A mezzo-soprano or mezzo (; Italian:[ˌmɛddzosoˈpraːno]; meaning "half soprano") is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range lies between the soprano and the contralto voice types. The mezzo-soprano's vocal range usually extends from the A below middle C to the A two octaves above (i.e. A3–A5 in scientific pitch notation, where middle C = C4; 220–880 Hz). In the lower and upper extremes, some mezzo-sopranos may extend down to the F below middle C (F3, 175 Hz) and as high as "high C" (C6, 1047 Hz). The mezzo-soprano voice type is generally divided into the coloratura, lyric, and dramatic.
Dido and Aeneas is an opera in a prologue and three acts, written by the English Baroque composer Henry Purcell with a libretto by Nahum Tate. The dates of the composition and first performance of the opera are uncertain. It was composed no later than July 1688, and had been performed at Josias Priest's girls' school in London by the end of 1689. Some scholars argue for a date of composition as early as 1683. The story is based on Book IV of Virgil's Aeneid. It recounts the love of Dido, Queen of Carthage, for the Trojan hero Aeneas, and her despair when he abandons her. A monumental work in Baroque opera, Dido and Aeneas is remembered as one of Purcell's foremost theatrical works. It was also Purcell's only true opera, as well as his only all-sung dramatic work. One of the earliest known English operas, it owes much to John Blow's Venus and Adonis, both in structure and in overall effect.
Lorraine Hunt Lieberson was an American mezzo-soprano. She was noted for her performances of both Baroque era and contemporary works. Her career path to becoming a singer was unconventional – formerly a professional violist, Lieberson did not shift her full-time focus to singing until she was in her thirties.
In Canada, classical music includes a range of musical styles rooted in the traditions of Western or European classical music that European settlers brought to the country from the 17th century and onwards. As well, it includes musical styles brought by other ethnic communities from the 19th century and onwards, such as Indian classical music and Chinese classical music. Since Canada's emergence as a nation in 1867, the country has produced its own composers, musicians and ensembles. As well, it has developed a music infrastructure that includes training institutions, conservatories, performance halls, and a public radio broadcaster, CBC, which programs a moderate amount of Classical music. There is a high level of public interest in classical music and education.
Tatiana Troyanos was an American mezzo-soprano remembered as "one of the defining singers of her generation". Her voice, "a paradoxical voice — larger than life yet intensely human, brilliant yet warm, lyric yet dramatic" — "was the kind you recognize after one bar, and never forget", wrote Cori Ellison in Opera News.
Maria Louise Ewing was an American opera singer. In the early part of her career she performed solely as a lyric mezzo-soprano; she later assumed full soprano parts as well. Her signature roles were Blanche, Carmen, Dorabella, Rosina and Salome. Some critics regarded her as one of the most compelling singing actresses of her generation.
Ann Murray, is an Irish mezzo-soprano.
Buddug Verona James is a Welsh mezzo-soprano opera singer who studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the National Opera Studio and in Rome. She was born in Cardigan, Wales.
Dame Sarah Patricia Connolly is an English mezzo-soprano. Although best known for her baroque and classical roles, Connolly has a wide-ranging repertoire which has included works by Wagner as well as various 20th-century composers. She was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2010 New Year Honours and a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE) in the 2017 Birthday Honours for services to music.
LindaHayes Bennett is an American opera and classical singer, recording artist, neuroscientist and researcher in sensory therapies.
Peter Anthony Togni is a freelance Canadian composer and broadcaster based in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
The Elmer Iseler Singers is a professional chamber choir based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Pamela Dellal is an American mezzo-soprano in opera and concert, a musicologist and academic teacher. She has performed classical music from the medieval Hildegard von Bingen to contemporary. She is on the faculty of the Boston Conservatory, Brandeis University, and the Longy School of Music of Bard College. She has made English traslations of all german texts that Johann Sebastian Bach set to music.
Wallis Giunta is a Canadian mezzo-soprano opera singer performing at leading theatres and opera companies around the world.
Camellia Johnson was an American concert and opera singer. She began her career performing works from the mezzo-soprano repertoire, but after encouragement from the staff at the Metropolitan Opera retrained her voice as a soprano. She successfully made that transition after winning the Young Concert Artists competition in 1993. She went on to perform as a leading soprano with orchestras and opera companies internationally.
Catherine Robbin OC is a Canadian mezzo-soprano. She was elected an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2011.
Patricia Johnson is an English operatic mezzo-soprano. She made an international career and is known for her dramatic voice and her stage presence. She appeared in leading roles of the repertory, such as Carmen and Eboli, and created new roles, such as the Baronin Grünwiesel in Henze's Der junge Lord, and the Princess in Nicolas Nabokov's Love's Labour's Lost.
Peter McGillivray is a Canadian operatic baritone and winner of the 2003 CBC/Radio-Canada Young Performers Competition. Born in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, he was raised in Newmarket, Ontario and attended the University of Toronto.
Isabelle Druet is a French operatic coloratura mezzo-soprano who has performed internationally. She began her career as an actress and co-founded a theatre company, La Carotte. She has performed in concert and recorded with the ensemble Le Poème Harmonique. On stage, she has performed at opera houses in Paris, Nancy, Lyon and Düsseldorf, among others.
Vasilisa Berzhanskaya is a Russian operatic mezzo-soprano. Her repertoire encompasses roles of the Italian bel canto of Rossini and Bellini, Mozart, Baroque music such as Vivaldi and Purcell, and roles from Russian opera, by composers such as Rimsky-Korsakov and Tchaikovsky. Though Berzhanskaya is a mezzo-soprano, in the past she has sung roles ranging from dramatic coloratura soprano to contralto. As such, she has been described as possessing "a huge vocal range in which she display[s] impeccable coloratura."
