In a message dated 3/25/01 8:58:45 PM Eastern Standard Time, dalila@R... writes:
<< So why should the contralto equivalent of a Brunnhilde be expected to sing the contralto equivalent of "Una voce poco fa"? >>
Of course, it's thoroughly illogical. This is a corollary of the contralto-as-a-fach discussion we had a month or so ago. (Has it been two months?? Tempus fugit!!!) The reason lies in the fact that most people simply do not know where to draw the line between mezzo and contralto. (I mean composers, singers, opera producers, audiences.) And, yes, maybe there should be an official fach of contralto. Didn't it come out in the former mentioned discussion that "mezzo" was not a separate designation when a lot of the "mezzo" literature was penned? Maybe that is also true of contralto, and our system has yet to recognize it as a distinct designation.
|