All Topics  
Mezzo-soprano

 

 
   Email Print
   Bookmark   Link
 

 

Mezzo-soprano
 
 
  Topics Mezzo-soprano Topic Home

A mezzo-soprano (meaning "medium" or "middle" "soprano" in Italian
Italian language

Italian is a Romance languages spoken by about 63 million people as a first language, primarily in Italy. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four Linguistic geography of Switzerlands....
) is a type of classical female singing voice
Voice type

A voice type is a particular kind of human singing voice perceived as having certain identifying qualities or characteristics. Voice classification is the process by which human voices are evaluated and are thereby designated into voice types....
 whose range lies between the soprano
Soprano

A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four part chorale style harmony the soprano takes the highest part which usually encompasses the melody....
 and the contralto
Contralto

In music, a contralto is a type of European classical music female voice type with a vocal range somewhere between a tenor and a mezzo-soprano. The term is used to refer to the deepest female singing voice....
 singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C
Middle C

C or Do is the first note of the fixed-Do solf?ge.In Western music, the expression "Middle C" refers to the musical note "C" located exactly between the two staff of the grand staff and near the top and bottom, respectively, of the bass voice and soprano voices....
 to the A two octaves above (i.e. A3-A5 in scientific pitch notation
Scientific pitch notation

Scientific pitch notation is one of several methods that name the notes of the standard Western music chromatic scale by combining a letter-name, accidental , and a number identifying the Pitch 's octave....
, where middle C = C4). In the lower and upper extremes, some mezzo-sopranos may extend down to the G below middle C (G3) and as high as "high C" (C6).

While mezzo-sopranos generally have a heavier, darker tone than sopranos, the mezzo-soprano voice resonates in a higher range than that of a contralto.






Discussion
Ask a question about 'Mezzo-soprano'
Start a new discussion about 'Mezzo-soprano'
Answer questions from other users
Full Discussion Forum



Encyclopedia


A mezzo-soprano (meaning "medium" or "middle" "soprano" in Italian
Italian language

Italian is a Romance languages spoken by about 63 million people as a first language, primarily in Italy. In Switzerland, Italian is one of four Linguistic geography of Switzerlands....
) is a type of classical female singing voice
Voice type

A voice type is a particular kind of human singing voice perceived as having certain identifying qualities or characteristics. Voice classification is the process by which human voices are evaluated and are thereby designated into voice types....
 whose range lies between the soprano
Soprano

A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four part chorale style harmony the soprano takes the highest part which usually encompasses the melody....
 and the contralto
Contralto

In music, a contralto is a type of European classical music female voice type with a vocal range somewhere between a tenor and a mezzo-soprano. The term is used to refer to the deepest female singing voice....
 singing voices, usually extending from the A below middle C
Middle C

C or Do is the first note of the fixed-Do solf?ge.In Western music, the expression "Middle C" refers to the musical note "C" located exactly between the two staff of the grand staff and near the top and bottom, respectively, of the bass voice and soprano voices....
 to the A two octaves above (i.e. A3-A5 in scientific pitch notation
Scientific pitch notation

Scientific pitch notation is one of several methods that name the notes of the standard Western music chromatic scale by combining a letter-name, accidental , and a number identifying the Pitch 's octave....
, where middle C = C4). In the lower and upper extremes, some mezzo-sopranos may extend down to the G below middle C (G3) and as high as "high C" (C6).

While mezzo-sopranos generally have a heavier, darker tone than sopranos, the mezzo-soprano voice resonates in a higher range than that of a contralto. The terms Dugazon
Louise-Rosalie Lefebvre

Louise-Rosalie Lefebvre, also known as Madame Dugazon , was a French people operatic mezzo-soprano, actor and dancer.Born in Berlin as the daughter of a dancing master at the court of Frederick II of Prussia, she returned to Paris with her parents in 1765....
  and Galli-Marié
Célestine Marié

C?lestine Mari? , known as Galli-Mari?, was a French mezzo-soprano most famous for creating the title r?le in the opera Carmen.She was born C?lestine Mari? de L'Isle in Paris....
 are sometimes used to refer to light mezzo-sopranos, after the names of famous singers. A castrato
Castrato

A castrato is a man with a singing voice equivalent to that of a soprano, mezzo-soprano, or contralto human voice produced either by castration of the singer before puberty or one who, because of an endocrinology condition, never reaches sexual maturity....
 with a vocal range
Vocal range

Vocal range is the measure of the breadth of pitch that a human voice can phonate. Although the study of vocal range has little practical application in terms of speech, it is a topic of study within linguistics, phonetics, and speech pathology; particularly in relation to the study of tonal languages and certain types of vocal disorders....
 equivalent to a mezzo-soprano's range is referred to as a mezzo-soprano castrato or mezzista. Today, however, only women should be referred to as mezzo-sopranos, and men singing within the female range should be called countertenors. In current operatic practice, female singers with very low tessituras are often included among mezzo-sopranos, because singers in both ranges are able to cover the other, and true operatic contraltos are very rare.For information regarding non-classical mezzo-sopranos see Voice classification in non-classical music
Voice classification in non-classical music

There is currently no authoritative voice classification system within non-classical music. The problem lies in the fact that classical terms are used to describe not merely various vocal ranges, but specific vocal timbres each unique to those respective ranges, and produced by the classical training techniques with which most popular singers are n...
.

