Who sings soprano on the Russian stage. Great Singers of the World (soprano)

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Very often you can hear the following question: what is the difference between a mezzo-soprano and a drum-soprano?
So much mezzo does not differ from strong and dark sopranos.
A good example is Irina Gordey, soloist of the Mariinsky Theater, soprano, next to whom many mezzos sound like a lyric soprano.
The main difference is the mezzo's inability to hold a high tessitura (I mean not individual high notes, but the general tessitura), and vice versa, the ability to hold a low tessitura well, from which the sopranos get tired.
There is also a difference in timbre: the mezzo is velvety, denser.
But I would like to say about the difference in Russian and foreign mezzos.
I trained abroad and discussed this problem there. Foreign teachers and singers themselves say that in Russia, by nature, there are much more low female voices. In Europe, the lack of a low female voice is solved by a strong soprano with a good bottom, they are led like a mezzo. And by Russian standards, this is a drumsoprano. It is also more profitable for the singers themselves: there are a lot of sopranos, there is a lot of competition.
But in Russia we are obliged to sing Russian opera, for it the voice must be darker. Imagine Khovanshchina performed by A. Balts or C. Bartoli!

Regarding the problems with the voice: the mezzo naturally strained with the top. You need to be very competent and work hard on it.
Pay attention to the extreme top of good Russian mezzos (Arkhipova, Sinyavskaya, Borodin, Dyadkov ...) - it is like a "carrot".
Towards the top, the voice narrows, there is no volume, while the soprano has a volumetric top, with a cap.
In my opinion, our teachers make a lot of mistakes when working with mezzo.
They begin to darken their voice a lot (otherwise, suddenly, during the exam, the girl becomes timid and loses part of the timbre, the commission will say that she is a soprano and scold the teacher for leading the wrong way).
Very little attention is paid to the head resonator, and in mezzos, by nature, the head responds less than the chest.
I myself often heard: you are mezzo, come on, growl, you need more timbre, volume ...
They demand from young girls the same density as that of a mature Larisa Dyadkova.
And the problems begin: forcing, over-expanding, deepening of the voice, littered with lower notes, loss of top ...
A huge number of mezzo-sopranos are flushed down the toilet by our teachers, and they do not bear any responsibility.

What is the difference between mezzo-soprano and contralto?
Indeed, mezzo-soprano and contralto are not the same thing.
Everyone around knows that sopranos are coloratura, lyrical, lyrical-dramatic, dramatic.
But they think about mezzo that everyone should sing this voice: from Flora and Dorabella to Ratmir.
In fact, mezzo is also high, central, low and contralto, and each of these voices has its own repertoire.
The crown repertoire of the contralto is Ratmir, Vanya, Duenna and Ulrika.
This repertoire requires a very dark, dense and powerful voice from the singer. Listen to the soloist of the Mariinsky Theater Larisa Dyadkova in these works (just don't try to imitate her).
So the problems in teaching the contralto mainly arise because of such a repertoire and sound standard: low, dark and powerful.
A young contralto cannot be darkened, expanded, or condensed artificially. The voice acquires its darkness, density and power with age and vocal experience. Young girls cannot and should not sound like a mature Larisa Dyadkova.

But how to work on the singer's range?
Over the range it is necessary to work competently and painstakingly.
Yes, there are situations when a student comes with a certain range and the quality and timbre of his voice corresponding to the range.
In this case, you can voice the type of voice.
But mainly on initial stage classes come people with an undeveloped voice and range, if the student is young enough, then there is an underdeveloped vocal apparatus and general anatomy. In this case, with competent work, the voice will develop and develop, and in which direction (up or down) time will tell.
She herself personally more than once came across students (even 25 years old) who were sure that they were mezzo, because. it seemed to them that they sang easily downstairs, and it was difficult to go upstairs. In fact, they were lyric sopranos, incorrectly taught, without a top and with an ordinary soprano bottom. After a few lessons, the top appeared and it became convenient to sing in the soprano tessitura. , what is CONVENIENT, they already understood that they are not mezzo-sopranos.
Indeed, there are a lot of mistakes in determining the type of voice. By the way, there are a lot of mezzo-sopranos (in schools and conservatories) who naturally have a good top and are led like a soprano. They usually do not reach the professional stage!

