Lecturer in Italian Laura Raffo’s Nights at the Opera
For the past nine years, Lecturer and Language Course Coordinator in Italian Laura Raffo has provided The Opera Institute at Boston University’s School of Music with the opportunity to “tell the truth” in its productions of Italian opera. As Sharon Daniels, the long-time Director of Opera Programs, points out, this mandate to “tell the truth”—handed down by Vintage Books’ A Practical Handbook for the Actor—is an important one. In her Stage Director’s Notes to The Opera Institute’s 2001 presentation of Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro, Daniels states that “when the text is sung … it must be done with naturalness, technical ease, and inherent style” (7). And to maintain this naturalness, this verisimilitude to the Italian language, the Opera Institute relies on the skilled diction and content drills of the Department of Romance Studies’ own Professor Raffo.
Since 1999, Raffo has spearheaded a language program at The Opera Institute that consists of Italian practice and conversation courses. Student singers begin with a focus on everyday life in Italy and progress to a concentration on specific professional topics, such as musical and rehearsal terms, and then to more complicated grammatical structures. In addition to her teaching duties at BU, Raffo works with the twelve young professional singers at The Opera Institute twice a week. Singers are often from various ethnic backgrounds—in the 2000 production of Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito alone, Raffo worked with singers of American, Armenian, Portuguese, and Korean origin—all of which were “held accountable for the Italian text” (Daniels in “Giving Voice” by Richard Dyer, Boston Globe).
According to Raffo, the decision to unite her love of Italian language with her teaching experience and affinity for music was an obvious one: much of her personal interest is based on the interaction between historical and cultural events and its reflection within musical expression, and her professional research includes such diverse topics as folk theater and Commedia dell ‘Arte. Raffo believes that classic Italian opera is particularly well-suited to relate history because its stories are so often based on cultural events or norms and often more “modern opera is … not as pleasing to the eye.”
And the critics seem to agree. In a 1999 review of Puccini’s La Boheme, Boston Globe correspondent Susan Larson praised Raffo’s ability to impart “not only good diction but entry into the meaning of the language” for the singers. Boston Globe staff writer Richard Dyer stated that La Clemenza was “first-rate in nearly every respect,” giving particular credit to the “Italian coaches and voice faculty.”
The Opera Institute plans at least one or two Italian operas each year, and Raffo is always happy to offer her time and talents to the up-and-coming singers, both in her courses and in private lessons. When asked what the best part about her experience with The Opera Institute has been, Raffo’s eyes brighten and her smile broadens: “When the students go on to bigger things.” She remembers that one of her former students, a powerful tenor, was recently given the opportunity to perform Verdi’s Requiem with the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
For Raffo, her students’ success may be the happiest “truth” of all.