Foreword by Kevin Langan
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I first met Stanford Felix when his company, Minnesota Concert Opera, hired me to perform in its production of The Mini Ring, an abbreviated, one-evening version of Wagner’s four-opera Der Ring Des Nibelungen, conducted by Jonathan Khuner and performed in the Cowles Center for Dance and the Performing Arts in Minneapolis in 2013. Everyone in the cast, which included Jay Hunter Morris, Lori Phillips, Richard Paul Fink, Philip Skinner, Sarah Heltzel, and my wife, Sally Wolf, had a marvelous time navigating this unique rendition of Wagner’s masterwork under Stanford’s caring and enthusiastic eye as the company’s founder and artistic director. Seven years later, I was delighted to learn that he was writing a book about vocal technique.
A legitimate book on good, healthy singing technique must be based on a proven method handed down from person to person over the centuries, which results in the performer communicating successfully some part of the human condition to the listener through music. Dr. Felix’s Beautiful Singing does just that. Giovanni Lamperti condensed many maxims of proper vocalism he gathered from working with the method that the Manuel Garcia family formulated in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and which their students mastered and subsequently spread across the Western world up to the present time. Dr. Felix is a singer and veteran teacher of singing who has in this book broken down Lamperti’s most important maxims into concisely explained technical concepts for the modern singer to embrace, regardless of the style of music they are undertaking, be it a classical or musical theater approach. He also touches upon maintaining good health both in the body and the voice itself, so important to finding success as a professional.
This book is a wonderful companion for the young singer who is embarking on a career with a trusted voice teacher to expand and enlighten what the student will feel in the studio. What you will read here will help you understand the sensations needed for a good, disciplined, healthy vocal technique that can last you for decades.
Kevin Langan
August 10, 2020
Kevin Langan is an American bass with a career of over 42 years, amassing nearly 1,500 performances of 92 different roles with over 70 professional opera and symphonic organizations worldwide.
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