# List of contraaltos



## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

The discussion about basses in the other thread made me remember, that I wanted to ask about contraaltos. I know very few of them, dead or alive. Could you give me some names ? So far, I know these:

Kathleen Ferrier
Maureen Forrester
Sigrid Onegin
Clara Butt
probably Stephanie Blythe

And a contemporary one:
Alessandra Vissentin

Who are/were the others ?


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Marian Anderson
Eva Podles
Yma Sumac (sumac is actually a soprano with a killer bass sound)
Maureen Forrester


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

Some will be more known as mezzos but are still true contraltos.

Kerstin Thorborg 
Oralia Dominguez 
Ernestine Schumann-Heink
Jean Madeira 
Fedora Barbieri 
Eula Beal


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## Shaughnessy (Dec 31, 2020)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_operatic_contraltos



and not that you asked, but provided as a public service -



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_contraltos_in_non-classical_music



Taking advantage of the the science-based advanced algorithms utilized with the "Shaughnessy Method" will reveal that the contraltos in non-classical music look like they have talent to a far greater degree than the operatic contraltos.


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## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

Shaughnessy said:


> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_operatic_contraltos


Wikipedia is good, but I also want to see the names people know here. Also, who are the contemporary ones ?


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## Shaughnessy (Dec 31, 2020)

BBSVK said:


> Wikipedia is good, but I also want to see the names people know here. Also, who are tge contemporary ones ?


Let me guess... This is yet another thinly disguised attempt to trick us into doing your homework for you, right? -  

Nathalie Stutzmann


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## BBSVK (10 mo ago)

Nah, I am out of school today. I have a sore throat. But my lecture group is just learning about Les Miserables the Musical, I don't think I will need to know contraaltos for the next lesson.


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

Marie-Nicole Lemieux
Sara Mingardo
Delphine Galou
Romina Basso
Sonia Prina
And lots of mezzos singing repertoire for contraltos.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

BBSVK said:


> Wikipedia is good, but I also want to see the names people know here. Also, who are tge contemporary ones ?


Good ones are very very rare. I don't know of any other than Stephanie Blythe today unless Natalie Stutzmann is still singing.


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

I think Stutzmann is mostly conducting. At least Lemieux and Mingardo are active. And Galou. And Prina, though she's more interesting live.


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## nina foresti (Mar 11, 2014)

Shaughnessy said:


> Let me guess... This is yet another thinly disguised attempt to trick us into doing your homework for you, right? -
> 
> Nathalie Stutzmann


Contemporary? Relyea


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## ewilkros (8 mo ago)

BBSVK said:


> The discussion about basses in the other thread made me remember, that I wanted to ask about contraaltos. I know very few of them, dead or alive. Could you give me some names ? So far, I know these:
> 
> Kathleen Ferrier
> Maureen Forrester
> ...


+ Bruna Castagna, reigning Met Verdi mezzo from 1936 to 1945 (~ 180 perfs), Adalgisa to Cigna's and Milanov's Norma, and soloist in Toscanini's 1940 Beethoven _Missa Solemnis_ and Verdi _Requiem,_ but able and willing to go down low, sonorously, for Azucena and Ulrica.

Edit: In _Gioconda_, though, she sang Laura, not La Cieca. That would be Anna Kaskas.


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## ewilkros (8 mo ago)

Oh, and Zara Doluhkanova! Soviet Armenian mezzo/contralto who flourished from late 1940's to mid 1960's. Notable among other things for low-lying coloratura numbers from Meyerbeer and especially Rossini, including Arsace in Semiramide. Left a huge discography, from which a Guild 4-CD set samples mainly songs; there must be an analogous set somewhere for opera, oratorio, etc. I know she did quite a bit of excerpts from the Bach Cantatas. For more on her see our friend Wikipedia:



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zara_Dolukhanova


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## Montarsolo (5 mo ago)

Sara Mingardo!


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

Lucille Richardot, currently active


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

There are at least two Russian historic contraltos: Valentina Levko and Elizaveta Antonova.


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## PaulFranz (May 7, 2019)

The ones I listen to:

Thorborg (favorite female singer)
Butt
Crossley
Gerville-Réache
Ferrier

I only listen to the English-speaking ones in recital rep.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

I know I know, people hate when I talk about fach, but this is the most appropriate on which to do so. For instance...does anyone else feel like the definition between mezzo vs contralto isn't as clear as for other voice types? Like, you have

singers who are obviously mezzo:

Giulietta Simionato
Elena Obraztsova
Rise Stevens
Elena Cernei
Ebe Stignani

singers who are obviously contralto: 

Clara Butt
Nathalie Stutzman
Ernestine Schumann-Heinke
Marie Powers

singers who could go either way

Fedora Barbieri
Kerstin Thorborg
Claramae Turner
Kathleen Ferrier
Oralia Dominguez
Monica Sinclair


Many singers regularly get billed as "contraltos" when, to my ear, plenty of bigger, darker, lower-sitting voices still get called mezzos (ex: Elena Nicolae pretty clearly has a deeper voice than Kathleen Ferrier, yet the latter is taken just about unanimously to be a contralto). Often, it just seems like "oh? You have a low voice? What do you want to bill yourself as? There's some wiggle room". 

