Bel Canto

Lucie Manen presents the findings of her extensive investigation into the original Italian art of Bel Canto singing. After summarizing the history of Bel Canto and some mistaken teaching methods, she describes in detail her own research into the physiological aspects of Bel Canto - from posture and breathing to details of messa di voce and coloratura. This is a completely revised and expanded version of Lucie Manen's The Art of Singing: A Manual of Bel Canto (Faber Music Ltd, 1974; 2nd edition 1981). It is illuminated throughout by the author's practical and musical insights, and illustrated with exercises from original Bel Canto manuals. 'The publication of this book must surely herald a change of attitude. Lucie Manen's clear exposition of her solidly grounded theories and well-tried practice will prompt wise, healthy, and positive questioning of established methods, and should serve to bring about a long-overdue revolution in that least-regulated of all professions, the teaching of singing.' (From the Preface by Brian Trowell) 'Lucie Manen has more qualifications than any singer I have ever met for writing a Manual for singers. There have been learned books on the voice but the authors have not been singers; there have been biographies and autobiographies whose subjects have revealed a personal secret or two. But there have been few who have combined experience as a singer with a deep and wide learning so convincingly as Madame Manen.' Peter Pears