...then I heard Tom

A few years ago, my mum decided to try to work out her family tree. She didn't get any further than her grandparents when she came across someone called Tom Burke. She couldn't work out if he was a relative, or just a very close friend of the family, but she remembered hearing stories about him, and she remembered that he was a singer. So she looked him up. Turns out he became the greatest tenor in the world in his time!

I won't go on about him now — fact is, we found some recordings of him singing, and I was amazed; I had never heard singing like it. I got fascinated; I started listening to singers from that era and before; right back to the first singers who made records.

Quite a few of them were taught by one Mathilde Marchesi, and she wrote a book: Bel Canto, A Theoretical & Practical Vocal Method. On the cover it says, 'Mathilde Marchesi, Teacher of Melba and Calvé, successor to Garcia'.

I took this book to my singing teacher, showed her the exercises in it, and asked her what she thought of them. She laughed and said, "Well, they're a bit old fashioned, aren't they, dear?"

Unfortunately, not very long after that, Rae became too old to teach me any more, and I didn't know where to go to find another teacher as good as her. But I knew that if I was going to sing, I was going to sing in that old fashioned way. So I turned to Marchesi's book. I turned straight to page one, and began to read. On almost every page there was a revelation waiting for me. I worked my way through every exercise; I was determined to get through the whole book, even though at times it seemed impossible.

But I did it. I got through it, and I had the recordings of her students, the superstars of their day, to listen to and copy, so that I could try to really sound like a Marchesi student.

Because it was a family tree that got me started on this journey into the Past, I decided to work out my own family tree. My mum's been getting on very well with our biological tree; she's discovered a cousin she never knew she had, who has traced our family right back to the 17th century, which is really cool. But it also turns out my singing pedigree is really impressive!

The first great singing teacher that we know of is the Big Daddy of Bel Canto, a guy called Porpora, who was born in the 17th century. Via both my singing teachers, I can trace my lineage straight back to Porpora, passing almost every singing legend of the last 300 years on the way!

So if anyone still wants to argue that I don't know what I'm talking about with regards to Bel Canto, argue with this!

P.S. There are a lot of names missed off here, for space reasons!