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A soprano ([soˈpraːno]) is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880 Hz in choral music, or to "soprano C" (C6, two octaves above middle C) = 1046 Hz or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which often encompasses the melody. The soprano voice type is generally divided into the coloratura, soubrette, lyric, spinto, and dramatic soprano.
A mezzo-soprano or mezzo (; Italian: [ˈmɛddzo soˈpraːno]; 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 mezzo-soprano.
Grace Melzia Bumbry, an American opera singer, is considered one of the leading mezzo-sopranos of her generation, as well as a major soprano earlier in her career. She is a member of a pioneering generation of African-American opera and classical singers who followed Marian Anderson in the world of opera and classical music paving the way for future African-American opera and concert singers. Bumbry's voice was rich and dynamic, possessing a wide range, and was capable of producing a very distinctive plangent tone.
Nell Rankin was an American operatic mezzo-soprano. Though a successful opera singer internationally, she spent most of her career at the Metropolitan Opera, where she worked from 1951 to 1976. She was particularly admired for her portrayals of Amneris in Verdi's Aida and the title role in Bizet's Carmen. Opera News said, "Her full, generous tone and bold phrasing, especially in the Italian repertory, were unique among American mezzos of her generation.
Fiorenza Cossotto is an Italian operatic mezzo-soprano.
A soubrette is a type of operatic soprano voice fach, often cast as a female stock character in opera and theatre. The term arrived in English from Provençal via French, and means "conceited" or "coy". A soubrette is also defined as a young woman regarded as flirtatious or frivolous.
Régine Crespin was a French singer who had a major international career in opera and on the concert stage between 1950 and 1989. She started her career singing roles in the dramatic soprano and spinto soprano repertoire, drawing particular acclaim singing Wagner and Strauss heroines. She went on to sing a wider repertoire that embraced Italian, French, German, and Russian opera from a variety of musical periods. In the early 1970s Crespin began experiencing vocal difficulties for the first time and ultimately began performing roles from the mezzo-soprano repertoire. Throughout her career she was widely admired for the elegance, warmth and subtlety of her singing, especially in the French and German operatic repertories.
Célestine Galli-Marié was a French mezzo-soprano who is most famous for creating the title role in the opera Carmen.
Olive Fremstad was the stage name of Anna Olivia Rundquist, a celebrated Swedish-American opera diva who sang in both the mezzo-soprano and soprano ranges.
Regina Resnik was an American opera singer who had an active international career that spanned five decades. She began her career as a soprano in 1942 and soon after began a lengthy and fruitful relationship with the Metropolitan Opera that spanned from 1944 until 1983. Under the advice of conductor Clemens Krauss, she began retraining her voice in the mezzo-soprano repertoire in 1953 and by 1956 had completely removed soprano literature from her performance repertoire.
American Indian opera is a subgenre of music of the United States. It began with composer Gertrude Bonnin (1876-1938), also known as Zitkala-Sa. Bonnin drew from her Yankton Sioux heritage for both her libretto and songs for the opera The Sun Dance. This full-scale opera was composed with William F. Hanson, a musician and teacher at Brigham Young University.
Blanche Thebom was an American operatic mezzo-soprano, voice teacher, and opera director. She was part of the first wave of American opera singers that had highly successful international careers. In her own country she had a long association with the Metropolitan Opera in New York City which lasted 22 years. Opera News stated, "An ambitious beauty with a velvety, even-grained dramatic mezzo, Thebom was a natural for opera: she commanded the stage with the elegantly disciplined hauteur of an old-school diva, relishing the opportunity to play femmes du monde such as Marina in Boris Godunov, Herodias and Dalila."
A voice type is a group of voices with similar vocal ranges, capable of singing in a similar tessitura, and with similar vocal transition points (passaggi). Voice classification is most strongly associated with European classical music, though it, and the terms it utilizes, are used in other styles of music as well.
There is no authoritative system of voice classification in non-classical music as classical terms are used to describe not merely various vocal ranges, but specific vocal timbres unique to each range. These timbres are produced by classical training techniques with which most popular singers are not intimately familiar, and which even those that are do not universally employ.
Nedda Casei was an American operatic mezzo-soprano.
A lyric soprano is a type of operatic soprano voice that has a warm quality with a bright, full timbre that can be heard over an orchestra. The lyric soprano voice generally has a higher tessitura than a soubrette and usually plays ingenues and other sympathetic characters in opera. Lyric sopranos have a range from approximately middle C (C4) to "high D" (D6). This is the most common female singing voice. There is a tendency to divide lyric sopranos into two groups: light and full.
Janis Martin was an American opera singer who sang leading roles first as a mezzo-soprano and later as a soprano in opera houses throughout Europe and the United States. She was particularly known for her performances in the operas of Richard Wagner and sang at the Bayreuth Festival from 1968 to 1997.
Anita Rachvelishvili is a Georgian operatic mezzo-soprano. She is especially known for singing Verdi; conductor Riccardo Muti said in 2018: "She is without doubt the best Verdi mezzo-soprano today on the planet. Without. Doubt." She is also well known for singing Bizet's Carmen. Opera News magazine has stated that "Rachvelishvili is a unique dramatic presence. Her dark, smoldering eyes and cascading black curls are striking, but what is unusual is the juxtaposition of fiery surface and an inward-focused quality, seeming to draw power from some secret space."
Lucia Dunham was an American voice teacher, classical soprano, and academic writer on singing and diction who is chiefly remembered as a longtime professor of vocal performance at the Juilliard School from 1922-1956. Born in New York City, she studied voice at the National Conservatory of Music of America and then the Institute of Musical Art where she earned a diploma in 1909 and was a voice student of Adrian Freni, George Henschel, and Milka Ternina. She became a resident artist at the Paris Opera where she continued training with Alfred Giraudet. She pursued further studies with Lilli Lehmann in Salzburg and at the University of California, Berkeley where she also taught as a member of the voice faculty prior to her post at Juilliard. At Berkeley she collaborated closely with musicologist Charles Seeger, and gave recitals of folk songs that were collected and/or arranged by him. She left California after the death of her husband in 1921 to live close to her remaining family in New York City. She also taught voice part time at Columbia University in addition to teaching full time at the Juilliard School.
Piroska Anday known as Rosette Anday, was a leading Hungarian mezzo-soprano.
References
General references
- Fite, Tom, "Mezzo Draws Acclaim In Victoria Concert", The Victoria Advocate, 26 March 1968, p. 1
- Metropolitan Opera, Performance record: Wall, Joan (Mezzo Soprano) on the MetOpera Database
- Sandved, Kjell Bloch, "Wall, Joan", The world of music, Volume 4, Abradale Press, 1963, p. 1457
- Texas Woman's University, Joan Wall Biography
Inline citations
- ↑ Texas Woman's University
- ↑ "Joan Wall". Google Books.
- ↑ New TWU Faculty, Administrators Introduced at Years First Meeting, The Denton Record-Chronicle , Sect. 4, pg. 5, Sept 13, 1964
- ↑ Mezzo Soprano in Semi-Finals, The Times-Picayune , pg. 52, March 21, 1957
- ↑ Resident Soprano to Sing at TWU, The Denton Record-Chronicle , Sect. 2, pg. 5, Jan 3, 1965
- ↑ She'll Sing in Berlin, Dixie Roto Magazine (Sunday insert of The Times-Picayune ), cover story & pg 6, Oct 15, 1961