I'm going to presume this will be a first role to learn for you, and that
you're also a "budding full lyric" - vs. a fully mature, technically ready
voice that just hasn't learned a role yet (in essence, the full
lyric corollary of our young soubrette from yesterday). If so, I'd say the
single most valuable, usable role you could learn would be The Countess in
LE NOZZE DI FIGARO - for much the same reason I suggested Susanna to our
soubrette: FIGARO is an opera that gets done A LOT at all professional
levels, so it's a role you will probably find yourself singing at all
stages of your career.
Other useful roles for a full lyric:
Rosalinde in DIE FLEDERMAUS (J. Strauss)
Micaela in CARMEN (Bizet)
Juliette in ROMEO ET JULIETTE (Gounod)
Sandmannchen and Taumannchen in Humperdinck's HANSEL UND GRETEL
Peformed a bit less often than the above, but done often enough to
consider learning:
Nedda in I PAGLIACCI (Leoncavallo)
Angelica in SUOR ANGELICA (Puccini)
Anna Maurant in STREET SCENE (Kurt Weill)
Susanna in SUSANNAH (Carlisle Floyd)
Pamina in DIE ZAUBERFLOTE (Mozart)
Donna Elvira and Donna Anna in DON GIOVANNI (Mozart)
Antonia and Giulietta in LES CONTES D'HOFFMANN (Offenbach)
Somewhat more challenging vocally, but if you and your advisors (teachers,
coaches, etc.) think you're ready:
Mimi in LA BOHEME (Puccini)
Cio-Cio-San in MADAMA BUTTERFLY (Puccini)
If you're black (by dictate of the Gershwin estate):
Bess in PORGY AND BESS (Gershwin)
If you've got the coloratura:
Violetta in LA TRAVIATA (Verdi)
Lucia in LUCIA DI LAMMERMOOR (Donizetti)
If you're in a place (or planning to commute/migrate to one) where they
actually do Verdi operas other than TRAVIATA:
Amelia in UN BALLO IN MASCHERA
Leonora in IL TROVATORE
Desdemona in OTELLO
Elisabetta in DON CARLO
Alice Ford in FALSTAFF
(and for our soubrette - if she lives in a similarly-blessed location:
Oscar in BALLO, Tebaldo in DON CARLO, and Nanetta in FALSTAFF)
(Of course, in such a locale, you might also stumble across Strauss
opportunities as well - in which case, Chrystothemis in ELEKTRA and
Oktavian in DER ROSENKAVALIER wouldn't be a bad place to start - save the
Marschallin and Strauss's other ageing full lyric heroines for a decade or
two from now).
Also worth knowing:
Lucy Lockit (and Jenny Diver) in Weill's DER DREIGROSCHENOPER (Threepenny
Opera)
Laetitia (and Miss Pinkerton) in THE OLD MAID AND THE THIEF (Menotti)
Salud in LA VIDA BREVE (de Falla)
Operetta possibilities:
Hanna Glawari in DIE LUSTIGE WITWE (Lehar)
Helene in LA BELLE HELENE (Offenbach)
Karen Mercedes
http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html
***************************************
What lies behind us, and what lies before us
are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
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