Art song in Spanish is woefully underrepresented in history books, on recital stages, and in conservatories. Two charismatic advocates of Spanish-language song—opera star and Metropolitan Opera diction coach Nico Castel and Nan Maro Babakhanian, founder of Project Canción Española—are doing all they can to change that.
As Babakhanian prepared to direct the first Summer Institute of Art Song in Spanish at Mannes College The New School for Music in New York City (June 26-July 2), she and Castel spent a few moments with Classical Singer to discuss their passion for the genre and their dream of elevating art song in Spanish to the same status as German, French, Italian, and English song.
Can you tell us a little about your early musical influences?
Nico Castel: I was born in Portugal, and my grandfather was the rabbi of Lisbon. At his knee I heard all the stories of the Bible told to me in Ladino, the old Jewish Spanish of the Sephardic Jews, and I heard the cantillations in the synagogue. I had a great, atavistic pull towards the music of mother Spain because my ancestors on my mother’s side were all from Castilla.
Nan Maro Babakhanian: My background is very different. I was born in New York City, then moved to Illinois at age 2 and was brought up on the campus of the University of Illinois. My mother was an announcer for National Public Radio, so I grew up listening to everything—but I went through my whole undergraduate and conservatory experience without ever hearing anything about singing in Spanish.
NC: And yet you became such a champion of Spanish music!
NMB: It wasn’t until I started programming with guitarists after I graduated that I discovered Spanish repertoire. A lot of singers discover the repertoire that way. Conservatories aren’t covering it, and Spanish composers are barely mentioned in music history books.
Why has Spanish-language art song been so overlooked?
NC: You know, too many people think that Spanish music is “La Cucaracha” and the Three Tenors singing “Granada.” Little do they know that there’s an incredible amount of music from Spain, from South America—wonderful cycles of song from Argentina, Venezuela.
NMB: Nico’s absolutely right. People just don’t know the amount of repertoire that exists. I’m in contact with so many archives that have manuscripts of really valid composers who were colleagues of Manuel de Falla or were predecessors of the composers we know. And they’re just not published.
There are gorgeous scores of the complete works of Granados and Albeniz, and anthologies of Latin American song recently published by Tritó. Distributors don’t buy them because they don’t see a demand for art song in Spanish. It’s a vicious circle—there’s no demand because people don’t know they exist!
Nico, how did you start building your famous collection of art song in Spanish?
NC: In 1958, I was lucky enough to win the Joy in Singing prize in New York and one of my judges was Carleton Sprague Smith, who was director of the Spanish Institute of New York on Park Avenue and had been cultural ambassador to Brazil. He was a personal friend of Villa-Lobos and knew all of the Brazilian composers. He gave me an incredible amount of music and opened my eyes to the early music of Spain from the 15th and 16th centuries.
At the first opportunity I had, I went to the publisher Unión Musical Español in Spain and I emptied their bins of every possible vocal arrangement for piano or guitar or vihuela, the old granddaddy of the guitar.
NMB: Sadly, that publisher is now defunct, so Nico has scores that I can’t buy even in Spain!
Nan Maro, how did you end up in Spain?
NMB: I was on my way to Germany to perform Spanish music and I came through Spain and started meeting all these Spanish musicians. Within Spain there’s a lot of repertoire circulating, but it’s not getting out to the rest of the world. Around nine years ago, I met Pablo, who is now my husband, in Spain.
When did you start your Interpretation of Spanish Song Festival in Granada?
NMB: I started the festival in Spain around four years ago for Saint Louis University, Madrid Campus. I put together a dream team of “masters” of the Spanish repertoire and in the past two years added Teresa Berganza, who’s the grand dame of art song in Spanish. I’d love for Nico to join us, but he’s the busiest man on the planet!
NC: I’d love to stay at one of the wonderful castles in Granada sometime.
NMB: You’re always welcome!
How do Spaniards treat Spanish art song?
NMB: Spaniards think they won’t be taken seriously unless they program Northern European songs. They call their art songs “Lied,” using the German term! When they sing Spanish songs, they tend to take an operatic approach, rather than breaking the poetry down, appreciating the folkloric element, and being brave enough to use vernacular intonation within poems. The rhythm of the language is unique to this culture, and we should embrace it as adding more colors to the concert stages of the world.
Nico, The Singer’s Manual of Lyric Spanish Diction was the first of your 23 (and counting) books. What inspired you to write it?
NC: At the time there was no such manual available, and it was time for me to bite the bullet and write one myself. It all came out of my desire to “propagate” Spanish and Hispanic song to the masses out there.
