# What is the difference between mezzo vs contralto?



## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

With all the other major voice categories (bass vs baritone, soprano vs mezzo, baritone vs tenor, etc) there's usually a pretty clear difference between both, but with mezzo and contralto, the designation seems to be arbitrary or based more on the type of music one sings than the vocal instrument itself (ex: there are a lot of baroque singers who bill themselves as contraltos, who would probably sing more mezzo rep as an opera singer). 

There are a few on the extreme ends of both which are easy to tell apart. I don't think anyone would doubt that Clara Butt is a true contralto or Ebe Stignani is a true mezzo, but after that, it seems like anyone's guess which way a singer could go.


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## ScottK (Dec 23, 2021)

Seems to me that Ulrica is the Verdi role which is usually described as a contralto.I've never looked at the score. Do you know if her range or tessitura is noticeably lower than Amneris and Azucena?


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Surely there's no clear division. If your voice sounds deep and dark and you're happy down low, you're a contralto. If not, not. But I'm not convinced that the other vocal categories are much more clearly differentiated. Any number of mezzos sing soprano roles and vice versa (we can all think of famous examples). Lots of tenors sing baritone before they find their high notes, and even afterward. Bass-baritones might sing bass or baritone roles, even in the same opera (Hotter sang Amfortas, Gurnemanz and Titurel on different nights). 

I suspect more singers than we realize settle on a particular category mainly because they find one tessitura a little more comfortable than another, not because they lack the range to do otherwise. Speaking of Wagner, he seemed particularly unconcerned with rigid vocal classification, or else was simply used to a looser terminology; several of his leading female roles are designated for soprano (Ortrud, Brangaene, Kundry) but are happily taken by mezzos, his tenor leads sit mostly in Verdi baritone territory with a rare higher extension, and male parts designated "bass" include roles we would assign to bass-baritones or even baritones. 

Our divisions are artifacts and fuzzy around the edges.


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## ScottK (Dec 23, 2021)

Woodduck said:


> Our divisions are artifacts and fuzzy around the edges.


Agree, but despite what you said about Wagner tenor roles being practically Verdi baritones, tenor is pretty much...someone will know an exception...the one category that is close to never sung by the neighboring range. Baritones switch to tenor for their careers, but not just for a role or two.


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## marlow (11 mo ago)

Obviously no clear distinction but seems to me Kathleen Ferrier was a true contralto whereas Christa Ludwig was a mezzo


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Woodduck said:


> Surely there's no clear division. If your voice sounds deep and dark and you're happy down low, you're a contralto. If not, not. But I'm not convinced that the other vocal categories are much more clearly differentiated. Any number of mezzos sing soprano roles and vice versa (we can all think of famous examples). Lots of tenors sing baritone before they find their high notes, and even afterward. Bass-baritones might sing bass or baritone roles, even in the same opera (Hotter sang Amfortas, Gurnemanz and Titurel on different nights).
> 
> I suspect more singers than we realize settle on a particular category mainly because they find one tessitura a little more comfortable than another, not because they lack the range to do otherwise. Speaking of Wagner, he seemed particularly unconcerned with rigid vocal classification, or else was simply used to a looser terminology; several of his leading female roles are designated for soprano (Ortrud, Brangaene, Kundry) but are happily taken by mezzos, *his tenor leads sit mostly in Verdi baritone territory with a rare higher extension*, and male parts designated "bass" include roles we would assign to bass-baritones or even baritones.
> 
> Our divisions are artifacts and fuzzy around the edges.


I haven't observed this at all. If you compared Verdi baritones like MacNeil, Bruson and Herlea to heldentenors like Svanholm, King and Melchior, the difference is clear as day. The soprano/mezzo divide has a few grey area singers (Verrett, Ludwig, Varnay), but Verdi baritone/heldentenor is rarely one where I see in-between voices (a rare exemption might be Ramon Vinay?)