Mezzo-sopranos typically sing secondary roles in operas, with the protagonist in Bizet
Georges Bizet

Georges Bizet was a France composer and pianist of the Romantic music era. He is best known for the opera Carmen....
's Carmen
Carmen

Carmen is a French op?ra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Hal?vy, based on the Carmen by Prosper M?rim?e, first published in 1845, itself influenced by the narrative poem "The Gypsies" by Pushkin....
 and Rosina in Rossini
Gioacchino Rossini

Gioachino Antonio Rossini was a popular Italian composer who created 39 operas as well as sacred music and chamber music. His best known works include Il barbiere di Siviglia , La Cenerentola and Guillaume Tell ....
's Barber of Seville
The Barber of Seville

The Barber of Seville, or The Useless Precaution is an opera buffa in two acts by Gioachino Rossini with a libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The overture, first written for Aureliano in Palmira, is a famous example of Rossini's characteristic Italian style....
 as the most notable exceptions. Typical roles for mezzo-sopranos include witches, nurses, and wise women such as Azucena in Verdi's Il trovatore
Il trovatore

Il trovatore is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Leone Emanuele Bardare and Salvatore Cammarano, based on the Play El Trovador by Antonio Garc?a Guti?rrez....
; trouser role (male characters played by female singers) such as Cherubino in Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro; and villains and seductresses such as Amneris in Verdi's Aida
Aida

Aida an Arabic female name meaning "visitor" or "returning") is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette ....
. Mezzo-sopranos are also well represented in baroque music
Baroque music

Baroque music describes a period or style of European classical music approximately extending from Dates of classical music eras. This era is said to begin in music after the Renaissance music and was followed by the Classical music era....
, early music
Early music

Early music is commonly defined as European classical music from the Medieval music and the Renaissance music.The Early Music Movement as a trend in history is the study and performance of music from composers before our own era and began in 1829 when Felix Mendelssohn conducted Johann Sebastian Bach's St Matthew Passion ....
 and baroque opera.

Some roles designated for lighter soubrette
Soubrette

Soubrette is a term referring to a type of female role—specifically, a stock character—in opera and theatre. The term arrived in English from Proven?al via French language, and means "conceited" or "coy"....
 sopranos are sung by mezzo sopranos, who often provide a fuller, more dramatic quality. Such roles include Despina in Mozart's Cosģ fan tutte
Cosģ fan tutte

Cos? fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The libretto was written by Lorenzo da Ponte....
 and Zerlina in Mozart's Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni

Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with Italian language libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered in the Estates Theatre in Prague on October 29, 1787 in music....
. Mezzos also sometimes play dramatic soprano roles such as Santuzza in Mascagni's Cavalleria rusticana
Cavalleria rusticana

Cavalleria rusticana is an opera in one act by Pietro Mascagni to an Italian libretto by Giovanni Targioni-Tozzetti and Guido Menasci, adapted from a play written by Giovanni Verga based on his short story....
, Lady Macbeth in Verdi's Macbeth
Macbeth (opera)

Macbeth is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi, with an Italian libretto by Francesco Maria Piave and additions by Andrea Maffei, based on Shakespeare's Macbeth....
, and Kundry in Wagner's Parsifal
Parsifal

Parsifal is an opera, or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner. It is loosely based on Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, the medieval Epic poetry of the Arthurian knight Parzival and his quest for the Holy Grail....
.

In general mezzos are broken down into three categories: Coloratura mezzo-sopranos, Lyric mezzo-soprano, and Dramatic mezzo-sopranos.

Coloratura mezzo-soprano

A coloratura mezzo-soprano has a warm lower register and an agile high register. The roles they sing often demand not only the use of the lower register but also leaps into the upper tessitura with highly ornamented, rapid passages. They have a range from approximately the G (G3) below middle C to the B two octaves above middle C (B5). Some coloratura mezzo-sopranos can sing up to high C (C6) or high D (D6), but this is very rare. What distinguishes these voices from being called sopranos is their extension into the lower register and warmer vocal quality. Although coloratura mezzo-sopranos have impressive and at times thrilling high notes, they are most comfortable singing in the middle of their range, rather than the top.

Many of the hero roles in the operas of Handel
HANDEL

HANDEL was the code-name for the United Kingdom's National Attack Warning System in the Cold War. It consisted of a small console consisting of two microphones, lights and gauges....
 and Monteverdi, originally sung by male castrati, can be successfully sung today by coloratura mezzo-sopranos. Rossini demanded similar qualities for his comic heroines, and Vivaldi wrote roles frequently for this voice as well. Coloratura mezzo-sopranos also often sing lyric-mezzo soprano roles or soubrette
Soubrette

Soubrette is a term referring to a type of female role—specifically, a stock character—in opera and theatre. The term arrived in English from Proven?al via French language, and means "conceited" or "coy"....
 roles.

