The Opera
First performed in 1853 in Rome, the music is Verdi, which could be called late bel canto.The plot is witch's revenge and an unhappy love triangle.
Tuesday, September 8, 2015
Monday, September 7, 2015
Puccini Manon Lescaut #40
The Opera
First performed in 1893, the music is in the broad category called verismo.The plot is an unhappy love affair.
The Story
Act I
Act II
Act III
Act IV
Complete Film
Verdi Otello #28
The Opera
The music is late Verdi, which could be called very late bel canto, and was first performed in 1887 at La Scala, Milan.The plot is revenge and an unhappy love affair.
This opera is based on the play by Shakespeare which is in some ways more satisfying. In Shakespeare it takes Iago much longer to persuade Otello that Desdemona is unfaithful. This Otello seems almost eager to turn against his adoring wife.
The Story
Act I
Complete Film
Saturday, September 5, 2015
Puccini Turandot (#20)
The Opera
The music is still in the broad category called verismo.The plot is a happy ending love affair with tragedy along the way.
The plot of Turandot, Puccini's last opera, isn't really verismo. The Ice Princess named Turandot isn't an ordinary person at all and her tenor hero is himself a prince. So we are seeing a throwback opera, almost a fairy tale like Hansel and Gretel. Puccini died before the opera was finished. It was finished by Franco Alfano, and his ending was then shortened. There is a lot of discussion about Alfano's ending, but I always think it sounds fine. Quite a bit of it is copied from earlier parts of the opera.
The Story
Act I
Calaf sees his father Timur and his servant Liu arrive in the forbidden city of Bejing. They hear the princess Turandot announce that any prince who can answer three riddles we marry her and inherit the kingdom. However, should he miss any of the answers, he will sacrifice his head. Timur decides to try in spite of the fact that he sees for himself the results of failure.
Hit Tune
Act II
Hit Tune
Act III
Hit Tune
This is the greatest of all operatic hit tunes in the most famous of all performances of it: Luciano Pavarotti at the original Three Tenors concert in Los Angeles.No one is sleeping. Turandot has ordered everyone to search the city to find the Prince's name. In the famous aria "Nessun dorma" the Prince sings that he knows he will win.
And here is Liu's death scene, the last music Puccini ever wrote.
Complete Film
Tuesday, September 1, 2015
Intro
In the modern world there is unprecedented access to the international world of opera. Opera is exciting and fun, and newcomers can take advantage of this to learn about what is happening in opera today. I will divide this into topics which can be read individually in chronological order, or you can allow yourself to be led through a maze of different styles and periods based on whatever grabs your attention.
In every chapter there will be musical examples. Please don't whisk through the chapters without listening to at least some of the music. I will introduce the idea of the Hit Tune, a melody from the opera that you might hear outside the opera house at a classical music concert. I always enjoy when something familiar shows up.
Choose a beginning:
If you are an old hand and just want to learn something new, select:
In every chapter there will be musical examples. Please don't whisk through the chapters without listening to at least some of the music. I will introduce the idea of the Hit Tune, a melody from the opera that you might hear outside the opera house at a classical music concert. I always enjoy when something familiar shows up.
Choose a beginning:
If you are an old hand and just want to learn something new, select:
Monday, July 20, 2015
What is this?
This is an attempt to introduce opera from the point of view of the present day. Learn about opera in relationship to the modern world, the world you might see in a movie theater in a live from the Metropolitan Opera transmission, or on PBS, or at your local opera company. The format allows you to skip around if you want or follow a guided program.
I am including films of complete operas, preferably with English subtitles. This means that the complete films cannot be as up to date as I might prefer. However, I can include arias by singers of today as separate examples.
I am including films of complete operas, preferably with English subtitles. This means that the complete films cannot be as up to date as I might prefer. However, I can include arias by singers of today as separate examples.
Begin Here
Sunday, July 19, 2015
Johann Strauss Die Fledermaus #12
The Opera
First performed in 1874, the musical style is Strauss waltzes with spoken dialog.The plot is German operetta domestic comedy.
The most popular of the German operettas, of which there are many, is Die Fledermaus (The Bat) by Johann Strauss II. Why has Fledermaus held its popularity for so many years? Because the jokes still play today. Only comic revenge is forever. Because from beginning to end everyone is having fun. Because every note is gorgeous in a work with some of Strauss's best waltzes. There is also quite a lot of marital hanky-panky.
There is a long standing tradition that from production to production completely different spoken dialog may appear. Is Prince Orlofsky a real person, or is he also part of the joke?
The Story
Act I
The story begins in the living room of Gabriel and Rosalinde Eisenstein. Gabriel has been sentenced to jail for talking back in court, among other things, and is scheduled to begin his sentence that evening. His friend Falke arrives to invite him to a party instead. The friend also invites Rosalinde to the same party and provides her with a disguise. Rosalinde knows she is part of the joke. The maid Adele pretends her mother is ill so she can also go to the party.
Rosalinde's old boyfriend the tenor Alfred arrives to flirt with her. He puts on Gabriel's dressing gown just in time for the jailer to arrive to take Gabriel to jail.
Hit Tune
Rosalinde persuades Alfred to pretend to be Gabriel and go to jail. He must really like her.
Act II
Then comes the party, for me the best of all operatic parties. Prince Orlofsky is the host.
Hit Tune
I can't pick which I like best, so first we see Brigitte Fassbaender singing Orlofsky's aria.
One of the more entertaining mezzo-sopranos around today is Malena Ernman. Notice how she ornaments the second verse like it was a Baroque aria. I don't know anyone else that does this.
Everyone is in disguise. Gabriel is supposed to be in jail, but instead he's here disguised as a Frenchman. His wife Rosalinde arrives in disguise as a Hungarian countess. Gabriel has a watch he uses to seduce women. His wife knows this and steals it from him.
Hit Tune
Herr Eisenstein thinks he spots his chambermaid, but she explains that this cannot possibly be true. Edita Gruberova sings "Mein Herr Marquis."This is the complete cast: Gabriel van Eisenstein - Bernd Weikl, Rosalinde - Lucia Popp, Frank - Erich Kunz, Alfred - Josef Hopserwieser, Adele - Edita Gruberova and unlisted on YouTube Orlofsky - Brigitte Fassbaender.
Hit Tune
And here is the Czardas with Gundula Janowitz.Act III
Everyone ends up at the jail. Alfred gets out of jail. Gabriel and Rosalinde make up, and he begins his jail sentence. The Prince gets Adele a job in the theater. "Und mein Schlafrock?" "Requisite." And my dressing gown? A prop. Thus Rosalinde escapes from entertaining Alfred at home.Hit Tune
Adele explains that she doesn't wish to remain a chambermaid, but wants to go into show business. "But do you have talent?" Isabel Rey sings "Spiel ich die Unschuld vom Lande".
Complete Film
Conducted by Placido Domingo, Kiri Te Kanawa - Rosalinde, Hildegarde Heichele - Adele,
Herman Prey - Eisenstein, Doris Soffel - Prince Orlofsky.
This version, which takes place at the Royal Opera in London, is my favorite because it reflects my particular prejudices. I like it to be in German, and here everyone except Kiri sticks to German. It's like real life--when a group of people speak different languages, they mix it up. I like Orlofsky to be a woman. No men stealing women's roles for me. Herman Prey is the best Eisenstein ever.
You may feel free to become a Fledermaus connoisseur.
Get me out of here!
More please.
Saturday, May 2, 2015
Tenor
This is here to help you learn about the different types of operatic tenors. It's intended to educate listeners rather than singers.
The tenor is the highest natural male voice. Above that is the countertenor which uses an entirely different method of producing a sound. An operatic tenor might need a high C and might not, but he would seldom need to go above high C. They aren't known for their low notes. The sub-categories for tenor are generally listed:
Mozart tenor
Leggiero tenor
Lyric tenor
Spinto tenor
Dramatic tenor
Heldentenor
If there are more categories, we are ignoring them. I am now going to describe the sub-categories, but please be aware that the same singer may show up in different sub-categories. A role may also cross into more than one category. I have tried in selecting these examples to make sure that the singer is actually of the suggested sub-category.
A Mozart tenor is known for the beauty of his relatively light tone and for the perfection of his legato. Examples of Mozart tenor roles are Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Ferrando in Così fan tutte, Tamino in The Magic Flute, etc. The first film is Fritz Wunderlich singing "Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön" from Die Zauberflöte.
Wunderlich is for some people the quintessential tenor. They will complain bitterly whenever someone doesn't sound like him. He is perfect for what he is singing here.
Our next example is Francisco Araiza singing "Dalla sua pace" from Don Giovanni.
A leggiero tenor is basically a bel canto tenor (Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, and early Verdi). They are expected to sing outrageous gymnastics and astounding high notes but aren't required to focus on their legato. They are the most likely operatic singers to receive a request for a bis--a repeat of the same aria. Leggiero is an Italian term that means between legato and staccato, or legato with small separations between the notes.