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

BalalaikaBoy said:


> I haven't observed this at all. If you compared Verdi baritones like MacNeil, Bruson and Herlea to heldentenors like Svanholm, King and Melchior, the difference is clear as day. The soprano/mezzo divide has a few grey area singers (Verrett, Ludwig, Varnay), but Verdi baritone/heldentenor is rarely one where I see in-between voices (a rare exemption might be Ramon Vinay?)


Clear as what day? Today or yesterday? Not all days are clear. You're too prone to view things in absolute terms, to exaggerate, and to take things people say to an extreme in order to refute them.

I didn't say that Wagner's tenor parts are exactly like Verdi's baritone parts. But Siegmund and most of Tristan are in high baritone territory (a word I chose intentionally), with some key passages lower than most tenors can project expressively, and very few notes above A. Melchior found them quite comfortable for that reason, but left Walther alone because of the tessitura. Those roles sound best in a voice that's simultaneously dark and ringing, as well as capable of great declamatory force. Most tenors don't (or shouldn't) sing them, and most who do don't do them full justice for those reasons (among others). Similar qualities are also important for Verdi's baritone parts. Bringing up individual singers doesn't invalidate what I observe about the vocal requirements of the music in question, nor does the fact that the musical and vocal traditions are obviously different.

To repeat my main point: our vocal categories are artifacts. We create artifacts to satisfy our desire for contrast and variety. Actual voices are more varied than the boxes we put them in, and innumerable voices can occupy more than one box. Mezzos and contraltos are not the only examples.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Ewa Podles, who is no doubt a contralto, has said a true operatic contralto is one who has a dark voice with a range from almost tenor to high soprano. Horne has the range but not the right color. There really are few contralto roles in opera. I have heard tell that the rising note the orchestra is tuned to has wrecked havoc on low voiced operatic female singers as they can't handle the high notes anymore. In my contests I often resort using music from cantatas and song cycles for contraltos as there hardly is any arias for them aside from Erda. To me a darker color can indicate a contralto, but Obratzsova has one of the biggest, darkest voices of all but has sung soprano arias. It is murky! Ponselle could have sung contralto, but is known as one of the supreme Italian sopranos of all.


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## mikeh375 (Sep 7, 2017)

The range classifications are useful for general choral writing as cautionary limits, certainly for more amateur based choirs. As mentioned, the ranges do cross one another depending on ability. If I had to come up with a distinction between contralto and mezzo for composing, then in my head I would imagine a mezzo to be a ligher timbre than a contralto, with a range that straddles both alto and soprano but is unable to reach either classifications extremities. Perhaps the female equivalent to a Baritone?


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Janet Baker was called a contralto when she first started out, and seen as the successor to Kathleen Ferrier, but she never had Ferrier's deep, cavernous sound. In fact, as she developed, the voice seemed to to shift upwards. My singing teacher, who knew her when she was singing roles like Octavian, the Composer and Didon with Scottish Opera, said she used to exercise up to a top D and indeed at the end of her career she was singing roles like Vitellia and Gluck's Alceste, something that Ferrier could never have done.


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## marlow (11 mo ago)

Tsaraslondon said:


> Janet Baker was called a contralto when she first started out, and seen as the successor to Kathleen Ferrier, but she never had Ferrier's deep, cavernous sound. In fact, as she developed, the voice seemed to to shift upwards. My singing teacher, who knew her when she was singing roles like Octavian, the Composer and Didon with Scottish Opera, said she used to exercise up to a top D and indeed at the end of her career she was singing roles like Vitellia and Gluck's Alceste, something that Ferrier could never have done.


Ferrier was a singer of her time, before mezzos tended to go higher anyway. It was when mezzos tended to be known as contraltos. She started out rather late in her singing career and then it was cut short by her death. I would say the difference between a real contralto and a mezzo would tend to be akin to that between a baritone and a true bass.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

marlow said:


> Ferrier was a singer of her time, before mezzos tended to go higher anyway. It was when mezzos tended to be known as contraltos. She started out rather late in her singing career and then it was cut short by her death. I would say the difference between a real contralto and a mezzo would tend to be akin to that between a baritone and a true bass.


