At the Vienna State Opera and London's Covent Garden, the Mariinsky Theater and the Metropolitan Opera in New York. We remember opera singers from Russia who became world famous for their soprano.
Galina Vishnevskaya
Galina Vishnevskaya. Photo: techno.com
The musical career of Galina Vishnevskaya began in Kronstadt: first, the young singer performed in front of her grandmother and her guests, then at all concerts at school. She was called "Pebble-artist". Vishnevskaya miraculously escaped from starvation in besieged Leningrad, signed up for an air defense detachment - and sang again: for sailors in the evenings.
In 1944, Galina Vishnevskaya easily entered the Leningrad Regional Operetta Theater, went to concerts in small towns and villages. Since 1947, already in the status of a soloist of the Leningrad Regional Philharmonic, the singer performed with variety programs. And soon a vocal teacher Vera Garina appeared in Vishnevskaya's life. The singer wrote about this meeting in her book "Galina": “I don’t know how my further creative destiny would have developed without her, but I would never have become an opera singer”.
Garina, who had vast stage experience, discovered a real operatic soprano in her new student. Two years of Vishnevskaya's studies were enough to enter the trainee group of the Bolshoi Theater of the USSR in 1952.
Among the first parts performed on the country's main stage are Tatiana in Pyotr Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, Kupava in Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's The Snow Maiden. However, the trainee Vishnevskaya dreamed of the role of Aida in the opera of the same name by Giuseppe Verdi. She prepared it under the guidance of maestro Alexander Melik-Pashayev and conquered not only the Soviet, but also the Western audience. Foreign theaters vied with each other to invite the Soviet singer. The New York Times correspondent wrote: "Vishnevskaya - a knockout in the eyes and in the ears."
However, all the creative achievements of the opera singer crossed out her "politically unreliable" act. In 1969, Galina Vishnevskaya and her husband Mstislav Rostropovich gave shelter to the disgraced writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn at their dacha near Moscow. In 1974, after numerous trials, the couple decided to leave their friends, home, beloved audience and go abroad. And in March 1978, Galina Vishnevskaya and Mstislav Rostropovich were deprived of Soviet citizenship and state awards.
Abroad, the opera singer continued to perform in theaters until 1982. Then, after saying goodbye to the stage, Galina Vishnevskaya gave concerts and master classes. In 1990, Vishnevskaya and Rostropovich returned to the USSR. In 2002, the Galina Vishnevskaya Center for Opera Singing was opened in Moscow, whose graduates sing today in the best theaters in the world.
Documentary film about the life of Galina Vishnevskaya:
The Life Line program with the participation of Vishnevskaya:
Lyubov Kazarnovskaya
Lyubov Kazarnovskaya. Photo: timg.com
In 1989, when the iron curtain that protected Soviet citizens from the "pernicious influence of the West" fell, foreign opera impresarios flocked to Russia in search of new voices. Representatives of the Vienna Opera invited Lyubov Kazarnovskaya to the capital of Austria.
Next - performances on the world's best opera stages in a variety of images. She succeeded in the fiery Tosca in Puccini's opera of the same name and the resigned Desdemona in Verdi's Otello. There were also rave reviews from the press, and scandals associated with the prima donna's refusal to participate in dubious directorial undertakings.
During her trips to Western countries, Lyubov Kazarnovskaya always found time for serious Russian projects. In 1995, she sang the title role in Salome by Richard Strauss at the Mariinsky Theatre, and in 1999 at the Bolshoi Theater she sang the part of Manon in the experimental play Portrait of Manon, composed of scenes from two operas of the same name by Massenet and Puccini.
In the 2000s, Lyubov Kazarnovskaya began to spend most of her time in Russia. For several years now, her focus has been on educational activities and media projects.
Habanera from the opera "Carmen" performed by Lyubov Kazarnovskaya:
Maria Guleghina
Maria Guleghina. Photo: classicalmusicnews.ru
Maria Guleghina's career began at the opera house in Minsk. The young singer successfully performed and was popular with the public. In 1987, at the invitation of the management of La Scala, Maria made her debut on its stage as Amelia (Un ballo in maschera by Giuseppe Verdi). By that time, the singer's voice had turned from a mezzo-soprano into a dramatic soprano, to which all the "bloody" parts of the Italian repertoire are subject. Performing in operas by Verdi and Puccini, Cilea and Giordano, she captivated music lovers all over the world. Accompanist and teacher Larisa Gergieva called the part of Tosca in Puccini's opera the greatest in the singer's repertoire.
Two years later, in her native opera house, Maria Guleghina decided to perform operas in the original language, but her colleagues did not support her.
“And the situation was such that I can’t sing in the West, because they don’t let me out, and in the theater, because people’s artists are against me.<...>And then, by hook or by crook, I make tourist passports with visas for myself and my family, learn Aida in Italian in five days and fly, while alone, to the Spanish town of Oviedo, because the local theater invited me to sing.
Maria Guleghina
She later moved to Hamburg. Maria Guleghina has performed at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and London's Covent Garden, in Vienna and Los Angeles, Munich and Zurich. In the 2000s, the singer appeared before the Russian public - on the stage of the Mariinsky Theater. She also gives master classes and participates in charity events.
Fragment of Maria Guleghina's performance at the Mariinsky Theatre:
"Life Line" with Maria Guleghina:
Anna Netrebko
Anna Netrebko. Photo: classicalmusicnews.ru
Anna Netrebko was born in Krasnodar and began to appear on stage there. However, the young singer dreamed of the theaters of St. Petersburg - and she fulfilled her dream. She easily entered the music school, soon fluttered to the conservatory, in the class of Tamara Novichenko. While still a student, Anna Netrebko sparkled at an audition for young singers at the Mariinsky Theatre, and Valery Gergiev invited her to make her debut as Susanna in Mozart's Marriage of Figaro. After that, on the stage of the legendary Mariinsky Theater, the very young Anna performed the parts of the courtesan Violetta (Verdi's La Traviata), Lyudmila (Glinka's Ruslan and Lyudmila), the gentle Gilda (Verdi's Rigoletto) and many other roles.
In 2002, she performed in New York as Natasha Rostova (Sergei Prokofiev's War and Peace), and soon after that, in Salzburg, she performed the part of Donna Anna in Mozart's Don Giovanni.
Over time, Anna Netrebko's voice acquired new colors, and the fragile heroines were replaced by completely different images - for example, the bloodthirsty Lady Macbeth in Verdi's opera. About this role, the singer said: "In the image of Lady Macbeth, I was finally able to be myself." But with Tatiana in "Eugene Onegin" Netrebko, in her words, "suffered": “By nature, I was and am its exact opposite”.
In autumn 2016, Anna Netrebko made her debut at the Bolshoi Theatre. Together with her husband, tenor Yusif Eyvazov, she performed in Puccini's opera Manon Lescaut.
In February 2017, the singer was awarded the honorary title of Kammersängerin, which is awarded to outstanding performers in Germany and Austria. She became the first Russian woman to be awarded this title.
“She is not only a singer, but also an actress. And with her presentation of the material, she brought ordinary people closer to the opera.
Albina Shagimuratova, opera singer
Giuditta's aria from Lehar's operetta performed by Anna Netrebko:
A film about Anna Netrebko "And then I get out!" (2013):
In 2007, she completed her postgraduate studies at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory. P.I. Tchaikovsky, and in the same year became the winner of the XIII International Tchaikovsky Competition.
“Shagimuratova is very talented and performed brilliantly in all three rounds and in the concert of laureates. She has a real fighting spirit, although she is sweet, charming and modest.
Evgeny Nesterenko, opera singer, teacher, professor
Immediately after winning the competition, the singer was invited to Salzburg and, after listening, she was offered her debut as the Queen of the Night (Mozart's Magic Flute) under the guidance of maestro Riccardo Muti. A brilliant performance at the Salzburg Festival in 2008 attracted the attention of representatives of European and American theaters to Albina. The young singer got interesting contracts, and the virtuoso part of the Queen of the Night became her hallmark.
However, Albina Shagimuratova wanted to sing in Russia. In 2011, she took part in the production of Mikhail Glinka's Ruslan and Lyudmila at the Bolshoi Theatre. In 2012, Shagimuratova won the Golden Mask theater award for her performance as Lucia in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor. Today this party is one of the most beloved in the singer's repertoire: “I adore Lucia, everything is mine in her! I can show myself in it as a person, and this is very important if you want to reach out to the audience!”.
