by Lucie Manen

More than a century ago Alessandro Busti published what he claimed to be the only authoritative collection of vocal exercises taught in the Collegio Reale di Napoli. The late Dr. George Cathcart, who himself studied at the Neapolitan School, believed that Busti's exercises contained the secret of bel canto and that they were well known to Verdi, who based his vocal writing on the technique they taught. Lucie Manen's own researches support Dr. Cathcart's belief.

(The recorded broadcast of Sept. 22)