Jessica Pratt, a 22-year-old soprano from Sydney, Australia, was interviewed by the Sydney Morning Herald just before she attended the 2002 Bel Canto Italia School of Opera in Florence, Italy. Jessica is a very promising young singer; just before the Institute, she was one of 40 selected out of 800 singers for Placido Domingo’s international voice competition, Operalia. She received second place/first runner-up in last year’s Metropolitan Opera Young Artist Study Award. The newspaper touted her next goal: “After the week-long contest Jessica will attend a course at the 2002 Bel Canto School in Florence.” “You could say I’m excited,” she said at the time.
Her local community was excited, too. While Operalia paid for the flight to and from Paris plus spending money for the duration of the competition, Jessica had to raise 6,000 Australian dollars for the cost of the Bel Canto School and then money to travel to Italy from Paris, etc. Her community believed this was the final step in getting their promising young star on her way to a big career. They sponsored her, helping her to raise the money to attend. CS spoke with her by phone in November.
“After all the publicity and how hard people worked to get me to Italy, you can’t imagine how hard it was to come back—three weeks early—and explain to all these people that this “exciting opportunity” had been a scam and that there was no way to get the money back. It was hard to hold my head up. In fact, it’s been hard to regain my confidence in singing at all after the things he (Della Mora) said to me.”
Teacher Harassment
In 2001, a university voice faculty member thought it would be a good idea for three of her students to get exposure to Italian culture and the Bel Canto method. After months of research and friendly correspondence with Carlos Della Mora, director of the Bel Canto Italia School of Opera, the teacher and her students arrived in Florence. According to the teacher, Mr. Della Mora then became a completely different person.
The teacher and students who were present report that Della Mora tolerated the use of hashish in the rooms, blew smoke in the teacher’s face, and didn’t help two frightened young singers from small towns find their housing the first night.
The “school” consisted of seven students, three from the university voice teacher, a 26-year-old jazz singer, a high school monotone, and a singer from Wisconsin. The “masterclass” met in one room with an electronic piano. Neither Della Mora nor his girlfriend (soprano Marisa Balistreri, who is part of the Bel Canto “faculty”) played an instrument, so the university teacher was enlisted to play (she had paid the course fee as well).
According to the students and teacher, private lessons by Mr. Della Mora were “brutal vocalization” that left the vocal cords burning by pushing chest voice quite high. During all the lessons and in the presence of the university voice teacher, Mr. Della Mora would say such things as, “your teacher doesn’t know anything about teaching,” or “your teacher has taught you falsely,” and “you should leave your teacher and come to Italy to study with me.” The advertised fee for the school was $6600 (not including airfare, housing or food). After the students arrived, Della Mora then said the fee was $300 higher than advertised due to a misprint and insisted the teacher pay the extra fee for each student and herself.
According to sources, the teacher decided to leave the school. Her three students didn’t want to stay either, and they wanted a refund since the school did not live up to its promises. A meeting was set up with Mr. Della Mora. His two sons “stood at each side of the door with cell phones in their hands. They looked like security guards, and the female students were quite frightened by their stance.”
Della Mora didn’t allow any discussion to take place but began shouting and speaking “abusively” to the teacher. The students jumped to her defense, and she joined in trying to get him to stop raging. He told her he was “firing her” from his school and to get out. He told his sons to call the police. The teacher begged them to call the police, because she was afraid of Mr. Della Mora. The sons left, and an older man came into the room and physically tried to evict one of the students, who was pulling away saying, “no, no, no.” Della Mora screamed at him and said, “no, HER!” pointing to the teacher. More confusion ensued, but finally Della Mora left and the teacher was able to explain the plight to the older man. He gave her the name of the American Consulate. Consulate officials were aware of Della Mora and the school from complaints the year before, but the previous students had not followed through. The teacher and students spent the rest of their time in Italy pursuing the matter at the Consulate, the Chamber of Commerce in Florence, and with an Italian lawyer.
In the meantime, Della Mora called the university teacher’s school and threatened the dean and assistant dean with calling the president of the university. Della Mora claimed that the police had to physically evict the teacher from the class. Once the administration had spoken to the teacher, they contacted Della Mora and insisted he return the money to the students.
The saddest thing is what has happened to the singers. One of them is still paying off the loan he took out to study. One has given up music and voice as a major, even though she apparently had a promising instrument. The other has never recovered from the psychological and emotional scars caused by the Bel Canto incident. She has not forgiven the teacher for being the one who encouraged her to go to Bel Canto and recently wrote the teacher stating that she had contemplated suicide over the Italy incident. She no longer studies with the teacher. Legal action is still pending.
Mr. Della Mora has written a response and interpretation of the events presented here. Interested parties should review his comments in their assessment of Bel Canto as a viable program. They can be seen at: www.vocalists.esmartmusic.com.
