JACK LIVIGNI AND HIS GENTLE MIDDLE

The Mediterranean Opera Studio and Festival has grown to prominence in recent times. The organisation boasts a wealth of experience, with its affiliations to big-named contributors such as Salvatore Fisichella. In recent years there has been a lot of content made publicly available on the organisation’s YouTube channel. As this information has been put into the public forum it is natural that it be a subject of discussion. In this article I will be discussing a concept which has been central to a lot of the content recently being published, that being the director Jack Livigni’s preference for the development of the middle voice, particularly as it relates to the training of tenor voices. 

 

THE CONCEPT

This concept has been described by the channel as the development of “gentle timbre". It has also been linked with the concept known as "Cotogni's Dogma". This ideal is bolstered in credibility through its connection to the lineage of Giacomo Lauri-Volpi and Antonio Cotogni.

  

THE BATTLEGROUND

Livigni describes a cultural problem in tenor singing. He references content recently posted online which talks about "manly singing", "testosterone" and "taking chest voice higher". Livigni does not name the publisher of this content but I am confident he is referring to the This is Opera YouTube channel, as well as the work of Jeremiah Silver and Craig Sirianni, both of whom teach methodology taught to them by the late Thomas LoMonaco. Livigni gives a historical account of the origins regarding this cultural trend. He goes on to state:

"From a technical point of view this cultural trend that started with Caruso and Pertile and took strong hold 30 years later with Del Monaco and Corelli, the pinnacle of verismo singing whereby a tenor should be a bundle of testosterone, impetuous and fiery is a very limiting and sometimes even dangerous vocal trend, and I think it signalled a sharp decline in the emergence of heroic and bel canto tenor singing". 

This quote frames a context from which to interpret this information. It is clear that Livigni’s dissemination of this material is in part driven by his desire to establish a counterculture to what he defines as a cultural problem.  

The Mediterranean Opera channel has also published recorded conversations of Giacomo Lauri-Volpi recounting ideals imparted to him by Antonio Cotogni:

"Cotogni would tell me be careful now, don’t overload the middle! You sing in the middle and resolve into the top. Because the characteristic of the baritone is the middle voice, for the tenor it is the high voice, and for the bass it is the low voice. The tenor must sing in the middle but can't fatten it. I find that most tenors in the last 30-40 years sang wide in the middle, from Caruso onward. They began to really swell the middle voice with three results:

•          They sound like baritones in the middle voice
•           On the high notes they seem like they are hung by the neck
•           This force impedes them from singing with mezza voce dynamics".

It is clear to see that Livigni prefers the ideals of tenor singing in the pre-Caruso era. This is a positive thing as we need people who help us preserve the traditions of the past. Livigni comes from an extremely rich cultural heritage. Belonging to a family which has produced three generations of opera singers, he has had the privilege of a rare vocal education. The contact that people around him had with people like Cotogni, coupled with Italian being his native language, mean that he is close to the source in regards to understanding historical vocal concepts. All these factors make his contributions extremely valuable to the artform today. 

 

COMPARING IDEALS

Livigni uses the fact that Franco Corelli sought out Lauri-Volpi as a vocal mentor to further bolster his case. The content identifies these two voices as examples of these contrasting approaches, Lauri-Volpi representing a voice developed on the basis of the old ideals (gentle timbre) and Corelli representing a voice which wasn't.  Recordings of both tenors feature them singing the same excerpt from Verdi’s Luisa Miller. This excerpt contains legato passages predominantly in the middle voice. The point of comparison is to alert the listener to use of gentle timbre in the singing of Lauri-Volpi and to contrast that with Corelli. I have a problem with this comparison because it does not choose a recording of Corelli at his best. Furthermore, the excerpt does not illustrate the ways in which Corelli's technique can outshine the approach of Lauri-Volpi. This later fact weakens the argument instead of strengthening it in my evaluation. 

 

MY TAKE ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN CORELLI AND LAURI-VOLPI

Franco Corelli had no more than a few lessons with Arturo Melocchi early on in his studies.  He then became basically self-taught. We know from Corelli’s documented encounters with Jerome Hines that Corelli loved experimenting with other great singers where he could fuel his fascination with learning more about singing. At a stage in his life when he was arguably the greatest tenor in the world, he sought out Lauri-Volpi as someone who could give him feedback. This shows great humility on the part of Corelli. Lauri-Volpi himself referred to their meetings as vocal encounters and not lessons. In an interview, Corelli recounts some of the suggestions made by Lauri-Volpi:

"He wanted me to lighten and brighten my voice

I didn't like what he had me do with the beginning of "O Soave Fanciulla" because it was too light for my voice".          

Clearly the two men were not in agreement to how Corelli should sing. This clearly illustrates that Corelli did not see Lauri-Volpi as his vocal authority and did not agree with everything that Lauri-Volpi said.  

 

PAINFUL CONTRADICTIONS

The channel published an excerpt of Lauri-Volpi talking where he states that tenors of the post-Caruso era had swelled the middle voice with three results. 

1)  They sound like baritones in the middle

2)  They have difficulty with high notes

3) They are impeded in their ability to sing mezza voce. 

