🎼 Day 2 of Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: Bel Canto Reimagined

A five-day series at the Royal Academy of Music with James Platt, Michael Pugh, and Ben Johnson

Sunday 23rd November 2025
Arrival from 10:00am, for a 10:30am start

Suitable for all singers, teachers and teachers who sing.

Lamperti’s chiaroscuro was as much about style as colour. Balancing bright and dark timbres is central to interpreting Mozart’s sacred music, Verdi’s theatre, and Brahms’s lieder. García’s classifications of register remind us that technical transitions often coincide with expressive pivots in the score. With support from modern acoustics, we will explore how chiaroscuro helps us respond to orchestral colour, and how registration shapes the dramatic rhetoric of a phrase.

• Practical focus: blending timbres, chiaroscuro vowel work, register negotiation.
• Interpretive focus: how composers “write into” vocal colour — matching score markings to timbre choices.

Each day offers an inspiring blend of hands-on practical work, historical context, and scientific insight. With Michael Pugh at the piano, participants will have multiple opportunities to sing and apply these principles in repertoire.