Table of Contents
What is the highest natural female voice in opera?
Soprano
Soprano. The soprano is the highest female voice type, and they often take the leading female role. The vocal range for an operatic soprano is roughly from middle C up to the C two octaves above, though plenty of music, particularly for coloratura sopranos, ascends even further.
What type of soprano was Maria Callas?
mezzo-soprano
He avers that like Pasta and Malibran, Callas was a natural mezzo-soprano whose range was extended through training and willpower, resulting in a voice which “lacked the homogeneous color and evenness of scale once so prized in singing.
Are Altos deep?
Alto and Contralto are used synonymously, though contralto sometimes seems to carry the connotation of a particularly deep alto voice. There is no distinction between them in the literature. It exploits the low tones of the female voice. The quality, typically is rich, resonant, dark and ‘throaty’.
What is the highest male voice in opera?
• Countertenor. The highest adult male voice, with a similar range to the mezzo or alto. Occasionally used by Handel, it was obsolete in opera until Britten wrote Oberon in A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Alfred Deller.
Why do opera singers have such a low voice?
Voices develop with age and singers often move into a heavier type of role. This lower female voice is used in 19th-century opera for characters carrying a strong sexual charge (Carmen, Delilah).
Can an operatic soprano sing in the alto range?
Because the ranges overlap so much, it is perfectly possible for an operatic soprano to sing in the alto range within a choral setting, and many operatic baritones find they can comfortably sing with the tenor section.
What principal roles exist for the mezzo-soprano?
What principal roles exist for the mezzo-soprano are most commonly found in French-language operas, Bizet’s Carmen probably the most famous mezzo role of them all. Mezzos breakdown into three broad categories: The coloratura mezzo-soprano is a fairly small niche. Two periods heavily used this voice type and one of these after the fact.