To define the teaching at Tecnica Antica is to trace two powerful and contrasting rivers of vocal tradition—each noble, each transformative.

The Melocchi Legacy

At the heart of our method lies the search for the "primal sound"—a raw, grounded emission shaped into power and resonance. This principle, rooted in Arturo Melocchi’s “covered” sound technique, seeks to anchor the voice in the body, lengthen the vocal tract, and amplify the pharyngeal space. The result is a sound capable of filling an opera house without effort.

This tradition, passed down through the likes of Mario Del Monaco and Paride Venturi, is marked by terms like chiaroscuro and aperto ma coperto—hallmarks of the old Italian school. Voices trained this way include Gigli, Cotogni, Schippa, and others who could balance warmth and brilliance with heroic power.

“The voice is born in the throat and sent downwards toward the diaphragm. That way the subglottal pressure remains constant, and the voice is constantly supported.”

The García–Buckingham–McCray Synthesis

Yet technique is never static. My own teacher, James McCray, inherited another powerful current: the García school, through Raymond Buckingham, a direct vocal descendant of baritone Riccardo Stracciari and a mentor to figures like Patricia Neway and Neil Shicoff.

This lineage emphasized clarity of onset (coup de glotte), vowel isolation, and vocal reflexes developed through instinctive coordination. It does not contradict Melocchi—it complements it. Buckingham and McCray both believed in teaching the body to coordinate function before expression, using stripped-down vocalizations to isolate key muscular reflexes. McCray evolved this synthesis over decades, blending raw affondo power with flexibility, precision, and artistic intuition.

In Essence

At Tecnica Antica, the method is not a system—it is a journey. We begin by discovering the primal sound, shape it through physical and acoustic laws, and refine it using tools drawn from both García’s physiological insight and Melocchi’s architectural vocalism.

Each student is guided toward independence—technically, artistically, and emotionally.