nardi says – Eraclide is to be noted for
his wide phrasal expressions, his almost pre-romantic
vocalism, his heroic ranging and fierce timbre,
which easily becomes high or remains solid and
sound.
The cadenzas appear very hard,
shifting from octave to high notes (do and re).
Two very young primadonnas were
also greatly praised in Martina Franca, Maria
Laura Martorana and Hara Lanfranch, performibng
with immense skill and virtuosity Aspasia and
Egesta.
Marcello Nardis has already sung
for the Pope John Paul II, live in Toronto on
the occasion of the XVII World Youth Day.
His debut was in October 2005
at the National Opera Theatre of Tokyo with Verdi’s
“Oberto, Count of St. Boniface”, which
was performed for the first time in Japan and
was much appreciated by critics.
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