No doubt, but that said, Ferrier was never comfortable above the stave. She was particularly worried about the top A in *The Rape of Lucretia*. So much so that Britten wrote an alternative, though in the end it was unnecessary as she managed the note on opening night (it's amazing what adrenalin will do). Top A was an easy note for Baker.


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## ScottK (Dec 23, 2021)

Woodduck said:


> Those roles sound best in a voice that's simultaneously dark and ringing, as well as capable of great declamatory force.
> 
> .


I'm guessing the major distinction between the Verdi Baritone type voice and the german heldentenor is what is asked of it in the similar tessitura.....where the declamation is happening. No score in front of me but again and again the sound of the baritone in the upper voice is of him singing through his upper voice or hitting climactic notes, not declaiming. Heldentenors declaim alot of the time.

Your argument for why we categorize is wise. But I think this division stands alone for not following the rule.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

ScottK said:


> I'm guessing the major distinction between the Verdi Baritone type voice and the german heldentenor is what is asked of it in the similar tessitura.....where the declamation is happening. No score in front of me but again and again the sound of the baritone in the upper voice is of him singing through his upper voice or hitting climactic notes, not declaiming. Heldentenors declaim alot of the time.
> 
> Your argument for why we categorize is wise. But I think this division stands alone for not following the rule.


I think some actual examples would be useful. It's easy to get bogged down in mere description and theory.

It's true that there's less repertoire "crossover" between tenors and baritones than between mezzos and contraltos. What we think of as a "true" contralto is a rare sort of voice; as Seattleoperafan points out, there aren't very many operatic roles actually designated for contralto, and even those few are apt to be taken by singers who normally call themselves mezzo-sopranos. But if Wagner's tenor roles really do occupy a sort of middle ground, we should be able to find examples of baritones venturing to sing some of the excerptable bits. How about this?






I wouldn't call Hampson either a Verdi baritone or a heldentenor (though Balalaikaboy calls him a tenor); we don't hear in his voice the metal we'd ideally want from a Siegmund. But he sings this as well as most tenors and better than many. The aria is in Bb, and the highest note is a single G, with several Fs capping it otherwise. There are plenty of baritone arias that make greater demands on the top than this. "Wintersturme" is Siegmund's only aria in the whole opera, but his earlier monologue, "Ein schwert verhiess mir der Vater," has much marvelously expressive low writing, and at the other extreme even the climactic "Wälse!" takes him only to a G.






Siegmund may be the most baritonal of Wagner's tenor roles, but there's plenty of similar writing for Tristan, Siegfried, Tannhauser and Parsifal. As Melchior noted, Walther lies a bit higher, as does Erik; heldentenor types struggle to sustain the Prize Song, and Erik's arias call for an Italianate cantilena that often goes unrealized by the heavier voices assigned to the role.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Woodduck said:


> To repeat my main point: our vocal categories are artifacts. We create artifacts to satisfy our desire for contrast and variety. Actual voices are more varied than the boxes we put them in, and innumerable voices can occupy more than one box. Mezzos and contraltos are not the only examples.


and to repeat one of mine (though not the main point of this particular post): if you want to produce singers like those from the golden age, you have 
1) Teach the same type of technique they used 
and
2) Train them to sing the rep performed by past singers of similar vocal characteristics. Not exactly the same. Obviously, this is impossible, but certainly closer than what we're doing now.

It's not about an OCD penchant for classification. It's a simple matter of....the proof is in the pudding.


