The Escola Livre de Canto Lírico Giovan Battista Rubini:
history and philosophical principles

The Escola Livre de Canto Lírico is an institution associated with the City hall of Romano of Lombardia, with the Group of Friends of the G.B. Rubini Lyrical and with the G. B. Rubini Foundation, all of them from Romano of Lombardia, province of Bergamo, Italy. In twenty years of existence, the School has consistently developed a work of transmitting the Bel Canto's culture and of free teaching of the lyrical art, standing out for its commitment to the methods and the original techniques of the traditional Italian school, which has been the home for the most renowned interpreters of the lyrical music of all times.

The initiative of Tenor Hélio Gori to found a space for the cultivation, appreciation and transmission of the lyrical art, committed to faithfulness to the Italian traditions, originated the G.B. Rubini School that has been developing a discerning work of voice project, vocal technique and interpretation since 1983. This way, the G.B. Rubini School tries to discover the vocal potential qualities existing in all individuals with organs of the speech free from deficiencies of anatomical order.

On transmitting Bel Song's culture, the Escola G.B. Rubini constitutes a place of study and of permanent formation that, following the precepts of the traditional Italian school, is committed to the task of examining the cultivated and non-cultivated voices, to detect the existence of the germinal vocal qualities that, usually, are veiled by natural or acquired imperfections, to overcome such imperfections and to prevent other possible vicious attitudes, as well as to discern and to develop all the sound qualities that the individual's voice can offer and that are recovered in favourable conditions.

A Centre for excellence of the lyrical art in Brazil, the Escola G.B. Rubini aims at, through individual and personalized sessions, with accompaniment at the piano, developing in the individual an awareness regarding the functioning of the organs involved in the voice emission process, until that process becomes automatic, thus maximizing the potency of the voice as well as its plastic and expressive possibilities. So, the goal and challenge of the School is to cultivate the lyrical art considering the singularity of each individual's voice, reinventing roads through which it is possible to reconcile the individual characteristics with the demands of the art.

The school library has a collection of more than fifty volumes of complete operas, edited by the best Italian houses, like librettos, sacred music, Italian folklore, Neapolitan songs, Italian, Spanish and Brazilian popular songs, traditional methods for vocalises (vowelisation exercises), song treaties, harmony manuals, orchestration, solmization (solfeggio) and theory, celebrated biographies, specialized magazines, besides audio materials like LP's and CD's, with the great interpreters' recordings and orchestras, and VHS and DVD's video with complete operas and lyrical shows staged in renowned theatres of Europe.

One of the important aspects of the Escola G.B Rubini's work is the teaching for children and adolescents, which has specific and different criteria from those used in the adults' teaching, since the former are individuals in process of psycho-biological formation, presenting vocal qualities not defined and in constant movement.

The work with adults involves two different approaches: one of them focuses on the study and improvement of professionals of the lyrical art, with specific exercises and the study of a repertoire with focus on the interpretative art. The other approach, for individuals studying the lyrical art for the first time, encompasses the study of voice project and vocal technique, with focus on vocal range, on timbre and on precision of the intonation, besides an introductory study to interpretation.

Another aspect followed by the Escola G.B. Rubini is the development of a specific and personalized work for either musicians or non-musicians, who have no interest or admiration for the lyrical art, but who intend to acquire or to improve the quality and their conditions of the voice emission process.

The great challenge in the focus given on the teaching and transmission of the lyrical art is in the principle proposed originally by Leonardo da Vinci: Just like a sculptor before a stone block, the Escola G.B. Rubini, with care and wisdom, should remove from the individual everything that hides the artist that is already in him.