Today Albina Shagimuratova sings mainly in Italian operas, which require mastery of the bel canto singing style. In the West, the performer is called the "Tatar nightingale." Not forgetting the first difficulties in the profession, she tells her students: “Everyone gets a chance. And if we use every opportunity to get closer to the goal, remaining, despite any temptations, people, we work and do not expect easy victories, then everything will work out in the end..
Documentary film about Albina Shagimuratova:
- Coloratura and lyric-coloratura soprano
- Lyric light and strong soprano
- Lyric-dramatic and dramatic soprano
- Lyric and dramatic mezzo-soprano
- Contralto
Soprano
Coloratura and lyric-coloratura soprano.
(Conventional: TO And OK)
These are the lightest and most mobile voices. K range: before first octave - sol-sharp third. L-C range: before first octave - mi third. The lower fifth of the range is expressive on the piano, but the voice cannot sound here on the forte. Working middle - mi, F first octave - F, sol-sharp second. Both types can be called the owners of the most shiny tops, which sound a little warmer on OK. They can easily cope with all types of jewelry, but for coloratura it is laid down more by nature, and for OK learning matters. These voices are entrusted with the images of young heroines, cheerful, slyly playful, they can express impartiality, coldness and even cruelty. Dramatic colors are almost inaccessible to these voices: they express grief, suffering, cruelty by lyrical means.
Opera repertoire:
- Queen of the Night - Mozart "The Magic Flute" ( TO);
- Gilda - Verdi "Rigoletto" ( OK);
- Juliet - Gounod "Romeo and Juliet" ( TO);
- Elvira - Bellini "Puritans";
- Rosina - Rossini "The Barber of Seville" (now - TO);
- Owl - Tom "Minion";
- Violetta - Verdi "La Traviata" (now - TO);
- Lakme - Delib "Lakme" ( TO);
- Queen of Shemakhany - Rimsky-Korsakov "The Golden Cockerel" ( TO);
- Antonida - Glinka "Ivan Susanin" ( OK);
- The Swan Princess - Rimsky-Korsakov "The Tale of Tsar Saltan" ( OK);
- Oksana - Rimsky-Korsakov "The Night Before Christmas";
- Shahsenem - Glier "Shahsenem";
- Lyudmila - Glinka "Ruslan and Lyudmila" ( OK);
- Lyuba Shevtsova - Meitus "Young Guard".
Performers: Antonina Nezhdanova ( OK), Valeria Barsova ( TO), Milica Korjus ( TO), Gohar Gasparyan ( TO), Alla Solenkova ( TO), Bella Rudenko, Galina Oleinichenko, Evgeniya Miroshnichenko, Kattlin Battle ( TO), Montserrat Caballe ( OK), D. Sutherland ( OK).
Lyrical lung ( LL) and lyrical strong soprano ( OK)
These are also the so-called light voices with a warm timbre, but with less pronounced mobility. Range: from before first to before third octave, the lower fourth is convincing in shades. Working middle - from F first to salt second octave. For them, the roles of heroines are written in operas, possessing inner strength, sustained in the manifestation of their emotions.
Opera repertoire:
- Michaela - Bizet "Carmen" ( LL);
- Marguerite - Gounod "Faust" ( OK);
- Desdemona - Verdi "Otello" ( OK);
- Elsa - Wagner "Lohengrin" ( OK);
- Mimi - Puccini "La Boheme" ( LL);
- Cio-Cio-San - Puccini "Madama Butterfly" ( OK);
- Parasya - Mussorgsky "Sorochinsky Fair";
- Marfa - Rimsky-Korsakov "The Tsar's Bride" ( LL);
- Volkhov - Rimsky-Korsakov "Sadko" ( OK);
- Iolanta - Tchaikovsky "Iolanta" ( OK);
- Tatyana - Tchaikovsky "Eugene Onegin" ( OK);
- Prilepa - Tchaikovsky "The Queen of Spades" ( OK).
In passing, it should be noted that the part of Marfa is performed by a lighter soprano, and the part of Tatyana is performed by a strong or lyric-dramatic soprano.
Performers: M. Kuznetsova, E. Tsvetkova, Renata Scotto, Maria Biesu, Mirella Freni, Tamara Milashkina.
Lyric-dramatic ( LD) and dramatic soprano ( D)
The dramatic soprano is a stronger, more powerful voice with more filling over the entire sound range than previously discussed. This is perhaps the richest soprano voice in terms of possibilities, which has a pronounced contrast between piano and forte, which is subject to both lyrical and dramatic colors. The lyric-dramatic and dramatic soprano has the same range as the previous voices, but a richer timbre and a variety of dynamic shades in the lower fifth, in the mixed segment of the range and in the head register. In addition, the chest sound of these voices is retained up to higher notes. Range: from to first to before third octave, working middle - from F first to salt second octave. A lyrical-dramatic soprano can perform both lyrical and dramatic parts, emphasizing in the character of the heroines those features, those qualities that will make it possible to describe the timbre of the voice. In operas for these voices, images of heroines are created, full of passions, deceit, overflowing with strong feelings, one might say, images of strong personalities.
Opera repertoire:
- Turandot - Puccini "Turandot" ( D);
- Aida - Verdi "Otello" ( LD);
- Santuzza - Mascagni "Rural honor" ( LD);
- Tosca - Puccini "Tosca" ( OK, LD);
- Gorislav - Glinka "Ruslan and Lyudmila" ( LD);
- Yaroslavna - Borodin "Prince Igor" ( LD);
- Natasha - Dargomyzhsky "Mermaid" ( LD);
- Lisa - Tchaikovsky "The Queen of Spades" ( OK, LD);
- Kuma - Tchaikovsky "The Enchantress" ( LD);
- Katerina - Shostakovich - "Katerina Izmailova" ( LD).
These strong voices are not so common in life. One of the reasons for the decrease in the number of dramatic voices may be the ever-increasing tuning of the orchestra (from 424 vibrations in 1858 to 440 vibrations now).
Owners of these types of voices: Maria Callas ( D), Rayna Kabaywanska ( LD), Felia Litvin ( D), Galina Vishnevskaya ( LD), Natalia Troitskaya ( D), Lyubov Kazarnovskaya ( D), Elena Ivanova ( LD), Galina Gorchakova ( LD), Jesse Norman ( D), Eva Marton ( D), Teresa Stratas ( LD), Lidia Abramova ( LD).
Lyric ( LMC) and dramatic ( DMC) mezzo-soprano
The first of these voices tends more towards soprano, the second towards contralto. The saturation of the chest register is higher in the dramatic mezzo, this voice also has a denser middle. Both voices range from la small octave to la the second, although there are both lower and higher voices. Among the images are coquettish, insidious seductresses with a bright temperament, and young girls ready to accomplish a feat, and travesty heroes.
Opera repertoire:
- Polina - Tchaikovsky "The Queen of Spades" ( LMC);
- Carmen - Bizet "Carmen" ( LMC);
- Milovzor - Tchaikovsky "The Queen of Spades" ( LMC);
- Spring - Rimsky-Korsakov "The Snow Maiden" ( LMC);
- Hanna - Rimsky-Korsakov "May Night";
- Jeanne d'Arc - Tchaikovsky "Maid of Orleans" ( LMC);
- Cinderella - Rossini "Cinderella" ( LMC);
- Siebel - Gounod "Faust" ( LMC);
- Cherubino - Mozart "The Marriage of Figaro" ( LMC);
- Azucena - Verdi "Troubadour" ( DMC);
- Rogneda - Serov "Rogneda" ( DMC);
- Marfa - Mussorgsky "Khovanshchina" ( LMC);
- Lyubasha - Rimsky-Korsakov "The Tsar's Bride";
- Lyubava - Rimsky-Korsakov "Sadko"
Performers: Nadezhda Obukhova, Vera Davydova, Zara Dolukhanova, Irina Arkhipova, Elena Obraztsova, Tamara Sinyavskaya, Olga Borodina, Lyudmila Simonova, Teresa Berganza, Cecilia Bartoli (coloratura mezzo-soprano).
Contralto
Very rare lowest female voice. Its range is from salt small octave to beans second. But in the history of vocal art there were other voices with a large range. The most juicy chest timbre of this voice appears in the section salt small - salt first octave. Now the parts written for this type of voice are being replaced by the performance of the mezzo-soprano.