Similarly, I don't think a role being labeled as "contralto" necessarily means the same thing as in the original context. Take the role of Rosina for example. Rossini wrote it as a "contralto" role, but tbh, it sits quite high for what is supposed to be the female equivalent to a bass. Meanwhile, his wife, Isabel Colbran was described as a "dramatic soprano". The title role of Semiramide was written for her, yet that's typically not the kind of singer we tend to hear in that role (of course, we don't really know. Maybe it _did _used to be sung by women with much deeper voices). With this in mind, it may be safe to say their concept of what a "real contralto" would be different from ours, or, for that matter, previous to subsequent composers.


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## PaulFranz (May 7, 2019)

BalalaikaBoy said:


> I know I know, people hate when I talk about fach, but this is the most appropriate on which to do so. For instance...does anyone else feel like the definition between mezzo vs contralto isn't as clear as for other voice types? Like, you have
> 
> singers who are obviously mezzo:
> 
> ...


I mostly agree, except for Kathleen not being an unambiguous contralto. Women seem as fluid in their voice types as they are in their sexuality. Perhaps it's because they largely sing in head voice, which is less distinctive and easier to adapt? I have heard women crossing over in every which direction, and I especially can't blame contraltos for this, because singing only pure contralto rep is a recipe for starvation. I'm not even sure why we need a contralto classification...except, as I note in every discussion on voice type, in Wagner.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

PaulFranz said:


> I mostly agree, except for Kathleen not being an unambiguous contralto. Women seem as fluid in their voice types as they are in their sexuality. Perhaps it's because they largely sing in head voice, which is less distinctive and easier to adapt? I have heard women crossing over in every which direction, and I especially can't blame contraltos for this, because singing only pure contralto rep is a recipe for starvation. I'm not even sure why we need a contralto classification...except, as I note in every discussion on voice type, in Wagner.


Much of the stuff for "contralto" can be sung by "mezzos" but for me it has more to do with a dark timbre to the voice and a solidity to the voice below middle C such as Ferrier or Forrester have. Ewa Podles sang Adalgisa here which is almost a soprano role, but her voice was pure chocolate. To me Erda's towering nature is lost with just a regular mezzo in the role. Conversely some "mezzos" such as Anna Sophie von Otter and Susan Graham have fine voices but the color of their voice is too soprano for my taste in their fach.


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## PaulFranz (May 7, 2019)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Much of the stuff for "contralto" can be sung by "mezzos" but for me it has more to do with a dark timbre to the voice and a solidity to the voice below middle C such as Ferrier or Forrester have. Ewa Podles sang Adalgisa here which is almost a soprano role, but her voice was pure chocolate. To me Erda's towering nature is lost with just a regular mezzo in the role. Conversely some "mezzos" such as Anna Sophie von Otter and Susan Graham have fine voices but the color of their voice is too soprano for my taste in their fach.


Why do we need a special term for rich voices? Every voice is unique.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Much of the stuff for "contralto" can be sung by "mezzos" but for me it has more to do with a dark timbre to the voice and a solidity to the voice below middle C such as Ferrier or Forrester have. Ewa Podles sang Adalgisa here which is almost a soprano role, but her voice was pure chocolate. To me Erda's towering nature is lost with just a regular mezzo in the role. Conversely some "mezzos" such as Anna Sophie von Otter and Susan Graham have fine voices but the color of their voice is too soprano for my taste in their fach.


Maybe my standards are higher, but I expect strong notes below middle C from anything deeper than a lyric soprano. For a mezzo, I would expect more than this, at least a solid F#3. For a true contralto, most of the C3-C4 octave shouldn't just be solid, but somewhere they hang out comfortably (most contraltos can almost sound like a man if they want to).


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

BalalaikaBoy said:


> Maybe my standards are higher, but I expect strong notes below middle C from anything deeper than a lyric soprano. For a mezzo, I would expect more than this, at least a solid F#3. For a true contralto, most of the C3-C4 octave shouldn't just be solid, but somewhere they hang out comfortably (most contraltos can almost sound like a man if they want to).


Both Forrester and Ferrier are excellent in Bach cantatas. My sister says churches in Germany have a real problem putting them on as all available singers tend to be mezzos and they lie consistently too low for them and there are just so very few true contraltos available. Mahalia Jackson, the great Gospel singer, and Sarah Vaughn, the jazz great of the Ave Maria contest ) could have handled the music just fine but the German would have likely been a stumbling block


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