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Soprano Sfogato
Soprano sfogato ("Vented" soprano) is a contralto or mezzo-soprano who is capable — by sheer industry or natural talent — of extending her upper range and encompassing the coloratura soprano tessitura. An upwardly extended "natural" soprano is sometimes called ''soprano assoluto''. Origin In the early 19th century as well as in the baroque and classical periods, distinctions between voices were not based so much on the range as in the tessitura and color of the voice. There were two main groups: soprano and alto. Their range was often blurred, relying more on tessitura to cast different roles in opera. In Italian bel canto, the soprano did not have extremely high notes actually written (often just to B5 or high C) and it was not until the "nightingale" type of sopranos such as Jenny Lind, Fanny Persiani, Adelina Patti, and her imitators that ending the cabalettas in a climactic high E6 or E6 became traditional as it was in the French grand opera which became so p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Soprano
A soprano () is a type of classical female singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hz to "high A" (A5) = 880 Hz in choral music, or to "soprano C" (C6, two octaves above middle C) = 1046 Hz or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which often encompasses the melody. The soprano voice type is generally divided into the coloratura, soubrette, lyric, spinto, and dramatic soprano. Etymology The word "soprano" comes from the Italian word '' sopra'' (above, over, on top of),"Soprano" '' |
Cabaletta
Cabaletta is a two-part musical form particularly favored for arias in 19th century Italian opera in the belcanto era until about the 1860s during which it was one of the era's most important elements. More properly, a cabaletta is a more animated section following the songlike cantabile. It often introduces a complication or intensification of emotion in the plot. Some sources suggest that the word derives from the Italian ''cobola'' (couplet). Another theory suggests that it derives from the Italian ''cavallo'' (horse), a reference to the pulsating rhythm of a galloping horse which forms the accompaniment of many famous cabalettas. The cabaletta was formed as part of an evolution from early 19th century arias containing two contrasting sections at different tempi within a single structure into more elaborate arias with musically distinct movements. The term itself was first defined in 1826 in Pietro Lichtenthal's ''Dizionario''."Cabaletta, s.f. Pensieretto musicale melodico, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient
Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient, born Wilhelmine Schröder (6 December 180426 January 1860), was a German operatic soprano. As a singer, she combined a rare quality of tone with dramatic intensity of expression, which was as remarkable on the concert platform as in opera. Biography Schröder was born in Hamburg, the daughter of the actress Sophie Schröder and the tenor Friedrich Schröder. The poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was her 2nd cousin. Her first role was at the age of 15 as Aricia in Schiller's translation of Racine's ''Phèdre'', and in 1821, aged 17, she was received with so much enthusiasm as Pamina in Mozart's ''The Magic Flute'' that her future career in opera was assured. In 1823, she married Karl Devrient, becoming known as Wilhelmine Schröder-Devrient, but separated from him in 1828. Meanwhile, she had maintained her popularity at Dresden and elsewhere. She made her first Paris appearance in 1830, and sang in London in 1833 and 1837. Richard Wagner, born in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giuseppina Ronzi De Begnis
Giuseppina Ronzi de Begnis (born Giuseppina Ronzi; Milan 11 January 1800 – died, Florence, 7 June 1853) was an Italian soprano opera singer famous for the roles written for her by the prominent composers of the 1820s and 1830s. Her father, Gaspare, was a prominent ballet dancer and choreographer, and her mother, Antonia, a ballerina. Her brothers Stanislao and Pollione were opera singers. As a singer, she made her debut in Naples at the Teatro dei Fiorentini in 1814 in Giovanni Cordella's ''L'Avaro'', followed by important engagements in Bologna in 1816, also appearing in Genoa, Florence; in 1817 as Giulia ''La Vestale'', and in Bergamo. She married Italian bass Giuseppe de Begnis (1793–1849) when she was only 16. The marriage lasted only a few years and the two separated in 1825. Personality Her figure has been described by her contemporaries, including Donizetti, as fat and voluptuous; a critic of ''Teatri di Milano'' wrote that "Ronzi was nevertheless a very beautiful figu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maria Malibran
Maria Felicia Malibran (24 March 1808 – 23 September 1836) was a Spanish singer who commonly sang both contralto and soprano parts, and was one of the best-known opera singers of the 19th century. Malibran was known for her stormy personality and dramatic intensity, becoming a legendary figure after her death in Manchester, England, at age 28. Contemporary accounts of her voice describe its range, power and flexibility as extraordinary. Life and career Malibran was born in Paris as María Felicitas García Sitches into a famous Spanish musical family. Her mother was Joaquina Sitches, an actress and operatic singer. Her father Manuel García was a celebrated tenor much admired by Rossini, having created the role of Count Almaviva in his ''The Barber of Seville''. García was also a composer and an influential vocal instructor, and he was her first voice teacher. He was described as inflexible and tyrannical; the lessons he gave his daughter became constant quarrels between t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Isabella Colbran
