A true polyglot, Nico Castel is justifiably famed as an operatic coach and a teacher of diction. The Portugal native has written A Singers’ Manual of Spanish Lyric Diction and is in the process of completing IPA transcriptions of a number of operas. Mr. Castel spoke with Tina Gasperson in New York shortly before departing for a summer abroad.
CS: No one would deny that the opera market today is saturated–a lot of singers are vying for fewer and fewer jobs. Language skills are part of a well-rounded singer’s package. Is language fluency expected of singers these days?
NC: Nothing is a substitute for the in-depth knowledge of a language. It makes you more expressive by connecting the text to your brain, so that you sing with understanding and with the right emotional drive. I would expect that kind of skill. But what I expect and what singers will actually do–or can afford to do–is something else. I cannot just be imperious and say, “Go to Germany and study at the Goethe Institute for the month of August.” But the young singer who really cares about language should do just that. For me it was no problem. Between them my parents spoke 13 languages. So from the cradle, I was immersed in languages.
CS: But most American singers aren’t so fortunate–we aren’t typically immersed in other languages.
NC: The situation is something that cannot be helped because Americans are singularly monolingual. By the time the Swiss learn to talk, for example, they can usually speak German, French, and often Italian as well. Of course everyone learns English because it’s absolutely necessary. English has become the lingua franca of the world–but unfortunately it’s not the lingua franca of the opera world. Opera, in the major houses, is sung in the original language. This is where the American singer has to cope with the necessity of navigating these foreign languages. That’s not easy, especially for people who have had very little language instruction in school. They may have had a year of high school French–that’s not quite enough to sing through Manon or Faust.
Some singers take their language responsibilities very seriously, actually going to the countries and spending a summer with a German or Italian family. Such an experience provides constant immersion in the language, and that usually works miracles. They come back with a certain amount of confidence in the language, and that of course helps them enormously in the performance of their roles. I mean, every young singer knows that “Io t’amo” means “I love you” in Italian, and every young singer learns how to say “grazie,” “non” and “sí” because they run across these words in their arias.
There are many courses being offered in Europe, where one can actually go and spend some time during the summer and be immersed from head to foot in a program that deals with the foreign language in question. You’re bombarded from morning to night with nothing but the language, and I think that’s wonderful. After a while the brain learns how to navigate that, and all of a sudden you’ll be surprised how much you feel, “Oh, I see, that’s what it is.” And you come back and you’ve grown.
CS: If a singer wants to immerse herself in the language but can’t afford to spend a summer in Europe, are there U.S. alternatives?
NC: I don’t know about the rest of the country, but certainly in New York you have options. For instance, there is Escala Italiana, which offers conversational immersion courses. Whatever your choice, it should be a dedicated immersion conversation course so that people actually learn something–not just “Where’s the bathroom?” That won’t help you in the opera. Both the Goethe Institute and La Maison Française offer courses in conversation–intermediate and advanced. Such study should be required of any curious young singer.
CS: What languages do you recommend singers study first?
NC: Since most young singers begin with Italian arias and songs, the first order of business should be to get a good grasp on Italian. Italian, they say, is the best singing language–wonderful vowels. Italian consonant clusters are not quite as difficult as the consonant clusters in German. It has no nasals or mixed vowels (dipthongs). So it’s simpler to understand that. Some young kids have already had the experience of singing some aria or Italian song as they were growing up and learning, so some of the words and vocabulary may already in be in their subconscious.
It also depends on what kind of voice the young singer has. If somehow the young singer’s vocal quality and style of singing lend themselves more to lieder, or something even heavier, then he or she should study German. Eventually it would be wonderful if all singers studied all three of the major singing languages–Italian, German, and French.
Spanish is another very viable language for singing, especially lately, with the resurgence of the zarzuela. Many, many Spanish singers of the caliber of Placido Domingo and Juan Pons have lent their beautiful operatic voices to recording these beautiful Spanish comic operas, and I have been propagating the Spanish and Hispanic vocal repertoire myself. In New York I will be giving a course in Spanish vocal repertoire in the spring of 2000. It seems there is a demand once more for that kind of repertoire.
CS: You have said in classes that it’s critical for singers to become emotionally connected to each word in the text. What exactly does that mean?
NC: How can you be a communicator–a truly expressive singer–if the text is not fully understood? It’s like asking someone to sing “Oh, what a beautiful morning,” and the singer not knowing what the words “beautiful” or “morning” mean. It’s unacceptable–not only that, it would be unthinkable!
That’s what makes American singers, singing American songs, so incredibly acceptable. Of course, the same process of connection to text has to happen, and that doesn’t happen by magic–it happens with study and concentration. That’s why my life’s work now is preparing these books of libretti, of all the Italian operas. I give the singers every word of every line in every opera–every chorus line, every indication, and there it is, what it means, and what the sentences mean. And the pronunciation as well, by using the phonetic alphabet.
Some singers understand the need for a real connection to the language intrinsically. The more impatient ones, however, will say, “Yeah, but I have a great voice, and as long as I sing my high Cs, that’s what people pay for. I don’t care if I know exactly what the words mean.” That of course is a cop-out, which absolutely infuriates me. I can tell when a singer isn’t connected, in spite of his beautiful high C. Believe me, people with this attitude have sung for me–sung for me at the MET! You would think they’d take the time, at least, to learn! I don’t ask for much–how about the title of your aria? Wouldn’t that be nice if you knew what the title of your aria meant? Not much more than that, but you would be surprised. Sometimes it’s disheartening.
I have a great passion for language and diction. The idea of singing acceptably so that people of taste and discernment can be moved and touched–it requires a beautiful voice, of course–but it also requires the feeling to use the voice in an expressive manner. And the expression comes through the text–that’s all there is to it.