Opera repertoire:
- Ulrika - Verdi "Un ballo in masquerade";
- Vanya - Glinka "Ivan Susanin";
- Ratmir - Glinka "Ruslan and Lyudmila";
- Nezhata - Rimsky-Korsakov "Sadko";
- Konchakovna - Borodin "Prince Igor".
Each performer who appeared on the world opera stages has already reached the heights of fame ...
But even among the best there is a “table of ranks”. We present the top ten best opera singers - our contemporaries.
1. Anna Netrebko
Russian soprano Anna Netrebko reigns supreme in the opera world, out of reach for other singers.
To say that she is a star of modern opera is to say nothing, she is not just a star - she is an opera singer from God.
Everything that should be in an opera singer - extraordinary beauty, elegance, artistry, sensuality, intelligence and, of course, an amazingly clear and precise voice that is easily recognizable - all this harmoniously merged into this “standard” of the opera stage.
2. Angela Gheorghiu
Romanian soprano, mega-star of the opera stage Angela Georgiou, is by far the most famous and most controversial opera singer in the world.
Some critics argue that the advertising machine made her famous, saying that some singers have a stronger voice than Angela, others have better technique, others have a larger range, fourths are more beautiful, fifths are more artistic, sixths are more refined, but Angela is more magnificent than all of them.
3. Maria Guleghina
Maria Guleghina is a Russian dramatic soprano, “a vocal miracle with Verdi flowing in her blood” – this is just one of the characteristics given to her by fans and critics.
To date, she has no equal in performing the roles of a “powerful” dramatic soprano, especially from the repertoire of Verdi and Puccini.
Having recently celebrated a quarter-century anniversary of her creative activity, she continues to delight real opera lovers all over the world with her fiery temperament and impeccably polished skills.
4. Tarja Turunen
Having an excellent academic education, she found her calling in modern types of opera art - “classical crossover” and symphonic rock.
A light, beautiful woman wins the hearts of her fans not only with her magical vocal abilities, but also with her optimistic and freedom-loving energy.
5. Renee Fleming
René is the gold standard for the full lyric soprano in the American version of operatic singing. The absolute diva of the New York Metropolitan Opera for the foreseeable future.
Her repertoire includes the whole color of world opera - Italian, German, French, Russian - everywhere she shows her magnificent talent, brilliantly conveying the color of great works, filling every note with incredible meaning and emotions, special charm and unique charm, forcing the audience who heard her alone time to become her most devoted fans.
6. Danielle de Niese
This lyric soprano is one of the youngest singers, an American with Sri Lankan and Dutch roots.
She has been performing all her life, starting from the school bench, as a result, her lightness and openness on the theater stage, and one might say, “panache” gives odds to many more experienced singers, and her rise to operatic heights is the lot of dreams of any singer.
7. Cecilia Bartoli (Cecilia Bartoli)
If there was only Baroque opera in the world and only bel canto performance style, then Cecilia Bartoli, the Italian prima donna with her unique coloratura mezzo-soprano, would undoubtedly be at the very top of the operatic Olympus.
She is one of those rare musicians who manage to harmoniously combine her outstanding intellect and vocal skills.
She turns each of her creative projects into a masterpiece, brilliant, clear, filled with human feelings and emotions and, of course, technically impeccable.
8. Anna Caterina Antonacci
Italian charm, with a difficult to classify voice, successfully performs any part in these ranges.
Her timbre is more likely to be attributed to the type of voice that was called “short soprano” in the first half of the nineteenth century, but sometimes a couple of high notes can seem slightly inaccurate.
9. Magdalena Kozena
The Czech mezzo-soprano, with the specific beauty of a voice - strong, rich, but flexible, fresh and marked by matte-silvery lyrical tones, feels great in the most diverse repertoire: from the works of Handel, Rossini and Vivaldi to the songs of modern composers.
And, of course, she vividly performs and promotes the romance-song repertoire of Czech classics and Czech folklore.
10 Joyce DiDonato
A 100% American with a rather rare voice - her coloratura mezzo-soprano is able to produce unthinkable passages and rise from deep bottoms to vocal heights. She is best at dramatic roles, but the freedom with which she feels on stage allows her to easily and skillfully transform, which directors take advantage of, offering her a wide range of complex characters.
A strong and cheerful woman - once performed at the Royal Opera with a broken leg in a wheelchair. Having a busy schedule three years ahead and being a guest soloist at London's Covent Garden, New York's Metropolitan Opera and Milan's La Scala.
Page 9 of 21
MEZZO SOPRANO
Apart from Anderson, Bezanzoni and Sadun, not a single mezzo-soprano in the exact sense of the word has appeared in the last forty years. Those low female voices that we hear belong to soprano singers who have neither real tops nor real bottoms and who devote themselves to the mezzo-soprano repertoire, placing their hopes on their performing temperament, on the beauty of sound and on stage charm. Mezzo-sopranos, similar to the three vocalists mentioned, that is, close to the contralto, completely disappeared from circulation. Now it happens sometimes to hear a soprano at some performance, which shines with a rounded, dark and dense sound much more than a mezzo-soprano standing right there. And it turns out that monumental or ruthlessly cruel characters, conceived by the composer in very specific timbre colors, do not find the proper embodiment. The same would happen, say, to an orchestra, whose sound would become liquid if we removed the cellos and double basses from it and replaced them with violins. One gets the impression that nature has exhausted itself and no longer wants to generate female voices of the “transitional” type, which physiologically correspond to a certain type of female constitution. Due to the deplorable lack of such voices, it is no longer possible to hear Azucena on a Michelangelo scale talking about the burning of her own child, or Delilah seducing the invincible Samson and lulling him to sleep with the sound of her velvety, carnivorous, roaring voice, or Carmen, who would make the audience see death with her , growing behind her shoulders in the fortune-telling scene. Today's mezzo-sopranos can be excellent and most cultured singers, but in terms of sound texture their voices are far from those vocal phenomena such as, for example, some Grassini or Alboni were.
MARGARET MATZENHAUER
Possessing a voice as flexible as her truly Teutonic figure, she has remained in the memory of the regulars of the Met as a performer of parts that today's public does not even know by name. In Meyerbeer's The Prophet, she was a mother who suddenly sees her own son in the pompous robes of the pope. And this son does not want to recognize and rejects his mother - one of the most poignant and dramatic situations that has ever inspired an opera composer. It is not known for what reasons Meyerbeer's masterpiece does not enter the repertoires of theaters, while Nabucco and The Count of San Bo-Nifacio are still making collections. In The Prophet, Matzenhauer's huge, human, truly maternal voice conveyed the most secret tremors of maternal feeling coming from the depths, putting them into the beats of Meyerbeer's music. All the changes in the states of her character - amazement, joy, disappointment, longing and despair were reflected in the full and deep notes of her voice, both sonorous and boundless in range. Matzenhauer's voice was from the now forgotten category of "witch" voices; in a happy union of grace and strength, he drew his expressive power, which had an unfailing effect on the souls of his listeners.
The modern reader will perhaps want to call these epithets exaggerated and excessive, which refer to a voice that has gone into the past and cannot be verified. But there are still ears that have heard and eyes that have seen these and similar miracles, the existence of which is now being questioned by our incredulous contemporaries.
GABRIELLA BEZANZONI
“I lost Eurydice, Eurydice is not with me,” so sang on the threshold of hell, addressing the elusive shadow of his beloved, the voice of Gabriella Bezanzoni, thick, as if riddled with trembling on the bottoms and flashing with lightning in the middle and tops, trembling on repetitions of the famous stanza with sobs, capable of placating the very stones of the underworld.
The Spaniards showered it with honors, the Argentines and Brazilians disputed it with each other, the Italians did not quite understand it or did not listen to it long enough to understand. But she is the last real mezzo-soprano in Italy, a voice close to contralto. All subsequent ones, compared with her, will seem like finches, thrushes and canaries, chirping in more or less precious cages. They lack the forest expanse, aroma, the rustle of leaves, the mystery of forest thickets. Gabriel D'Annunzio, after listening to Bezanzoni, compared her with Orpheus and the Archangel Gabriel.
Let us recall the plot of Donizetti's The Favorite. In the center of the tragedy is a woman named Leonora di Guzman, rushing between the king of Castile and a nameless knight who fled from the monastery in order to win her heart with swearing glory. Bezantsoni made her believe that her Leonora was worthy of living in the gardens of the Alcazar, that she was capable of inflaming titanic passions and inviting church curses.