Examples of this Fach are Count Almaviva in The Barber of Seville (Rossini), Tonio in La fille du régiment (Donizetti), Elvino in La sonnambula (Bellini), Don Ramiro in La Cenerentola (Rossini), etc. And this is the essential performance for this Fach--Juan Diego Florez singing "A mes amis" from La Fille du Regiment.
Here is Javier Camarena singing the Prince from La Cenerentola.
During the bel canto the ideal sound for a tenor changed. Gilbert Duprez invented the sound of a tenor singing a high C "in chest." The public went mad for this intense, dramatic sound, and from that moment everything changed. Women as heroes disappeared, and the roaring tenor became the stereotypical operatic hero. Desire for the castrato sound evaporated.
Most tenors today are lyric tenors. They have lighter voices than the Fachs to follow, but their technique still follows the roaring tenor ideal. Examples of lyric tenor roles are Alfredo in La traviata (Verdi), The Duke in Rigoletto (Verdi), Lensky in Eugene Onegin (Tchaikovsky), Rodolfo in La bohème (Puccini), Werther in Werther (Massenet), etc. The first film is Pavel Breslik singing Lensky's aria from Eugene Onegin.
This is Luciano Pavarotti singing "che gelida manina" from La Boheme.
This Fach is between lyric and dramatic, just like the spinto soprano Fach. Examples are Manrico in Il trovatore (Verdi), Calaf in Turandot (Puccini), Hermann in Queen of Spades (Tchaikovsky), Radames in Aida (Verdi), etc. The greatest spinto tenor was probably Franco Corelli, here singing "Ah, si ben mio. Di quella pira!" from Il Trovatore.
For others the greatest tenor of all time was Placido Domingo who now sings as a baritone. Here he sings "Nessun Dorma" from Turandot.
A dramatic tenor can get by without a high C most of the time. Usually this Fach is limited to Italian repertoire or Enée in Les Troyens (Berlioz). Canio in I Pagliacci (Leoncavallo), Dick Johnson, La fanciulla del West (Puccini), and Don Alvaro in La forza del destino (Verdi) are all examples of dramatic tenor roles, and all have been recently undertaken by the German tenor Jonas Kaufmann. The essential dramatic tenor role is Verdi's Otello in Otello which Jonas has not yet sung. Here is his "Ch'ella mì creda libero" from La fanciulla del West.
And here is Mario del Monaco singing "Dio mi potevi scagliar" from Otello.
A German word has been coined to name a German Fach: Heldentenor, which means heroic tenor. A Heldentenor has a specific sound, powerful but bright and penetrating. I will try to find examples.
Florestan in Fidelio by Beethoven is probably the first dramatic tenor of either Italian or German type. This became its own category because of the large Wagnerian repertoire for this voice: Tannhäuser in Tannhäuser, Lohengrin in Lohengrin, Siegmund in Die Walküre, Siegfried in Siegfried and Götterdämmerung, Walther von Stolzing in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Tristan in Tristan und Isolde, and Parsifal in Parsifal.
I have carefully selected these examples to represent the true Heldentenor sound. First is Lauritz Melchior singing The Prize Song from Die Meistersinger.
Here Ben Heppner sings "In fernem Land" from Lohengrin.
Last is Jon Vickers singing "Wintersturm" from Die Walküre.
Each category is a different voice and a different technique. My film selections are based on the quality of the performance and the sound of the voice and often do not include subtitles in English.
_________________________________
I have become aware after writing this that it has been done before here. I don't think I agree with this. In particular I do not agree that a leggiero tenor and a countertenor are the same. Countertenors are singing falsetto and modern day leggiero tenors are not. I have separated dramatic tenor and Heldentenor because a Wagnerian tenor has a specific sound which the listener should become aware of. This sound is not heard in Italian repertoire where they still have dramatic tenors.
The tenor is the highest natural male voice. Above that is the countertenor which uses an entirely different method of producing a sound. An operatic tenor might need a high C and might not, but he would seldom need to go above high C. They aren't known for their low notes. The sub-categories for tenor are generally listed:
Mozart tenor
Leggiero tenor
Lyric tenor
Spinto tenor
Dramatic tenor
Heldentenor
If there are more categories, we are ignoring them. I am now going to describe the sub-categories, but please be aware that the same singer may show up in different sub-categories. A role may also cross into more than one category. I have tried in selecting these examples to make sure that the singer is actually of the suggested sub-category.
Mozart tenor
A Mozart tenor is known for the beauty of his relatively light tone and for the perfection of his legato. Examples of Mozart tenor roles are Don Ottavio in Don Giovanni, Ferrando in Così fan tutte, Tamino in The Magic Flute, etc. The first film is Fritz Wunderlich singing "Dies Bildnis ist bezaubernd schön" from Die Zauberflöte.
Wunderlich is for some people the quintessential tenor. They will complain bitterly whenever someone doesn't sound like him. He is perfect for what he is singing here.
Our next example is Francisco Araiza singing "Dalla sua pace" from Don Giovanni.
Leggiero tenor
A leggiero tenor is basically a bel canto tenor (Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, and early Verdi). They are expected to sing outrageous gymnastics and astounding high notes but aren't required to focus on their legato. They are the most likely operatic singers to receive a request for a bis--a repeat of the same aria. Leggiero is an Italian term that means between legato and staccato, or legato with small separations between the notes.
Examples of this Fach are Count Almaviva in The Barber of Seville (Rossini), Tonio in La fille du régiment (Donizetti), Elvino in La sonnambula (Bellini), Don Ramiro in La Cenerentola (Rossini), etc. And this is the essential performance for this Fach--Juan Diego Florez singing "A mes amis" from La Fille du Regiment.
Here is Javier Camarena singing the Prince from La Cenerentola.
Lyric tenor
During the bel canto the ideal sound for a tenor changed. Gilbert Duprez invented the sound of a tenor singing a high C "in chest." The public went mad for this intense, dramatic sound, and from that moment everything changed. Women as heroes disappeared, and the roaring tenor became the stereotypical operatic hero. Desire for the castrato sound evaporated.
Most tenors today are lyric tenors. They have lighter voices than the Fachs to follow, but their technique still follows the roaring tenor ideal. Examples of lyric tenor roles are Alfredo in La traviata (Verdi), The Duke in Rigoletto (Verdi), Lensky in Eugene Onegin (Tchaikovsky), Rodolfo in La bohème (Puccini), Werther in Werther (Massenet), etc. The first film is Pavel Breslik singing Lensky's aria from Eugene Onegin.
This is Luciano Pavarotti singing "che gelida manina" from La Boheme.
Spinto tenor
This Fach is between lyric and dramatic, just like the spinto soprano Fach. Examples are Manrico in Il trovatore (Verdi), Calaf in Turandot (Puccini), Hermann in Queen of Spades (Tchaikovsky), Radames in Aida (Verdi), etc. The greatest spinto tenor was probably Franco Corelli, here singing "Ah, si ben mio. Di quella pira!" from Il Trovatore.
For others the greatest tenor of all time was Placido Domingo who now sings as a baritone. Here he sings "Nessun Dorma" from Turandot.
Dramatic tenor
A dramatic tenor can get by without a high C most of the time. Usually this Fach is limited to Italian repertoire or Enée in Les Troyens (Berlioz). Canio in I Pagliacci (Leoncavallo), Dick Johnson, La fanciulla del West (Puccini), and Don Alvaro in La forza del destino (Verdi) are all examples of dramatic tenor roles, and all have been recently undertaken by the German tenor Jonas Kaufmann. The essential dramatic tenor role is Verdi's Otello in Otello which Jonas has not yet sung. Here is his "Ch'ella mì creda libero" from La fanciulla del West.
And here is Mario del Monaco singing "Dio mi potevi scagliar" from Otello.
Heldentenor
A German word has been coined to name a German Fach: Heldentenor, which means heroic tenor. A Heldentenor has a specific sound, powerful but bright and penetrating. I will try to find examples.
Florestan in Fidelio by Beethoven is probably the first dramatic tenor of either Italian or German type. This became its own category because of the large Wagnerian repertoire for this voice: Tannhäuser in Tannhäuser, Lohengrin in Lohengrin, Siegmund in Die Walküre, Siegfried in Siegfried and Götterdämmerung, Walther von Stolzing in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Tristan in Tristan und Isolde, and Parsifal in Parsifal.
I have carefully selected these examples to represent the true Heldentenor sound. First is Lauritz Melchior singing The Prize Song from Die Meistersinger.
Here Ben Heppner sings "In fernem Land" from Lohengrin.
Last is Jon Vickers singing "Wintersturm" from Die Walküre.
Each category is a different voice and a different technique. My film selections are based on the quality of the performance and the sound of the voice and often do not include subtitles in English.
