How to Use bel canto in a Sentence

bel canto

noun
  • Hard to imagine the frothy bel canto comedies of Donizetti surviving such an approach.
    — John Von Rhein, chicagotribune.com, 15 Apr. 2018
  • This didn’t matter in some kinds of early music, bel canto music or French Baroque music.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 3 Oct. 2019
  • Brownlee, of course, is known mostly as a tenor, a bel canto specialist whose Rossini and Donizetti thrill with a sense of ease and lightness.
    — Peter Dobrin, Philly.com, 21 Feb. 2018
  • Lawrence Brownlee is celebrated for his portrayals of the princely heroes and love-smitten lords of bel canto.
    — John Von Rhein, chicagotribune.com, 20 Feb. 2018
  • Tomlinson uses the bel canto technique, with its emphasis on breath control and smooth, connected phrasing, to guide the students.
    — Jessica Gelt, latimes.com, 27 June 2018
  • Javier Camarena continues a brilliant run of bel canto performances in New York.
    — Zachary Woolfe, New York Times, 20 Feb. 2018
  • Cohn’s disappearance is explained in a brief aria sung by the famous bel canto mezzo-soprano Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
    — Daniel Henninger, WSJ, 26 Dec. 2018
  • All operatic singing, especially the polyphonic (multipart) style known as bel canto, requires tremendous breath control and vocal skill.
    — René Ostberg, Encyclopedia Britannica, 26 May 2026
  • As a performer, Brownlee visibly delights in the bel canto repertoire (check out his Donizetti, in that recital), as well as in Sorey’s contemporary language.
    — Seth Colter Walls, New York Times, 22 Jan. 2021
  • Callas, whose passionate artistry helped resuscitate the early-19th-century bel canto repertoire that had largely vanished by the mid-20th century, had no shortage of drama in her own life.
    — Matthew Anderson, New York Times, 9 Apr. 2020
  • Bellini’s bel canto classic brings a blaze of vocal fireworks from tenor Lawrence Brownlee and soprano Albina Shagimuratova in the leading roles.
    — John Von Rhein, chicagotribune.com, 15 Feb. 2018
  • The work embraces bel canto singing, a technically challenging idiom that emphasizes florid vocal lines and ornate melodic embellishment, a Mazzola specialty.
    — Howard Reich, chicagotribune.com, 13 Oct. 2019
  • Mazzola’s repertoire includes 87 operas, said Freud, with specialties in bel canto, French, early Verdi and contemporary opera.
    — Howard Reich, chicagotribune.com, 12 Sep. 2019
  • First performed in Milan in 1832, the opera is lauded for its humor and character development, and as an excellent representation of the bel canto tradition.
    — Lynn Trenning, charlotteobserver, 27 Mar. 2018
  • Verdi invigorated the conventions of bel canto with compelling characters, refusing to compromise with what is dramatically crucial yet readily adapting to what is necessary practically to get the opera staged.
    — Mark Swed, latimes.com, 13 May 2018
  • Brownlee devoted the second half of his program to more conventional recital fare — a pair of his specialty bel canto arias, standards from the great American songbook and several spirituals, interspersed with ingratiating commentary.
    — John Von Rhein, chicagotribune.com, 23 Feb. 2018
  • Stéphane Lissner is the opera’s director general, and—in contrast to Dupont’s fireworks—the surprisingly traditional programming and format of the opera gala largely highlight the bel canto repertoire of the 19th and early 20th century.
    — Hamish Bowles, Vogue, 14 May 2019
  • Along with Gioachino Rossini and Gaetano Donizetti, Bellini is part of a Mount Rushmore–like triptych of nineteenth-century Italian composers invoked whenever beautiful singing—bel canto—becomes an object of faith.
    — Arya Roshanian, The New York Review of Books, 6 June 2026

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'bel canto.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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