But there is one opera that especially inspired this singer and helped her become the idol of the Iberian Peninsula - this is Carmen. The primitive sensuality of the wild and changeable gypsy woman “with a wolf look”, who, shaking her hips, inspires the gentlemen to madrigal impromptu and throws bloodthirsty glances around herself, was reflected in the facial expressions, in the voice, in the words and gestures of the artist with such eloquent and tragic vitality that arose natural conviction that she is indeed the flesh of the Andalusian earthly flesh, filled with mysterious vibes and eternal calls.
When Bezanzoni left the stage, she left behind a void that Italy has not filled to this day. She was from that galaxy of famous contraltos, to which belonged Malanotte, Pisaroni, Grassini, Alboni, Borgi-Mamo, Barbara Marchisio.
PARALLEL MATZENHAUER - BEZANZONI
These are real, pure water heroines of the musical theater. Onn were endowed with immense voices, as if created in order to fill vast spaces, surprise, conquer and touch.
It seems simply incredible that the fragile human larynx could radiate such enormous sound energy without overstepping the boundaries set by nature. Involuntarily, you will say that spiritual manifestations and, in particular, the art of singing, which draws strength from the inner world of a person and is at the same time its projection, do not fit into the canons of the exact sciences.
Both of them - the Hungarian Matzenhauer (who went through the German school), and the Italian Bezanzoni - repelled in their work from an outstanding creative intellect and a strong and harmonious physical constitution. The first was needed to control the voice and understand its nature, the second helped to protect and protect it. The difference between their vocals was in the unequal vocal flexibility, Matzenhauer revealed a certain monotony of the performing style, which, however, followed from the principles of her school; Bezantzoni, who possessed personal magnetism, possessed countless inner states and intonational nuances, turned out to be much more multifaceted outwardly.
With her singing, the Italian won the heart of one of the magnates of Brazilian industry and became the mistress of the largest of the merchant fleets of South America. She owns a whole island in the bay of Rio de Janeiro and a villa near Copacabana.
A friend of Pacchinn Alvear (singer endowed with an ethereal-gentle coloratura soprano), Gabriella Bezanzoni enjoyed wide popularity in Argentina, where she made connections in high society and was friendly with the family of the President of the Republic. Her name is well known to millions of Italian émigrés, and her presence in that country has given Italy a high and enduring prestige that no Italian ambassador has ever attained.
The vocal career and life of Matzenhauer were not so brilliant, but she nevertheless contributed to the establishment of the art of singing and the German vocal school, especially in the period following the First World War. She married tenor Ferrari Fontana, a native of Rome, the same one who surpassed Caruso in Montemezzi's "Love for Three Kings" in Montemezzi's "Love for Three Kings" in phrasing and intonational expressiveness.
Fanny Anitua
This huge Mexican, in addition to her voice, the middle between male and female, also had a sharp and sober mind. She sang in The Barber of Seville, in Il trovatore and Aida, in Orpheus, bravely avoiding repetition of vocal and stage techniques, finding a new “color” of voice for each part. It is known that the part of Rosina is sung by both coloratura sopranos and the owners of mezzo, for which the part was written in the original. And then one fine day, on the stage of the Roman theater "Argentina", the cavatina "In the Silence of Midnight" was sung by the amazing Rosina, or, rather, a real rose, bright and blooming, a Rose of unusual size, almost a rose. She vocalized in such a way that the audience opened their mouths in amazement. Female vocalists of this type have appeared quite often in the theater over the past decades, bringing confusion to the continuing thinning phalanges of the ministers of the lyrical muse. Rosina, changeable, prickly, dexterous, conceived by the author and perfectly embodied by Malibran, underwent a sensational metamorphosis, and criticism exalted this metamorphosis as a shield, Anitua in this party triumphed in the very theater "Argentina", where "The Barber of Seville" once failed ( This failure embarrassed everyone except Gioacchino Rossini himself, who remained imperturbable, for he saw further than others).
In "Aida" Anitua confused everyone with her bright sound when she sang a duet with the heroine of the opera, whose roundness and African expansiveness are put, so to speak, by rank.
With much more undeniable success, Anitua performed chamber music. In concerts, her voice, either male or female, was listened to with pleasure, because this genre is such that the singer who labors in it is not a dramatic character, but only an instrument that performs music under the control of the artist’s own good taste and intellect, but these two the qualities of the artist were not to be occupied.
Now in Mexico City, the singing school she created is flourishing. And this should not surprise those who know the singer's enterprise and her mastery of vocal technique. She had to leave the theater after a difficult operation - a sunset that many opera divas knew. It sometimes leads - we have already talked about this - to use the lower-abdominal type of breathing, which is unsafe for women.
EBA STIGNANI
In 1927, on board the Julius Caesar transatlantic, conductor Gino Marinuzzi introduced Claudia Muzio and Giacomo Lauri-Volpi to an aspiring mezzo-soprano who had studied singing in Naples and was promising. Under her outward softness and modesty, the determination of a native of Romagna and the ardor of an inhabitant of Naples, who became her, so to speak, her adoptive father, were hidden. Under the direction of the Sicilian maestro, the whole company immediately held the first rehearsal of "Norma", which was supposed to open the season at the Colon Theater in Buenos Aires. Stignani's sound then surpassed in brightness the sound of Muzio herself and in timbre evoked the illusion of a lyrical soprano in everyone. But a bright sound is by no means contraindicated for Adalgisa's party, and a few days later the demanding audience of a fashionable theater applauded the singer favorably.
Years passed, and the singer's voice became even larger and more attractive, enriched with new timbres, although her figure, condensed and resounding, ceased to be so scenic. From the very beginning, her sound science testified to skill and wisdom, but over time, the unarticulated sonority of the vowel “a” prevailed in it, the richest of all and, as a result, nicknamed the “queen of vowels”. Stignani did not feel the need to "say", to express anything verbally; she just wanted to play music with her voice, pure music, without incident or internal conflict. She took the musical thought, but rejected the poetic thought. No wonder one famous conductor defined her as "a singer of one vowel." Perhaps he meant by this that if the human voice ever took a place among the instruments of the orchestra, this place among the first would go to Stignani, who can be called, putting sincere respect into this word, an instrumental singer. To demand that she create an image would be chicanery. All her characters are similar to one another, everything is the same “she”, and trying to understand the words she sings is a waste of time. A text that could be conveyed to the listener by this calm voice that did not know articulation restrictions, reveling in the play of its sound, like a lonely murmuring fountain that washes itself - such a text simply does not exist, we always have a woman-instrument in front of us, whether it is the part of Azucena or Amneris, Santuzza or Orpheus, Delilah or Adalgisa, Eboli or Preziosilla, And this instrument, like the musician who plays it, is worthy of all admiration. Today, the trend towards sound stylization, towards the “dissolution” of the word is becoming more and more stronger. (This brings to mind Arcadia, where poetry gradually disappeared into music.) Art serves art, technology serves technology. Feeling, imagination, thought are banished from music, and it appears before us beautiful and lifeless, like a rare crystal. And yet the case we are considering is rather unique than simply rare, although it suggests an analogy with the other one discussed above (we mean the soprano Elisabeth Retberg). The fact is that he ideally embodies a whole pedagogical principle that advocates the independence of vocals from words. According to him, this independence is obligatory, for only it is supposedly capable of preserving the coherence and continuity of the sound stream, which, under the influence of diction, oscillates, changes its shape, and is even completely stopped. However, it was around this moment that the Italian and French schools crossed their spears in Paris at the beginning of the last century. Does pronunciation harm sound quality? Or, on the contrary, does it help the sound grow and spread? Is there a middle path along which the word and the sound, the mouth and the larynx, could follow parallel to each other? In Germany, for example, the soprano and mezzo-sopranos enforce the above principle, while the male voices there tend to be exaggeratedly declamatory.
PARALLEL ANITUA - STIGNANI
Nature showed attention to animals and birds, for each gave a voice corresponding to his appearance. The nightingale is endowed with a lively, mobile and graceful voice, the owl hoots as if from under water, staring dazedly with motionless yellow eyes, the thrush whistles frivolously, expressing in modulations the inclinations of its instinct, the raven lets out a croak as gloomy and unpleasant as its predilection for carrion, and etc.