_________________________________
I have become aware after writing this that it has been done before here. I don't think I agree with this. In particular I do not agree that a leggiero tenor and a countertenor are the same. Countertenors are singing falsetto and modern day leggiero tenors are not. I have separated dramatic tenor and Heldentenor because a Wagnerian tenor has a specific sound which the listener should become aware of. This sound is not heard in Italian repertoire where they still have dramatic tenors.
Soprano
The highest vocal Fach is the soprano. Opera singers refer to their voice category as their Fach, the German term for category. Vocabulary has crept in from Germany such as Sitzprobe, which translates to sitting rehearsal and means an unstaged rehearsal with orchestra.
A soprano must have a good high C. After that they are broken down into categories:
Soubrette
Lyric Soprano
Coloratura Soprano
Spinto Soprano
Dramatic Soprano
I am now going to describe the sub-categories, but please be aware that the same singer may show up in different sub-categories. I have tried in selecting these examples to make sure that the singer is actually of the suggested sub-category.
The term soubrette actually describes more than just the voice. She has a light, high voice and plays young women. Examples of soubrette roles are Zerlina in Don Giovanni (Mozart), Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier (R. Strauss), Lisette in La Rondine (Puccini), Sophie in Werther (Massenet), etc. The women shown below embody all aspects of their Fach. First is Kathleen Battle singing "Batti, batti, o bel Masetto" from Don Giovanni.
Lisette Oropesa sings "Du gai soleil" from Werther.
This classification technically breaks down into light lyric and full lyric. For our purposes we will consider the light lyric to be the same as soubrette. If a soprano doesn't seem to be any particular category, she is probably a full lyric. Examples of full lyric roles are Liù in Turandot (Puccini), Tatyana in Eugene Onegin (Tchaikovsky), Mimì in La bohème, (Puccini) Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni (Mozart), Rusalka in Rusalka (Dvořák), etc. Renée Fleming sings Mariettas Lied from Die tote Stadt (Korngold).
Angela Gheorghiu sings "Si, mi chiamano Mimi" from La Boheme.
This singer is somewhere between lyric and dramatic. Exactly where is open to interpretation. Different roles seem to show up in different categories, so I will place them where I think they go. Roles for a spinto soprano include Aïda in Aïda (Verdi), Liza in The Queen of Spades (Tchaikovsky), Floria Tosca in Tosca (Puccini), Elisabetta in Don Carlos (Verdi), Elisabeth in Tannhäuser (Wagner), etc. Maria Callas sings "Vissi d'arte" from Tosca.
Leontyne Price sings "Ritorna Vincitor" from Aida.
The heaviest high voice is the dramatic soprano. Only some mezzos and contraltos are heavier. Examples of roles for dramatic soprano are Leonore/Fidelio in Fidelio (Beethoven, who is credited with inventing this Fach), Gioconda in La Gioconda (Ponchielli), Minnie in La fanciulla del West (Puccini), Turandot in Turandot (Puccini), Brünnhilde in Die Walküre, Siegfried, Götterdämmerung (Wagner), etc. Birgit Nilsson sings "In questa reggia" from Turandot.
For my ears the greatest of all heavy sopranos was Birgit Nilsson.
Hildegard Behrens sings the Immolation scene from Götterdämmerung.
Behrens was a very exciting singer, but only moderately heavy.
Dramatic Coloratura Soprano
This is an unofficial category possibly brought about by a sudden transition from light to heavy voices before the middle of the nineteenth century. This singer requires both a heavy tone all the way up to the highest notes and great flexibility. This type of voice is required to sing roles like Verdi's Abagailla in Nabucco (Verdi) and Lady Macbeth in Macbeth (Verdi).
Maria Guleghina sings "Salgo gia" from Nabucco.
Every singer must carefully select roles for their voice that suit its range and weight. These are the hardest soprano roles to cast. The range part of classification is easy to grasp, but the weight aspect is much more difficult and requires both training and vocal maturity. Singing a role that is too light for you voice can result in inaccurate fast notes and muddiness. Singing a role that is too heavy for your voice can possibly ruin the voice.
Categories are not exactly rigidly defined. Here are five different voice types singing the same soubrette role, Susanna, in The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart arranged in ascending amount of weight.
* To hear soubrette Dawn Upshaw as Susanna click on:
For soubrette to lyric Kathleen Battle, click on
* To hear light lyric soprano Lucia Popp as Susanna click on
* To hear full lyric soprano Anna Netrebko as Susanna click on
To hear a dramatic soprano Margaret Price as Susanna, click on
My film selections are based on the quality of the performance and the sound of the voice and often do not include subtitles in English.
I have become aware after writing this that it has been done before here. I don't think I agree with it.
Every singer must carefully select roles for their voice that suits its range and weight. The range part of classification is easiest to grasp, but the weight aspect is much more difficult and requires training.
A soprano must have a good high C. After that they are broken down into categories:
Soubrette
Lyric Soprano
Coloratura Soprano
Spinto Soprano
Dramatic Soprano
I am now going to describe the sub-categories, but please be aware that the same singer may show up in different sub-categories. I have tried in selecting these examples to make sure that the singer is actually of the suggested sub-category.
Soubrette
The term soubrette actually describes more than just the voice. She has a light, high voice and plays young women. Examples of soubrette roles are Zerlina in Don Giovanni (Mozart), Sophie in Der Rosenkavalier (R. Strauss), Lisette in La Rondine (Puccini), Sophie in Werther (Massenet), etc. The women shown below embody all aspects of their Fach. First is Kathleen Battle singing "Batti, batti, o bel Masetto" from Don Giovanni.
Lisette Oropesa sings "Du gai soleil" from Werther.
Lyric Soprano
This classification technically breaks down into light lyric and full lyric. For our purposes we will consider the light lyric to be the same as soubrette. If a soprano doesn't seem to be any particular category, she is probably a full lyric. Examples of full lyric roles are Liù in Turandot (Puccini), Tatyana in Eugene Onegin (Tchaikovsky), Mimì in La bohème, (Puccini) Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni (Mozart), Rusalka in Rusalka (Dvořák), etc. Renée Fleming sings Mariettas Lied from Die tote Stadt (Korngold).
Angela Gheorghiu sings "Si, mi chiamano Mimi" from La Boheme.
Coloratura Soprano
In the Baroque and classical periods and through most of Rossini every singer, male or female, was a coloratura, but when the tenor voice suddenly became heavy (see tenor) most coloratura roles moved to the soprano Fach. A coloratura soprano usually has an upper extension with notes well above the high C. This is probably the first role for the true coloratura soprano, Mozart's Queen of the Night from Die Zauberfloete. Even if you have no idea what she's saying, you can tell she is pissed. Mozart's Queen is a heavy coloratura. Diana Damrau sings "Der Hölle Rache" from Die Zauberflöte.
Examples of roles for coloratura soprano are Lucia in Lucia di Lammermoor (Donizetti), Adele in Die Fledermaus (J. Strauss), Zerbinetta in Ariadne auf Naxos (R. Strauss), Gilda in Rigoletto (Verdi), Amina in La sonnambula (Bellini), Olympia in Les contes d'Hoffman (Offenbach), etc. Here Nadine Sierra sings "Caro nome" from Rigoletto.
Edita Gruberova sings "Großmächtige Prinzessin" from Ariadne auf Naxos.
This is so good it hurts.
Spinto Soprano
This singer is somewhere between lyric and dramatic. Exactly where is open to interpretation. Different roles seem to show up in different categories, so I will place them where I think they go. Roles for a spinto soprano include Aïda in Aïda (Verdi), Liza in The Queen of Spades (Tchaikovsky), Floria Tosca in Tosca (Puccini), Elisabetta in Don Carlos (Verdi), Elisabeth in Tannhäuser (Wagner), etc. Maria Callas sings "Vissi d'arte" from Tosca.
Leontyne Price sings "Ritorna Vincitor" from Aida.
Dramatic Soprano
The heaviest high voice is the dramatic soprano. Only some mezzos and contraltos are heavier. Examples of roles for dramatic soprano are Leonore/Fidelio in Fidelio (Beethoven, who is credited with inventing this Fach), Gioconda in La Gioconda (Ponchielli), Minnie in La fanciulla del West (Puccini), Turandot in Turandot (Puccini), Brünnhilde in Die Walküre, Siegfried, Götterdämmerung (Wagner), etc. Birgit Nilsson sings "In questa reggia" from Turandot.
For my ears the greatest of all heavy sopranos was Birgit Nilsson.
Hildegard Behrens sings the Immolation scene from Götterdämmerung.
Behrens was a very exciting singer, but only moderately heavy.
Dramatic Coloratura Soprano
This is an unofficial category possibly brought about by a sudden transition from light to heavy voices before the middle of the nineteenth century. This singer requires both a heavy tone all the way up to the highest notes and great flexibility. This type of voice is required to sing roles like Verdi's Abagailla in Nabucco (Verdi) and Lady Macbeth in Macbeth (Verdi).
Maria Guleghina sings "Salgo gia" from Nabucco.