The channel then identifies Corelli as an example of a tenor who epitomised this post-Caruso verismo style. Let me ask you a few questions. Do you think Corelli had difficulty with high notes? Do you think Corelli had difficulty with mezza voce? The answer to these questions is obviously NO! Corelli's acuti and mezza voce are legendary. His recorded legacy is testament to his proficiency in both regards. As for the first point about tenors sounding more like baritones in the middle voice, I can only say that this is neither wrong nor right, but rather a matter of taste. That being said it is clear that later operatic composers wanted this baritonal quality in some of the dramatic roles. In Wagner’s day a heldentenor was called a tenorbaritone. Similarly, a truly dramatic tenor role such as Verdi's Otello also calls upon voices which have this baritonal quality.  

 

LAURI-VOLPI VS CORELLI

Lauri-Volpi and Corelli were both great singers. While I respect both as great singers I more often reach for recordings of Corelli. This is based only on personal taste and preference. I prefer the masculinity and virile nature of his sound. By contrast, I find the singing of Lauri-Volpi to be a bit effeminate for my tastes. This however does not make one singer superior to the other in my estimation, as Corelli and Lauri-Volpi had different techniques which permitted them to sing in different ways. Neither singer could out-perform the other in regard to their respective strong points. It is also important to acknowledge that Lauri-Volpi, despite having an extremely powerful voice, was far more lyrical in nature than Corelli, who had a more dramatic instrument. 

 

TECHNIQUE IS FACH-RELATED

Lyric and dramatic voices operate in different ways and require different techniques. Lyric voices generally find it easier to sing mezza voce for longer periods of time. Dramatic voices, while needing to have a facility in mezza voce, do not base their general technique around this dynamic. Resultingly they are less comfortable singing mezza voce for extended periods. Livigni correctly explains that forte singing involves a greater adduction of the vocal folds, while mezza voce requires less. Given that it is a necessity for every singer to master both dynamics, it is important to realise that singers base their technique around one or the other.  The voice becomes acculturated to a base degree of adduction, which makes the singer most comfortable in this dynamic range over extended periods of time. The model advocated by Lauri-Volpi seeks to keep adduction at low levels in the low and middle voice and increase the adduction as the voice resolves into the top. This foundation results in a voice which is capable of producing forte in the higher notes but not for extended periods of time in the low and middle voice. This approach is both a bel canto, lyric and Italian ideal and it will not serve a singer who is required to sing repertoire requiring extended powerful singing in the mid range.

A historical example of this was Wagner’s scathing assessment of the great Rubini. Wagner stated that while Rubini had powerful high notes, the lower two-thirds of his voice were completely inadequate. The discrepancy which Wagner detected between the projective quality of Rubini's low and middle voice in comparison to the top is due to his voice being developed in accordance with these ideals. While they may have served Rubini in singing certain repertoire it made him incapable of being effective in others which required more projection in a lower tessitura.

Lauri-Volpi and Livigni both express the belief that singing mezza voce for extended periods saves their voices. 

He (Lauri-Volpi) would say:

"Corelli, remember - the aria is three or four minutes long. In 95% of cases the high note is at the end. The more you push in the middle the more difficulty you will have on the high note". 

Livigni expresses a similar view in the quotation below. He states: 

"The philosophy of this mezza voce singing is that you are able to sing for longer periods of time and not have to give 100% and wreck your voice".

As can be seen from these quotations, both Livigni and Lauri-Volpi find it easier to sing mezza voce than forte. This is because they have lyric voices and the model which they build their voices upon acculturates their instruments to lower levels of adduction in the mid range. 

Corelli by contrast was a spinto tenor. He had a heavier instrument and was required to sing in a declamatory way. His vocal cords were acculturated to a stronger adduction. This higher level of compression and adduction is why a spinto tenor is so named; spinto translates to "forced "or "pushed". The important thing to note here is that Livigni and Lauri-Volpi believe that they save vocal reserves by singing mezza voce and that forte makes them tired. Corelli by contrast expressed the opposite. He believed that singing more fully cost his voice less than singing mezza voce, which made him tired. These differences are due not only to physiological differences within the voices, but also the differences in the respective techniques and in particular the acculturation of the middle voice. Both Lauri-Volpi and Corelli possessed great forte and mezza voce, but their voices were developed to produce one dynamic with more ease than the other due to a base level acculturation. This essentially is the fundamental difference between a more lyrical and more dramatic technique. Lauri-Volpi clearly attempted to impose this lyricism onto Corelli. This did not respect the differences between their respective instruments and is why Corelli became disillusioned with this part of Lauri-Volpi’s feedback.  Corelli could sense that the nature of his voice was not suited to this approach.  Livigni expresses a general paradigm which makes the same mistake: imposing lyrical ideals on all voices. The imposition of lyricism on more dramatic voices will not produce ideal results. Likewise, imposing dramatic ideals on lyrical voices is equally misguided.  

