# Roles that should be sung by contraltos



## Francasacchi (7 mo ago)

Erda
Klytaemnestra
Fides in Le Prophete
Orfeo
Madame de Croissy
La Cieca
Ulrica


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Good choices. There seem to be very few major roles that really cry out for the deep tone of a true contralto. There must be a number of small character parts that benefit from that sound. Two that occur to me are the voice from the temple dome at the end of Act 1 of _Parsifal _and the First Norn in _Gotterdammerung. _How about Maddalena in_ Rigoletto?_


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

The aria Non erubicite from Oedipus Rex. Jessye Norman did a fine, spectacularly attired version for the The Met version on PBS after she lost weight and looked really fabulous BUT I used to have a live pirated version from her vocal peak before the weight loss and her low notes reminded one of Wotan! The role had so much more punch when she had that contralto power at her disposal. Only Ponselle, Podles or Anderson could have pulled off similar power in my opinion in that aria - all of them freaks. It needs a contralto for optimal punch.
Not opera but my sister had the perfect soprano voice for Bach choral pieces and sang in many in Germany








and she said that the alto parts lie really low for a woman and mezzos have a hard time cutting it singing the arias over the orchestra.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> Good choices. There seem to be very few major roles that really cry out for the deep tone of a true contralto. There must be a number of small character parts that benefit from that sound. Two that occur to me are the voice from the temple dome at the end of Act 1 of _Parsifal _and the First Norn in _Gotterdammerung. _How about Maddalena in_ Rigoletto?_


I tend to associate contraltos with mother figures, so I think of Maddalena as a mezzo role.

There's Dalila of course. The tessitura is pretty low, but I've always felt that when contraltos sing _Softly awakes my heart _they sound more like a matron with an ample bosom than a seductive siren. Dalila should be sexy and _sound_ sexy and my favourites are Verrett, Baltsa and (in the arias) Callas.


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

Olga in Onegin is a contralto part. It was a professional joke of Tchaikovsky to assemble a soprano with a baritone and a contralto with a tenor.
Pauline in Queen of spades (the same singer usually sings Milovzor in a baroque or classicist stylized pastoral), as I know, can be sung by a contralto. Though there is a possibility of sounding too adult, her music is very suitable for a contralto: a folk song, a russian romance (based on a poem by Zhukovski), a baroque trousers role.


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

There is also a vast Rossini and baroque repertoire for coloratura contralto.Besides music for castrati composers also wrote especially for women altos, for example Faustina Bordon. She worked with Haendel during his glorious rivalry with Porpora in London and was a wife of Hasse for a lifetime.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Mamma Lucia in _Cavalleria Rusticana?_ Not that it matters, I suppose.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> Mamma Lucia in _Cavalleria Rusticana?_ Not that it matters, I suppose.


When I hear the name Mamma Lucia I think of a woman bring out steaming hot spaghetti from the kitchen. Don't ban me from the forum.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Seattleoperafan said:


> When I hear the name Mamma Lucia I think of a woman bring out steaming hot spaghetti from the kitchen. Don't ban me from the forum.


Well, what else would she be bringing from the kitchen? Sushi?


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Mistress Quickly in Falstaff works best with a contralto and provides contrast with the Mezzo (Meg) and the two different sopranos more spinto (Alice) and more lyric (Nanetta). The Zia Principessa in Suor Angelica is another one where the composer actually calls for a contralto in the score.

Not a particularly well known opera, but Rosa Mamai in L'Arlesiana I feel works better with a contralto (although Freni recorded the aria).

I prefer a good solid dark hued Amneris and Azucena, but the high notes in those parts are considered out of a contralto's league. Do we consider Dominguez a contralto? She was a superb Amneris and also sang Azucena as well as Erda and La Cieca.

I think the Princess de Bouillon in Adriana Lecouvreur and Madelon in Andrea Chenier are better with a contralto too.

In baroque opera there's a load depending on whether you cast a countertenor, a mezzo or a contralto in the castrato roles. The matrons in those operas work better with a contralto (Cornelia in Giulio Cesare).

Since the mezzo-soprano didn't exist as a category before the 19th century, where composers called for a contralto in classical, baroque and early opera they may have actually been writing for a voice closer to what we think of as a mezzo today (although in some cases when wanting a high/light mezzo they would request a soprano in the score).

N.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Sosostris in *The Misdummer Marriage *
Cornelia in *Giulio Cesare*
Eduige, Bertarido in *Rodelinda*
Medoro in Handel’s *Orlando *


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

Woodduck said:


> Well, what else would she be bringing from the kitchen? Sushi?


Canolli


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

Cornelia in Giulio Cesare is not only a matron, but a sexual interest of Tolomeo and his proxy. Baroque offers us a wide range of voices with different application. If a castrato voice is considered obviously heroic, then a contralto is not obligatory old or villainous. 
And I like an idea of giving male roles of castrati to mezzos and contraltos.


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## Francasacchi (7 mo ago)

Tsaraslondon said:


> I tend to associate contraltos with mother figures, so I think of Maddalena as a mezzo role.
> 
> There's Dalila of course. The tessitura is pretty low, but I've always felt that when contraltos sing _Softly awakes my heart _they sound more like a matron with an ample bosom than a seductive siren. Dalila should be sexy and _sound_ sexy and my favourites are Verrett, Baltsa and (in the arias) Callas.


The tessitura of Maddalena is low and really suits a contralto. As is that of Dalila. Often if a higher mezzo sings Dalila, it can sound like uncomfortable growling. Dalila has to sing strong low As especially in duet with the high priest.


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## Francasacchi (7 mo ago)

Woodduck said:


> Mamma Lucia in _Cavalleria Rusticana?_ Not that it matters, I suppose.