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## ScottK (Dec 23, 2021)

Woodduck said:


> I think some actual examples would be useful. It's easy to get bogged down in mere description and theory.
> 
> It's true that there's less repertoire "crossover" between tenors and baritones than between mezzos and contraltos. What we think of as a "true" contralto is a rare sort of voice; as Seattleoperafan points out, there aren't very many operatic roles actually designated for contralto, and even those few are apt to be taken by singers who normally call themselves mezzo-sopranos. But if Wagner's tenor roles really do occupy a sort of middle ground, we should be able to find examples of baritones venturing to sing some of the excerptable bits. How about this?
> 
> ...


I'm somewhere I can't listen and I really want to hear this. I agree with essentially everything you say so I find I'm going back to "what point am I making?" The Wagner tenor occupies a middle ground in terms of pitch but not a middle ground in terms of crossover performance, your examples not withstanding. Bernd Weikl was asked by Karajan to perform Siegmund, his stated reply was "I could do it but what then? I can't go on singing tenor!" Bumbry would not have said the same about Salome or Tosca. I believe he stated concerns about the roles effect on his voice. When MacNeil, with as good a top as any baritone, sampled Wagner he didn't go tenor he tried the Dutchman ( and apparently dropped it like a hot potato!) There is a wall between the strong high baritone and the strong low tenor. I did a show with Harve Presnell who said that when he was young he sang Walther in Europe. He referred to the ...... gonna get this wrong.....hoch tenor or hoch baritone ????? The term ( if I haven't made it up  must relate.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

ScottK said:


> I'm somewhere I can't listen and I really want to hear this. I agree with essentially everything you say so I find I'm going back to "what point am I making?" The Wagner tenor occupies a middle ground in terms of pitch but not a middle ground in terms of crossover performance, your examples not withstanding. Bernd Weikl was asked by Karajan to perform Siegmund, his stated reply was "I could do it but what then? I can't go on singing tenor!" Bumbry would not have said the same about Salome or Tosca. I believe he stated concerns about the roles effect on his voice. When MacNeil, with as good a top as any baritone, sampled Wagner he didn't go tenor he tried the Dutchman ( and apparently dropped it like a hot potato!) There is a wall between the strong high baritone and the strong low tenor. I did a show with Harve Presnell who said that when he was young he sang Walther in Europe. He referred to the ...... gonna get this wrong.....hoch tenor or hoch baritone ????? The term ( if I haven't made it up  must relate.


I didn't know that about Weikl. He was perhaps being sensible about not wanting to set a precedent for himself, though a singer unconcerned about that might have enjoyed a one-off. You don't have to go on singing tenor just because you do one tenor role once. Ramon Vinay seems to have enjoyed shuttling back and forth between fachs (as did Grace Bumbry, whom you mention).


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## Monsalvat (11 mo ago)

Those of us who have read John Culshaw's book _Ring Resounding_ will no doubt recall the difficulty Culshaw had in casting the role of (young) Siegfried: he wanted to cast an unnamed tenor (Ernst Kozub, who had recently sung Melot for Solti) but this tenor could not learn the part in time and was dismissed at the last minute, with Wolfgang Windgassen magnanimously stepping in. However I've read that there was some discussion about casting Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as Siegmund in 1965. I haven't found a reputable source for this claim. Fischer-Dieskau later sang the _Rheingold_ Wotan for Karajan, traditionally a bass-baritone role. I didn't know about Weikl either; I loved Vickers in Karajan's recording (and Leinsdorf's). I wonder how singing Siegmund would have shaped or altered their voices... probably not for the better.

And I would consider Hampson a lyric baritone, but I never knew he had done Winterstürme until just now. I think he does a great job, though he lacks the _heldentenor_ power and heft. Kundry is the quintessential zwischenfach Wagner role as far as I am concerned. Christa Ludwig and Martha Mödl both assumed the role of Kundry at some point, but aside from some excerpts, I think Ludwig only ever sang Brangäne and Mödl Isolde in complete performances of _Tristan_.