  • To hear an example of a Coloratura mezzo-soprano (Cecilia Bartoli
    Cecilia Bartoli

    Cecilia Bartoli is an Italy mezzo-soprano opera singer and recitalist. She is best-known for her interpretation of the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Gioacchino Rossini, as well as for her performances of lesser-known Baroque and classical music....
     as Costanza, in Vivaldi's Griselda
    Griselda (Vivaldi)

    Griselda is a dramma per musica in three acts that was composed by Antonio Vivaldi. The opera uses a revised version of the 1701 Italian libretto by Apostolo Zeno that was based on Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron ....
    ) click on this link:

Coloratura mezzo-soprano roles in opera and operettas

  • Angelina- Cenerentola, La Cenerentola
    La Cenerentola

    La Cenerentola, ossia La bont? in trionfo is an operatic dramma giocoso in two acts by Gioachino Rossini. The libretto was written by Jacopo Ferretti, based on the fairy tale Cinderella....
     (Rossini)@
  • Ariodante, Ariodante
    Ariodante

    Ariodante is an opera seria in three acts by George Frideric Handel. The anonymous Italian language libretto was based on a work by Antonio Salvi, which in turn was adapted from Canti 5 and 6 of Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso....
     (Händel) -- trouser role)@
  • Griselda, Griselda
    Griselda (Vivaldi)

    Griselda is a dramma per musica in three acts that was composed by Antonio Vivaldi. The opera uses a revised version of the 1701 Italian libretto by Apostolo Zeno that was based on Giovanni Boccaccio's The Decameron ....
     (Vivaldi)@
  • Isabella, The Italian Girl in Algiers (Rossini)@
  • Orsini, Lucrezia Borgia
    Lucrezia Borgia (opera)

    Lucrezia Borgia is a melodramma, or opera, in a prologue and two acts by Gaetano Donizetti. Felice Romani wrote the Italian language libretto after the play by Victor Hugo, in its turn after the legend of Lucrezia Borgia....
     (Gaetano Donizetti
    Gaetano Donizetti

    Domenico Gaetano Maria Donizetti was an Italy composer from Bergamo, Lombardy. Donizetti's most famous work is Lucia di Lammermoor , and arguably his most immediately recognizable piece of music is the aria "Una furtiva lagrima" from L'elisir d'amore ....
    )
  • Ruggiero, Alcina
    Alcina

    Alcina is an opera seria by George Frideric Handel. The libretto's author is unknown, but the plot is taken from Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando furioso, an epic poem set in the time of Charlemagne's wars against Islam....
     (Händel) -- trouser role)@
  • Romeo, I Capuleti e i Montecchi
    I Capuleti e i Montecchi

    I Capuleti e i Montecchi is an Italian language opera by Vincenzo Bellini.The libretto by Felice Romani was a reworking of a the story of Romeo and Juliet for an opera by Nicola Vaccai called Giulietta e Romeo ....
     (Vincenzo Bellini
    Vincenzo Bellini

    Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini was an Italy opera composer. Known for his flowing melodic lines for which he was named "the Swan of Catania", Bellini was the quintessential composer of Bel canto opera....
    ) -- trouser role@
  • Rosina, The Barber of Seville
    The Barber of Seville

    The Barber of Seville, or The Useless Precaution is an opera buffa in two acts by Gioachino Rossini with a libretto by Cesare Sterbini. The overture, first written for Aureliano in Palmira, is a famous example of Rossini's characteristic Italian style....
     (Rossini)@
  • Julius Caesar, Giulio Cesare
    Giulio Cesare

    Giulio Cesare in Egitto is an Italian language opera in three acts written by George Frideric Handel in 1724. The libretto was written by Nicola Francesco Haym....
     (Händel) -- trouser role@


@-denotes a lead role

Coloratura mezzo-soprano singers

  • Cecilia Bartoli
    Cecilia Bartoli

    Cecilia Bartoli is an Italy mezzo-soprano opera singer and recitalist. She is best-known for her interpretation of the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Gioacchino Rossini, as well as for her performances of lesser-known Baroque and classical music....
  • Teresa Berganza
    Teresa Berganza

    The Spanish opera singer Teresa Berganza is one of the foremost mezzo-sopranos of the third quarter of the 20th century. She is most closely associated with the roles of Gioachino Rossini, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Georges Bizet....
  • Joyce DiDonato
    Joyce DiDonato

    Joyce DiDonato is an award winning American operatic mezzo-soprano particularly admired for her interpretations of the works of Handel, Mozart, and Rossini....
  • Gail Dubinbaum
    Gail Dubinbaum

    Gail Dubinbaum is an American operatic coloratura mezzo-soprano who has sung at many of the world's great opera houses and with many of the world's finest orchestras....
  • Elina Garanca
    Elina Garanca

    Elina Garanca is a Latvian mezzo-soprano....
  • Vivica Genaux
    Vivica Genaux

    Vivica Genaux is an United States of America mezzo-soprano. Her father, an American of Belgium-Welsh descent, was a biochemistry professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks and her mother, Mexico-born of Swiss extraction, was a language teacher....
  • Marilyn Horne
    Marilyn Horne

    Marilyn Horne is an United States mezzo-soprano opera singer who is particularly associated with the music of Gioacchino Rossini and George Frideric Handel....
  • Vesselina Kasarova
    Vesselina Kasarova

