In a bright and airy studio at the University of Chichester, a coach is helping a group of young singers get to grips with an Italian tongue twister. As the students repeat the phrase 'sotto la panca, la capra crepa', the coach shows them how to use their teeth and tongues to produce the 'energised' consonants needed for a convincingly Italian performance. Unlike most (English-speaking) instrumentalists, who can get by with a smattering of musical terms from other languages, opera singers require a detailed understanding of at least Italian, German and French, perhaps adding in some Russian along the way. Then there's breathing, posture and movement - and that's before you consider the music itself.
It's a big ask, says Mary King, a singer who set up the Glyndebourne Academy in 2012 to help people who have faced barriers to receiving the expert guidance required to embark on a successful operatic career. Originally a biennial project, the scheme now brings together around ten singers aged between 16 and 26 each August for an intensive week of mentoring and vocal training followed by a further weekend of coaching and a chance to sing on Glyndebourne's main stage in the autumn. Places on the scheme, which already has a strong record of helping young people win places at music college and on prestigious young artists programmes, are provided completely free of charge. Many alumni have now embarked on successful careers of their own. 'We knew that people were coming up against obstacles that stopped them realising their talent,' says King. 'It's the same things: socio-economic disadvantage; mental or physical ill health; being the only child at school interested in classical music; coming from a part of the country nowhere near any of the access schemes. They know they want to sing but they're not ready for the next step, which is where we come in.'
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Esta historia es de la edición December 2023 de BBC Music Magazine.
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Discovering Donizetti - Thanks to a two-year lockdown project, nearly 200 previously lost Donizetti songs will now see the light of day
Thanks to a two-year lockdown project, nearly 200 previously lost Donizetti songs will now see the light of day. For most people, undertaking a lockdown project meant learning to bake sourdough bread, getting fit with Joe Wicks, or taking up a language. But Professor Roger Parker, the eminent historian of Italian opera and emeritus professor at King's College London, had something far more ambitious in mind. He set about unearthing songs by Gaetano Donizetti - many of which had been lost since the composer's lifetime - and the enterprise turned into a two-year labour of love.
Composer of the month - Bohuslav Martinů - Though the Czech absorbed many influences from his exile abroad, his colourful music was always distinctively his own
The youngest of six, Bohuslav was a sickly child, and his father or older sister often had to carry him the 193 steps up to the tower. He was shy at school, too, though showed an early talent for the violin and gave his first concert at 14. By the following year, the future composer was off to the Prague Conservatoire to take the first, if faltering, steps towards a career in music.
Symphonies Beside the Sea- Before cinema, the wireless and coach trips cast them adrift, seaside orchestras were once a major holiday attraction
Before cinema, the wireless and coach trips cast them adrift, seaside orchestras were once a major holiday attraction. It's a dimension of music-making that once was integral to many a British holiday experience, yet now has all but vanished. The tide went out, you might say, on the professional seaside (or pier, or spa) orchestra many decades ago. In their glory days, though - perhaps a quarter-century on either side of 1900-these ensembles were everywhere, from Bridlington to Eastbourne, New Brighton to Worthing, Blackpool to Bexhill-on-Sea, Cleethorpes to Brighton... the list is astonishing.
Richard Morrison- Do Classical Works About Mortality Reveal More To Us As We Get Older? Is it inevitably true that, as we journey through the decades, we are better able to interpret or empathise with a profoundly death-obsessed masterpiece such as Schubert's Winterreise?
As we get older do we respond differently to that vast canon of music dealing with mortality? Is it inevitably true that, as we journey through the decades, we are better able to interpret or empathise with a profoundly death-obsessed masterpiece such as Schubert's Winterreise? Or do human beings possess such a flexible sense of empathy that we can relate to virtually any state of mind if it is evoked convincingly enough by a composer?
Do Notes Win Votes? - There are multi-dimensional ways that music is used by political campaigners and their supporters today.
It was a little bit of history repeating when Rishi Sunak announced the UK General Election to the heckling of his political opponents blasting out D:Ream's 'Things Can Only Get Better'.
Västra Karup Sweden
The spirit of soprano Birgit Nilsson is alive and well in the town of her birth, home to a festival dedicated to her memory
Federico Colli
\"At this moment in time we don't need more virtuosi. We need musicians to engage with the philosophy of music
Harmonic Progression
What happens when classical music-style levels of ambition, invention and sheer length are brought to pop? The answer, as Meurig Bowen explains, is Prog Rock
Golden years
Young musicians may be physically fit, but with age come the advantages of wisdom and experience
Sweet Sixteen
As The Sixteen celebrates its 45th birthday, founder Harry Christophers speaks to Andrew Stewart about directing a choral powerhouse