Both the chest and head resonators should be equally actively involved in singing. Excessive enthusiasm for the chest resonator, artificial darkening of the voice (Russian mezzo-sopranos are especially guilty of this) and lead to a "deep" sound.
Regarding overexpansion: the voice should be focused, stretched, and not fall out of the singer with a "thick sausage"
(sorry for being rude).
When a singer grows up, gets smarter, wiser, then, if he has a pedagogical talent, listening to his own recordings, you can notice your shortcomings and try to correct them.
But I absolutely responsibly declare that an opera singer needs a good outside ear all his life!

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MEZZO SOPRANO

Apart from Anderson, Bezanzoni and Sadun, not a single mezzo-soprano has appeared in the last forty years. exact sense this word. 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. It seems that nature has exhausted itself and no longer wants to generate female voices of the “transitional” type, which physiologically respond to certain type women's 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 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 in a 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 acknowledge and rejects his mother, one of the most poignant and dramatic situations that has ever inspired 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 hidden tremors of maternal feeling coming from the depths, putting them into the beats of Meyerbeer's music. All the changes in the state 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 have 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 "with a wolf's eye", 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 clean water heroines of musical theatre. 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.

The Italian won the heart of one of the magnates of the Brazilian industry with her singing and became the mistress of the largest of the merchant fleets. South America. She owns a whole island in the bay of Rio de Janeiro and a villa near Copacabana.

A friend of Paccinn Alvear (singer endowed with an ethereal-delicate 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 singing art and German music. 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 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 articulatory 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 we are talking about 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 more unique than just 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, because 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 even stops altogether. However, it was around this moment that the Italian and French schools crossed spears in Paris at the beginning 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 croaks, 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 also agrees 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-drilled, trained movie stars march triumphantly across the screens, never for a moment stopping the fight against overweight, 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 prepared 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 different kind she knew no equal in vocal outbursts and exclamations, but she gave in to the andante, requiring a 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, consummate master 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 all the more interesting, the more it seemed to belong to the realm 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

The will, the restless spirit of initiative, the positivity of thinking, or, in other words, the understanding of the world on the basis of its external observation and perception - all this could in no way make the Catalan singer Maria Gai a devoted servant of the romantic musical drama. 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 prejudice, and established the difference between Italian-Spanish and french style interpretations of 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 inner world Sevillean woman, to her esprit (mockery), which finds expression at least in the extremely 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 moral standards, its "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 their characters' lives 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 ancestor scientific analysis, and the second - 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, one must consider features 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, apparently, attracted Toscanini, who showed unusual scrupulousness in the 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 in fairness, 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 in the Rimsky 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 line 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 a mind, a voice, and a pleasant appearance, 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 vocal image, subject to 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, "aristocratism" of sound science, good plasticity, musicality of thinking and mastery of technique distinguish both. Wherein Slavic origin the Bulgarian Nicolai shows itself in her restrained temperament, while the native of Trieste reveals a fiery love of life and an impatient optimism of a character that needs a triumph at all costs, and this very minute.

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 have made 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 on 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 capabilities, but she does this 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 combined made her so perfect that the Hollywood moguls flared up and outdid themselves 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-Pinz 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 most ambitious and full-bodied mezzo-soprano voices that have appeared in the last thirty years. As if to play a trick on her, fate chose her as her target and prevented her from achieving fame at a time 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 true mezzo-sopranos are no longer available, Ada Orso, 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 mezzo-soprano voice is rarely found in nature, but it has a very beautiful, juicy and velvety sound. Finding a singer with such a voice is a great success for a teacher, this voice is widely used on the opera stage and in various areas of music.

A mezzo-soprano with a beautiful timbre is easier to enroll in music schools, and in the future to find work in the opera house, because mezzo-soprano singers are always in short supply and there are not as many of them as there are women with high singing voices.

From the article you will learn how a beautiful female voice is formed and where you can find a worthy use for it.

What is the differencemezzo-sopranofrom other voices

In the Italian school, this is the name for a voice that opens up a third below the dramatic soprano. Translated into Russian, "mezzo-soprano" means "a little soprano". It has a beautiful velvety sound and is revealed not in the upper notes, but in the middle section of the range, from A small octave to A second.

When singing more high notes the rich, juicy timbre of the mezzo-soprano loses its characteristic color, becomes dull, sharp and colorless, in contrast to the soprano, whose voice begins to open up on the upper notes, acquiring a beautiful head sound. Although there are examples of mezzos in the history of music, which could not lose their beautiful timbre even at the top notes and easily sang soprano parts. In the Italian school, a mezzo can sound like a lyric-dramatic or dramatic soprano, but in terms of range it can be about a third lower than these voices.