Every singer must carefully select roles for their voice that suit its range and weight. These are the hardest soprano roles to cast. The range part of classification is easy to grasp, but the weight aspect is much more difficult and requires both training and vocal maturity. Singing a role that is too light for you voice can result in inaccurate fast notes and muddiness. Singing a role that is too heavy for your voice can possibly ruin the voice.
Categories are not exactly rigidly defined. Here are five different voice types singing the same soubrette role, Susanna, in The Marriage of Figaro by Mozart arranged in ascending amount of weight.
* To hear soubrette Dawn Upshaw as Susanna click on:
For soubrette to lyric Kathleen Battle, click on
* To hear light lyric soprano Lucia Popp as Susanna click on
* To hear full lyric soprano Anna Netrebko as Susanna click on
To hear a dramatic soprano Margaret Price as Susanna, click on
My film selections are based on the quality of the performance and the sound of the voice and often do not include subtitles in English.
I have become aware after writing this that it has been done before here. I don't think I agree with it.
Every singer must carefully select roles for their voice that suits its range and weight. The range part of classification is easiest to grasp, but the weight aspect is much more difficult and requires training.
Countertenor
This is here to help you learn about the countertenor. It's intended to educate listeners rather than singers.
A countertenor is a natural male voice that sings falsetto to allow him to sing music that was originally written for a woman or a castrato (a man castrated in childhood to retain his high voice). In opera their use allows male roles to be sung by male singers, a feature that means nothing to me but seems to matter to others. Most countertenors are actually baritones. The voice range for a countertenor usually is the equivalent to a mezzo-soprano or contralto. In a choral alto section that includes countertenors and female altos the countertenors drown out the altos.
These are examples of roles written for the countertenor voice: Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream (Britten), Annas in Jesus Christ Superstar (Lloyd Webber), Akhnaten in Akhnaten (Glass), Trinculo in The Tempest (Adès), etc. Please notice that all these examples are modern, three out of four are British, and none of them are written by Italians.
This is David Daniels singing "I know a Bank" from A Midsummer Night's Dream.
David Walker sings Akhnaten's aria from Akhnaten.
Roles performed by countertenors but originally written for castrati include: Ariodante in Ariodante (Handel), Nerone in Agrippina (Handel), Ruggiero in Alcina (Handel), Giulio Cesare in Giulio Cesare (Handel), Artaserse in Artaserse (Vinci), etc. All of these roles are also sung by women.
Franco Fagioli sings "Vo solcando un mar crudele" from Artaserse.
Philippe Jaroussky sings "Come Nube Che Fugge Dal Vento" from Agrippina.
A third category is roles composed for women which are then sung by countertenors. Sesto in Handel's Giulio Cesare is an example. This is uncommon but becomes more common every year.
A countertenor is a natural male voice that sings falsetto to allow him to sing music that was originally written for a woman or a castrato (a man castrated in childhood to retain his high voice). In opera their use allows male roles to be sung by male singers, a feature that means nothing to me but seems to matter to others. Most countertenors are actually baritones. The voice range for a countertenor usually is the equivalent to a mezzo-soprano or contralto. In a choral alto section that includes countertenors and female altos the countertenors drown out the altos.
These are examples of roles written for the countertenor voice: Oberon in A Midsummer Night's Dream (Britten), Annas in Jesus Christ Superstar (Lloyd Webber), Akhnaten in Akhnaten (Glass), Trinculo in The Tempest (Adès), etc. Please notice that all these examples are modern, three out of four are British, and none of them are written by Italians.
This is David Daniels singing "I know a Bank" from A Midsummer Night's Dream.
David Walker sings Akhnaten's aria from Akhnaten.
Roles performed by countertenors but originally written for castrati include: Ariodante in Ariodante (Handel), Nerone in Agrippina (Handel), Ruggiero in Alcina (Handel), Giulio Cesare in Giulio Cesare (Handel), Artaserse in Artaserse (Vinci), etc. All of these roles are also sung by women.
Franco Fagioli sings "Vo solcando un mar crudele" from Artaserse.
Philippe Jaroussky sings "Come Nube Che Fugge Dal Vento" from Agrippina.
A third category is roles composed for women which are then sung by countertenors. Sesto in Handel's Giulio Cesare is an example. This is uncommon but becomes more common every year.
Baritones and Basses
Of my chapters on different types of voices this one was actually the hardest for me. I hope I got it right.
This is here to help you learn about the different types of operatic baritones and basses. It's intended to educate listeners rather than singers.
The bass is the lowest natural male voice. His voice might extend up to F above middle C and down to low C depending on Fach. The sub-categories for baritone and bass are many, some very specialized, that a full discussion may prove impossible. This is proving to be difficult, a learning experience also for me. We will start with this set and see how far we get.
Lyric baritone
Dramatic baritone
Lyric Bass-baritone
Dramatic Bass-baritone
Bass
If there are more categories, we are ignoring them. I am now going to describe the sub-categories, but please be aware that the same singer may show up in different sub-categories. A role may also cross into more than one category. I have tried in selecting these examples to make sure that the singer is actually of the suggested sub-category.
This is a pleasant low sound, basically the voice of the average male. Sample roles are Papageno in The Magic Flute [Die Zauberflöte] (Mozart), Marcello in La bohème (Puccini), Don Giovanni in Don Giovanni (Mozart), Figaro in The Barber of Seville (Rossini), etc. Here is Simon Keenleyside singing "Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja" from The Magic Flute.
Sometimes this Fach includes a sub-sub-category called Verdi baritone. For me the Verdi baritone defines the dramatic baritone and does not require a Fach of its own. This voice needs a full tone for its entire range and that special Verdi intensity. Sample roles are Rigoletto in Rigoletto (Verdi), Scarpia in Tosca (Puccini), Simon Boccanegra in Simon Boccanegra (Verdi), Escamillo in Carmen (Bizet), Conte di Luna in Il trovatore (Verdi), etc. Dmitri Hvorostovsky sings "Il balen" from Il Trovatore.
I'm calling him a dramatic baritone. He is for me the greatest of operatic idols: Leonard Warren singing "Cortigiani" from Rigoletto.
What is a bass-baritone? He is a baritone with a really full, rich low register. He might be lower than a baritone or he might not. It's the sound that matters. Examples of lyric bass-baritones are: Méphistophélès in Faust (Gounod), Leporello in Don Giovanni (Mozart), Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro (Mozart), Philip II in Don Carlos (Verdi), Escamillo in Carmen (Bizet), Porgy in Porgy and Bess (Gershwin), The 4 Villains in Les contes d'Hoffmann (Offenbach), etc.
Rene Pape sings "Le veau d'or" from Faust.
This is Ferruccio Furlanetto singing "Ella giammai m'amo" from Don Carlo.
I think this is a category invented by Richard Wagner. He wanted a bass sound with the Dutchman in Der fliegende Holländer, Wotan/Der Wanderer in the Ring Cycle and Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg while generally ignoring the upward boundaries of the Fach.
This example is like nothing else in the world. It is a young (35?) Hans Hotter singing "Die Frist ist um" from the Flying Dutchman.
Here is a wonderful example of a baritone and a bass singing in the same scene. The older man is Rigoletto, a baritone, and the younger man is Sparafucile, an assassin who sings bass, including a nice low F at the end. Željko Lučić (Rigoletto) and Štefan Kocán (Sparafucile).
This is Charon from Monteverdi's L'Orfeo sung by Paul Gérimon.
This is here to help you learn about the different types of operatic baritones and basses. It's intended to educate listeners rather than singers.
The bass is the lowest natural male voice. His voice might extend up to F above middle C and down to low C depending on Fach. The sub-categories for baritone and bass are many, some very specialized, that a full discussion may prove impossible. This is proving to be difficult, a learning experience also for me. We will start with this set and see how far we get.
Lyric baritone
Dramatic baritone
Lyric Bass-baritone
Dramatic Bass-baritone
Bass
If there are more categories, we are ignoring them. I am now going to describe the sub-categories, but please be aware that the same singer may show up in different sub-categories. A role may also cross into more than one category. I have tried in selecting these examples to make sure that the singer is actually of the suggested sub-category.
Lyric baritone
This is a pleasant low sound, basically the voice of the average male. Sample roles are Papageno in The Magic Flute [Die Zauberflöte] (Mozart), Marcello in La bohème (Puccini), Don Giovanni in Don Giovanni (Mozart), Figaro in The Barber of Seville (Rossini), etc. Here is Simon Keenleyside singing "Der Vogelfänger bin ich ja" from The Magic Flute.
Dramatic baritone
Sometimes this Fach includes a sub-sub-category called Verdi baritone. For me the Verdi baritone defines the dramatic baritone and does not require a Fach of its own. This voice needs a full tone for its entire range and that special Verdi intensity. Sample roles are Rigoletto in Rigoletto (Verdi), Scarpia in Tosca (Puccini), Simon Boccanegra in Simon Boccanegra (Verdi), Escamillo in Carmen (Bizet), Conte di Luna in Il trovatore (Verdi), etc. Dmitri Hvorostovsky sings "Il balen" from Il Trovatore.