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## Revitalized Classics (Oct 31, 2018)

Monsalvat said:


> Those of us who have read John Culshaw's book _Ring Resounding_ will no doubt recall the difficulty Culshaw had in casting the role of (young) Siegfried: he wanted to cast an unnamed tenor (Ernst Kozub, who had recently sung Melot for Solti) but this tenor could not learn the part in time and was dismissed at the last minute, with Wolfgang Windgassen magnanimously stepping in. *However I've read that there was some discussion about casting Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau as Siegmund in 1965. I haven't found a reputable source for this claim*. Fischer-Dieskau later sang the _Rheingold_ Wotan for Karajan, traditionally a bass-baritone role. I didn't know about Weikl either; I loved Vickers in Karajan's recording (and Leinsdorf's). I wonder how singing Siegmund would have shaped or altered their voices... probably not for the better.
> 
> And I would consider Hampson a lyric baritone, but I never knew he had done Winterstürme until just now. I think he does a great job, though he lacks the _heldentenor_ power and heft. Kundry is the quintessential zwischenfach Wagner role as far as I am concerned. Christa Ludwig and Martha Mödl both assumed the role of Kundry at some point, but aside from some excerpts, I think Ludwig only ever sang Brangäne and Mödl Isolde in complete performances of _Tristan_.


Wasn't it in _Ring Resounding_ that Culshaw said about considering Fischer-Dieskau as Siegmund? I don't have it in front of me, sorry, I recall something about the process of elimination that Windgassen didn't like the part of Siegmund as it was too low, Culshaw thought about Fischer-Dieskau and then, as we know from the final product, the role went to James King.


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## Monsalvat (11 mo ago)

It's been a couple of years since I read it and I unfortunately don't have a copy with me; I don't recall reading it in _Ring Resounding_ but my memory is not infallible. I have his posthumous memoir, _Putting the Record Straight_, in front of me, and I'm 100% sure Culshaw didn't mention this particular matter in there.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Monsalvat said:


> It's been a couple of years since I read it and I unfortunately don't have a copy with me; I don't recall reading it in _Ring Resounding_ but my memory is not infallible. I have his posthumous memoir, _Putting the Record Straight_, in front of me, and I'm 100% sure Culshaw didn't mention this particular matter in there.


The part was offered to Fischer-Dieskau early on (1965) but he turned it down, though he had had thought of it himself years earlier (_Ring Resounding_ p.222 Time-Life Records Special Edition).

Fischer-Dieskau, though, sings Gunther in *Götterdämmerung* for the Solti *Ring*.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

MAS said:


> The part was offered to Fischer-Dieskau early on (1965) but he turned it down, though he had had thought of it himself years earlier (_Ring Resounding_ p.222 Time-Life Records Special Edition).
> 
> Fischer-Dieskau, though, sings Gunther in *Götterdämmerung* for the Solti *Ring*.


Fischer-Dieskau doesn't sound remotely like a heldentenor, but his Siegmund might have been a fascinating antihero. Whether or not we like his voice in Wagner's baritone and bass-baritone roles - to me it sounds better suited to some roles than to others - his portrayals are always interesting. I suppose that could be said of his operatic work in general.


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## The Conte (May 31, 2015)

Some general thoughts from me:

1) Classification into voice types should be considered in light of the reason for such classification. In other words, it has little use as an abstract concept. German agents and opera houses presumably find the fach system useful for casting operas. That doesn't mean that it is either an aid to teaching vocal technique or as a general guide for opera critics (whether amateur - i.e. those that write for famous newspapers, or professionals - i.e. those who comment and post here!) I find understanding and perceiving voices according to their natural abilities (that is range and weight/size of the voice) to be useful for understanding the rep that singers training should study to best develop their voices. This doesn't mean that voices should be pigeon holed and that students in conservatoires should only sing a pre-ordained set of arias/roles that match their category and woe to them if they go outside of their category. However, it would be odd for a lyric baritone (for example) at a conservatoire to study Mozart, Handel and Rossini tenor roles as much as the standard lighter baritone rep. (I believe, but could be mistaken, that Balalaikaboy has a similar opinion of why voice categorisation is useful.) Similarly, I think Woodduck considers voice type and categorisation from the view point of how useful it is when it comes to general consideration of singing and experienced singers who are past the phase of voice building and study of vocal technique. At that stage in a singers career choosing roles is more about what fits and suits each individual, rather than what one should concentrate on to develop one's technique the best.