Isabella Angela Colbran (2 February 1785 – 7 October 1845) was a Spanish opera soprano and composer. She was known as the muse and first wife of composer Gioachino Rossini. Early years Colbran was born in Madrid, Spain, to Giovanni Colbran, King of Spain Carlo III's head court musician and violinist, and Teresa Ortola. She started her musical studies as a singer and composer at the age of six with composer and cellist Francisco Parjea, castrato Carlo Martinelli, and famous castrato and composer Girolamo Crescentini. In 1801, Colbran and her father moved to Paris where she made her concert debut and was warmly received by Napoleon's court. Both of them traveled to Italy, going to Milan, Venice, Rome, before settling and moving permanently to Naples. She inherited land in Sicily and a villa in Castenaso in 1820, after her father's death. Opera career Colbran's dramatic soprano voice and sizable three octave range allowed her to have extremely successful opera career. She wa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Giuditta Pasta
Giuditta Angiola Maria Costanza Pasta (née Negri; 26 October 1797 – 1 April 1865) was an Italian soprano opera singer. She has been compared to the 20th-century soprano Maria Callas. Career Early career Pasta was born Giuditta Angiola Maria Costanza Negri in Saronno, near Milan, on 26 October 1797.Stern (n.d.) She was born of the Negri family, who came from Lomazzo, where the family practiced medical art. Her father, Carlo Antonio Negri or Schwarz, was Jewish and a soldier in the Napoleonic Army. She studied in Milan with Giuseppe Scappa and Davide Banderali, and later with Girolamo Crescentini and Ferdinando Paer among others. In 1816, she married fellow singer, Giuseppe Pasta and took his surname as her own. She made her professional opera début in the world première of Scappa's ''Le tre Eleonore'' in Milan that same year. Later that year she performed at the Théâtre Italien in Paris as Donna Elvira in ''Don Giovanni'', Giulietta in Niccolò Antonio Zingarelli's '' Giul ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Castrato
A castrato (Italian, plural: ''castrati'') is a type of classical male singing voice equivalent to that of a soprano, mezzo-soprano, or contralto. The voice is produced by castration of the singer before puberty, or it occurs in one who, due to an endocrinological condition, never reaches sexual maturity. Castration before puberty (or in its early stages) prevents the larynx from being transformed by the normal physiological events of puberty. As a result, the vocal range of prepubescence (shared by both sexes) is largely retained, and the voice develops into adulthood in a unique way. Prepubescent castration for this purpose diminished greatly in the late 18th century. Methods of castration used to terminate on the onset of puberty varied. Methods involved using opium to medically induce a coma, then submerging the boy into an ice or milk bath where the procedure of either severing the vas deferens (similar to a vasectomy), twisting the testicles until they atrophied, or ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Whistle Register
The whistle register (also called the flute register or flageolet register) is the highest register of the human voice, lying above the modal register and falsetto register. This register has a specific physiological production that is different from the other registers and is so-called because the timbre of the notes that are produced from this register is similar to that of a whistle. In some sopranos, the modal register vocal production may extend into what is usually thought of as the whistle register. Physiology and definition The whistle register is the highest phonational register, that in most singers begins above the soprano "high D" ( D6 or 1174.6 Hz) and extends to about an octave above (D7 or 2349.3 Hz). It is created by using only the back of the vocal folds. The lower part of the whistle register may overlap the upper parts of the modal and falsetto registers, making it possible for singers to phonate these notes in different ways. However, fundamentally ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dynamics (music)
In music, the dynamics of a piece is the variation in loudness between notes or phrases. Dynamics are indicated by specific musical notation, often in some detail. However, dynamics markings still require interpretation by the performer depending on the musical context: for instance, the ''forte'' marking (meaning loud) in one part of a piece might have quite different objective loudness in another piece or even a different section of the same piece. The execution of dynamics also extends beyond loudness to include changes in timbre and sometimes tempo rubato. Purpose and interpretation Dynamics are one of the expressive elements of music. Used effectively, dynamics help musicians sustain variety and interest in a musical performance, and communicate a particular emotional state or feeling. Dynamic markings are always relative. never indicates a precise level of loudness; it merely indicates that music in a passage so marked should be considerably quieter than . There ar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vocal Register
A vocal register is a range of tones in the human voice produced by a particular vibratory pattern of the vocal folds. These registers include modal voice (or normal voice), vocal fry, falsetto, and the whistle register. Registers originate in laryngeal function. They occur because the vocal folds are capable of producing several different vibratory patterns. Each of these vibratory patterns appears within a particular range of pitches and produces certain characteristic sounds. In speech pathology, the vocal register has three components: a certain vibratory pattern of the vocal folds, a certain series of pitches, and a certain type of sound. Although this view is also adopted by many vocal pedagogists, others define vocal registration more loosely than in the sciences, using the term to denote various theories of how the human voice changes, both subjectively and objectively, as it moves through its pitch range. There are many divergent theories on vocal registers within v ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