But this correspondence does not extend to people, here nature refrains from labeling. A person himself directs the formation of his personality in accordance with the experience he draws from the knowledge of natural and social relationships. And from this it follows that the human voice does not always correspond to the personality of its owner; among people there are ravens with the voice of a thrush, owls with the voice of a nightingale, frogs with the voice of a swallow. Something similar happens on the opera stage, when a big and bright voice is hidden in a frail body, and a small and mobile voice is hidden in a huge and clumsy body.
Fanny Anitua was one of those vocalists who find satisfaction in themselves and believe that a figure that surpasses normal human proportions is a trifle that is not worth wasting attention on. Isn't just a virtuoso vocal enough to compensate for the lack of visual impressions with an excess of auditory ones and satisfy even the audience that craves a spectacular stage spectacle? In this carefree conviction, Stignani is in solidarity with her, attributing magical power over hearts to the beauty of the voice and leaving behind the body the right only to what belongs purely to the body. In the past, this was indeed acceptable, or at least tolerated. Today, when well-trained, trained movie stars march victoriously on the screens, never stopping the fight against excess weight for a minute, the former condescension and liberalism are inappropriate. The public not only demands, it dictates. And even a singer like Stignani is unable to disregard her.
CONCHITA SUPERVIA
Before us is a singer endowed with a lyric soprano, who, due to poor highs, took up the mezzo-soprano repertoire, choosing parts in it that allow the substitution of purely sound expressiveness for declamatory expressiveness.
The parts of Mignon, Cinderella, Italian in Algiers found in the voice of this Catalan the embodiment of a convex and full of grace. Supervia was noticed back in Florence, when she made her debut in Norma, with Esther Mazzoleni as her partner. Subsequently, she completely conquered the audience with the exquisite nobility of intonation and the brilliance of her external data.
And she began in 1920, at a time when Anitua and Stignani were reaping the laurels of success, And it was not at all easy for a young artist to invade their possessions and establish themselves there. Nevertheless, showing modesty and patience, not putting forward loud demands and hasty claims, she managed to make her way.
Later, while touring in France, she wanted to perform Carmen in the style of the Opéra-Comique. And then the velvety and gentle voice of Adalgisa was reborn into the smoky voice of a Seville cigar-maker. The gap between Bellini and Vize is very great, between the angelic Adalgisa, embraced by pure love, and this daughter of Satan, fickle and mocking. The inner world of poor Conchita has undergone something like an earthquake, and the consequences of it even affected her daily life: a certain anxiety appeared in her gestures, and fussiness appeared in her gait. She seemed to be constantly waiting for orders from some important person, preparing to obey an irrevocable order. The spirit of Carmen took possession of her body so much that even her voice began to sway, resembling the abrupt sounds of a bell shaking by an invisible hand. In this she was reminiscent of the famous Luisa Garibaldi*, whom the author once heard as Maddalena in the old Costanzi theater in Rome.
After Carmen, the beautiful Conchita was no longer recognizable. There is no trace left of the freshness and tenderness that she once knew how to put into many of the parts she performed. She went to Madrid, competed there for some time in popularity with Miguel Fleta and soon died.
* Luisa Garibaldi stood out among the mezzo-sopranos as an artist of bright intellect and the owner of a voice of great range. Her lightness and mobility came at the expense of the fluidity and stability of the cantilena. On short notes, all sorts of vocal outbursts and exclamations, she knew no equal, but she gave in to the andante, requiring long and stable diaphragmatic support. Hence the swaying of the sound, especially noticeable in the last years of her career.
GIANNA PEDERZINI
In 1933, she sang the page in Les Huguenots at the Arena Theater in Verona and managed to draw attention to herself. Since then, she began an independent path, establishing itself mainly due to expressive plasticity.
And success smiled at Pederzini to a greater extent than many other singers, naturally gifted richer than her, but less versed in the use of melodic declamatory techniques and facial expressions. Classes with Fernando De Lucia, an unsurpassed master of vocal speech, have borne fruit. She took on operas of great difficulty and embodied Amneris, Azucena, Laura expressively in terms of wording, immediately moving on to the repertoire of Rossini and modern operas by Italian foreign composers. In "Carmen" she achieved unconditional recognition. And suddenly - a surprise: performing the part of the Countess in The Queen of Spades, she demonstrated the extraordinary talent of a tragic actress. It is significant that the material with which she encountered in this reenactment requires very little vocal effort, but on the other hand - sculptural gestures, eloquence of poses and accents. Never in her life had Pederzini reaped such a bountiful harvest of applause, never achieved such unanimous admiration, thus proving that there are operatic artists who can not envy the actors of a drama, although the latter are not bound by the fetters of the act network and the tyrannical demands of rhythm.
PARALLEL SUPERVIA - PEDERZINI
“Let’s go down into the depths of our “I”, and we will see that the deeper the key that we touch lies, the stronger the push that this touch will cause on the surface will be, said one French philosopher.
This is absolutely true. And singing is just that takeoff that originates in the intuitive depths of our being.
Both Supervia and Pederzini had a clear understanding of this push that arose when their subconscious was touched; they knew how to translate it into words and make the voice be the servant of intuition.
This phenomenon was the more interesting, the more it seemed related to the field of pretense, hypocrisy. It produced an invariable effect on the performance, especially since it was helped by an instinctive external elegance and an unmistakable "sense of mise-en-scene", to which the modern audience, brought up on the films of skillful directors, cannot remain indifferent. This is the main reason for the international success of these two singers, since it is not so often that reflections of the light of the soul are seen on the opera stage, which can illuminate other souls, another consciousness. The range of the “physical” voice is exhausted by the world of three dimensions. The voice, born from the inner comprehension of things, cannot be labeled and measured in centimeters or decibels. The understanding of this truth is not characteristic of many singers, but many feel it, which is sometimes manifested in their performing inspiration.
PARALLEL GUY - ELMO
Will, restless spirit of initiative, positivity of thinking, or, in other words, understanding the world on the basis of its external observation and perception - all this could not have made a devoted servant of the romantic musical drama out of the Catalan singer Maria Gai. Mignon or Charlotte from Werther were not her role. She was supposed to become and became Carmen, the inhabitant of the Seville slums, who reads luck, "buena ventura" in the palm of some tourists seduces him to immediately send him to hell. In the first act of the opera, Vize Guy, in the fight scene, brought her fellow cigar maker into a very deplorable state with an incredible amount of kicks, slaps and scratches. Having agreed with Don José, who had been conquered by her, to escape, she furiously fought back from the soldiers, throwing apples, oranges and everything that came to hand at them. At the Real Madrid Theatre, one of the apples thrown by Maria Guy landed - or so they say - on the sacred forehead of the Spanish king. The mysterious and deeply hidden light that burns in Carmen's soul eluded the artist, but she masterfully conveyed the fireworks of these wild antics. This created her fame as an actress who knows no prejudices, and established the difference between the Italian-Spanish and French style of interpreting this complex character. Developed by Maria Guy in contrast to the manner of Galli-Marie (the first performer of the part of Carmen), this style then gave rise to a whole school in Italy, as a result of which in our theaters they do not pay attention to grace, to the inner world of the Sevillan, to her esprit (mockery), which finds an expression, if only in the most naked irony of the words, “I talk so-so ... I sing a song ... You can’t forbid me to dream!” In these words, all Carmencita, her evil genius, her rejection of moral norms, her "naturalness", stubbornly rebelling against all kinds of restrictions, networks and obligations; this is the same Carmen who will not give in, who was born free, free and will die, the same Carmen who, in the end, explodes with a terrible outburst of anger (“Well, kill quickly ... Or give me the way!”) And she herself perishes during this explosion. This amazing nature is not afraid of death, but only the slavery of feelings and desires. She is the embodiment of the spirit of nomadism, love for everything new and unknown. The variability of Carmen's temperament is not comprehended by the overwhelming majority of the performers of this difficult role.
Maria Gai spent a considerable part of her life on teaching and entrepreneurial activities.
It was she, together with her husband, tenor Giovanni Zenatello, who organized the first grandiose performances at the Arena of Verona, showing extraordinary commercial enterprise and practicality.
For Chloe Elmo, the psychological center of gravity of her personality fell on vocals, on a voice saturated with purely masculine energy in the lower register, which she had to content herself with when the upper one staggered over time.