    Vesselina Kasarova is a Bulgarian mezzo-soprano opera singer....
  • Jennifer Larmore
    Jennifer Larmore

    Jennifer Larmore is an American mezzo-soprano opera singer, noted for coloratura and bel canto....
  • Giulietta Simionato
    Giulietta Simionato

    Giulietta Simionato is an Italy mezzo-soprano and one of the great singers of the post-war operatic stage. Her career spanned from the 1930s until her retirement in 1966....
  • Conchita Supervķa
    Conchita Supervia

    Conchita Superv?a was a successful Spanish mezzo-soprano singer.Superv?a was born in Barcelona to an old Andalusian family and given the baptismal name of Mar?a de la Concepci?n Superv?a Pascual....
  • Lucia Valentini Terrani
    Lucia Valentini Terrani

    Lucia Valentini Terrani was an Italian coloratura mezzo-soprano, particularly associated with Rossini roles....


Lyric mezzo-soprano

The Lyric mezzo-soprano has a range from approximately the G below middle C to the B two octaves above middle C. This voice has a very smooth, sensitive and at times lachrymose quality. Lyric mezzo-sopranos do not have the vocal agility of the coloratura mezzo-soprano or the size of the dramatic mezzo-soprano. The lyric mezzo-soprano is ideal for most trouser roles.

  • To hear an example of a Lyric mezzo-soprano (Susan Graham
    Susan Graham

    File:Susangraham.jpgSusan Graham is an American mezzo-soprano.Raised in Midland, Texas, she is a graduate of Texas Tech University and the Manhattan School of Music....
     as Dorabella in Mozart's Cosģ fan tutte
    Cosģ fan tutte

    Cos? fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The libretto was written by Lorenzo da Ponte....
    ) click on this link:

Lyric mezzo-soprano roles in opera and operettas

  • Annio, La clemenza di Tito
    La clemenza di Tito

    La clemenza di Tito , K?chel-Verzeichnis 621, is an opera seria composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with text after Metastasio. It was started after the bulk of The Magic Flute, the last opera that Mozart worked on, was already written ....
     (Mozart
    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood in Salzburg. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty; at seventeen he was engaged as a court musician in Salzburg, but grew restless and traveled in search of a better position, always...
    )-- trouser role
  • Arianna L'Arianna
    L'Arianna

    L'Arianna was the second opera written by Claudio Monteverdi, and one of the most influential and famous specimens of early baroque opera. It was first performed in Mantua in 1608....
     (Claudio Monteverdi
    Claudio Monteverdi

    Claudio Giovanni Antonio Monteverdi , was an Italian composer, viol, and singer.Monteverdi's work, often regarded as revolutionary, marked the transition from the music of the Renaissance music to that of the Baroque music....
    )@
  • Carmen Carmen
    Carmen

    Carmen is a French op?ra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Hal?vy, based on the Carmen by Prosper M?rim?e, first published in 1845, itself influenced by the narrative poem "The Gypsies" by Pushkin....
     (Georges Bizet
    Georges Bizet

    Georges Bizet was a France composer and pianist of the Romantic music era. He is best known for the opera Carmen....
    )@ (Also Dramatic Mezzo-Soprano)
  • Charlotte, Werther
    Werther

    Werther is an opera in four acts by Jules Massenet to a French libretto by ?douard Blau, Paul Milliet and Georges Hartmann based on the German novella The Sorrows of Young Werther by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe....
     (Massenet
    Jules Massenet

    Jules Massenet was a France composer best known for his operas. His compositions were very popular in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and he ranks as one of the greatest melodists of his era....
    )@
  • Cherubino, The Marriage of Figaro
    The Marriage of Figaro

    Le nozze di Figaro, ossia la folle giornata , K?chel-Verzeichnis, is an opera buffa composed in 1786_in_music#Opera by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with Italian libretto by Lorenzo da Ponte, based on a stage comedy by Pierre Beaumarchais, The Marriage of Figaro ....
     (Mozart)-- trouser role
  • The Composer Ariadne auf Naxos
    Ariadne auf Naxos

    Ariadne auf Naxos is an opera by Richard Strauss with a German language libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal....
     (Richard Strauss
    Richard Strauss

    Richard Georg Strauss was a German composer of the late Romantic music and early modern eras, particularly of operas, Lieder and tone poems. Strauss was also a prominent Conducting....
    )-- trouser role
  • Sorceress, Dido and Aeneas
    Dido and Aeneas

    Dido and Aeneas is an opera by the English Baroque music composer Henry Purcell, from a libretto by Nahum Tate. The first known performance was at a girls' school in the spring of 1689 and hence is given catalogue number Z. 626....
     (Henry Purcell
    Henry Purcell

    Henry Purcell...
    )
  • Dorabella, Cosģ fan tutte
    Cosģ fan tutte

    Cos? fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The libretto was written by Lorenzo da Ponte....
     (Mozart)@
  • Hänsel, Hänsel und Gretel (Humperdinck
    Engelbert Humperdinck

    Engelbert Humperdinck was a Germany composer, best known for his opera, H?nsel und Gretel .Humperdinck was born at Siegburg, in the Rhine Province....
    ) -- trouser role @
  • Mignon, Mignon
    Mignon

