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From:  Karen Mercedes <dalila@R...>
Karen Mercedes <dalila@R...>
Date:  Mon Mar 26, 2001  1:57 am
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] a tenor who is grumpy with mozart


On Fri, 23 Mar 2001 Greypins@a... wrote:

> In a message dated 3/23/2001 8:57:18 PM Eastern Standard Time,
> dalila@R... writes:
>
> <<
> I've been told a number of times that Mozart wrote something appropriate
> for every fach. Yeah, right. I'm still waiting to find that special
> Mozart aria just for me - dramatic contralto with limited coloratura
> ability. >>
>
> karen,
>
> 'dramatic contralto' is a fach, 'limited coloratura' is a lack of a
> skill not a fach. taken to its logical extreme, the tone-deaf janitor might
> inquire "yeah mozart, where's my aria?". it is not my intention to pick on
> you or mirko but, just because one cannot sing something doesn't mean it is
> poor vocal writing nor inappropriate for your fach. of course, there are
> lots of skills to be acquired so, maybe in acquiring other skills you have
> shorted yourself in coloratura. so, maybe mozart, for now, is not for you.
> there is other music to sing.


Or maybe there is really NO Mozart that is appropriate for certain voices.
I'd like to know why it is that sopranos, for instance, can get away with
specialising, and NO-one, including YOU I'm sure, would say to a singer
like Jane Eaglen or Kirsten FLagstad that the only reason they aren't
singing roles like Lakme or Adina is because they lack the skill! You
can't seriously tell me that there aren't PHYSIOLOGICAL differences
between a dramatic voice and a leggero voice that, in most cases, will
prevent the dramatic voice from moving as quickly as the leggero voice,
and that the physiological difference makes the dramatic voice - by its
very nature - less well suited, and in many cases not at all well-suited -
to singing coloratura repertoire. It has nothing to do with technique. I
have very good coloratura FOR MY INSTRUMENT. It is not a question of
technique. It is a question of my having a voice that is incapable of
producing the type of coloratura that people EXPECT to hear when they
listen to most Mozart mezzo roles. Why do you think those roles are
virtually ALWAYS sung by *lyric* mezzos, and not dramatic mezzos?

By the same token, why is it that contraltos are the only female singers
that are expected to be able to sing everything from the lightest leggero
to the heaviest dramatic literature, while in every other category, the
singers are able to "specialise". Of course no one would reasonably expect
a Deborah Voigt or Jane Eaglen to sing Adina - just as no one would
reasonably expect a Sumi Jo or Natalie Dessay to sing Brunnhilde. So why
should the contralto equivalent of a Brunnhilde be expected to sing the
contralto equivalent of "Una voce poco fa"?


KM
=====
My NEIL SHICOFF Website:
http://www.radix.net/~dalila/shicoff/shicoff.html

My Website:
http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html

-----
We're sitting in the opera house;
We're waiting for the curtain to arise
With wonders for our eyes,
A feeling of expectancy,
A certain kind of ecstasy,
Expectancy and ecstasy....Sh's's's.

- Charles Ives




  Replies Name/Email Yahoo! ID Date Size
10599 Re: a tenor who is grumpy with mozart Isabelle Bracamonte   Mon  3/26/2001   4 KB

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