This is what a modern Italian Opera singer really looks like:

(SO many of my writings in ONE picture.

And if you've missed my GUCCIO GUCCI newsletter, you may want to catch it up: HERE.)

Jannik Sinner is a Tyrolean born, German mother language, who refined his Italian, together with his tennis technique, in Liguria, when already a teenager.

He fully moved from a language, and a mentality, where the chronologic order of appearance of syntactic elements in a sentence is crucial to make it make sense, to a language, and a mentality, where what happens amongst the smacks of the tonic vowels is pure quantum Physics, and, that is, pure interpretation by an observer.

Such observer must be made able to assume, to pre-dict such missing content, in order to understand the bigger picture, by entirely making it up in his brain;

and that happens through, and within, an thanks to, the net of an apparently regular rhythmic pattern, that works as a grid.

You may want to read that again.

Italian, if sung at a Wimbledon time (say, in a Rossinian concertato) is extremely similar to a tennis match: all you hear is the smacks of the tonic vowels (and not necessarily all of them), and, if the "players" are singing properly, it's really hard, if not impossible, to say what actually happens in between those smacks - and so it must be.

The trajectory of the ball/vocal line is nothing but an imaginary line, dissolving in thin air (mostly made of weightless schwas, to provide the brain with impeccable legato).

Paradoxically, in scenes of great velocity and instrumental fullness, the space empties up.
Just like in visual perspective: the more you crowd a painting of unnecessary elements, the less the illusion of the perspective will be effective.

In other words, if a neurologist analysed what your brain is doing, while watching a (professional) tennis match, it would turn out to be some sort of a musical prediction based on the sound of the smacks. You would barely have time to keep your eyes on the players themselves, and it would make no sense at all, if not at the cost of spoiling the pleasure of the game entirely, to try and follow point by point the nearly invisible trajectory of a 300-miles-per-hour ball.

...and yet, dear ones, that is exactly how most of you sing.

YOU SINNERS.

Just as for a proficient Opera singer, the art of a proficient tennis player is that of time manipulation, through a manipulation of the perception of the listener, who will learn how NOT to listen linearly, point by point, to whatever is offered to him, but to count on his brain's ability to figure out what happened in between two smacks.

«A tennis player – to give an example – does not decide what arm movement to make when the ball, shot at him by his adversary at an average of 250 kilometres per hour, has already hit its mark. A tennis player gets his stroke ready way before even hearing the smack of his adversary’s, because from hearing that smack he will have scarcely a third of a second before he has to hit back. [...] His arm movement will hence be completely established before it becomes visible. Predictability is a crucial factor.»

(From my "Cantare Italiano - The Language of Opera", RUGGINENTI 2020; pp. 90-91.)

Amongst two tennis players, the one who turns out to be the most efficient observer, pre-dicting yet unpredictable conductor of the game's concerto, wins.

Nothing is more predictable and at the same time unpredictable, than (an) Italian:

largo al factotum, but presto a bottega; the secret is to find the largo in the presto.

You keep faith to the main tactus - they will figure out everything else.

And they'll enjoy it. They're smart enough, and will actually become smarter in the process.
 

You say we're always late, but, see, we're there already. We've been there, right on tactus, for over 400 years.

Come to the unpredictable side: we have Gucci.

La Maestra

PS: Logos are - or "logos is", depending on the language - so so powerful.

extremely good at this (Graham Vick)

a fantastic coach, extremely helpful for young singers as well as experienced ones (Barbara Hannigan)

lingual and linguistic genius, almighty for vowel purity (Peter Tantsits)

bringing the language, the music and the characters to life; results of the very highes quality (Paul Nilon)

the foundation of a role, doesn't go on stage if she hasn't worked with me on it (Jennifer Rowley)

magic keystone of vocal technique, musical interpretation and building of the character: a radical rethink of the act of singing (Anna Piroli)

her incredible breadth of knowledge makes me feel entirely prepared (Heather Lowe)

opened up my voice, and a world before my eyes; every Conservatory should benefit of her teachings (Giulia Zaniboni)

a 180° turn in my work with the singers (Theophilos Lambrianidis)

like four professionals in one: taking all those elements and conveying them into one single intention (Yiselle Blum)

invaluable to make a role really succeed on stage (Ariadne Greif)

thoroughly prepared and professional (Marie Kuijken)

her work favours deep understanding, which makes the phrasing and vocal line.

she is entirely devoted to the art of Opera singing, and her students (Ida Falk Winland)

incredibly informed, consistent, knowledgeable Maestro (Michael Corvino)

a lifeboat; carrying the torch of finest Italian Opera (Nathaniel Kondrat)

a cure and a respect of the Music and the words’ musicality

that can be learnt so deeply nowhere else in the world (Matilde Bianchi)

an unconventional guardian angel (Giulia Ferraldeschi)