When first learning the violin, a beginner might use the Suzuki method. If studying ballet, the dancer-to-be might train to take the Royal Academy of Dance exams. In opera, the standard study tool for new classical voice students is G. Schirmer’s 1948 music book “24 Italian Songs and Arias.”
Affectionately (or grudgingly) dubbed “The 24 Arias Book,” it’s the way most college opera students are introduced to pronouncing Italian words and singing early opera excerpts. The 24 songs are just the highlights of a larger three-volume collection compiled at the end of the 19th century, “Arie Antiche.”
