How some things never change!

In my Baroque seminar, I am writing my research paper on ornamentation in Handel's vocal works. The research has been immensely interesting so far. I have located three aria scores into which Handel himself notated the ornamentation. The famous Italian singers who usually sang his works never needed such guidance, so he didn't notate such things, but in 1727, when there was to be a revival of his opera Ottone, both of his leading ladies (Cuzzoni and Bordoni) were ill, so the role of Teofane had to be sung by a less experienced English singer. For this reason, he wrote out ornamentation for her to use. Now, by less experienced, I only mean in the art of improvising. The ornaments themselves are wickedly difficult. I have decided to study these arias and learn to sing them with Handel's own ornaments, and they are really challenging me. Furthermore, I think if I were to perform them in an operatic competition, the judges would mark me down for over-embellishing. You just don't hear Baroque arias ornamented to this degree today, and this is probably due to nothing more or less than a poor understanding of the period on the part of singers and their teachers, coaches and directors. (Yes, it takes a nerd to figure out stuff like this. Who else spends their days with their noses pressed into 275-year-old treatises?)

So, speaking of 275-year-old treatises, I have been reading one by Pietro Francesco Tosi, an Italian voice teacher in the 18th century who traveled a lot in Europe. Though performance practices have changed some in the last 300 years, some things just never do. I quote from a translation:

[The singer who has good judgment will never, without just cause, utter the words that are so often used and are so repugnant to everyone: "Today I cannot sing because I have caught my death of cold," and as he is saying, "I beg to be excused," coughs a little. I can attest to the fact that in all the days of my long life, I have never heard a single singer pronounce this happy truth: "Today I feel well;" although honesty would require this admission. They save this unusual candor for the following day, when they have no trouble whatsoever in saying, "In all the days of my life, I have never been in such good voice as yesterday."]

He says a number of other humorous things about singers and voice teachers, and it often surprises me to remember how old this document is because one hears so many of the same comments today! On the other hand, I don't think Tosi was trying to be funny...