From: Sally Bradshaw
Subject: transposition in opera
To: VOCALIST <vocalist>
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>

There is no doubt that different habits pertain at different periods. I
gather that great singers of the 19th century sang the roles that appealed
to them regardless of what voice they were originally intended for and just
made transpositions wherever necessary. For example the original Manuel
Garcia, father of Malibran, Viardot and Garcia II, was a tenor who used to
sing Don Giovanni. There is no doubt that great composers of the past have
willingly transposed music for singers to sing at whatever pitch they
wanted. Their attitude seems to have been informed by a workmanlike
practical approach rather than an attachment to a single idea of the impact
their music should have. Handel rewrote the same music to different words,
different pitches, for different singers and different operas if he felt it
would work like that.

I find this approach very appealing and applaud the liberation it could
bring. Garcia sang Giovanni because he knew that temperamentally he would
make a great Don and that he had all sorts of things to bring to the role
apart from a dark bass-baritone voice! I am reminded of Fiona Shaw
performing Shakespeare's Richard II to acclaim recently. Although a woman,
she has stature and declamatory power and so she convinced everyone in the
role.

In those old days the singers were by far the most important people in an
opera performance. Conductors merely accompanied and there was no such
thing as stage direction so they called the shots and did what they liked,
singing the pitches they wanted, the high notes (or not-high notes) they
wanted and the roles they wanted. One can but dream..........

Songful