Indeed, while she was young, her body was able to withstand register variegation. In mature years, the "disconvergence" of registers, as often happens, began to wear out the vocal fabric, because the uniformity of notes over the range is the main point that the teacher should pay attention to. One can only sincerely regret this, because in recent years it was the only completely benign mezzo-soprano voice that the Italian opera house had at its disposal. In Florence, in May 1939, she walked in the Il trovatore with Canilla and Lauri-Volpi. Since the days of Cosazza and Bezanzoni, Azucena had never heard such a fierce desire for revenge in his voice, expressed in a gloomy glimmer of middle notes and in a heavy ferocity of slightly deaf bottoms.
The resemblance between Guy and Elmo was so great that it even extended to facial features. Both focused on the external, visible part of the life of their characters and depicted them as real people. Their vocals were dominated by masculine intonations, not inspired by the work of imagination and overflows of feeling and working for a superficial, external interpretation - spectacular, bright, visible, so to speak, with a simple eye and usually flawlessly acting on inexperienced listeners, greedy for entertainment.
PARALLEL SADUN - COZAZZA
Blanca Sadun and Elvira Cazazza are placed on the chronological scale somewhere between Guy and Elmo. Some Romans still remember the first performance of "Sister Angelica" with the participation of Gilda Dalla Rizza and Blanca Sadun, who were chosen by Puccini himself, who, of course, was present at the performance. The Spanish contralto singer created a monumental image of the abbess; she made an unforgettable impression and in this game she proved herself indispensable, which was confirmed by time. Greatness, slowness, severity and authoritativeness have found a voice that can convey them. Against their background, the fragility and insecurity of the heroine (she is sung by a soprano), a sinner who took refuge in the walls of the monastery in order to hide the future motherhood and beg heaven for indulgence, stood out more clearly. Roaring low notes spilled over the hall with an unfathomable force. In the body of a woman, such a voice seemed like some kind of physiological nonsense, a flagrant violation of the laws of nature. Anomalies are not characterized by longevity, and this singer fell silent rather quickly. Since then, there has been no news about her, and only recently it was possible to find out that she had found shelter in the Verdi House *. It was inhabited by a dual being, a kind of double "I" with the predominance of one of these halves. It is known that in every person there is a certain dualism of nature, a certain more or less harmonious coexistence of male and female principles. This dualism manifests itself in many aspects of life, but is most fully seen in singing. When both components resonate, they bring to life the most perfect human personalities. When they contradict each other, there is an internal disharmony, sometimes reaching pathology. In the poetess Sappho, a faun coexisted next to a woman, Leonardo da Vinci noted the maternal instinct in himself. The inner warehouse of a person is based on a greater or lesser differentiation of the sexes, on the balance of relations between logical thought and thought-feeling (if we assume that the first type of thought is an attribute of a man, and the second is an attribute of a woman, that the first tends to be rational, and the second to intuitive, that the first is the founder of scientific analysis, and the second - of artistic synthesis). One Spanish philosopher claims that "as human units we are all bivalent, only the degree of this bivalence is different" and adds that "the human spirit is synthetic and represents the unity of opposite sexual principles." This naturally extends to singing voices; in the specific case of Blanca Sadun, the masculine element predominated quite noticeably over the feminine.
Elvira Cazazza was one of Arturo Toscanini's favorite vocalists. Azucena in Il trovatore seemed written especially for her. To understand why, you need to consider the distinctive features of this voice. The dualism mentioned above was clearly present in her; he divided her vocals into two independent parts, naturally heterogeneous in sound. These two parts never wanted to merge into one whole, which is why her voice consisted of two voices; one, deaf and as if rough, came out of the womb, the other - from the cranium. This bivalence seems to have attracted Toscanini, who was extraordinarily scrupulous in his choice of artists, and he showed Cazazza, together with Arangi-Lombardi, Lauri-Volpi and Franci, in Il trovatore during the German tour of La Scala in 1929, held in building of the Berlin State Opera. But in Berlin no one understood Italian, and the success or failure of a singer there depended entirely on the quality of the sound; the same values as good diction and convex phrasing were not used on tour. Consequently, Cosazza was left with only a palette of heterogeneous sound colors, which even the cyclopean-huge figure of Azucena, built on pathetic splashes, cannot be satisfied with sufficient justification. Yes, the dramatic nature of a word has the right to damage the sound, provided that this word is understandable. And for the sake of justice, it must be admitted that in Italy, Elvira Cazazza as Azucena quite achieved her goal, creating a sufficient contrast with the ardent, recklessly loving Leonora, the embodiment of femininity and romantic impulse.
Cosazza took part in all the significant theatrical events all the time while Toscanini remained at the helm of La Scala. Then, like many retired artists, she opened a singing school.
Sadun and Cazazza differed in the manner of sound emission: Sadun's emission was smooth and coherent, Cosazza's emission was timbre inconsistent, as if dotted with potholes. In accordance with this, the Spaniard achieved success due to the greater beauty of the sound, and the Italian due to greater expressiveness.
PARALLEL GIANI - BUADES
These are two singers, radically different from those that we have considered above. If in Sadun and Casazza the “logical”, male component was the determining principle, then Giani and Buades were true women, artists from intuition.
Nini Jani experienced her greatest success in the 1930s. Among her works, first of all, the bright, fiery Amneris is worthy of mention. Giani sang this part in various productions, including performances shown during a tour in Germany by the Lauri-Volpi Opera Ensemble (1938).
This ensemble then included Tassinari, Stella Roman, Mario Basiola, conductor Antonio Votto and others. Giani, who was more of a soprano than a mezzo-soprano singer, completed her evolution in the years following the Second World War - frank femininity prevailed in her, which allowed her to sing the high part of Turandot at the Rome Opera House. This is another of the infrequent cases of vocal transformation associated with the dualism of personality that we spoke about above. By analogy, the vocal evolution of Aranji-Lombardi comes to mind.
Aurora Buades, born in Valencia, on the sea coast, became famous mainly in her homeland, performing with Miguel Fleta. The French also applauded her when in Vichy she sang in Aida and Il trovatore with Gina Cigna and Lauri-Volpi. Her voice gravitated toward the upper register of a soprano; going to low notes, it "emptied out" to such an extent that in recent years the mezzo-soprano tessitura tired the singer, causing her to detonate somewhat. However, the misfortune that happened to her husband Roberto D "Alessio, a tenor of the Anselmi type, who, of course, would have taken a worthy place in the ranks of lyric tenors if his fate had not hit him at the very beginning of the path that promised so much, this misfortune, apparently, played a major role in her departure from the stage.
From the analysis of all these cases, it follows that mezzo-sopranos, as voices bordering between male and female, are subject to all sorts of vicissitudes - they can suddenly go up or down. This is indeed a fragile voice, and the growing shortage of mezzo-soprano is indisputable proof of this.
Both Giani and Buades achieved fame thanks to the confident lightness of the top notes, the rounded density of the middle, as well as good external data and natural charm. The Italian was more harmonious both in the plastic and in the vocals, the Valencian was more convincing, although somewhat aggressive. Both of them, if they had a good lower register, could get the joys of real triumph and popularity. However, the triumph and popularity depend on many factors, sometimes indirect and not conspicuous. But nonetheless significant. Suffice it to recall the rise of one mezzo-soprano singer, popular ten or fifteen years ago, a certain Zizolfi. She was endowed with intelligence, voice, and good looks, but, moreover, she had a husband, a prominent journalist, whose services she took advantage of.
PARALLEL NICHOLAI - BARBIERIE
Elena Nicolai is an example of feminine harmony and overcoming the dialectical dualism of personality. Despite a very intense artistic activity both in the past and in the present, she continues to sing in such operas as Don Carlos, The Favorite, Aida, Il Trovatore, etc., saving her face, and also the harmony and integrity of his vocals. Her strengths are mutually balanced and form a combination that other mezzo-sopranos can only dream of.
The author remembers her in Aida at Barcelona's Liceo Theatre. Her duet with Yva Pacetti in the second act had nothing to compare with - at least that was how her critics assessed it. The love and ambition of the two princesses collided with each other, and it was impossible to decide whose passion is more fiery, whose will to win is more adamant.
