How's summer so far? Scary to think we're half way through it!
This week the clips are as hot as the weather has been. We'll continue our video series with BBC's documentary What makes a Great Tenor, and then we'll continue to look at voice types. Last week we looked at sopranos and this week we'll look at the next lower voice, mezzo-sopranos.
The Documentary
What Makes a Great Tenore? - Part 2
In this excerpt host Rolando Villazón talks voice, specifically that tricky area in voices known as the "passaggio," castrati, countertenors, the history of the tenor High C, and more.
I know what you're thinking, "What in the world is passaggio?" It's that area in the voice that transitions from the chest voice to head voice. What are chest and head voice? As Seth Rudeski demonstrates chest voice is more like your speaking voice and head voice is your voice that's higher then your normal speaking voice.
A singer who provides a great (if very extreme) example of chest and head voice is Mariah Carey. She sings in "chest" most of the time, but when she gets up into her high register, it's pure head voice. Some voice teachers would call her super high notes her "whistle" tones! Singers who are able to sing all the way up there sometimes say that they can't really hear the sound coming out. You'll see Mariah holding her ear to hear better.
Some opera singes such as Mado Robin, Mady Mesple, and more recently Natalie Dessay have had this facility, too.
Website of the week
Last week we looked at the soprano voice. This week we'll look at the mezzo-soprano. Like their higher voiced "sister," mezzo-sopranos come in a few different categories or fachs. There are three main Categories of mezzo-sopranos - Coloratura, Lyric, and Dramatic mezzo-sopranos.
Coloraturas sings lots of florid music and have very flexible voices like the title role of Rossini's La cenerentola (Cinderella) or the title role in his Rosina in The Barber of Seville. Lyric mezzo sopranos tend to do young ladies or often sing "pants" roles that require them to play a boy or young man like Cherubino in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro or Niklausse in Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann. Dramatic mezzo are the women you do not mess with! They play witches or powerful women or the romantic rival to the soprano. Their roles include Eboli in Verdi's Don Carlo, Amneris in Verdi's Aida, or Fricka in Wagner's Das Rheingold.
Find out more about The Mezzo-Soprano Voice.
You Tube Clip of the Week
Coloratura mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato sings "Crude furie degli orridi abissi", from Serse by Handel. In this aria Serse (the male title role - it's one of those "pants" roles) was planning on marrying Romilda. However, a misunderstanding by Romilda's father causes Romilda to marry her true love instead of Serse, who she doesn't really like that much. He then finds that the princess Amastre sent a letter to Romilda's father which has helped to confuse the issue. The interference in his plans arouses Serse's frustration which he explains throughly.
Opera on Air
On Saturday, July 17th at 1pm WRTI Radio will broadcast the production of George Frideric Handel's Tamerlano conducted by William Lacey from Los Angeles Opera. The opera features the legendary tenor Placido Domingo as Bajazet and Sarah Coburn who has performed with the Opera Company of Philadelphia a few years ago in Verdi's A Masked Ball.
The cast includes:
Tamerlano: Bejun Mehta
Bajazet: Placido Domingo
Princess Asteria: Sarah Coburn
Andronico: Patricia Bardon
Irene: Jennifer Holloway
Leone: Ryan McKinny
Don't forget to invite your friends to sign up to receive these alerts by emailing their name, school, and age to us at outreach@operaphila.org.
Until next week…
This week the clips are as hot as the weather has been. We'll continue our video series with BBC's documentary What makes a Great Tenor, and then we'll continue to look at voice types. Last week we looked at sopranos and this week we'll look at the next lower voice, mezzo-sopranos.
The Documentary
What Makes a Great Tenore? - Part 2
In this excerpt host Rolando Villazón talks voice, specifically that tricky area in voices known as the "passaggio," castrati, countertenors, the history of the tenor High C, and more.
I know what you're thinking, "What in the world is passaggio?" It's that area in the voice that transitions from the chest voice to head voice. What are chest and head voice? As Seth Rudeski demonstrates chest voice is more like your speaking voice and head voice is your voice that's higher then your normal speaking voice.
A singer who provides a great (if very extreme) example of chest and head voice is Mariah Carey. She sings in "chest" most of the time, but when she gets up into her high register, it's pure head voice. Some voice teachers would call her super high notes her "whistle" tones! Singers who are able to sing all the way up there sometimes say that they can't really hear the sound coming out. You'll see Mariah holding her ear to hear better.
Some opera singes such as Mado Robin, Mady Mesple, and more recently Natalie Dessay have had this facility, too.
Website of the week
Last week we looked at the soprano voice. This week we'll look at the mezzo-soprano. Like their higher voiced "sister," mezzo-sopranos come in a few different categories or fachs. There are three main Categories of mezzo-sopranos - Coloratura, Lyric, and Dramatic mezzo-sopranos.
Coloraturas sings lots of florid music and have very flexible voices like the title role of Rossini's La cenerentola (Cinderella) or the title role in his Rosina in The Barber of Seville. Lyric mezzo sopranos tend to do young ladies or often sing "pants" roles that require them to play a boy or young man like Cherubino in Mozart's The Marriage of Figaro or Niklausse in Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann. Dramatic mezzo are the women you do not mess with! They play witches or powerful women or the romantic rival to the soprano. Their roles include Eboli in Verdi's Don Carlo, Amneris in Verdi's Aida, or Fricka in Wagner's Das Rheingold.
Find out more about The Mezzo-Soprano Voice.
You Tube Clip of the Week
Coloratura mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato sings "Crude furie degli orridi abissi", from Serse by Handel. In this aria Serse (the male title role - it's one of those "pants" roles) was planning on marrying Romilda. However, a misunderstanding by Romilda's father causes Romilda to marry her true love instead of Serse, who she doesn't really like that much. He then finds that the princess Amastre sent a letter to Romilda's father which has helped to confuse the issue. The interference in his plans arouses Serse's frustration which he explains throughly.
Opera on Air
On Saturday, July 17th at 1pm WRTI Radio will broadcast the production of George Frideric Handel's Tamerlano conducted by William Lacey from Los Angeles Opera. The opera features the legendary tenor Placido Domingo as Bajazet and Sarah Coburn who has performed with the Opera Company of Philadelphia a few years ago in Verdi's A Masked Ball.
The cast includes:
Tamerlano: Bejun Mehta
Bajazet: Placido Domingo
Princess Asteria: Sarah Coburn
Andronico: Patricia Bardon
Irene: Jennifer Holloway
Leone: Ryan McKinny
Don't forget to invite your friends to sign up to receive these alerts by emailing their name, school, and age to us at outreach@operaphila.org.
Until next week…
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