2) There's a difference between soprano, tenor, bass or contralto etc. _voices_ and baritone, mezzo or contralto etc, _roles_. I would have thought that different voices all lie at a point on a spectrum rather than in set categories since such is the nature of human biology. The same is true of operatice roles, but they are even fuzzier, since there's more than one valid way of performing/singing a part and therefore it's almost inevitable that different roles will overlap with more than one different voice type.

3) The OP raises an interesting question which I have often thought about. Why so few Contralto roles? One would have thought that the female voice would be on a similar width of spectrum as the male voice (or is there a biological reason why the spectrum of range would be different for females?) We are all familiar with the lyric bass (or basso cantante) and the basso profondo, but there's no similar recognition for female voices. It's useful to remember that at one time there were only four categories and the mezzo and baritone were not recognised as separate from the bass and (contr)alto.

I have some more ideas about this, but I would like to meditate and test them a bit before posting them.

N.


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## ScottK (Dec 23, 2021)

The Conte said:


> 3) The OP raises an interesting question which I have often thought about. Why so few Contralto roles? One would have thought that the female voice would be on a similar width of spectrum as the male voice (or is there a biological reason why the spectrum of range would be different for females?) We are all familiar with the lyric bass (or basso cantante) and the basso profondo, but there's no similar recognition for female voices.
> 
> N.


My first guess as to why so many fewer contralto than bass parts would relate to the fact that opera is theater and, since we have been a male dominated society, there is a greater need to portray a wider range of male characters...the bass famously being assigned the kings, fathers and priests et. al. that show up in the stories. Look at the quantity of male vs female roles in any Shakespeare play.


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## OffPitchNeb (Jun 6, 2016)

ScottK said:


> My first guess as to why so many fewer contralto than bass parts would relate to the fact that opera is theater and, since we have been a male dominated society, there is a greater need to portray a wider range of male characters...the bass famously being assigned the kings, fathers and priests et. al. that show up in the stories. Look at the quantity of male vs female roles in any Shakespeare play.


Back to the topic about alto vs. mezzo. This is pretty amazing, right? She sounded effortless and somewhat "lighter" (in a good sense) than some modern mezzo singing the aria.






And then, she could also sound like this:


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

The Conte said:


> The OP raises an interesting question which I have often thought about. Why so few Contralto roles? One would have thought that the female voice would be on a similar width of spectrum as the male voice (or is there a biological reason why the spectrum of range would be different for females?) We are all familiar with the lyric bass (or basso cantante) and the basso profondo, but there's no similar recognition for female voices. *It's useful to remember that at one time there were only four categories and the mezzo and baritone were not recognised as separate from the bass and (contr)alto.*


I suspect that the main reason for the dearth of contralto roles is, as you've said, that voices were categorized differently in earlier times - specifically, more simply, as high and low: soprano, alto, tenor and bass. Though I don't know just when the intermediate categories of mezzo-soprano and baritone gained currency, I gather it was around the middle of the 19th century. I don't think these terms, or the term "contralto," were used by Handel and Mozart. I'm not sure about Donizetti or Rossini.