In the Russian opera school, this voice is distinguished by a juicy and rich timbre, sometimes resembling a contralto - the most low voice in women who can sing tenor parts. Therefore, a mezzo-soprano with an insufficiently deep and expressive timbre is referred to as a soprano, which often causes many difficulties for this voice. Therefore, many girls with such voices go to the stage and jazz, where they can sing in a tessitura that is convenient for them. The formed mezzo-soprano can be divided into lyric (close to soprano) and dramatic.

In the choir, lyrical mezzo-sopranos sing the part of the first altos, and dramatic mezzosopranos sing the part of the second along with the contralto. In the folk choir, they perform the parts of violas, and in the pop and jazz direction The mezzo-soprano is valued for its beautiful timbre and expressive low notes. By the way, many modern performers on the foreign stage are distinguished by their characteristic mezzo-soprano timbre despite a different sound delivery.

The main differences between the mezzo-soprano and other voices are the following features:

1. In the upper parts of the range, the mezzo-soprano becomes inexpressive and loses its beautiful timbre. The soprano in this section of the range only gains beauty and expressiveness of the voice (approximately from G of the first octave to F of the second).
2. The range from do-re of the second octave to fa may not work at all, which is not typical for a soprano.
3. Low notes present no difficulty and sound beautiful and deep, unlike sopranos who find it difficult to sing these notes. Sometimes on such notes as A and G of the small octave, the soprano loses the expressiveness of his voice and these notes almost do not sound.

Why the mezzo-soprano is hard to define

This voice causes controversy among teachers more than others, because it is very difficult to identify it in children and adolescents. formed later than other voices , therefore, girls with an unformed voice in the choir are put in the second and even in the first soprano, which presents great difficulties for them and can generally discourage interest in classes. Sometimes high children's voices after adolescence acquire a characteristic mezzo-soprano sound, but more often mezzo-sopranos are obtained from altos. You can accurately determine the mezzo-soprano by 18 or 19 years . But even here teachers can make mistakes.

The fact is that not all mezzo-sopranos have a bright and expressive velvety timbre, like those of opera singers. Often they sound beautiful, but not bright in the first octave and after it, only because their timbre is not as strong and expressive as that of world-famous celebrities. Opera voices with such a timbre are rarely found in nature, so girls who do not meet operatic requirements are automatically classified as soprano. But in fact, they simply have a voice that is not expressive enough for opera. In this case, the range will be decisive, not the timbre. That's why the mezzo-soprano is hard to spot the first time.

In children under 10 years old, it is already possible to assume the further development of the mezzo-soprano in terms of chest timbre and undeveloped upper voice register. Sometimes closer to transitional age, the pitch and expressiveness of the voice begins to decrease and at the same time the chest register of the voice expands. But the exact result will be visible after 14 or 16 years, and sometimes even later.

Famous singers - LIST

Mezzo-soprano is in demand not only in opera. AT folk singing, jazz and pop direction, there are many singers with such a voice, the timbre and range of which allow women to find worthy use. Of course, it is more difficult for a pop singer to determine the range of her voice and the tonalities available to her, but the character of the voice can be identified by the timbre.

Pop singers with mezzo-sopranos are distinguished by a deep chest sounding voice. The coloring of this voice is well heard in such singers as Slava, Natalia Oreiro and Nadezhda Granovskaya.

SOPRANO- (Italian soprao, from sopra - over, over), the highest singing (mainly female or child) voice. There are dramatic, lyric, coloratura soprano, as well as lyric-dramatic and other varieties. The soprano range is from up to the first octave to up to the third octave.

In the Russian musical tradition, the following classification of varieties of soprano voice is accepted

This method of classification is applicable in all types vocal art in opera, chamber music, choral singing. However, in opera art, another, more detailed, classification is often used. (from lower case - up)

Beverly Seals (real name Bella Silverman) is one of the greatest singers of the 20th century, "the first lady of American opera." A columnist for The New Yorker magazine wrote with extraordinary enthusiasm: "If I recommended the sights of New York to tourists, I would put Beverly Seals in the party of Manon in the very first place, well above the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building." Seals' voice was distinguished by extraordinary lightness, and at the same time charm, stage talent and charming appearance that captivated the audience.

