Cubec- Centro Universale del bel Canto

Mirella Freni

An idea born from a passion for Belcanto

Mirella Freni has been vocal coach at CUBEC since its inception in November 2002. From that date, her ceaseless and ever-growing dedication to teaching has spawned a multitude of new courses and new projects to spread the culture of opera and belcanto.

I have dedicated an entire section of the belcanto.it website to Mirella Freni because her life devoted to the opera is the driving force behind this initiative thanks to her never-ceasing and assiduous work with young people during the many hours of lessons at Vignola and Modena.

The main expectation that Mirella Freni has of its students is to see an improvement in their technical and artistic skills, and that they gain a clear insight and understanding of how they want to apply these in the world of lyrical theatre. During academic courses, additional skills and subjects are developed in harmony with the student's artistic abilities, the aim being to cultivate fully rounded lyrical singers with the necessary grounding and knowledge, also of a historical, literary, legal and administrative nature, to continue successfully in their profession.

The main aim of the courses remains however the one Mirella Freni and Nicolai Ghiaurov championed from the nascent stages of the initiative: to encourage young singers to embrace the true art of belcanto, bringing not just their artistic experience to the school, but also and most importantly, their understanding of the huge personal sacrifice, humility and professional honesty required to pursue a career in opera singing. The course for piano accompanists taught by Paola Molinari is yet another important piece in the jigsaw that portrays our main intentions: to pass on the belcanto art, not just the technique but also the practical execution.

To do this, you need to work as part of a system, hence CUBEC is involved in numerous partner projects, the main one of which is the "Modena, the city of Belcanto" protocol to build an International Centre of Instruction for Lyrical Theatre.

The aim of this all-new website (in constant evolution) is to showcase the work done over the years and to provide easier access to the school by offering a series of online services for both registered students and site visitors (course enrolment, students' artistic performances, presentation of leading international competitions, photos, online registration): in other words, a gateway joining those on the inside of the school with those on the outside wishing to learn more.

Enjoy!

Artistic Director

Michele Montanari