    Mignon is an op?ra comique in three acts by Ambroise Thomas. The original French libretto was by Jules Barbier and Michel Carr?, based on Johann Wolfgang von Goethe novel Wilhelm Meister's Apprenticeship....
     (Ambroise Thomas
    Ambroise Thomas

    Ambroise Thomas was a France opera composer, best-known for his operas Mignon and Hamlet and as Director of the Conservatoire de Paris from 1871-1896....
    )@
  • Mother, Amahl and the Night Visitors
    Amahl and the Night Visitors

    Amahl and the Night Visitors is an opera in one act by Gian Carlo Menotti with an original English libretto by the composer. It was commissioned by NBC and first performed on December 24, 1951 in New York City, at NBC studio 8H in Radio City Music Hall, where it was broadcast live on television as the debut production of the Hallmark Hall...
     (Menotti
    Gian Carlo Menotti

    Gian Carlo Menotti was an Italy composer and libretto. Although he often referred to himself as an American composer, he kept his Italian citizenship....
    )@
  • Nicklausse, Les contes d'Hoffmann
    Les contes d'Hoffmann

    Les contes d'Hoffmann is an opera by Jacques Offenbach. It was first performed in Paris, at the Op?ra-Comique, on February 10, 1881 in music....
     (Offenbach
    Jacques Offenbach

    File:Offencolor.jpgJacques Offenbach was a Germany-born France composer and cello of the Romantic music era and one of the originators of the operetta form....
    ) -- trouser role though he is the (female) Muse in disguise.
  • Octavian, Der Rosenkavalier
    Der Rosenkavalier

    Der Rosenkavalier is a comic opera in three acts by Richard Strauss to an original German language libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal. It is loosely adapted from the novel Les amours du chevalier de Faublas by Jean-Baptiste Louvet de Couvrai and Moli?re?s comedy Monsieur de Pourceaugnac....
     (Richard Strauss
    Richard Strauss

    Richard Georg Strauss was a German composer of the late Romantic music and early modern eras, particularly of operas, Lieder and tone poems. Strauss was also a prominent Conducting....
    ) -- trouser role}@
  • Orlofsky (Die Fledermaus
    Die Fledermaus

    Die Fledermaus is an operetta composed by Johann Strauss II to a German language libretto by Carl Haffner and Richard Gen?e....
    ) (Johann Strauss
    Johann Strauss II

    Johann Strauss II was an Austrian composer famous for having written over 500 waltzes, polkas, March , and galops. He was the son of the composer Johann Strauss I, and brother of composers Josef Strauss and Eduard Strauss....
    ) -- trouser role
  • Sesto, La clemenza di Tito
    La clemenza di Tito

    La clemenza di Tito , K?chel-Verzeichnis 621, is an opera seria composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, with text after Metastasio. It was started after the bulk of The Magic Flute, the last opera that Mozart worked on, was already written ....
     (Mozart
    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

    Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood in Salzburg. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty; at seventeen he was engaged as a court musician in Salzburg, but grew restless and traveled in search of a better position, always...
    ) -- trouser role
  • Siebel, Faust
    Faust (opera)

    Faust is an opera in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French language libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carr? from Carr?'s play Faust et Marguerite, in turn loosely based on Goethe's Faust Part One....
     (Charles Gounod
    Charles Gounod

    Charles-Fran?ois Gounod was a French composer, best known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Rom?o et Juliette....
    ) -- trouser role
  • Stephano, Romeo et Juliette
    Roméo et Juliette

    Rom?o et Juliette is an opera in five acts by Charles Gounod to a French language libretto by Jules Barbier and Michel Carr?, based on The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare....
     (Charles Gounod
    Charles Gounod

    Charles-Fran?ois Gounod was a French composer, best known for his Ave Maria as well as his operas Faust and Rom?o et Juliette....
    ) -- trouser role
  • Suzuki, Madama Butterfly
    Madama Butterfly

    Madama Butterfly is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini, with an Italian libretto by Luigi Illica and Giuseppe Giacosa....


@-Denotes a lead role

Lyric mezzo-soprano Singers

  • Janet Baker
    Janet Baker

    Dame Janet Abbott Baker Companion of Honour Dame Commander of the British Empire FRSA is an England mezzo-soprano best known as an opera, concert, and lieder singer....
  • Agnes Baltsa
    Agnes Baltsa

    Agnes Baltsa is a leading Greeks mezzo-soprano.She began playing piano at the age of six, before moving to Athens in 1958 to concentrate on singing....
  • Sarah Connolly
    Sarah Connolly

    Born in County Durham, mezzo-soprano Sarah Connolly studied piano and singing at the Royal College of Music, of which she is now a Fellow.In opera, her recent appearances have included Purcell?s Dido at La Scala, Milan and at La Monnaie, Brussels; Gluck?s Orfeo and the title role in ?The Rape of Lucretia at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich; the...
  • Malena Ernman
    Malena Ernman

    Malena Ernman is a Sweden opera singer . Ernman is a versatile artist in her field, who outside the world of opera and operettas also has performed chansons, cabaret, jazz, appeared in Musical theatre and she is a performer who's declared that she's very much attracted to the attributes of varit? theatre and small, intimate stage rooms....
  • Brigitte Fassbaender
    Brigitte Fassbaender

