Authentic Bel Canto by Ewan Harbrecht Mitton

Mitton, Ewan Harbrecht. Authentic Bel Canto. Springville, UT: Cedar Fort, Inc., 2014. Book One: An Instructional Review, xiii, 127 pp. ISBN 978-1-4621-1599-0. Book Two: The Vocalises with Instructions on How to Sing Them. vii., 149 pp. ISBN 978-1-4621-1600-3. Book One and Two sold as a set $114.98. Student Manual, xii, 115 pp., $54.99. ISBN 978-1-4621-1601-0. Each volume includes 5 CDs. Full set of three volumes $154.97. www.authenticbelcanto.comThe vocal longevity of Ewan Harbrecht Mitton is impressive. The soprano began performing before she was a teenager and concertized into her sixties. Her career includes an impressive number of appearances with major orchestras and opera companies, and more than fifty years of teaching. Mitton attributes her success to vocal technique she learned from Mario and Ruth Miller Chamlee, students of tenor Giovanni Sbriglia, who in turn was a student of Manuel Garcia. In Authentic Bel Canto, Mitton shares this vocal methodology.The first book of the three volumes, entitled An Instructional Review, offers background and explanation of the technique. Mitton begins with an overview of the lineage of bel canto. She traces it back to 15th century masters Johannes Ockeghem and Josquin de Prez, who instructed singers in sacred music, and to Giulio Caccini and Jacopo Peri, who were members of the influential Florentine Camerata of the early Baroque. In the late Baroque, Niccolo Porpora taught Francesco Lamperti and Giovanni Ansoni; the latter was the teacher of Manuel Garcia, who in turn taught his son, Manuel Garcia II. Mitton includes Jean de Reszke, who studied with Sbriglia, and his pupil Maggie Teyte.This first book contains an explanation of the essential elements of singing, spanning breath to interpretation. The terms chiaroscuro, portamento, and messa di voce are discussed, and there are chapters devoted to breath, onset, register identification and blending, voice classification, pronunciation and diction, agility, and ornamentation. In an appendix, Mitton summarizes her participation in William Vennard's research at the University of Southern California; she also reproduces Ruth Miller Chamlee's 1964 lecture to members of the National Association of Teachers of Singing (NATS).The second book in the set is comprised of vocalises and instructions in their use. In the introduction, Mitton offers guidance in posture and breathing, and gives specific tutelage in the performance of the exercises. Nearly half of the volume consists of notated exercises: those used by Porpora/ Sbriglia for beginning voice; Marchesi's exercises for advanced voice; vocalises to correct specific problems; and those intended to develop coloratura. The author also proffers the exercises of Jean de Reszke that she learned from his student, Maggie Teyte, when Mitton studied with her in London. …