Methodological features of mastering the Russian opera repertoire by mezzo-soprano Chinese vocal students

Abstract

The growth of academic vocal exchange between Russia and China has confronted university methodology with a problem that still lacks a stable solution: the mezzo-soprano parts of the Russian opera repertoire are mastered by Chinese students through schemes transferred from work on Italian and French material, whereas the phonetic system of Russian, the modal and intonational nature of these parts and their tessitura and register organisation call for a different sequence of pedagogical actions. The aim of the study is to construct a methodological model for mastering such a repertoire that covers the linguistic, vocal-technical and interpretative planes simultaneously. Systematisation and comparative analysis of vocal-pedagogical approaches, conceptual-categorial examination, content analysis of the current educational standards and structural-functional modelling were applied. A five-group classification of difficulties and a four-component model are proposed, in which phonetic and articulatory preparation precedes the placement of cantilena on a Russian text, while the shaping of the stage image is set apart as a separate stage. It is established that the register-transition zone central for the mezzo-soprano voice systematically coincides in Russian parts with the passages of the densest consonant articulation, so that the separate training of phonetics and tone production yields less than their coupled training. It is precisely the coupling of the linguistic and register planes that determines the order of methodological actions and distinguishes the mastering of the Russian repertoire from work with the Western European one.