Exposure to this music is so important. At Juilliard, a year ago, we had a performance of Spanish music, and some of my kids absolutely flipped over the zarzuela arias, and the songs of Granados and Fernando Obradors, and the arrangements of Joaquín Nin, and the poemas by Joaquín Turina. When people hear this music, they love it.
NMB: Spanish is one of the most spoken languages in the world—yet so few people know this music. Unfortunately, with Spanish music, there is no standard way for anyone to enter into the repertoire—and we need to establish a standard use of the IPA symbols for lyric diction in this language. So it’s my goal to disseminate this information and spark interest. If the conservatories aren’t teaching it, then the publishers won’t publish the music.
That’s why the Summer Institute of Art Song in Spanish at Mannes is such an important step in the right direction. I think it’s absolutely significant that the institute is being hosted by a respected conservatory. The fact that their dean, Joel Lester, has put Mannes’ name behind it is a big step towards elevating the status of Spanish-language song.
NC: I teach masterclasses in diction for Joseph Colaneri’s Opera Program at Mannes each fall and some of these kids are unbelievable talents.
What are your plans for the summer institute?
NMB: I want to expose people to as much new repertoire as possible. I feel like an archaeologist!
What works are you most excited about “unearthing”?
NMB: I love all of it. It’s exciting to introduce works that have never been heard in New York. The inaugural concert, for example, will include little-known songs by Falla, folk music set by Federico García Lorca, and modern pieces by José Luis Turina and faculty member Gallardo del Rey.
Are there any songs in Spanish that young singers should consider adding to their repertoire as a starting point?
NMB: There’s a recently published edition of Manuel García’s Caprichos líricos that I think should replace the old Italian songs that are like the Bible right now for every music school. How many times can we hear “Caro Mio Ben”?
NC: Manuel García was the man! He was Rossini’s first Almaviva, and his daughters, Colbran and Viardot, were great Bel Canto prima donnas.
What types of musicians should participate in the program at Mannes?
NMB: The ideal participants are duos that are looking for interesting new repertoire to program as a duo—piano/voice or guitar/voice—but we don’t exclude singers, pianists, or guitarists from anywhere in the world who want to sign up on their own, because we’re happy to pair them up with someone. And that being said, one of the most interesting side points of our class is that most guitarists do not study how to accompany singers. We’re absolutely dying to train guitarists to work with singers.
What does that entail?
NMB: We have them recite the poetry and teach them to breathe with the singers. We even make the guitarists take the flamenco dance movement class. That class is basically to introduce the folkloric element of Spanish music. Not all Spanish music has folkloric elements, but when it’s there, people can find it intimidating.
What do you hope the participants will take away from the experience?
NMB: I believe that every student who comes through my door will become an ambassador for this repertoire.
How can singers who aren’t in Spain or New York City find this music?
NC: Call Classical Vocal Reprints [1-800-298-7474]. They’re an amazing resource.
NMB: One of my goals is to post this information on the Internet [www.newschool.edu/mannes/asis], so people can see what repertoire is available and where they can get scores. The website will have a list of repertoire in our collection and links to archives at Indiana University and the Cervantes Institute and other resources. I want the website to be a forum, so someone can say, “Have you heard about this archive in Colombia? Here’s the link.”
NC: I’d also like to say that people who want to sing in Spanish should listen to the great Spanish singers. Don’t copy the way they sing, but learn from their style—where they take a fermata and how long they hold a high note.
There are wonderful recordings of the greats of the past: Montserrat Caballé, Victoria de los Ángeles, Teresa Berganza, Pilar Lorengar, and, of course, Carreras, Domingo, and Alfredo Kraus. Many of these recordings include the great collaborative artist Miguel Zanetti, who’s on the faculty of the summer programs in Granada and New York City. Also, Carlos Álvarez, the wonderful Spanish baritone who sings at the Met now, has a beautiful CD of zarzuela songs.
These are the artists that people should listen to and try, first of all, to develop a taste for the repertoire—and then have the ambition to come to someone like Nan Maro or me and say, “Where can I buy some of this beautiful music?” And also explore the lesser-known repertoire that Nan Maro lists on the Mannes website [see sidebar on page 9]—and do it, and do it, and absolutely perform this music in your recitals.
Find out more about Nico Castel at www.castelopera.com , the Summer Institute of Art Song in Spanish at Mannes in New York City at www.newschool.edu/mannes/asis, and Interpretation of Spanish Song Festival, Granada, Spain at http://spain.slu.edu/music.