Charming Seals in Mozart's The Merry Widow

Aria Casta Diva from Bellini's opera Norma is one of the most difficult sopranos in the repertoire. And let's compare different performers who dared to sing this aria.

sings Beverly Seals

But the great one sings this aria Maria Calas

And finally Montserrat Caballe

And here is how this aria is sung Anna Netrebko

And this Galina Vishnevskaya

The voices of Italian soprano singers are distinguished by their brightness of timbre, great saturation, and depth of sound. The famous Italian soprano was Amelita Galli-Curci. After her departure from the stage, the title of "first soprano of the world" was challenged by Renata Tebaldi and Maria Callas from each other.

That's how he sings Renata Tebaldi

Renata Tebaldi was born on November 2, 1922 in Pesaro, in the same city as Gioacchino Rossini.
Once in an interview, Tebaldi was asked to name the largest singer of our time. She replied: “Of course, it’s me!”, And for a few moments she enjoyed the surprise of the tactless journalist, who did not expect such an injection against Kallas from her, and then added with a smile: “You see, I’m seventy-four meters tall, can you name another soprano taller than me?” By such standards, Tebaldi was ahead of most of her partners, some even by a whole head.

Joan Sutherland-- the greatest Australian opera singer. A lyric-dramatic soprano with a phenomenal vocal technique that has amazed for many decades with a virtuoso possession of both voice and interpretation of opera parts ... She died on October 10, 2010 in Geneva at the age of 84 years.

Leontina Price(Price) (b. 1927) - American opera singer.

When asked if the color of the skin can interfere with the career of an opera performer, Leontina Price answered this way: “As for the admirers, it does not interfere with them. But for me, as a singer, absolutely.

RENE FLEMING is an American opera singer who has been called "the gold standard of the soprano", "the face of today's America in the field of classical vocals" and "one of the few true superstars of our time."

In the opera "Eugene Onegin" the final scene is a vocal, acting and staged masterpiece. Rene Fleming - best performer Tatyana.

http://video.yandex.ru/users/zemlja-zarnetskaja/view/191

Maria Guleghina one of the most famous sopranos in the world. After her debut at La Scala in 1987, the singer rarely visits Russia, her schedule is scheduled for years to come. She is a welcome guest in all opera houses of the world: during her career, Maria sang in the most striking productions of the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, in Tokyo, Egypt, Vienna, Paris.

Maria Agasovna Guleghina(real name - Meitarjyan) was born in 1959. She began her professional career in the opera state theater in Minsk, then moving to Europe in 1987, a year later she made her debut at La Scala as Amelia in Ball in the Masquerade with Luciano Pavarotti directed by Maestro Gavazeni. The strength, warmth and sincerity of her voice, and wonderful acting skills, made her a welcome guest in different theaters peace. During her career, Maria has sung at the Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden, Tokyo, Egypt, Vienna, Paris and many world capitals...

Italian Barbara Frittoli- an opera diva, famous all over the world. She is called the silk soprano of Italy. Born in Milan, Barbara Frittoli studied at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory. Her international career began in 1989 after her debut at the Teatro Comunale in Florence in Bucchi's Il giuoco del barone. Her track record is unusually huge. The most significant were performances with Riccardo Muti

Annick Massis deservedly considered the first soprano of France. She owns an extensive repertoire - from the works of Handel and Rameau to the virtuoso parties of the bel canto era, French lyric opera and works of the twentieth century.

Her voice - a light, sonorous soprano with radiant highs and an unusual briskness that allows you to run through three octaves - is a little cold, just like she herself is cold. But again, this gives her a charming resemblance to the Snow Queen.

Amazingly beautiful soprano - Anita Cerquetti(Anita Cerquetti) Her name is little known in Russia.

An Azerbaijani star sang Casta Diva at the anniversary evening of Elena Obraztsova Dinara Alieva.

Dinara Aliyeva's voice captivates with beauty, her singing delights with a deep velvety timbre, her vocals strike with skill. Music lovers, critics and the press admire the artist's artistic talent and brilliant stage skills and evaluate her talent as a rising star of the world opera stage, possessing charisma and style in performing a variety of music and repertoire.

Cecilia Bartoli (Cecilia Bartoli)- one of the most sought-after and highly paid opera singers in the world.