Fedora Barbieri has been dominant for seven years at La Scala, at the Metropolitan, at the Colon Theatre. She is beautiful, her voice is sonorous and warm, her musicality is great. In "Aida", staged in the baths of Caracalla in the summer of 1947, she made a sensation. No one expected that a young singer, only recently released by the training center of the Florentine festival "Musical May", will perform in this part. "ln cessii patuit Dei" - "by the way we recognize the gods." With some special manner of walking sideways forward, pressing her wrists to her hips, and by the very step, graceful, light and rhythmic, she outlined her character from the first minutes. Watching her was a delight to the eyes and a joy to the soul. And the voice? The voice corresponded to the stage texture and created a vocal image, obeying a sense of proportion. The spectators, who gathered for the performance on this stuffy summer evening, inhaled the aroma of myrtle and pine trees and, on the eve of the tragic death of the heroes, unanimously applauded the newly discovered talent. The success of this evening proved to be a good omen for Barbieri. The "big breath" found in Rome accompanied her everywhere - alas, not for long. In 1953, she sang in Il trovatore, staged at the Rome Opera House for the centenary of the first performance. Her partners were Maria Callas, Lauri-Volli, Paolo Silveri. She had just sung the chilling song "The Flame Sparkles", when suddenly she felt dizzy and, as if knocked down, collapsed to the floor. I had to lower the curtain. A few days later she left for America to give a cycle of concerts there, but was forced to interrupt it and return home to Florence. About the same thing happened to her as to Gagliardi during her Madrid tour, and only the reason was different: Barbieri was preparing to become a mother.
Elena Nicolai and Fedora Barbieri beg for comparison, because they have the same sense of vocal form and the same careful attitude to the musical text. Nobility, "aristocratic" sound science, good plasticity, musicality of thinking and mastery of technique distinguish both. At the same time, the Slavic origin of the Bulgarian Nicolai is reflected in her restrained temperament, while the native of Trieste reveals a fiery love of life and impatient optimism of character, who needs a triumph at all costs, and right now.
PARALLEL BRANZEL - BENEDETTI
Karin Brantzel, that Scandinavian Valkyrie, sang the Wagnerian repertoire at the Metropolitan, but Gatti-Casazza, the director of this theater, was not at all opposed to entrusting her, like other northern singers, with parts in Italian operas. Quite often one could hear "Aida" with the German Retberg, the Swedish Brantzel, the German baritone Bonen and the Hungarian bass Schorr; tenor Lauri-Volpi remained the only Italian. Gatti-Casazza loved to make such vocal-ethnic mosaics. The result was definite and quite discouraging. But thanks to him, it was possible to get an accurate and very useful idea of what this or that singer was worth and of the nature of the difficulties that the German and Italian repertoire is fraught with. In fact, Brantzel, who listened superbly in "Valkyrie" and "Lohengrin", in "Aida" and "Il trovatore" could not master the tessitura, which required a sustained and melodious sound, and her vocals were full of blunders, which in the parts sung in German, no one would have discovered. In the same way, Bonin, who gained fame in the Die Meistersinger, being dressed in the rags of Amonasro, revealed the hidden ulcers of his booming voice and the failure of his method and style for the Italian legato. It turned out that he did not know bel canto at all, if we understand bel canto as natural emotions,
expressed through filigree embroidered sound fabric. This is said as a warning to those who, with arrogance coming from ignorance or lack of experience, believe that the Italian music that has gained such popularity is easier to play than the vague and lofty German music.
Maria Benedetti grew up in Budapest, but the Italian blood flowing in her veins made it easier for her to understand our style and our vocal techniques, based on the spontaneity and spontaneity of expression. If she could add one more note to her range, she would make a splash as a dramatic soprano, especially since she was as tall as Juanita Capella. It is very easy to imagine her in the guise of a druid high priestess with her bright and powerful voice, with her majestic figure and nobility of sound. With all this, her Ortrud is quite comparable to the Ortrud of Elena Nicolai in terms of artistic technique and depth of penetration into the image.
Karin Brantzel and Maria Benedetti are similar both externally (they both have a tall stature and an impressive figure) and singing: both have voices rich in overtones and an enormous power in the upper register. They differ in the level of feeling and in the vocal style, romantic for Brantzel, classical for Benedetti.
PARALLEL OF BERTANA - PIRAZZINI
Toscanini preferred Louise Bertana to all others when he was looking for a performer for the first production of Boito's Nero. In a memorable premiere at La Scala, she sang with Scacciati, Pertile and Galeffi. The tenderness of the sound fabric and the musicality inherent in her singing make the choice of the maestro understandable and speak of the nature of this voice. Then Toscanini left for the United States, and the Argentine singer
moved to Buenos Aires, where she sang at the Colon Theater until the very end of her career. There she performed the entire repertoire suited to her artistic personality (her partner was Claudia Muzio), without having to defend herself against her rivals. Neither Stignani, nor Anitua, nor Buades, nor anyone else could compete with her in her native land. But if her rather lyrical voice could easily cope with the parts of Mignon, Charlotte, Valli, Marguerite, Nanette, then the exhausting tessitura of such responsible parts as Amneris or Azucena finally prevailed over her endurance, which, although maintained stubborn will, yet was not unlimited.
Miriam Pirazzini draws special attention among the recruits of the opera stage. She also takes on games that perhaps exceed her abilities, but she does it with the utmost discretion and caution. On the evening when the incident described above happened to Barbieri, Pirazzini was urgently called to replace her in Azucena's game. Her ability to mobilize and self-confidence defuse the situation, while the audience got to know the intelligent and musical singer. It seems that common sense will not allow her to "abuse her vocal means and direct her forces to a repertoire consonant with the nature of her voice, which can be defined as a lyrical mezzo-soprano. Mignon's part is very suitable for her slender figure and rich in modulations, soft timbre In the same way, Rubria and Adalgiza would have found in her an ideal performer, for her vocals are plastic and expressive.
Bertana and Pirazzini seem to be twin singers, their characters are so similar, their singing is so subtle and poetic. Bertana's voice is more voluminous, Pirazzini's voice is more sharp and brilliant. Both received a good, "smart" vocal
a school that prioritizes clarity, freedom of sound and is based on effective vocal gymnastics. Bertana passed away under approximately the same circumstances as Juanita Capella.
PARALLEL SWARTOUT - SIMIONATO
Gladys Swartout at the Met was the sweetest, most captivating Adalgisa in Norma. Appearance, wording, sound - everything was proportionate, proportional to each other. All this, taken together, made her so perfect that the eyes of Hollywood moguls flared up and they outdid themselves in order to kidnap her from the opera house, since the example of Grace Moore set a precedent.
When Swartout sang in tandem with Poncelle, it turned out to be an extremely beautiful duet full of harmony. Marion Telva, another mezzo-soprano who had previously sung Adalgisa, had a good vocal but did not possess that gift of gentle seduction that came from Gladys and was necessary to justify the sudden madness of Polion, who had forgotten Norma. Everyone in the Met remembers the Poncelle-Swartout-Lauri-Volpi-Pintz quartet in Norma, which, by the way, had not been on the New York stage for fifty years before.
On the Italian stage, the graceful figure of Gladys is matched by Giulietta Simionato, who made her debut at La Scala in the modest part of Emilia from Othello. The main roles in this performance, which took place in January 1942, were sung by Canilla and Lauri-Volpi. It was not difficult to predict then the brilliant path that Simionato is now following, especially with the recent shortage of low female voices. She does not have the unearthly beauty of Swarthout, but she has a more solid and rich voice compared to the American. In "Italian in Algiers" and in "Cinderella" she proved the seriousness of her school and her intentions. She will not abuse her gift and tear herself in parties that surpass her strength - her sober and lively mind is a guarantee for this. True, she recorded Carmen for radio, but singing Carmen in a radio studio is not at all the same as singing it in a theater. Moreover, she has an impeccable technique that helps to protect her beautiful voice.
PARALLEL ORSO - MINGINI-CATTANEO
Irena Mingini-Cattaneo is one of those singers who are endowed with everything - voice, figure, school and style, who sing the main roles in rather difficult operas and, despite this, cannot achieve a strong position in the most significant theaters, do not have a great fame, no big fees. Many artists, even if they are very talented, with great difficulty overcome the barrier that separates obscurity from fame, anonymity from name, and must be content with "corvée" - everyday noble, but thankless work, the results of which only contribute to someone else's success. Mingini once sang with Lauri-Volpi in Il trovatore staged at the San Sebastian Opera House. Her Azucena literally galvanized the Spaniards. Manrico's vocal exploits faded into the background, and all the critics in all the newspapers of the country admired and praised this artist, calling her the true triumph of the performance. Other main characters got only a small part of these praises. Nevertheless, neither a beautiful and expressive voice, nor a convincing acting, nor a reasonable dosage of breathing and vocal effects did her a real service: the opening took place, and the artist again became who she was before him.