To differentiate from the mezzo Lola. And when Santuzza is sung by a mezzo.


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## Francasacchi (7 mo ago)

ColdGenius said:


> There is also a vast Rossini and baroque repertoire for coloratura contralto.Besides music for castrati composers also wrote especially for women altos, for example Faustina Bordon. She worked with Haendel during his glorious rivalry with Porpora in London and was a wife of Hasse for a lifetime.


Arsace and Malcolm in Rossini's operas, for example, are definitely contralto, and need that color and weight to differentiate from the Colbran roles they sing with that
don't go that high except in upward embellishments.


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## Revitalized Classics (Oct 31, 2018)

Some that come to mind are Orfeo, Ulrica, Erda, Mistress Quickly, Fides, Tancredi, Dalila, Brangäne, Fricka. Carmen too depending on the singer. Orsini in Lucrezia Borgia, is a rarer opera: I think the aria from that was used as a showcase by Clara Butt at one point.

The definitions are sometimes wildly stretched when it comes the 'contraltos': the famous one from the 1800s called Marietta Alboni also sang Norma and Amina in La Sonnambula so just what her voice was like is a bit hard to fathom.


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

Vania in "The Life for the Tzar" and Ratmir in "Ruslán and Liudmila" by Glinka were written (and extended in a first case) for a coloratura contralto Anna Petrova nee Vorobieva.


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)




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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Revitalized Classics said:


> Some that come to mind are Orfeo, Ulrica, Erda, Mistress Quickly, Fides, Tancredi, Dalila, Brangäne, Fricka. Carmen too depending on the singer. Orsini in Lucrezia Borgia, is a rarer opera: I think the aria from that was used as a showcase by Clara Butt at one point.
> 
> The definitions are sometimes wildly stretched when it comes the 'contraltos': the famous one from the 1800s called Marietta Alboni also sang Norma and Amina in La Sonnambula so just what her voice was like is a bit hard to fathom.


Brangaene is actually designated "soprano" in the score. I suspect that Wagner imagined Isolde's handmaid as being, and sounding, young. Her part isn't high for a soprano, but it's definitely high for a contralto. Fricka too would be a bit high for a contralto.


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## Revitalized Classics (Oct 31, 2018)

Woodduck said:


> Brangaene is actually designated "soprano" in the score. I suspect that Wagner imagined Isolde's handmaid as being, and sounding, young. Her part isn't high for a soprano, but it's definitely high for a contralto. Fricka too would be a bit high for a contralto.


Fair enough: I'd read at one point that Kathleen Ferrier was offered Brangäne at Bayreuth but when I think of Blanche Thebom while she did sing contralto roles she also higher mezzo roles.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Revitalized Classics said:


> Orsini in Lucrezia Borgia, is a rarer opera: I think the aria from that was used as a showcase by Clara Butt at one point.


It was certainly recorded by Schumann-Heink.

N.


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

Anna in Les Troyens. Several supporting roles in Strauss' operas: a pageboy in "Salome", a nymph in "Ariadne", a mussel in "Die Ägyptische Helena". Nezhata (a trousers role) in "Sadko", Solokha in "The night before Christmas" and Babarikha in "The tale of Tzar Saltan".


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## Revitalized Classics (Oct 31, 2018)

The Conte said:


> It was certainly recorded by Schumann-Heink.
> 
> N.


Schumann-Heink must have been glorious to hear in the opera house. Her version is remarkably flexible given her other later records like that Erda scene.

The song from Borgia is one of those scenes which bring out the character of the voices. Clara Butt never sounded so androgynous with that mad chest voice. Sigrid Onegin's versions are beautifully sung too: a lovely unified voice.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

ColdGenius said:


> View attachment 173738


I like the painting - who is it? 
and who’s the painter?


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## Revitalized Classics (Oct 31, 2018)

MAS said:


> I like the painting - who is it?
> and who’s the painter?


Isn't it lovely?

ColdGenius had mentioned a contralto called Anna Petrova (nee Vorobieva) - it's a portrait of her.

I believe the painter is Karl Bryullov (sometimes translated as Briullov or Briuloff)


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Revitalized Classics said:


> Fair enough: I'd read at one point that Kathleen Ferrier was offered Brangäne at Bayreuth but when I think of Blanche Thebom while she did sing contralto roles she also higher mezzo roles.


Ferrier inched her range upwards and towards the end she could sing an A5 in The Rape of Lucrezia I believe. She always sounded like a contralto to me but I don't know if she would be the right voice for Erda. Brangane is more mezzo I think. She sings in much the same range as Isolde often.


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## Francasacchi (7 mo ago)

Seattleoperafan said:


> Ferrier inched her range upwards and towards the end she could sing an A5 in The Rape of Lucrezia I believe. She always sounded like a contralto to me but I don't know if she would be the right voice for Erda. Brangane is more mezzo I think. She sings in much the same range as Isolde often.


She also was able to because of this extension sing the Chausson Poem of Love and the Sea. She was intially afraid its tessitura would be too high. (By the mid 1960s Madeira whose top was always short pretty much had nothing above A flat or A.)


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Francasacchi said:


> She also was able to because of this extension sing the Chausson Poem of Love and the Sea. She was intially afraid its tessitura would be too high. (By the mid 1960s Madeira whose top was always short pretty much had nothing above A flat or A.)


It is very lovely and does lie high for her. Her F5 in the Four Serious Songs of Brahms is so big and dark: it is thrilling. You wouldn't think she could go higher. Those low A's in those songs are like a cello.


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## ColdGenius (9 mo ago)

MAS said:


> I like the painting - who is it?
> and who’s the painter?


Revitalized classics is absolutely right. It's a portrait of Anna Vorobieva, mentioned in a previous post, by Karl Bryullov.


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