For more than two decades, Cecilia Bartoli has undoubtedly been one of the most famous opera singers in the world. Each of her work - whether concert program, new role on the opera stage, the release of the album by the record company DECCA, with which the singer has an exclusive contract, is of great interest.

It is Cecilia Bartoli who owns incredible "records" - more than 8 million albums sold, more than 100 weeks of stay in international pop charts. Her numerous prestigious awards Golden Disc, four awards Grammys(USA), ten awards echoes and one - bambi(Germany), two awards classical Brit Awards(Great Britain), Victory de la music(France) and many others reflect the huge success of such works as, for example, the disc Opera proibita(“Forbidden Opera”), as well as solo albums dedicated to A. Vivaldi, K. Gluck, A. Salieri.

Cecilia Bartoli - holder of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, current academician of the Roman Academy of Santa Cecilia, holder of the Order of Arts and Letters (France), holder of the Order of Merit (France), honorary member of the London Royal Academy of Music and the Royal Academy of Music Sweden. Cecilia Bartoli was recently awarded the prestigious Italian award "Golden Bellini" (Bellini d'Oro), the Gold Medal of Honor for services to the arts, one of the highest awards of the Spanish Ministry of Culture. In addition, she was given gold medal city ​​of Paris.

In 2012, Cecilia Bartoli took over as Artistic Director of the Salzburg Festival. She noticed.

2012 is gone. And music critics unanimously recognized Yulia Lezhneva as the discovery of the year, one of the most promising Russian sopranos. Its timbre is called mother-of-pearl, and interpretations of baroque music are already being compared with reference ones. She was born in 1989 in a family of geophysicists in Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk. From the age of 5 she began to learn to play the piano and sing. In 2004 she graduated with honors from the A. Grechaninov Music School in piano and vocals. From the age of 14 to 18 she studied at the Academic College of Music at the Moscow State Tchaikovsky Conservatory in vocal and piano.

Listen to Y. Lezhneva's concert, and if I find Casta Diva in her performance, I'll post it.

Julia looks like some kind of porcelain, without emotions. In this sense, she is far from Netrebko.

In conclusion, she sang Casta diva: all the delights, thoughts rushing like lightning in her head, trembling, like needles, running through her body - all this destroyed Oblomov: he was exhausted.

I.A. Goncharov "Oblomov"

What is this aria of the Chaste Virgin about?

Chaste Virgin! Silver you marvelous look
This age-old forest is sacred.
Turn to us the imperishable face,
Illuminate with clear light.

Chaste Virgin, tame the burning passions,
And die bold fervor
Blessed peace on earth
As in heaven, welcome.

In original

Casta Diva, che inargenti
queste sacre antiche piante,
a noi volgi il bel sembiante
senza nube e senza vel...

Tempra, o Diva,
tempra tu de' cori ardenti
tempra ancora lo zelo audace,
spargi in terra quella pace
che regnar tu fai nel ciel...

Fine al rito: e il sacro bosco
Sia disgombro dai profani.
Quando il Nume irato e fosco,
Chiegga il sangue dei Romani,
Dal Druidico delubro,
La mia voce tuonera.

Cadrà; punirlo io posso.
(Ma, punirlo, il cor non sa.
Ah! bello a me ritorna
Del fido amor primiero;
E contro il mondo intiero...
Defense a te sarò.
Ah! bello a me ritorna
Del raggio tuo sereno;
E vita nel tuo seno,
E patria e cielo avrò.
Ah, riedi ancora qual eri allora,
Quando il cor ti diedi allora,
Ah, riedi a me.)

Literal translation

Oh chaste Goddess that silvers
these sacred ancient plants
Turn to us your beautiful face,
Without clouds and without cover

Die Goddess
Die ardent souls
Die also brave zeal
Spread peace on earth
And reign him in the sky

Finish the ritual: and sacred grove
Will be cleansed of filth
When the Deity, angry and gloomy,
Demand the blood of the Romans
From the Druid Temple
My voice will boom.

Will fall! I could punish him
But whether to punish, the heart does not know

From the first true love
And against the whole world...
I will protect you.
Oh! Beautiful comes back to me
I calm down from this ray
And living in your womb
I will find my homeland and paradise.
Ah, return to what it was then,
When I gave you my heart
Come back to me.)

This opera is rarely performed not only here. So listen to Bellini's "Norma" recorded from the Venetian theater La Fenici.

Like the rest of the world, Bellini himself considered Norma a masterpiece. If a shipwreck happened, the only one of his operas that would have to be saved, he said, was Norma.