I'm calling him a dramatic baritone. He is for me the greatest of operatic idols: Leonard Warren singing "Cortigiani" from Rigoletto.
Lyric Bass-baritone
What is a bass-baritone? He is a baritone with a really full, rich low register. He might be lower than a baritone or he might not. It's the sound that matters. Examples of lyric bass-baritones are: Méphistophélès in Faust (Gounod), Leporello in Don Giovanni (Mozart), Figaro in The Marriage of Figaro (Mozart), Philip II in Don Carlos (Verdi), Escamillo in Carmen (Bizet), Porgy in Porgy and Bess (Gershwin), The 4 Villains in Les contes d'Hoffmann (Offenbach), etc.
Rene Pape sings "Le veau d'or" from Faust.
This is Ferruccio Furlanetto singing "Ella giammai m'amo" from Don Carlo.
Dramatic Bass-baritone
I think this is a category invented by Richard Wagner. He wanted a bass sound with the Dutchman in Der fliegende Holländer, Wotan/Der Wanderer in the Ring Cycle and Hans Sachs in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg while generally ignoring the upward boundaries of the Fach.
This example is like nothing else in the world. It is a young (35?) Hans Hotter singing "Die Frist ist um" from the Flying Dutchman.
Bass
A bass needs to have full resonance on very low notes. The Fach may extend to below the bass clef staff. Examples of roles are The Grand Inquisitor in Don Carlo (Verdi), Sarastro in Die Zauberflöte (Mozart), Baron Ochs in Der Rosenkavalier (R. Strauss), Il Commendatore in Don Giovanni (Mozart), Hunding in Die Walküre (Wagner), etc.Here is a wonderful example of a baritone and a bass singing in the same scene. The older man is Rigoletto, a baritone, and the younger man is Sparafucile, an assassin who sings bass, including a nice low F at the end. Željko Lučić (Rigoletto) and Štefan Kocán (Sparafucile).
This is Charon from Monteverdi's L'Orfeo sung by Paul Gérimon.
Buffo Bass
There is a whole category for men who sing only comic roles called buffo bass or basso buffo. This is a long tradition starting in Italy. They are always basses but not usually very distinguished.
Some roles for this voice are Don Magnifico in La Cenerentola (Rossini), Leporello in Don Giovanni (Mozart), Dottor Dulcamara in L'elisir d'amore (Donizetti), Rocco in Fidelio (Beethoven), etc.
Here is the preeminent basso buffo of our era, Alessandro Corbelli.
Mezzo-soprano and Contralto
This is here to help you learn about the different types of operatic mezzo-sopranos and contraltos. It's intended to educate listeners rather than singers.
Lower voiced women in opera are usually mezzo-sopranos, but occasionally one hears a true contralto, the lowest female Fach. Today I know of only two contraltos: Ewa Podleś and Meredith Arwady. Mezzos and contraltos will need notes well below middle C, and a mezzo should have a high B flat at least. I'm not sure there is a sharp line separating mezzo-soprano from contralto, but I will try. Here is a list of the sub-categories for mezzo-sopranos and contraltos.
Coloratura mezzo
Lyric mezzo
Dramatic mezzo
Coloratura contralto
Lyric contralto
Dramatic contralto
I am now going to describe the sub-categories, but please be aware that the same singer may show up in different sub-categories. A role may also cross into more than one category. I have tried in selecting these examples to make sure that the singer is actually of the suggested sub-category.
The coloratura mezzo is primarily a phenomenon of the Baroque and bel canto. Sometimes the male hero is in this Fach, but most of our examples are female roles. Angelina in La Cenerentola (Rossini), Romeo in I Capuleti e i Montecchi (Bellini), Costanza in Griselda (Vivaldi) [Wikipedia lists Griselda as a coloratura mezzo when she is barely a singing role at all. Costanza has all the good singing.], Rosina in The Barber of Seville (Rossini), etc. This example is Cecilia Bartoli singing "Non piu mesta" from La Cenerentola.
And only La Bartoli runs to the top of the cake.
When the tenor gets heavier after Rossini, the mezzo follows. This voice generally does not perform coloratura like the mezzo in the previous Fach. Charlotte in Werther (Massenet), Carmen in Carmen (Bizet), Nicklausse in The Tales of Hoffmann (Offenbach), Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier (R Strauss), etc. Here Elina Garanča sings the Habanera from Carmen.
This begins with Verdi and is at the heavy end of operatic repertoire for the female voice. In German repertoire there is never coloratura, but in Italian repertoire, especially Verdi, there might be. Example roles are: Eboli in Don Carlos (Verdi), Azucena in Il trovatore (Verdi), Marina in Boris Godunov (Mussorgsky), Ortrud in Lohengrin (Wagner), etc. Our Italian example is Fiorenza Cossotto singing "O Don Fatale" from Don Carlo.
Our German example is Christa Ludwig singing "Entweihte! Götter!" from Lohengrin.
Since there aren't ever enough contraltos to go around, anything designated for a contralto will often be sung by a mezzo-soprano. I will attempt to find examples of true contraltos who are known for the extreme darkness in their voices. Roles for coloratura contralto include Isabella in L'italiana in Algeri (Rossini), Tancredi in Tancredi (Rossini), etc. Ewa Podleś sings "Di tanti palpiti" from Tancredi.
I only know of one. We will suggest others. Here is Marijana Mijanović singing "Empio, Dirò, Tu Sei" from Handel's Giulio Cesare.
And this is Marie-Nicole Lemieux singing "Nel profonfo" from Vivaldi's Orlando furioso.
And then there's Ewa Podleś singing "Pour Une Femme De Mon Nom" from Donizetti's La Fille Du Régiment. We keep coming back to her.
You decide.
This is the same dark voice in more legato music with virtually no coloratura. Mother in The Consul (Menotti), Pauline in The Queen of Spades [Pique Dame] (Tchaikovsky), Maddalena in Rigoletto (Verdi), La Cieca in La Gioconda (Ponchielli), etc. Here Olga Borodina sings Pauline's aria from Pique Dame.
The same restrictions as for mezzos apply: Wagner will never show coloratura but Verdi often will, though it has a much heavier sound than for a soprano. Examples are Azucena in Il trovatore (Verdi), Ulrica in Un ballo in maschera (Verdi), Erda, Das Rheingold, Siegfried (Wagner), etc. Hanna Schwarz sings Erda from Das Rheingold.
This is Elena Obraztsova singing Ulrica's aria from Un Ballo in Maschera.
My film selections are based on the quality of the performance and the sound of the voice and often do not include subtitles in English.
Lower voiced women in opera are usually mezzo-sopranos, but occasionally one hears a true contralto, the lowest female Fach. Today I know of only two contraltos: Ewa Podleś and Meredith Arwady. Mezzos and contraltos will need notes well below middle C, and a mezzo should have a high B flat at least. I'm not sure there is a sharp line separating mezzo-soprano from contralto, but I will try. Here is a list of the sub-categories for mezzo-sopranos and contraltos.
Coloratura mezzo
Lyric mezzo
Dramatic mezzo
Coloratura contralto
Lyric contralto
Dramatic contralto
I am now going to describe the sub-categories, but please be aware that the same singer may show up in different sub-categories. A role may also cross into more than one category. I have tried in selecting these examples to make sure that the singer is actually of the suggested sub-category.
Coloratura Mezzo
The coloratura mezzo is primarily a phenomenon of the Baroque and bel canto. Sometimes the male hero is in this Fach, but most of our examples are female roles. Angelina in La Cenerentola (Rossini), Romeo in I Capuleti e i Montecchi (Bellini), Costanza in Griselda (Vivaldi) [Wikipedia lists Griselda as a coloratura mezzo when she is barely a singing role at all. Costanza has all the good singing.], Rosina in The Barber of Seville (Rossini), etc. This example is Cecilia Bartoli singing "Non piu mesta" from La Cenerentola.
And only La Bartoli runs to the top of the cake.
Lyric Mezzo
When the tenor gets heavier after Rossini, the mezzo follows. This voice generally does not perform coloratura like the mezzo in the previous Fach. Charlotte in Werther (Massenet), Carmen in Carmen (Bizet), Nicklausse in The Tales of Hoffmann (Offenbach), Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier (R Strauss), etc. Here Elina Garanča sings the Habanera from Carmen.
Dramatic Mezzo
This begins with Verdi and is at the heavy end of operatic repertoire for the female voice. In German repertoire there is never coloratura, but in Italian repertoire, especially Verdi, there might be. Example roles are: Eboli in Don Carlos (Verdi), Azucena in Il trovatore (Verdi), Marina in Boris Godunov (Mussorgsky), Ortrud in Lohengrin (Wagner), etc. Our Italian example is Fiorenza Cossotto singing "O Don Fatale" from Don Carlo.
Our German example is Christa Ludwig singing "Entweihte! Götter!" from Lohengrin.