I don't know Verdi's thinking on this subject either, but I do know a little about Wagner's. He used the basic traditional categorization of voices, and simply added the words _hoher _("higher") and _tiefer_ ("deeper") when he wanted to be specfic. For example, he used the term "bass" for most of his lower-voiced male roles; his only use of the term "baritone" was, as far as I know, in _Tannhauser,_ where Wolfram (baritone) is differentiated from the landgrave (bass). Typically he calls all low-voiced men basses, and specifies _hoher Bass_ (higher bass) and _tiefer Bass_ (lower bass). In _Parsifal,_ for example, Amfortas and Klingsor are "higher basses" and Gurnemanz and Titurel are "lower basses." The same thing applies to female voices; in _Lohengrin_, Elsa is a _hoher Sopran_ and Ortrud is a _tiefer __Sopran;_ in the Ring, Brunnhilde and Sieglinde are _hoher Sopran,_ while Fricka and Waltraute are _tiefer Sopran_ roles. (Kundry, interestingly, is simply called _Sopran,_ but the range, tessitura and general character of her music are as apt to attract mezzos to the role as sopranos. Modern _fach_ thinking recognizes a category called _Zwischenfach_ - "in-between fach"- and Kundry unquestionably qualifies.) As for the term "contralto," Wagner didn't use it at all. Astonishingly, even Erda, a part that fits the contralto category if there ever was one, is designated in the score as _tiefer Sopran!_

Composers have sought to match the nature of their vocal writing, including matters of range and tessitura, to the character of their dramatis personae. Higher voices suggest youth, and since most romantic stories revolve around young lovers, it's natural that these roles became the property of sopranos and tenors. In contrast, deep voices, male or female, have been very naturally associated with age, dignity, wisdom, et al., as well as with eccentricity and various comical traits. In the patriarchal culture that most opera represents, there will be many more male than female characters embodying such traits. Add to that the simple fact that really deep-voiced women are uncommon, and it isn't surprising that female roles for what we've come to think of as the contralto voice should be rare.


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

Woodduck said:


> I suspect that the main reason for the dearth of contralto roles is, as you've said, that voices were categorized differently in earlier times - specifically, more simply, as high and low: soprano, alto, tenor and bass. Though I don't know just when the intermediate categories of mezzo-soprano and baritone gained currency, I gather it was around the middle of the 19th century. I don't think these terms, or the term "contralto," were used by Handel and Mozart. I'm not sure about Donizetti or Rossini.
> 
> I don't know Verdi's thinking on this subject either, but I do know a little about Wagner's. He used the basic traditional categorization of voices, and simply added the words _hoher _("higher") and _tiefer_ ("deeper") when he wanted to be specfic. For example, he used the term "bass" for most of his lower-voiced male roles; his only use of the term "baritone" was, as far as I know, in _Tannhauser,_ where Wolfram (baritone) is differentiated from the landgrave (bass). Typically he calls all low-voiced men basses, and specifies _hoher Bass_ (higher bass) and _tiefer Bass_ (lower bass). In _Parsifal,_ for example, Amfortas and Klingsor are "higher basses" and Gurnemanz and Titurel are "lower basses." The same thing applies to female voices; in _Lohengrin_, Elsa is a _hoher Sopran_ and Ortrud is a _tiefer __Sopran;_ in the Ring, Brunnhilde and Sieglinde are _hoher Sopran,_ while Fricka and Waltraute are _tiefer Sopran_ roles. (Kundry, interestingly, is simply called _Sopran,_ but the range, tessitura and general character of her music are as apt to attract mezzos to the role as sopranos. Modern _fach_ thinking recognizes a category called _Zwischenfach_ - "in-between fach"- and Kundry unquestionably qualifies.) As for the term "contralto," Wagner didn't use it at all. Astonishingly, even Erda, a part that fits the contralto category if there ever was one, is designated in the score as _tiefer Sopran!_
> 
> Composers have sought to match the nature of their vocal writing, including matters of range and tessitura, to the character of their dramatis personae. Higher voices suggest youth, and since most romantic stories revolve around young lovers, it's natural that these roles became the property of sopranos and tenors. In contrast, deep voices, male or female, have been very naturally associated with age, dignity, wisdom, et al., as well as with eccentricity and various comical traits. In the patriarchal culture that most opera represents, there will be many more male than female characters embodying such traits. Add to that the simple fact that really deep-voiced women are uncommon, and it isn't surprising that female roles for what we've come to think of as the contralto voice should be rare.


