Today I celebrate -and in the most special way- what in Italy we call "onomastico", my name's day, and those who have read my book must be by now very well acquainted with the great importance of a character's name in Opera

(whether they have one, or don't, or keep it secret for someone else to guess).

Just yesterday, curiously, I was contacted by an Italian professor at the Köln Conservatory, who didn't miss the chance to ironise on her German destiny,

being her given name... Germana!

I deeply appreciated the email:

not only she pointed out how helpful Cantare Italiano was for her, along with the ARKive and video material I have been posting throughout the past few years

(a quick reminder that subscribing to the Salvadanaio plan is the easiest way

to both support and access such material),

but she displayed the greatest level of awareness and professionalism asking for my supervision on her Sprachtreinerin job with singers.

And raising such awareness on the vocal-musical-theatrical entanglements of what goes under the name of Italian diction is precisely my mission:

for diction -holistically meant- is at the origin of any music writing

and it is in my opinion the only keystone that will keep Opera together in the next centuries.

When this concept I am trying to pass worldwide will become obvious and of public domain,

the fact that it may have ever been neglected, or kept as a luxury accessory at the peripheries of an operatic production, instead of as the infrastructure at its core,

will finally sound like the barbarity it is.

I'll be patient, it's in my fate: I was named Sara after the wife of Abraham, who gave birth at 90 years old and laughed at the three angels who announced her pregnancy.

For, just like her, today I am fulfilling a long awaited fate of mine.

So let me just quickly update my bio, below.

October 1999

Sara Gamarro is an 18 year-old self taught singer and music illiterate against her will: according to her parents, who never allowed her voice lessons, "music isn't a real job".

Sara wants to study at the Conservatorio di Milano, but the reliable rumour is that nobody ever got in (not even Giuseppe Verdi, indeed) before years of expensive private lessons with a teacher from inside the school.

Sara doesn't have such time or money and decides to apply to the Conservatorio di Bologna instead: she gets in, 13th of 14 singers admitted that year, singing "Morrò, ma prima in grazia" - memorised by perusing a Callas record found at home.

The lady in the panel who was to become her first voice teacher, Wilma Vernocchi, claimed that she was either nuts or a genius, and in either case deserved a chance.

UPDATE

October 2022

M° Sara Gamarro is a 41-year-old vocal coach and author of international relevance for Italian Opera.

From this very day - October 9, 2022 - she is living and working in Milan.

“extremely good at this” (Graham Vick)

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

“bringing the language, the music and the characters to life” (Paul Nilon)

“the foundation of a role” (Jennifer Rowley)

“magic conjunction of vocal technique, musical interpretation and building of the character: a radical rethinking of the act of singing” (Anna Piroli)

“incredible breadth of knowledge” (Heather Lowe)

“magic effect on the voice and our art form” (Jessica Harper)

“opened up a world” (Giulia Zaniboni)

“180 degree turn in my work with the singers” (Theophilos Lambrianidis)

“invaluable: she’ll make a role really succeed on stage” (Ariadne Greif)

“potentially life-changing” (Amy Payne)

“brings life to operatic drama” (Maria Sanner)

“enlightening, professionally and humanly” (Clara La Licata)

“thoroughly prepared and professional” (Marie Kuijken)

“truly unique method and insights” (Jasmine Law)

“a lingual and linguistic genius” (Peter Tantsits)

“entirely devoted to the art of Opera singing” (Ida Falk Winland)

“incredibly informed, consistent, knowledgeable” (Michael Corvino)

“carrying the torch of finest Italian Opera” (Nathaniel Kondrat)

“a crucial basis for all the singers” (David Cowan)

“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)