In the biographies of great singers we come across many testimonies telling of extreme awkwardness on their first stage appearances. Some, like Chaliapin, developed a great stage presence despite the fact that in his first performances he acted extremely woodenly. A phenomenon in Paris we meet in the persona of the teacher of the Ger- man baritone Ernst Pasqué,43who took some very special lessons in dramatic expres-
sion in singing from him. Pasqué was a student at the Paris Conservatory in 1872 where he was taught to sing beautifully but without any dramatic expression. He now applies for lessons with Delsarte,44the legendary drama teacher who is regarded as a genius in
this field and who was an exceptionally gifted tenor in his prime as we read in an eye- witness account of Countess Marie d’Agoult: “I have heard an excellent singer, Del- sarte. He renders Gluck’s music in a way to make you shudder. It is Nourrit in his most beautiful moments, except for the voice that is detestable, but it is still more noble, more simple, more sustained than Nourrit.”45 Pasqué gives us inside information on
Delsarte’s manner of teaching. Beauty of tone is not in demand, on the contrary, when Pasqué presented himself in an aria he did not get very far with it. “He [Delsarte] had hardly heard a few measures when he stopped [me] with the strange remark: ‘Good voice! However, much will have to be spoilt to improve it.’”
As Pasqué could not afford to pay for his lessons, Delsarte accepted him for the group lessons he gave. Our baritone soon noticed that the other pupils did not possess singing voices at all, yet hoped to attain fame and good fortune following Delsarte’s method. The method rarely allowed for any singing and consists mainly of single tones all in the dark timbre, produced on O instead of A or rather OA, wherein the pupils were to put the expression Delsarte demanded. That could lead to some funny moments!
“Just imagine” Delsarte taught, “a hall full of sick people suffering from the plague. Deserted by all, these wretches have fallen into its clutches. Terrible screams of anguish drown those of pain, the rattling of the dying. Then all of a sudden the ceiling opens and out of the heavenly blue sky an angel wings his way down, sent by the Almighty to alleviate the pain of the suf- fering. He is fully conscious of his holy mission, and his heart filled with endless love he descends whilst speaking words of heavenly consolation.... How would the voice of this angel sound? Which expression would you give your voices, if you were called upon to solve a simi- lar task in a work of musical art?’”46
The pupils, trying to give the expression Delsarte desired, sang, “o- â- h!— l- â- o!— h- â- o!” in a row with their ugly voices, that they darkened as much as they could. They did not succeed.
Following Delsarte’s instruction, the pupil was to sing at most the first few bars, usually only the first note of an aria. “If the expression of the first note and word is right, then you can sing the whole aria” was his dictum. So Delsarte kept Pasqué sev- eral months on the same aria, beginning with “Mais, quand je songe au nom de sa famille” and in the single word mais his pupil ardently put everything he possibly could of that which the part and the situation desired. Pasqué apparently succeeded, for Del- sarte promoted him to the greater task of Tell’s prayer. Pasqué now studied Rossini’s composition, always with a covered sound of the voix sombre that Delsarte accepted as the only true method, thereby completely opposing the method of the conservatoire. Pasqué tells us that Delsarte himself could produce the most impressing and thrilling effect in the voix sombre when he sang the prayer. For months on end, Pasqué sang the aria and acted as well, using a chair representing his son Jemmy. He confessed that he later felt at home on stage immediately, being able to act his roles and that this was exclusively thanks to Delsarte’s exercises.47 It seems that Delsarte could awaken
slumbering dramatic talents in his pupil, for Pasqué subsequently made a brilliant career.
Lillie de Hegermann- Lindencrone has also left us with a vivid account of Del- sarte’s talents as a pedagogue and performer. She tells us that the walls of his music room were decorated by drawings of faces depicting “every emotion that the human face is capable of expressing, such as love, sorrow, murder, terror, joy, surprise, etc.” If Delsarte desired one of these emotions in the voice he would point at one of these draw- ings to get the right vocal expression. Lillie was requested to sing false in a certain pas- sage that needed expression of great emotion, but she could not do it.
To show that it could be done he sang it for me, and actually did sing it false. Curiously enough, it sounded quite right, tremolo and all. There is no doubt that he is a great artiste. One can see that [Jean- Baptiste] Faure and Coquelin (the actor) have both profited by his unique teaching. [Delsarte told her that there is] no art like that of making people believe what you want them to. [He teaches her also to] make your chin tremble; just try it once ... and everyone will be overcome.48
Lillie tried it on her audience and noticed the effect.
It is clear from the abovementioned that a talented pupil can be stirred into a greater awareness of his talents and profit greatly from lessons such as these. Artists like Jenny Lind and Chaliapin did not need a Delsarte; they possessed a magical power of expression and just needed the technique as a vehicle to follow their unfailing intu- ition. We are told that Malibran49spent hours singing scales and polishing her voice
on the mornings of her performance, but “without ever trying to sing the role she had to sing that evening in order to save all her inspiration, however, to render her voice agile and obedient enough for all the artistic fantasies that she improvised so delight- fully to be executed with the perfection that was hers always.”50
It is nearly always counter-productive to practice the music of the concert on the same day. Your inspiration will then have the room to be creative for the performance.