Fate was also unfair with Ada Orso, the owner of one of the largest and most full-bodied mezzo-soprano voices that have appeared in the last thirty years. As if wishing to play a trick on her, fate chose her as her target and prevented her from achieving fame during a period that turned out to be favorable for Bezanzoni, Supervia and Anitua. Her frequent disappearances from the stage, due to family circumstances, eventually caused theater agents to strike her off their lists. Today, when real mezzo-sopranos are no longer available, Ada Orso, who is in excellent shape, could support the declining Italian theater. But as if on purpose, she suddenly fell ill with myocarditis and is forced to sit at home, mourning the lost time and the fame that has passed by.
The concept of "singing voice" is associated with a person's ability to sing.Unlike speech, the sounds of a singing voice have an exact pitch and can last a long time. They appear in vowels. A person begins to use the singing voice from childhood as the musical ear and vocal apparatus develop.
There is a singing voice. household (“not delivered”) and professional (“delivered”). By setting the voice is understood its adaptation and development for the purpose of professional use. Such qualities of a singing voice as brightness, beauty, strength and duration of sound, breadth of range, flexibility, indefatigability, which are largely determined by the natural properties of the vocal apparatus, can be developed in the process of voice production. The voice can be set for opera and concert singing, folk songs, pop singing, etc.
The defining qualities of a singing voice are the beauty of timbre and the ability to withstand sounds for a long time. An opera-concert voice should be well heard in large halls, that is, it should have the so-called flight ability. Flying sonorous, metallic voices. The quality of metallicity and flight is determined by the presence of a group of high overtones in the voice spectrum, the so-called high singing formant. The roundness and softness of the sound of the voice depend on the strengthening of the overtones of the low part of the spectrum. High and low singing formants, as well as vibrato (pulsation with a frequency of 5-6 times per second) determine the beauty and flowing character of the voice.
An important quality of a singing voice is its strength. Opera singing requires a strong voice that can fill a large hall and be heard against the background of orchestral accompaniment. Naturally, the voice has registers. The register is understood as a number of sounds homogeneous in timbre, produced by a single physiological mechanism. The sounds of different registers sound different. In the male voice, the chest register is distinguished in the lower part of the range and falsetto in the upper one. The chest register is distinguished by its strength and richness of sounds. The falsetto is weak and poor in timbre. In the female voice, the chest register is distinguished, the central one, in which the head and chest sounds are combined, and the head register in the upper part of the range, sounding light, open.
Professional singing voice. should have a range of two octaves and sound even throughout the range. This is achieved through the development of mixed sound, the so-called mixed.
Voices are classified by timbre and pitch. There are six main types of voices:
- soprano
- mezzo-soprano
- contralto
Female voices:
Male voices:
- tenor
- baritone
- treble - voice of boys
Coloratura soprano- the highest female voice. (Range: up to the first octave - F of the third octave.) The voice is very fragile, elegant with an endless silver upper register. Lightness allows you to perform the most complex roulades, wide jumps, graceful melismas and incredibly bravura passages.
Opera parts: Queen of the Night (Magic Flute), Doll (Tales of Hoffmann), Snow Maiden (Snow Maiden).
Lyric soprano- (range: up to the first octave - up, re of the third octave.) The voice is cantilene, soft, sounds bright throughout the entire range.
(Opera parts: Violetta (La Traviata), Iolanta (Iolanta), Margarita (Faust).
Lyrico - dramatic soprano- more voluminous, very expressive voice, which perfectly combines softness, cantilena and spinto.
Opera parts: Tatyana (Eugene Onegin.) Norma (Norma), Aida (Aida).
Dramatic soprano- strong, voluminous, brightly timbral voice. This gives him the opportunity to sing the entire part with a strong emotional intensity.
Opera parts: Tosca (Tosca), Abigail (Nabucco), Turandot (Turandot).
Lyric mezzo - soprano- light in timbre and color close to soprano. (range: la small octave - la, si second octave).
Opera roles: (Amneris (Aida), Eboli (Don Carlos), Ganna (May Night), Spring (Snow Maiden)
Central mezzo-soprano- large, dense, strong voice.
Opera parts: Lyubasha (The Tsar's Bride), Marfa (Khovanshchina),
Azucena (Troubadour), Carmen (Carmen).
Coloratura mezzo-soprano- a very rare voice endowed with brightness, flexibility and mobility, which allows you to sing the most complex passages, graces and roulades.
Opera roles: Isabella (Italian in Algeria), Rosina (The Barber of Seville), Cinderella (Cinderella).
Contralto- the lowest female voice. Velvety with chic chest notes.
Opera parts: Ratmir (Ruslan and Lyudmila), Konchakovna (Prince Igor),
Olga (Eugene Onegin), Ulrika (Masquerade Ball).
Lyric tenor- silvery, soft, very mobile voice with coloratura (range: from to the first - si, to the third).
Opera roles: Lensky (Eugene Onegin), Levko (May Night), Lindoro (Italian in Algeria) Count Almaviva (The Barber of Seville).
Lyric-dramatic tenor- more spintovy and dense voice.
Opera parts: Alfred (La Traviata), Duke (Rigoletto), Vladimir Igorevich (Prince Igor).
Dramatic tenor- voluminous, bright, voice with metal, very strong by nature.
Opera roles: German (Queen of Spades), Manrico (Troubadour), Turidou (Country Honor), Calaf (Turandot).
Lyric baritone- high, bright, mobile voice. (range: la big - la first octave).
Opera roles: Figaro (The Barber of Seville), Don Juan (Don Juan), Don Pasquale (Don Pasquale), Valentin (Faust), Yeletsky (Queen of Spades).
Dramatic baritone- velvety, voluminous, strong voice throughout the entire range.
Opera roles: Amonasro (Aida), Iago (Othello), Dagon (Samson and Delilah).
high bass- usually characteristic, mobile, comic.
Opera roles: Don Basilio (The Barber of Seville), Leporello (Don Giovanni), Malatesta (Don Pasquale), Mustafa (Italian in Algeria).
central bass- large, bright, very juicy voice, the richest chest register.
Opera roles: Boris Godunov (Boris Godunov), Melnik (Mermaid), Philip (Don Carlos), Rene (Iolanta), Konchak (Prince Igor).
bass profundo- very low, chesty, voluminous voice.
It is used most often in church and choral music.
singing registers
1. Lower case: small, large, etc. octaves.
(Men have two registers: chest and falsetto).
2. Middle register: I octave (sim-re2).
(Potential connection site of chest and head voices).
3. Upper register: II octave, women can sing higher.
(Women have chest, middle (medium - mixt) and head).
4. Superhead register - a section located on the fourth transitional section of the female range, while there is a departure from the usual head voice, as well as an additional sense of freedom. In girls, this is observed from SI2 and above.
Range
The range is determined by the set of sounds that can be sung with the voice (determine the student's range).
Range is the distance from the highest to the lowest note that the student can sing. Usually the working (training range) is wider than the concert one.
Tessitura
Tessitura is the height position of the sounds of a work in relation to the range.
The type of tessitura determines the height of the first part of the range, which is used in the work. If there are high upper sounds, then the tessitura is high, etc.
Timbre is the color of the voice (soft, sharp, thick, ringing, velvety, etc.). According to the timbre, each voice can find its own color, just as by the type of coloring of the sounds reproduced on the instrument (piano), using warm and cold tones.
For example:
According to a survey of children to determine the color of sounds over the years, most children have identified the same colors for sounds:
note fa1 - yellow color (warm),
note salt - green color (affectionate),
note la - red color (steady, thick),
note si - blue color, almost saturated blue (flying, sometimes compared with a babbling stream.),
note do2 - white color,
note mi1 - blue, sometimes they say lilac color (cold),
note re1 - brown color (unanimously) - (thick, warm),
note do1 - black color.
High sound position
It is the feeling of the “head” that gives the singing a high position, flight.
“The one who can transfer the sound of the voice to the head really sings,” say the Italian masters of singing
vibrato
Vibrato is a periodic change in pitch, strength and timbre of a certain tone.
