Dr Ken Querns-Langley at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden:
Insights on Bellini’s I puritani

If you are new to this repertoire, there are four audible features that will help you listen with more precision:

• Beauty of tone above all: the sound itself is a primary expressive instrument.

• Legato: the seamless line — movement between notes with no audible seam.

• Agility and ornament (fioritura): runs and decoration used expressively, not as display for its own sake.

• Expressive flexibility: rubato and dynamic shading, including the tradition’s signature gesture, the messa di voce.

A useful reframe for the evening is this: in bel canto, emotion is often conveyed through a kind of demonstration — feeling rendered by control of musical means — rather than the direct confessional outpouring later associated with verismo.