One size does not fit all. Instead the answer lies in understanding the physical nature of a voice and developing it accordingly. Choosing the correct compression level and adduction strength for the middle voice is foundational in this development. The voice then develops characteristics which emanate out of this base level acculturation. Every tenor in history sits somewhere on a continuum in this regard, which in turn affects the ease with which they articulate the forte or the mezza voce in the mid range. If the voice is acculturated to higher levels of adduction then the forte will be easier. Alternatively, if the voice is acculturated to lower levels of adduction then mezza voce will be easier. The one exception in history to this rule was Caruso, who somehow had the ability to do both with equal ease. It was almost as if Caruso had a switch which changed him from a lyric to a dramatic tenor, and his vocal cords were able to instantly acculturate between the two different settings. In his case he was equally comfortable singing both mezza voce or forte for extended periods. The reasons that allowed him to do this are fascinating and are deserving of being the subject of their own article. However, I will state that Caruso was an extraordinary freak of nature and a vocal outlier in many regards. In every other singer I have ever heard this theory of baseline acculturation applies. 

 

TEACHER VS TEACHER

Cotogni undoubtedly had a great understanding of voices but so did Melocchi. Both had different ideals. Both got different results. The fact that Melocchi did not subscribe to the same ideals did not make him wrong or a lesser teacher. Melocchi was a master at teaching the technique he specialised in. 

 

VARIETY IS THE SPICE OF LIFE

Opera needs different types of tenors, and the world would be boring if everybody followed the same ideals. If everybody developed their voices on the basis of gentle timbre we would not have had the following list of tenors: 

Mario Del Monaco

Franco Corelli

Max Lorenz

Giuseppe Giacomini

Ramón Vinay

James King

Lauritz Melchior

Obviously, all of these tenors had heavier instruments.Their physiological make up and the heavier roles that they sang are factors in what made a different set of ideals work for them. 

 

WHAT TYPE OF SINGER ARE YOU? 

At some stage of your vocal development you are going to need to find your own sound. This is going to be influenced by your voice and your personality. You will then need to develop a technique which is suited to this sound.

The compatibility between these three factors will be crucial to your success:

Voice + Personality + Technique = Success                                                                                          

Sometimes accidents happen. The singer has a gentle lyric voice and seeks to express in a similar way. Likewise, the teacher has an affinity for sweet lyric voices and promotes a technical approach which is a perfect match. In this scenario there is a great synchronicity between the three factors which will work well in the singer’s favour. 

If however a singer has a heavier voice and an aggressive edge to their personality, they are going to need to develop a technique to suit these qualities. Learning from a teacher who is always asking them for a lighter and sweeter sound because that’s the type of sound the teacher likes will be problematic. This will be frustrating for the singer and productive vocal development will be unlikely. In a scenario like this, the student will need to find a teacher who can deliver a technique which will suit the type of singer they are trying to become. 

 

SUMMARY

The vocal world is full of charlatans and bad teachers. Jack Livigni is most certainly not one of them. He comes from a very accomplished pedigree and has a very impressive CV. He obviously understands the technique he advocates very well and has cultivated "a polished sound" in his ears which is perfect for a certain type of tenor. He is an accomplished singer and I presume a very good teacher. The tonal ideals he espouses are not incorrect, but the application of these ideals to the training of more dramatic tenors will not be as successful. Such admissions are rarely made by studios as they are considered bad publicity, however all teachers have greater success with certain voice types over others. Terms like gentle timbre are what people want to hear. Ideals which relate to aggressive singing and forced phonations are not. Expressions like "all voices should sing lyrically" have become popular as they are very politically correct. However if we are honest, we can all acknowledge that there has been a decline in dramatic singing as a result of such widespread misinformation. 

Livigni states that the post-Caruso tenorial ideals are a limiting idea of what a tenor can be. I agree with him. But I also believe that the pre-Caruso ideals are equally limiting. One approach is stylistically suited to singing the bel canto composers and the other is stylistically suited to singing the verismo composers. I prefer a world where both types of tenors can exist.  Such a world needs to appreciate the differences of both, instead of making the other approach objectively wrong. Verismo singing, while it has its basis in the bel canto, has technical differences. Developing a voice to fulfil these technical requirements is not objectively wrong. Pre-emptively counteracting this argument, Livigni claims that the pre-Caruso ideals of which he is an advocate are capable of producing both lyric and heroic tenors. He states: 

"High tenors can be from the lightest voice to heroic depending on the size of the voice and the incisive nature of the squillo".

I cannot argue with Livigni in regards to this quote, however I would like to point out that there are considerable differences between a heroic bel canto tenor and a dramatic tenor. The technical requirements needed to sing Rossini’s William Tell for example are vastly different from that of a role like Verdi's Otello. 

 

LIVIGNI'S IDEALS

As I have previously stated, Livigni was born into a very rich vocal culture. While not knowing all the details I imagine that the ideals he espouses today were also largely held by other members of his family. If this is true then these ideals were immersed within him culturally during his youth. I think this is a wonderful thing and it is very valuable to the world of singing to have someone who can share such a rich culture. The important thing to understand however is that these ideals, like all good schools of singing, have their limitations and their suitability to you will vary dependant upon the type of singer you are.  

Now that I have finished this article I am going to take a long bath and listen to recordings of Franco Corelli!

 

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