Bel Canto: Chopin Teaching the Art of Singing

Chopin tutored opera stars in the art of singing! This new discovery overturns the traditional view that Chopin’s teaching was limited to piano playing and that his pupils were mainly high-society ladies in Paris. - The Bel Canto booklet was initially presented as a research paper at the International Musicological Conference organized by the Bibliotheque Polonaise a Paris and the Fryderyk Chopin Institute, Warsaw on 18 September 2013. - The career of three sopranos of international fame makes the point: Pauline Garcia Viardot, Henriette Nissen and Jenny Lind, the Swedish Nightingale, who all were pupils of Chopin. - The authors conclude that Chopin made an important contribution to the Bel Canto tradition as it evolved in parallel with the development of the piano and other instruments, and that his method was rooted in the teaching principles of the famous Bel Canto tenor and voice pedagogue Manuel Garcia, Sr.