Television Special
The following news item was featured on a website promoting Mr. Della Mora’s new vocal school planned to open in Milwaukee, to be called the Florence School of Opera:
“Maestro Carlos Della Mora and soprano Marisa Balistreri will be featured in the upcoming BBC Channel 4 (London, England) three-part documentary series “The Voice,” which is due to be released worldwide early next year. The documentary also features Luciano Pavarotti, Ray Charles, Bono of U2 and the Enrico Caruso family, as well as other prominent figures representing the entire scope of the music world.”
Mr. Della Mora has now taken his websites down, leaving singers unable to review past program descriptions, but a group of former participants has preserved copies of his websites, brochures and handouts on the website www.vocalists.esmartmusic.com. Their site states that its purpose is “informing potential students about the truth of the various programs run by Carlos Francis Arduh (aka Carlos Della Mora).” On this website, they have also alerted singers to the four different names the school has operated under: “Musicae Universitas, a Registered and Recognized Institution,” “Bel Canto Italia School of Opera,” “Florence School of Opera,” and “Florence Arts Collegium.” The website includes experiences of singers from 1998, 2001 and 2002 and alerts singers to a new venture of Mr. Della Mora’s. The website refers to www.florencearts.org, a website put up by Della Mora promoting the new school he plans to open in Wisconsin.
Singers Could Have Been Arrested
Mr. Della Mora failed to inform participants in the Bel Canto Italia School of Opera program that they were in need of “Permesso di Soggiorno” papers and could be subject to fines or worse if discovered without them. One Bel Canto participant who returned to Italy later discovered the oversight. “Yes, we were all actually in the country illegally. (I only know this now, after the fact!) Visitors need the “Permesso di Soggiorno,” a legal permission to stay. If a policeman had stopped any of us, we would have had to say we were only vacationing, not staying for three months. As our accommodations were provided by Mr. Della Mora, we had no paperwork proving we were legally residing there. Of course, none of this was mentioned before or during the program.”
Promises vs. Reality
The following is a review of the features and benefits of the 2002 Bel Canto program from the Bel Canto website, followed by Jessica Pratt’s comments about the one week she spent at the program before leaving from extreme dissatisfaction.
Promise: Three private voice lessons per week.
Reality: “Two lessons given.”
Promise: Italian Language for the Opera Singer twice a week.
Reality: “One lesson given.”
Promise: Masterclasses.
Reality: “No masterclasses, unless you count Mr. Della Mora talking about his teaching while his girlfriend sang for a television crew.
Promise: Repertoire (Coaching).
Reality: “One session. Everyone sang one aria and he made a comment. I sang two pieces, because at the end of “Mi chiamano Mimi,” he said ‘continue,’ and I stated that it was the end of the aria. He appeared slightly flustered and then said that he meant continue with the next piece. He stopped me halfway through, saying that my breathing was detrimental. (On the first day, he had said that my breathing was perfect). He then stated that Mimi was too big for my voice and I should be singing Desdemona (Verdi). (End of coaching.)
Promise: Repertoire Lecture / Score analysis.
Reality: “There were no lectures and no score analysis.”
Promise: Role preparation and rehearsal for the Gianni Schicci performances.
Reality: At the beginning of the week, we were informed Gianni Schicchi was canceled and that we would perform a concert at the end of the summer course with one of the pianists. I could perform a couple of arias, and we might do an ensemble to finish. The advertised Gianni Schicchi performances were to be with an orchestra in a number of venues—filmed, recorded and broadcast live. [Editor’s note: Mr. Della Mora told Ms. Pratt that he is justified in canceling the opera because the singers weren’t good enough. Past participants we spoke to reported that the scheduled opera had been canceled in at least one season prior to 2002. In the interest of fairness we should note that mounting an opera with seven students would admittedly be difficult.]
Advertised Staff
Carlos Della Mora, Tenor
Reality: “This was the only person who you could say taught me vocally or coached me.”
Marisa Balistreri, Soprano
Reality: “This is Mr. Della Mora’s girlfriend. She was present but did not teach me; she occasionally demonstrated for Mr. Della Mora.”
Annalisa Scano, Soprano
Reality: “I did not see this person.”
Alessandro Calamai, Baritone
Reality: “I did not see this person.”
Marta Rostro, Pianist—Coach.
Reality: “I only saw this person when she played for Mr. Della Mora’s girlfriend during the television interview. She may have played for a session I missed at the end of the week after I’d decided to leave.”
Special Guests
Niel Rishoi, Bass Baritone, author Edita Gruberova biography. Contributor to The Opera Quarterly and Classical Singer publications.
Reality: “I did not see this person.”
Editor’s Note: The Bel Canto Italia School of Opera is not to be confused with the program directed by Jane Klaviter, named Bel Canto Institute].