My sister the voice teacher says that another problem is rarity of contraltos. In 40 years of teaching she never had a contralto student. In Germany they perform Bach all... the... time and it is almost impossible to find women who can sing the alto arias which all lie quite low in tessitura. I did a Toastmaster speech on the gospel great Mahalia Jackson today. Even in popular music, aside from her and a few Black blues singers and Sarah Vaughn, you almost never run into those big, powerful low alto voices. Most women are sopranos without the high notes. Take Kathleen Ferrier for example. She died in the 50's. The contraltos who had such an incredibly rich voice since then have been very few and far between as far as I can tell. Podles and Obratzsova ( both from Eastern Europe and who have huge ranges) are some of the few and they don't sing the stuff Ferrier did.


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## Bonetan (Dec 22, 2016)

Seattleoperafan said:


> My sister the voice teacher says that another problem is rarity of contraltos. In 40 years of teaching she never had a contralto student. In Germany they perform Bach all... the... time and it is almost impossible to find women who can sing the alto arias which all lie quite low in tessitura. I did a Toastmaster speech on the gospel great Mahalia Jackson today. Even in popular music, aside from her and a few Black blues singers and Sarah Vaughn, you almost never run into those big, powerful low alto voices. Most women are sopranos without the high notes. Take Kathleen Ferrier for example. She died in the 50's. The contraltos who had such an incredibly rich voice since then have been very few and far between as far as I can tell. Podles and Obratzsova ( both from Eastern Europe and who have huge ranges) are some of the few and they don't sing the stuff Ferrier did.


To piggyback off what your sister said in the years I've been singing I've come across one true contralto. And this woman was very close to me in height (I'm 6'3) and considerably larger than me, further illustrating how rare such singers are. I've also known a mezzo or two who decided they were going to start calling themselves contraltos...


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Composers know that they have to be flexible and tolerant in writing music for low-voiced women. I doubt that Verdi or Wagner really expected most performers of Ulrica or Erda to sound like Marian Anderson or Ernestine Schumann-Heink, whatever cavernous sounds they may have heard in their mind's ear. But there have certainly been mezzos with good low notes who could darken their tone a little and be suitably spooky in these parts. The fortunate thing for opera houses is that although there are few deep contraltos, there are few roles for them as well. Contraltos who want to sing opera will have to take on these parts, and opera houses will want to hire them to do it. Does this imply, I wonder, that contraltos are in a good position to demand higher fees?


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## Seattleoperafan (Mar 24, 2013)

A last comment about mezzos. You will find a lot of big voiced mezzos like Stignani, Borodina and Blythe who took on the Rossini coloratura roles but find fewer big voiced sopranos taking on parts with a lot of coloratura. Callas, Sutherland and Dimitrova are among the very few. I read a mezzo responding to this essentially saying that there are enough soprano roles that sopranos can be lazy and not learn the skill of coloratura singing but mezzos have few good roles so must learn to be open to any mezzo roles.


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## BalalaikaBoy (Sep 25, 2014)

Seattleoperafan said:


> A last comment about mezzos. You will find a lot of big voiced mezzos like Stignani, Borodina and Blythe who took on the Rossini coloratura roles but find fewer big voiced sopranos taking on parts with a lot of coloratura. Callas, Sutherland and Dimitrova are among the very few. I read a mezzo responding to this essentially saying that there are enough soprano roles that sopranos can be lazy and not learn the skill of coloratura singing but mezzos have few good roles so must learn to be open to any mezzo roles.


Indeed. The whole "you can't do coloratura, cuz big voice" excuse is a bunch of nonsense spread by singers with pushed voices and unnatural technique. Every singer should have some facility with coloratura, not just canary leggiero sopranos.


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