Characters:

NORMA, priestess of the Druid temple (soprano)
OROVES, father of Norma, High priest(bass)
CLOTILDE, Norma's friend (soprano)
POLLIO, Roman proconsul in Gaul (tenor)
ADALGIZA, maiden in the temple of the Druids (soprano or mezzo-soprano)
Flavius, centurion (tenor)

Time of action: around 50 BC Scene: Gaul.

Summary of the opera:

The druids are preparing an uprising against the enslavers and are waiting for the signal to be given to them by the high priestess Norma. In her heart, a sense of duty struggles with love for the Roman commander Pollio, the father of her children. But Pollio fell out of love with Norma and is infatuated with the young priestess Adalgisa. Norma gives the signal for rebellion. Pollio is captured, he is threatened with death. At the last minute, Norma saves him, revealing her guilt (violation of the vow of virginity), and ascends to the stake. Shocked by her act, Pollio follows her to her death.

A few words about Vincenzo Bellini.

During his lifetime (1801-1835) he was called the creator of musical melodies. He lived only 33 years, writing 11 operas, the most significant of which is Norma.

On November 3, 1801, in Catania (Sicily), the son of Vincenzo was born in the family of musician Rosario Bellini. He was six years old when he composed his "opus number one". The boy studied music under the guidance of his grandfather, Vincenzo Tobia, since the Bellini family did not have the means for serious education. However, Vincenzo was lucky - he found a patroness - Duchess Eleonora Sammartino.

The duchess made an urgent request to her husband, and he recommended that Vincenzo apply to him, the governor of the province of Catania, for a scholarship in order to help the Bellini family with the expenses necessary for the education of their son at the Naples Conservatory. What could not be achieved for many years was decided in a few days. In June 1819, Bellini was enrolled at the conservatory.

A year later, an exam took place, which everyone was waiting for with fear: it was supposed to decide the fate of each of the students - which of them would be left in college and who would be expelled. Vincenzo passed the test brilliantly and, as a reward for success, received the right to continue his studies for free. It was Bellini's first victory.

Solemn opening theater Carlo Felice took place in Genoa on April 7, 1828. At that time, Vincenzo Bellini's opera "Bianca and Fernando" was staged on its stage, ...

At the opening of the theater "Carlo Felice" in Genoa, at a reception, Bellini met a young, beautiful, friendly signora with charming manners. The signora treated the musician "with such kindness" that he felt subdued. Giuditta Cantu from Turin entered Bellini's life.

Social life in the salons and growing fame more than once pushed Bellini to love adventures, which he considered "superficial and short-lived." But this stormy romance, which began in April 1828, lasted right up to April 1833. For five whole years of experiences, mistakes, evasions, scenes of jealousy, mental suffering (not to mention the final scandal in her husband's house) "decorated" this connection, which deprived the musician of peace - later he would call it all "hell" without hesitation.

Performances of Bellini's operas were often accompanied by patriotic demonstrations: in the context of the growth of the national liberation movement in Italy, the audience found relevant political content in his operas.

Bellini is the greatest master of the Italian bel canto style. The basis of his music is a bright vocal melody, flexible, plastic, distinguished by the continuity of development. Outstanding Italian singers perfected their art on the works of Bellini.

Always yours V.Zvonov

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 starvation in besieged Leningrad, enrolled in an air defense detachment - and sang again: for sailors in the evenings.

In 1944, Galina Vishnevskaya easily entered the Leningrad regional theater operettas, traveled with 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 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 sheltered at their dacha near Moscow disgraced writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn. 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 iron curtain, which protected Soviet citizens from the "pernicious influence of the West", fell, foreigners, opera impresarios, were drawn to Russia in search of new voices. Lyubov Kazarnovskaya representatives Vienna Opera invited to the capital of Austria.

Next - performances at the best world opera stages in the most different images. She succeeded in fiery Tosca in Puccini's opera of the same name and 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 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 became most time to spend 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 Tosca's part 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 they are against me folk artists. <...>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, 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 School of Music, 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 Suzanne 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 honorary title Kammersängerin, they are awarded in Germany and Austria to outstanding performers. She became the first Russian woman to be awarded this title.

“She is not only a singer, but also an actress. And with its presentation of the material brought closer ordinary people 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 prize for her performance as Lucia in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor. theater award"Golden Mask". 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: