Pappano's Classic Voices

In this four-part series, the conductor Sir Antonio Pappano (Music Director of the Royal Opera House) explores the great roles and the greatest singers of the last 100 years through the prism of the main classical voice types - Soprano, Tenor, Mezzo-Soprano, Baritone & Bass. Through discussion, demonstrations, and workshops, he explores every aspect of the art of great singing. Behind every great voice is not just a rock solid technique but also a unique personality. As well as specially shot interviews and workshops with today’s stars such as José Carreras, Anna Netrebko, Jonas Kaufmann, Joyce DiDonato, Bryn Terfel, Janet Baker, Juan Diego Florez, Christa Ludwig, Thomas Allen, Felicity Palmer, John Tomlinson, and Sarah Connolly, Antonio Pappano examines key performances from some of history’s great operatic icons: Enrico Caruso, Maria Callas, Joan Sutherland, Birgit Nilsson, Leontyne Price, Mario Lanza, Tito Gobbi, and others, as well as those of singers from the more recent past, such as Luciano Pavarotti, Jon Vickers, Peter Pears, Shirley Verrett, Fritz Wunderlich and Janet Baker. Antonio Pappano will explore such topics as: what is going on in a singer’s body to produce a great voice? How do you ‘project’ a Brünnhilde over large orchestral forces? Do great singers also need to be great actors? What is vibrato, legato, staccato? What are chest and head voices, how do they work, when do you use them? He’ll examine passaggio and coloratura and show you why a tenor’s high C hits pins you to the back of your seat.