Coloratura contralto
Since there aren't ever enough contraltos to go around, anything designated for a contralto will often be sung by a mezzo-soprano. I will attempt to find examples of true contraltos who are known for the extreme darkness in their voices. Roles for coloratura contralto include Isabella in L'italiana in Algeri (Rossini), Tancredi in Tancredi (Rossini), etc. Ewa Podleś sings "Di tanti palpiti" from Tancredi.
I only know of one. We will suggest others. Here is Marijana Mijanović singing "Empio, Dirò, Tu Sei" from Handel's Giulio Cesare.
And this is Marie-Nicole Lemieux singing "Nel profonfo" from Vivaldi's Orlando furioso.
And then there's Ewa Podleś singing "Pour Une Femme De Mon Nom" from Donizetti's La Fille Du Régiment. We keep coming back to her.
You decide.
Lyric contralto
This is the same dark voice in more legato music with virtually no coloratura. Mother in The Consul (Menotti), Pauline in The Queen of Spades [Pique Dame] (Tchaikovsky), Maddalena in Rigoletto (Verdi), La Cieca in La Gioconda (Ponchielli), etc. Here Olga Borodina sings Pauline's aria from Pique Dame.
Dramatic contralto
The same restrictions as for mezzos apply: Wagner will never show coloratura but Verdi often will, though it has a much heavier sound than for a soprano. Examples are Azucena in Il trovatore (Verdi), Ulrica in Un ballo in maschera (Verdi), Erda, Das Rheingold, Siegfried (Wagner), etc. Hanna Schwarz sings Erda from Das Rheingold.
This is Elena Obraztsova singing Ulrica's aria from Un Ballo in Maschera.
My film selections are based on the quality of the performance and the sound of the voice and often do not include subtitles in English.
Friday, May 1, 2015
Recitative and Aria
An opera includes other things besides recitatives and arias. It will
usually have an instrumental prelude and may have other purely
instrumental interludes such as ballets. There may be a chorus.
Recitative was invented by the Florentine Camerata, but aria is forever for aria is song. The division into recitative and aria is the difference between action and reflection. L'Orfeo of Monteverdi is the first true opera because he instinctively understood the need to break up the action oriented recitative with other more traditional musical numbers like dances, ensembles and arias.
The balance and emphasis has changed throughout opera's 400 year history. The great Italian tradition has always emphasized the aria. The form might change--ostinato in the early phase, florid da capo throughout the long Neapolitan style, the slow section followed by fast section form of bel canto, the free form of Puccini--but the opera exists for the arias.
The balance shifts from generation to generation. In Handel's time the lyric expression of the reflective arias had expanded to virtually smother the action. Gluck was part of the generation that searched for simplicity in art, though this trend began first in France with Rousseau. Because this urge for naturalness and the romanticized rural was felt first in France, Gluck's return to the primacy of action over reflection in opera resonated much more with the French. Gluck tried to hide the distinction between recitative and aria but didn't actually succeed in doing away with it.
Wagner subsumed all to the gigantic orchestral tone poem with singing, a style that seems to create endless, formless arias with no speech-like elements.
The recitative and aria dichotomy is a part of the words and music discussion--prima la musica, etc. The purpose of the invention of recitative was to rebalance the relationship of words and music toward word dominance. Music must conform to the requirements of the text. In aria the priorities are reversed. The words guide the expression, but it is the music that determines the form and contour of the aria.
Wagner destroyed the distinction, indeed he destroyed the entire phenomenon of recitative. He eliminated the text repetitions that tell you you are in an aria. He inflated the orchestra to the point that it carries the music much more than the singers. Everything is extended. Everything is aria. Unrelenting continuity replaced alteration of action and reflection.
In modern times composers can't seem to bear the inflated orchestra of Wagner, the slowing of time that drags his operas into four and five hour performances but retain his formlessness in a much more shrunken form that is closer to constant recitative than aria. There are still no text repetitions, and nothing is extended.
Richard Strauss' through-composed operas while seeming to imitate Wagner, often include extended patter recitatives, as for example most of the role of Baron Ochs. Strauss is still distinguishing action and reflection, recitative and aria, but the transitions are extremely subtle. Strauss is one of the last composers who still knows how to compose an aria.
It is the inability of modern composers to compose true arias that dooms most modern operas.
It is curious to think of Glass' opera Orphée in this context. It's almost as if he set out to create a sound track for a beloved film, in this case Jean Cocteau's Orphée, since he is already familiar with the process of writing for the movies. The French version of the film runs 112 minutes, a length that feels very similar to the opera. Then Glass decided to set the voices to music. There are alterations in the pacing between the film and the opera, but the overall pace is constant. The text brings lyrical moments, but the expected extension of the moment into aria does not come. This is from Philip Glass of all people. The artist who most wants to alter our perception of time does not.
It is the lyrical vocal outburst that makes it opera. Modern opera fails because the moment of extension, the moment of greatest emotion where the glory of the voice takes us to another realm never comes.
Thus the rage about John Adams' lousy librettos. John Adams is one of the few who can actually write a decent aria. But what good is reflection without action?
If I were giving advice, I would say write an aria for your opera. Think of it as something that will stand on its own outside the opera. Think of it showing off the voice of your singer. Golijov's best work is written for Dawn Upshaw. Aim high.
Recitative was invented by the Florentine Camerata, but aria is forever for aria is song. The division into recitative and aria is the difference between action and reflection. L'Orfeo of Monteverdi is the first true opera because he instinctively understood the need to break up the action oriented recitative with other more traditional musical numbers like dances, ensembles and arias.
The balance and emphasis has changed throughout opera's 400 year history. The great Italian tradition has always emphasized the aria. The form might change--ostinato in the early phase, florid da capo throughout the long Neapolitan style, the slow section followed by fast section form of bel canto, the free form of Puccini--but the opera exists for the arias.
The balance shifts from generation to generation. In Handel's time the lyric expression of the reflective arias had expanded to virtually smother the action. Gluck was part of the generation that searched for simplicity in art, though this trend began first in France with Rousseau. Because this urge for naturalness and the romanticized rural was felt first in France, Gluck's return to the primacy of action over reflection in opera resonated much more with the French. Gluck tried to hide the distinction between recitative and aria but didn't actually succeed in doing away with it.
Wagner subsumed all to the gigantic orchestral tone poem with singing, a style that seems to create endless, formless arias with no speech-like elements.
The recitative and aria dichotomy is a part of the words and music discussion--prima la musica, etc. The purpose of the invention of recitative was to rebalance the relationship of words and music toward word dominance. Music must conform to the requirements of the text. In aria the priorities are reversed. The words guide the expression, but it is the music that determines the form and contour of the aria.
Wagner destroyed the distinction, indeed he destroyed the entire phenomenon of recitative. He eliminated the text repetitions that tell you you are in an aria. He inflated the orchestra to the point that it carries the music much more than the singers. Everything is extended. Everything is aria. Unrelenting continuity replaced alteration of action and reflection.
In modern times composers can't seem to bear the inflated orchestra of Wagner, the slowing of time that drags his operas into four and five hour performances but retain his formlessness in a much more shrunken form that is closer to constant recitative than aria. There are still no text repetitions, and nothing is extended.
Richard Strauss' through-composed operas while seeming to imitate Wagner, often include extended patter recitatives, as for example most of the role of Baron Ochs. Strauss is still distinguishing action and reflection, recitative and aria, but the transitions are extremely subtle. Strauss is one of the last composers who still knows how to compose an aria.
It is the inability of modern composers to compose true arias that dooms most modern operas.
It is curious to think of Glass' opera Orphée in this context. It's almost as if he set out to create a sound track for a beloved film, in this case Jean Cocteau's Orphée, since he is already familiar with the process of writing for the movies. The French version of the film runs 112 minutes, a length that feels very similar to the opera. Then Glass decided to set the voices to music. There are alterations in the pacing between the film and the opera, but the overall pace is constant. The text brings lyrical moments, but the expected extension of the moment into aria does not come. This is from Philip Glass of all people. The artist who most wants to alter our perception of time does not.
It is the lyrical vocal outburst that makes it opera. Modern opera fails because the moment of extension, the moment of greatest emotion where the glory of the voice takes us to another realm never comes.
Thus the rage about John Adams' lousy librettos. John Adams is one of the few who can actually write a decent aria. But what good is reflection without action?
If I were giving advice, I would say write an aria for your opera. Think of it as something that will stand on its own outside the opera. Think of it showing off the voice of your singer. Golijov's best work is written for Dawn Upshaw. Aim high.
Wednesday, April 15, 2015
Brief History of Cross-dressing in Opera
Please forgive me. This is written out of my head and involves no research. Usually I research things, but it can ruin my train of thought.