    Brigitte Fassbaender , is mezzo-soprano opera singer, and in recent years, an artistic director. She has received the Bavarian State Opera's honorific title of 'Kammers?nger' or 'Court Singer.'...
  • Susan Graham
    Susan Graham

    File:Susangraham.jpgSusan Graham is an American mezzo-soprano.Raised in Midland, Texas, she is a graduate of Texas Tech University and the Manhattan School of Music....
  • Magdalena Ko˛enį
    Magdalena Ko˛enį

    Magdalena Ko?en? is a Czech Republicmezzo-soprano.She was born in Brno, the daughter of a mathematician father and a biologist mother. Her original goal was to be a pianist, but she broke her hand at the age of six and switched to singing, starting in the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra children's choir....
  • Lorraine Hunt Lieberson
    Lorraine Hunt Lieberson

    Lorraine Hunt Lieberson was a renowned United States soprano then mezzo-soprano....
  • Christa Ludwig
    Christa Ludwig

    Christa Ludwig is a Germany retired mezzo-soprano, distinguished for her performances of opera and Lieder. Her career spanned from the late 1940s until the early 1990s....
  • Nan Merriman
    Nan Merriman

    Nan Merriman is an United States operatic mezzo-soprano, born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She is most famous for singing many roles both live and on radio under the baton of the legendary Arturo Toscanini between 1944 and 1952, while he was conductor of the NBC Symphony Orchestra....
  • Frederica von Stade
    Frederica von Stade

    Frederica von Stade , is an American mezzo-soprano. Born in Somerville, New Jersey, she acquired the nickname Flicka in her childhood. Miss von Stade attended the Mannes College of Music in New York City....
  • Risė Stevens
    Risė Stevens

    Ris? Stevens is a retired American mezzo-soprano who captured a wide popular audience at the height of her career .She studied at New York's Juilliard School of Music for three years....
  • Tatiana Troyanos
    Tatiana Troyanos

    Tatiana Troyanos was an United States mezzo-soprano.Born in New York City, Troyanos went to Forest Hills High School in Forest Hills, New York....
  • Anne Sofie von Otter


Dramatic mezzo-soprano

A dramatic mezzo-soprano has a strong medium register, a warm high register and a voice that is broader and more powerful than the lyric and coloratura mezzo-sopranos. This voice has less vocal facility than the coloratura mezzo-soprano. The range of the dramatic mezzo-soprano is from approximately the G below middle C to the B two octaves above middle C. The dramatic mezzo-soprano can sing over an orchestra and chorus with ease and was often used in the 19th century opera, to portray older women, mothers, witches and evil characters. Verdi wrote many roles for this voice in the Italian repertoire and there are also a few good roles in the French Literature. The majority of these roles however are within the German Romantic repertoire of composers like Wagner and Strauss. Like Coloratura mezzos, dramatic mezzos are also often cast in lyric mezzo-soprano roles.

  • To hear an example of a dramatic mezzo-soprano (Olga Borodina
    Olga Borodina

    Olga Borodina is a leading dramatic mezzo-soprano, known for her roles in Russian operas at her home company, the Mariinsky Theatre, and for her international performing and recording career in a varied repertoire....
     as Eboli in     Don Carlos
    Don Carlos

    Don Carlos is a five-act Grand Opera composed by Giuseppe Verdi to a French language libretto by Camille du Locle and Joseph M?ry, based on the dramatic play Don Carlos by Friedrich Schiller....
    ) click on this link:


Dramatic mezzo-soprano roles in opera and operettas

  • Azucena, Il trovatore
    Il trovatore

    Il trovatore is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Leone Emanuele Bardare and Salvatore Cammarano, based on the Play El Trovador by Antonio Garc?a Guti?rrez....
     (Verdi)
  • Amneris, Aida
    Aida

    Aida an Arabic female name meaning "visitor" or "returning") is an opera in four acts by Giuseppe Verdi to an Italian libretto by Antonio Ghislanzoni, based on a scenario written by French Egyptologist Auguste Mariette ....
     (Verdi)
  • Brangäne, Tristan und Isolde
    Tristan und Isolde

    Tristan und Isolde is an opera, or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner to a German language libretto by the composer, based largely on the romance by Gottfried von Stra?burg....
     (Wagner)
  • Carmen, Carmen
    Carmen

    Carmen is a French op?ra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Hal?vy, based on the Carmen by Prosper M?rim?e, first published in 1845, itself influenced by the narrative poem "The Gypsies" by Pushkin....
     (Bizet)@ (Also Lyric Mezzo)
  • The Countess, The Queen of Spades
    The Queen of Spades (opera)

    The Queen of Spades, Op. 68 is an opera in 3 acts by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky to a Russian libretto by the composer's brother Modest Ilyich Tchaikovsky, based on a The Queen of Spades by the poet Alexander Pushkin....
     (Tchaikovsky
    Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

    Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky – ) was a Russian composer of the Romantic music era. He wrote some of the most popular concert and theatrical music in the current classical repertoire, including the ballets Swan Lake and Nutcracker, the 1812 Overture, his Piano Concerto No....
    )
  • Dalila, Samson et Dalila (Saint-Saėns
    Camille Saint-Saėns

    Charles-Camille Saint-Sa?ns was a French composer, organist, Conductor , and pianist, known especially for The Carnival of the Animals, Danse Macabre , Samson and Delilah , Havanaise , Introduction and Rondo capriccioso , and his Symphony No....
    )@
  • Dido, Les Troyens
    Les Troyens

    Les Troyens is a France opera in five acts by Hector Berlioz. The libretto was written by Berlioz himself, based on Virgil's epic poem The Aeneid....
     (Berlioz
    Hector Berlioz

    Louis Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic music composer and guitarist, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Requiem . Berlioz made great contributions to the modern orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation and by utilizing huge orchestral forces for his works; as a conductor, he performed several c...
    )@
  • Eboli, Don Carlos
    Don Carlos

    Don Carlos is a five-act Grand Opera composed by Giuseppe Verdi to a French language libretto by Camille du Locle and Joseph M?ry, based on the dramatic play Don Carlos by Friedrich Schiller....
     (Verdi)
  • Herodias, Salome
    Salome (opera)

    Salome is an opera in one act by Richard Strauss to a German language libretto by the composer, based on Hedwig Lachmann?s German translation of the French language play Salome by Oscar Wilde....
     (Richard Strauss
    Richard Strauss

    Richard Georg Strauss was a German composer of the late Romantic music and early modern eras, particularly of operas, Lieder and tone poems. Strauss was also a prominent Conducting....
    )
  • Hexe, Hänsel und Gretel (opera) (Humperdinck
    Engelbert Humperdinck

    Engelbert Humperdinck was a Germany composer, best known for his opera, H?nsel und Gretel .Humperdinck was born at Siegburg, in the Rhine Province....
    )
  • Judith, Bluebeard's Castle
    Bluebeard's Castle

    Duke Bluebeard's Castle is a one-act opera by Hungary composer B?la Bart?k. The libretto was written by B?la Bal?zs, a poet and friend of the composer....
     (Bartók
    Béla Bartók

    B?la Viktor J?nos Bart?k was a Hungarian people composer and pianist, considered to be one of the greatest composers of the 20th century. Through his collection and analytical study of folk music, he was one of the founders of ethnomusicology....
    )@ (Also Dramatic Soprano
    Dramatic soprano

    A dramatic soprano is an operatic soprano with a powerful, rich, emotive voice that can sing over, or cut through, a full orchestra. Thicker vocal folds in dramatic voices usually mean less agility than lighter voices but a sustained, fuller sound....
    )
  • Kundry, Parsifal
    Parsifal

    Parsifal is an opera, or music drama, in three acts by Richard Wagner. It is loosely based on Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival, the medieval Epic poetry of the Arthurian knight Parzival and his quest for the Holy Grail....
     (Wagner)@ (also Dramatic soprano
    Dramatic soprano

    A dramatic soprano is an operatic soprano with a powerful, rich, emotive voice that can sing over, or cut through, a full orchestra. Thicker vocal folds in dramatic voices usually mean less agility than lighter voices but a sustained, fuller sound....
    )
  • Klytemnästra, Elektra
    Elektra (opera)

    Elektra is a one-act opera by Richard Strauss, to a German-language libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal adapted from his drama of 1903?the first of many such collaborations between composer and librettist....
     (Richard Strauss
    Richard Strauss

    Richard Georg Strauss was a German composer of the late Romantic music and early modern eras, particularly of operas, Lieder and tone poems. Strauss was also a prominent Conducting....
    )
  • Laura, La Gioconda
    La Gioconda (opera)

    La Gioconda is an opera in four acts by Amilcare Ponchielli to an Italian libretto by Arrigo Boito, based on Angelo, tyran de Padoue, a play in prose by Victor Hugo, dating from 1835....
     (Ponchielli)
  • Marina, Boris Godunov
    Boris Godunov (opera)

    Boris Godunov is an opera by Modest Mussorgsky . The work was composed between 1868 and 1874 in Saint Petersburg, Russia. It is Mussorgsky's only completed opera and is considered his masterpiece....
     (Mussorgsky
    Modest Mussorgsky

    Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky , one of the Russian composers known as the Five, was an innovator of Music of Russia. He strove to achieve a uniquely Russian musical identity, often in deliberate defiance of the established conventions of Western music....
    )
  • Mother, Hänsel und Gretel (opera) (Humperdinck
    Engelbert Humperdinck

    Engelbert Humperdinck was a Germany composer, best known for his opera, H?nsel und Gretel .Humperdinck was born at Siegburg, in the Rhine Province....
    )
  • Ortrud, Lohengrin
    Lohengrin (opera)

    Lohengrin is a romantic opera in three acts composed and written by Richard Wagner.The story of the eponymous character is taken from medieval German romance, notably the Parzival of Wolfram von Eschenbach and its sequel, Lohengrin, written by a different author, itself inspired by the epic of Garin le Loherain....
     (Wagner
    Richard Wagner

    Wilhelm Richard Wagner was a German composer, Conducting, theatre director and essayist, primarily known for his operas . Unlike most other great opera composers, Wagner wrote both the scenario and libretto for his works....
    )
  • Princess de Bouillon, Adriana Lecouvreur
    Adriana Lecouvreur

    Adriana Lecouvreur is an opera in four acts by Francesco Cilea to an Italian libretto by Arturo Colautti, based on the Play by Eug?ne Scribe and Ernest Legouv?....
     (Cilea
    Francesco Cilea

    Francesco Cilea was an Italian composer. Today he is particularly known for his operas L'arlesiana and Adriana Lecouvreur....
    )


@-denotes a lead role

Dramatic mezzo-soprano Singers

  • Irina Arkhipova
    Irina Arkhipova

    Irina Konstantinovna Arkhipova is a Russian mezzo-soprano, and later contralto, opera singer.She originally studied architecture but switched to voice and studied with Malisheva, graduating in 1953....
  • Fedora Barbieri
    Fedora Barbieri

    Fedora Barbieri was an Italian mezzo-soprano.She made her official debut in Florence in 1940, but retired in 1943 because of her marriage. She re-emerged in 1945....
  • Olga Borodina
    Olga Borodina

    Olga Borodina is a leading dramatic mezzo-soprano, known for her roles in Russian operas at her home company, the Mariinsky Theatre, and for her international performing and recording career in a varied repertoire....
  • Grace Bumbry
    Grace Bumbry

    Grace Bumbry , an United States opera singer, was considered one of the leading mezzo-sopranos of her generation, as well as a major soprano for many years....
  • Viorica Cortez
    Viorica Cortez

    Viorica Cortez is a noted Romanian-born mezzo-soprano, later French by naturalisation. Starting her operatic and concert career in the mid-1960s, she went on to become one of the most prominent female performers of the '70s and '80s....
  • Fiorenza Cossotto
    Fiorenza Cossotto

    Fiorenza Cossotto is an Italian mezzo soprano. She is considered by many to be one of the great mezzo-sopranos of the 20th century, a natural successor to Giulietta Simionato....
  • Maria Gay
    Maria Gay

    Maria Gay was a Catalonia opera singer, a mezzo-soprano born as Maria de Lourdes Lucia Antonia Pichot Giron?s. She has sometimes been referred to as Maria Gay Zenatello....
  • Rita Gorr
    Rita Gorr

    Rita Gorr , is a Belgian operatic mezzo-soprano, she possessed a large, rich-toned voice and was an intense singing-actress, especially in dramatic roles such as Ortrud and Amneris , two of her greatest roles....
  • Denyce Graves
    Denyce Graves

    Denyce Graves is an United States opera singer.Graves was raised in the city's Bellevue, Washington, D.C. section, in a single-parent household....
  • Waltraud Meier
    Waltraud Meier

    Waltraud Meier is a Grammy-award winning Germany dramatic soprano and mezzo-soprano singer. She is particularly known for her Richard Wagner roles as Kundry, Isolde, Ortrud, Venus and Sieglinde, but has also had success in the French and Italian repertoire appearing as Eboli, Amneris, Carmen and Santuzza....
  • Elena Obraztsova
    Elena Obraztsova

    Elena Vasiliyevna Obraztsova is a Russian mezzo-soprano. In June 2007 Obraztsova was appointed as the artistic director for opera at Mikhailovsky Theatre in St Petersburg....
  • Regina Resnik
    Regina Resnik

    Regina Resnik is an United States operatic singer.Regina Resnik, the American mezzo-soprano, started a dramatic career ten months after earning her B.A....
  • Giulietta Simionato
    Giulietta Simionato

    Giulietta Simionato is an Italy mezzo-soprano and one of the great singers of the post-war operatic stage. Her career spanned from the 1930s until her retirement in 1966....
  • Ebe Stignani
    Ebe Stignani

    Ebe Stignani was an Italian opera singer, who was pre-eminent in the dramatic mezzo-soprano roles of the Italian repertoire during a stage career of more than thirty years....
  • Shirley Verrett
    Shirley Verrett

    Shirley Verrett is an American operatic mezzo-soprano and soprano. Verrett enjoyed great fame from the late 1960s and was much admired for her radiant voice, beauty, and great versatility....
  • Dolora Zajick
    Dolora Zajick

    Dolora Zajick is an United States mezzo-soprano who specializes in the Giuseppe Verdi repertoire. Zajick is arguably the leading exponent in the dramatic Verdian mezzo-soprano repertoire....


See also

  • Voice classification in non-classical music
    Voice classification in non-classical music

    There is currently no authoritative voice classification system within non-classical music. The problem lies in the fact that classical terms are used to describe not merely various vocal ranges, but specific vocal timbres each unique to those respective ranges, and produced by the classical training techniques with which most popular singers are n...
  • Category of mezzo-sopranos
  • Fach
    Fach

    The German Fach system is a method of classifying singers, primarily opera singers, The Fach system is a convenience for singers and opera houses....
  • Voice type
    Voice type

    A voice type is a particular kind of human singing voice perceived as having certain identifying qualities or characteristics. Voice classification is the process by which human voices are evaluated and are thereby designated into voice types....


External links



Further reading