An operatic lark from Italy shares her vocal secrets

On a recent cool summer morning, a short blonde lady walks into a small theater of the China National Opera and Dance Drama Theater. Her casual dress, navy-blue T-shirt and black jeans, makes her look just like any other Western visitors. But her unconscious singing betrays her.

She is Katia Ricciarelli, a renowned Italian soprano. She was in Beijing giving weeklong master classes to more than 100 Chinese students, most of them professional singers or opera-major students.

"The darkness falls. You confess to your father with guilt," says Ricciarelli, 68, after opera student Zhang Jingyu sings a piece of the role Gilda from the three-act opera Rigoletto, by Giuseppe Verdi. "The emotion should be flowing and your breath is not right."