In the beginning (Greece, Shakespeare, etc.) theater was a masculine activity. Often society decided that all public appearances by females were immoral. The world was pretty much the same as it now is in Saudi Arabia. Men did things and women stayed home and had babies and cleaned house. If you're my age, you can remember this. Don't go around asking yourself why there were no women composers or painters. Composing and painting are jobs, and women were not allowed to have jobs. Except prostitution, of course. Women were angels or devils with no in between statuses that allowed for holding jobs. Opera singing is also a job.
In the early era of opera the situation was somewhat confusing to follow. In Venice and Mantua women appeared on the stage in female roles. In Rome and the Papal States all roles were played by men with the high voices sung by castrati (men surgically altered to retain their child voices). There were plenty of castrati around to serve in this capacity. Women singing in church was still forbidden in most places. This means lots of cross-dressing in opera, all by men, such as would have occurred in Shakespeare. High voices were preferred, and castrati sang both male and female roles.
The French were violently opposed to the idea of castrating men to provide high singers. Their female roles were always sung by women. Then Napoleon conquered Italy and put a stop to castration there, apparently imparting the French horror over the practice to the Italians. Over the next 100 years the practice died out until eventually there were no living castrati.
By the time of Mozart, who in his person embodied all the musical practices of all the musical centers of Europe of his time, an additional cross-dressing tradition arose: roles for teenage boys were sung in their pre-pubescent high voices and were portrayed by women. The most famous example of this is Cherubino in Le Nozze di Figaro.
Summary--opera seria included roles for castrati, opera buffa did not. There is a very nice role in an opera by Cavalli (Venetian school, heir to Monteverdi, lived before the seria/buffa split--La Calisto--looked the name up) where Jove pretends to be a woman. As Jove he is a baritone, as the female he is a falsetto soprano. Very funny. This is cross-dressing outside the traditional stereotypes, and as far as I know is the only early opera role intended to be sung falsetto.
Rossini came after the invasion by Napoleon. He composed both for castrati and women singing men, with the preponderance being the latter. Women began to replace castrati during this time in the portrayal of heroes in serious opera. It is surprising how few castrato parts there are in Rossini. Women singing male roles is far more frequent.
One wishes to hear the sound of two high voices singing together: I Capuletti e i Montecchi, still always sung by two women; Semiramide. The plot makes one of them a man, the music makes both of them women. DiDonato and Kasarova have kept Capuletti alive, but Semiramide is now very rare now that Marilyn Horne has retired. Women sing these bel canto roles and have since the beginning. Countertenors were not known in Italian opera in any period.
The only part of the cross-dressing tradition that survived into operas composed in the twentieth century is the tradition that teenage boys should be sung by women: Octavian and The Composer.
My sense of the cross-dressing tradition of opera is that it comes from two causes--the original reluctance to allow respectable women to appear in theater, which morphed into the later realization that seeing people portray the other gender was itself a distinct pleasure, a pleasure that works in both directions.
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In modern times certain traditions are followed when reviving older operas.
In my youth Handel and Vivaldi revivals involved Marilyn Horne donning masculine attire, including very tall helmets to compensate for her short stature. Alfred Deller was the only known practicing countertenor, and I don't think he sang very much staged opera. This would require research.
I am reminded that Sarah Bernhardt, a French stage actress, portrayed Hamlet. And there is a movie of The Tempest where Helen Mirren plays Prospero.
Then came the countertenor explosion. If there were an opera composed for 6 countertenors (don't worry, there isn't), casting this would no longer be a problem. Some of them are actually good. No woman could achieve the heroic intensity of David Daniels' Giulio Cesare. The new tradition says that if a male role was written for a castrato, it should be sung by a countertenor, but so far the countertenors have not completely displaced the female mezzo-sopranos. It has so far not become a tradition for teenage boys with high voices to be sung by countertenors. The main objective of this revolution seems to be to reduce the amount of cross-dressing in opera.
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Which brings us to the problem: society wishes to look down on cross-dressers of either gender in or out of opera, accusing them of doing it on purpose I suppose.
Susan Graham has a song written for her where she complains similarly. She also sings La Grande Duchesse, Iphigenie and Dido to great acclaim. (I almost looked this up. Caught myself in time.) Susan has the additional disadvantage of being tall.
The most spectacular of all operatic cross-dressers is Vesselina Kasarova who I am pleased to say has not complained, at least not in my hearing. She sings Carmen.
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And now Elīna Garanča (cannot display her correct name without looking it up) has announced that she is retiring from trouser roles, as they are usually called. She wants to become a Verdi mezzo. My official opinion on this subject is that while Netrebko can truly say that her voice has transitioned to Verdi, Garanča is premature. She has a dark but not a particularly heavy voice. People don't seem to be able to differentiate between the two--a distinction that is vital to the vocal health of the singer. What matters is the actual physical heaviness of the voice, not how heavy you can fake it. This is the same reason Jonas is not ready for Tristan. Elīna Garanča so far has always cancelled on the west coast, so I have not been in the room with her until Paris.
After her Cenerentola, Garanča announced a similar retirement from bel canto. She wants to sing only Carmen forever. Perhaps she simply doesn't want to dress up like a boy any more. Sesto in Clemenza could be any age. She mentioned specifically only Cherubino and Octavian. One would prefer to think that major career decisions were not made for reasons of social bigotry.
The Strauss trouser roles, and perhaps others from Romantic repertoire, are not vocally similar to Mozart. Kasarova warns that it is dangerous to sing Octavian too soon. If you're 18 and can sing him, it isn't too soon for Cherubino.
I have friends who don't like to see cross-dressing in opera. I explain that only in England do countertenors have a long tradition. Italian operas were not composed for the male falsetto and don't sound right in their voices. They are establishing turf in the Baroque era, and even I am beginning to like it. I respond well to people reinventing a musical genre.
So for some people everyone should appear in public, and that includes on the stage, in their gender assigned costume. There is even a Google (I googled this, I confess) question that explains that being a countertenor doesn't necessarily have to do with being gay. The thing it most likely relates to is that the particular singer sounds better in his falsetto voice than he does in his natural voice. You can see films on YouTube of Philippe Jaroussky singing in his normal crooner baritone voice. You would never have heard of him singing like this.
Apparently Jaroussky has announced that he does not wish to appear in a female role. I think it is correct to lump this together with Garanča's announcement. The type of vocal issues that arise for Garanča are not relevant to Jaroussky, since there is no established tradition for countertenors and no roles composed for them until Britten. (Footnote: all of Bach's high voice music would have been written for falsettists or boys, but this is not opera. Still not from research.)
Opera is by now an ancient tradition. I attended the 400 years of Orfeo performance. I don't want to get into the sociological ramifications of this issue, but I feel firmly that looking down on the honored cross-dressing tradition of opera is disrespectful of the genre. It's fun. Relax and enjoy it.
The picture at the top is Erwin Schrott in Les Vepres Siciliennes at ROH. For a list of roles that involve cross-dressing see here.
Tuesday, April 14, 2015
Cross-dressing Research
A brief chronological list of male opera roles sung from the beginning by women. The purpose of this seems to be to make the character seem youthful. Since I first posted this, it has acquired a few roles where the character is female but the singer is a man.
The list isn't intended to be complete but instead tries to show how this spans all eras and nationalities of opera. Nicklausse in Conte d'Hoffmann is a special case, since the character represents both Hoffmann's female muse and male friend. There is another list at least this long of roles originally sung by castrati, but the date range is earlier.
| role | opera | composer | Fach |
| Lenia | Eliogabalo | Cavalli | tenor |
| Ottone | Agrippina | Handel | contralto |
| Sesto | Giulio Cesare | Handel | soprano |
| L'Amour | Les Indes Galantes | Rameau | soprano |
| Bellone | Les Indes Galantes | Rameau | baritone |
| Platée | Platée | Rameau | haute-contre |
| Sesto | La clemenza di Tito | Gluck | mezzo-soprano |
| Amore | Orfeo ed Euridice | Gluck | soprano |
| Cherubino | Nozze di Figaro | Mozart | mezzo-soprano |
| Annio | La clemenza di Tito | Mozart | mezzo-soprano |
| Tancredi | Tancredi | Rossini | mezzo-soprano |
| Roggiero | Tancredi | Rossini | mezzo-soprano |
| Ottone | Adelaide di Borgogna | Rossini | contralto |
| Malcolm | La Donna del Lago | Rossini | mezzo-soprano |
| Arsace | Semiramide | Rossini | contralto |
| Puck | Oberon | Weber | contralto |
| Isolier | Le comte Ory | Rossini | mezzo-soprano |
| Jemmy | William Tell | Rossini | soprano |
| Romeo | I Capuletti e I Montecchi | Bellini | mezzo-soprano |
| Smeton | Anna Bolena | Donizetti | mezzo-soprano |
| Maffio Orsini | Lucrezia Borgia | Donizetti | contralto |
| Vanya | A Life for the Tsar | Glinka | contralto |
| Urbain | Les Huguenots | Meyerbeer | mezzo-soprano |
| Ascanio | Benvenuto Cellini | Berlioz | mezzo-soprano |
| Pierroto (?) | Linda di Chamounix | Donizetti | contralto |
| Ratmir | Russlan and Ludmilla | Glinka | contralto |
| Adriano | Rienzi | Wagner | mezzo-soprano |
| The Shepherd | Tannhäuser | Wagner | soprano |
| Siebel | Faust | Gounod | mezzo-soprano |
| Oscar | Ballo in Maschera | Verdi | soprano |
| Stephano | Romeo and Juliet | Gounod | soprano |
| Tibaldo | Don Carlo | Verdi | soprano |
| Fyodor | Boris Godunov | Mussorgsky | mezzo-soprano |
| Orlofsky | Fledermaus | Strauss, J | mezzo-soprano |
| Nicklausse | Tales of Hoffmann | Offenbach | mezzo-soprano |
| Walter | La Wally | Catalani | soprano |
| Hansel | Hänsel und Gretel | Humperdinck | mezzo-soprano |
| The Sand-Man | Hänsel und Gretel | Humperdinck | soprano |
| The Dew-Man | Hänsel und Gretel | Humperdinck | soprano |
| Cricket | Cricket on the Hearth | Goldmark | soprano |
| Le Prince Charmant | Cendrillon | Massenet | soprano/tenor |
| The Kitchen Boy | Rusalka | Dvořák | soprano |
| Yniold | Pelleas et Melisande | Debussy | soprano |
| Page | Salome | Strauss | contralto |
| Chérubin | Chérubin | Massenet | mezzo-soprano |
| Octavian | Rosenkavalier | Strauss | mezzo-soprano |
| The Composer | Ariadne auf Naxos | Strauss | mezzo-soprano |
| Aljeja, a young Tartar | From the House of the Dead | Janáček | mezzo-soprano |
| Cherubino | Ghosts of Versailles | Corigliano | mezzo-soprano |
| Ariel | The Tempest | Ades | soprano |
| Pilgrim | L'Amour de Loin | Saariaho | mezzo-soprano |
| Pip | Moby Dick | Heggie | soprano |
The list isn't intended to be complete but instead tries to show how this spans all eras and nationalities of opera. Nicklausse in Conte d'Hoffmann is a special case, since the character represents both Hoffmann's female muse and male friend. There is another list at least this long of roles originally sung by castrati, but the date range is earlier.
Monday, March 30, 2015
Sprechstimme
I have heard a bit of Sprechstimme by now--that's Schoenberg's invention of speaking set to music. I think if memory serves that it first appears in Gurrelieder (1901/11 [I think written around 1901 and orchestrated closer to 1911--He's supposed to have forgotten how to orchestrate in Mahler's style by then and had to revive a long abandoned technique.]), the orchestrated song cycle that Schoenberg wrote while he was still in his Mahler phase. In the performance of Gurrelieder I heard at the San Francisco Symphony Hans Hotter performed the Sprechstimme. His was very speech-like.
Sprechstimme is notated like normal vocal music, except where the note heads would normally appear are X's. This leaves the performer with a wide range of options, extending from normal speech set to music, sometimes called melodrama, to something that sounds a lot like singing. Hotter was like a magnificent old actor. His motivation in performing the part seemed rather like mine--voice is shot, but I can still do Sprechstimme. He was the best I've heard.
The main later examples are Pierrot Lunaire (1912) and Moses und Aron (1930/32). My theory is that Schoenberg was as bored by Moses as we are listening to it, and this is why it was never finished. He turned out to be not as high minded as he thought he was. According to this article in Wikipedia there is Sprechstimme in Wozzeck and Lulu. So I missed that as a texture.
I think Pierrot Lunaire is the only one that is regularly performed by sopranos who seem to want to sing. The Christine Schaefer Pierrot Lunaire quite often sounds like out of tune singing. Deliberately out of tune--it's clear this isn't an accident. I would be curious to hear a female perform this in a more talky style. Maybe they are trying too hard to come close to the notated pitches. I think only the general contour is required.
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I have heard a bit of Sprechstimme by now--that's Schoenberg's invention of speaking set to music. I think if memory serves that it first appears in Gurrelieder (1901/11 [I think written around 1901 and orchestrated closer to 1911--He's supposed to have forgotten how to orchestrate in Mahler's style by then and had to revive a long abandoned technique.]), the orchestrated song cycle that Schoenberg wrote while he was still in his Mahler phase. In the performance of Gurrelieder I heard at the San Francisco Symphony Hans Hotter performed the Sprechstimme. His was very speech-like.
Sprechstimme is notated like normal vocal music, except where the note heads would normally appear are X's. This leaves the performer with a wide range of options, extending from normal speech set to music, sometimes called melodrama, to something that sounds a lot like singing. Hotter was like a magnificent old actor. His motivation in performing the part seemed rather like mine--voice is shot, but I can still do Sprechstimme. He was the best I've heard.
The main later examples are Pierrot Lunaire (1912) and Moses und Aron (1930/32). My theory is that Schoenberg was as bored by Moses as we are listening to it, and this is why it was never finished. He turned out to be not as high minded as he thought he was. According to this article in Wikipedia there is Sprechstimme in Wozzeck and Lulu. So I missed that as a texture.
I think Pierrot Lunaire is the only one that is regularly performed by sopranos who seem to want to sing. The Christine Schaefer Pierrot Lunaire quite often sounds like out of tune singing. Deliberately out of tune--it's clear this isn't an accident. I would be curious to hear a female perform this in a more talky style. Maybe they are trying too hard to come close to the notated pitches. I think only the general contour is required.
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I have decided this article would be far better with a few examples. First we have Hans Hotter's wonderful example from Gurrelieder.
Here is a very nice clip from Moses und Aron. One sings (Aron), the other doesn't (Moses). The two brothers alternate, thus giving a very clear idea of the difference between Sprechstimme and singing.
I openly admit to a mania for this film of Pierrot Lunaire with Christine Schaefer.
Anyway, that should give you the idea.
Sprechstimme is notated like normal vocal music, except where the note heads would normally appear are X's. This leaves the performer with a wide range of options, extending from normal speech set to music, sometimes called melodrama, to something that sounds a lot like singing. Hotter was like a magnificent old actor. His motivation in performing the part seemed rather like mine--voice is shot, but I can still do Sprechstimme. He was the best I've heard.
The main later examples are Pierrot Lunaire (1912) and Moses und Aron (1930/32). My theory is that Schoenberg was as bored by Moses as we are listening to it, and this is why it was never finished. He turned out to be not as high minded as he thought he was. According to this article in Wikipedia there is Sprechstimme in Wozzeck and Lulu. So I missed that as a texture.
I think Pierrot Lunaire is the only one that is regularly performed by sopranos who seem to want to sing. The Christine Schaefer Pierrot Lunaire quite often sounds like out of tune singing. Deliberately out of tune--it's clear this isn't an accident. I would be curious to hear a female perform this in a more talky style. Maybe they are trying too hard to come close to the notated pitches. I think only the general contour is required.
-----------
I have heard a bit of Sprechstimme by now--that's Schoenberg's invention of speaking set to music. I think if memory serves that it first appears in Gurrelieder (1901/11 [I think written around 1901 and orchestrated closer to 1911--He's supposed to have forgotten how to orchestrate in Mahler's style by then and had to revive a long abandoned technique.]), the orchestrated song cycle that Schoenberg wrote while he was still in his Mahler phase. In the performance of Gurrelieder I heard at the San Francisco Symphony Hans Hotter performed the Sprechstimme. His was very speech-like.
Sprechstimme is notated like normal vocal music, except where the note heads would normally appear are X's. This leaves the performer with a wide range of options, extending from normal speech set to music, sometimes called melodrama, to something that sounds a lot like singing. Hotter was like a magnificent old actor. His motivation in performing the part seemed rather like mine--voice is shot, but I can still do Sprechstimme. He was the best I've heard.
The main later examples are Pierrot Lunaire (1912) and Moses und Aron (1930/32). My theory is that Schoenberg was as bored by Moses as we are listening to it, and this is why it was never finished. He turned out to be not as high minded as he thought he was. According to this article in Wikipedia there is Sprechstimme in Wozzeck and Lulu. So I missed that as a texture.
I think Pierrot Lunaire is the only one that is regularly performed by sopranos who seem to want to sing. The Christine Schaefer Pierrot Lunaire quite often sounds like out of tune singing. Deliberately out of tune--it's clear this isn't an accident. I would be curious to hear a female perform this in a more talky style. Maybe they are trying too hard to come close to the notated pitches. I think only the general contour is required.
-----------
I have decided this article would be far better with a few examples. First we have Hans Hotter's wonderful example from Gurrelieder.
Here is a very nice clip from Moses und Aron. One sings (Aron), the other doesn't (Moses). The two brothers alternate, thus giving a very clear idea of the difference between Sprechstimme and singing.
I openly admit to a mania for this film of Pierrot Lunaire with Christine Schaefer.
Anyway, that should give you the idea.
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