Mezzo-soprano [mezzo]

(It.: medium soprano;

soprano Fr. mezzo-soprano, bas-dessus, second dessus
dessus;
Ger. Mezzosopran, tiefer Sopran).
Sopran

A voice, intermediate in pitch between contralto and soprano.. It is usually written for
in the range a to f and may be extended at either end, particularly in solo writing.
Non-vocal uses of the term derive from a similar use of range; for example, the C-clef
identified as mezzo-soprano
soprano, with c on the second line up, defines a staff whose
range is a to b.. In regard to voices, the term may apply historically both to women
and men (castratos or countertenors), although more commonly it refers only to
women. The distinction between soprano and mezzo-soprano (or mezzo mezzo) became
common only towards the end of the 18th century.

1. Before 1800.

In the 17th century most music for soprano

had a range c to g,
, which by later
criteria would be deemed appropriate for a mezzo-soprano.. During the first half of the
18th century, however, composers of operas and cantatas began writing soprano parts
that not only extended the upper range slightly, frequently reaching a, but also
demanded lengthy fioriture in the range g to g. Along withh this trend towards higher
and lighter parts for the soprano voice came an awareness of the somewhat
weightier mezzo-soprano voice, which was unsuited to the new soprano roles. J.J.
Quantz, in his autobiography in Marpurg's Historisch-kritischekritische Beytrge zurz
Aufnahme der Musik (i, 17545, 1754 pp. 213, 24041),
41), carefully distinguishes
contralto, mezzo-soprano and soprano.. The castrato Senesino, who was always
regarded in England as a contralto (Burney, History,, iv, 1789, p.275), was described
by Quantz as having ng a penetrating, clear, even, and pleasant deep soprano voice
(mezzo soprano)) which he rarely used above f. In comparing the soprano Cuzzoni
(whose range was c to c) )) with Faustina Bordoni, Quantz (quoted in Burney, iv,
318ff) similarly reported that the latter had a less clear than penetrating
mezzosoprano voice with the range b to g.. However, Quantz's use of the
term mezzo-soprano was not generally accepted into practice until after 1800. Even
then, operatic roles, other vocal music (both solo and choral) and voices themselves
can often be identified as mezzo-soprano only by association with what is
deemed mezzo-soprano today, for, as implied in Quantz's prescient
prescient use of the term,
the mezzo-soprano partakes of both soprano and contralto qualities.

The leading male roles in Handel's operas were generally taken by alto castratos who
sang in the range a to e;
;; foremost among these was Senesino (Francesco Bernardi).
Although the primo uomo part was for castrato, the secondo uomo part was
frequently written for a woman in the same range. Handel unusually composed
the primo uomo part in Radamisto for Margherita Durastante; it was taken over by
Senesino (with compositional changes) on his arrival. Handel did not again compose
a primo uomo part for a woman until 1748 when he wrote Solomon for the mezzo-
soprano Caterina Galli.

Handel wrote leading female roles in the soprano range, but rarely went above a. A
somewhat lower range was used for older female roles, such as the widow Cornelia,
played by Anastasia Robinson, in Giulio Cesare, and the wives of Hercules
(Dejanira) and Jephtha (Storg), both sung by Galli. Robinson began her career as
a soprano, but her voice deepened. That she is today referred to as a contralto, while
Galli is termed a mezzo and Bordoni a soprano, illustrates the problem of identifying
a female mezzo-soprano before 1800.

In theatre music, women singers typically sang in the mezzo-soprano range. Susanna
Cibber, an outstanding singing actress sang the alto solos in the Messiah premire
and performed a number of male roles in revivals of Handel's oratorios: David (Saul),
Micah (Samson) and Lichas (Hercules). In Lutheran church music, alto choral parts
and solos would have been sung by boys, but in Anglican services often by
countertenors. Handel reserved the countertenor voice in his dramatic music for
young men. The countertenor Daniel Sullivan sang Athamas (Semele), Micah
(Samson), David (Saul) and the title role of Joseph, all mezzo-soprano parts by range
and early examples of the tendency to compose young men's parts in this register
(Cherubino, Octavian). Castratos sang only rarely in oratorios, but in the 1750s the
alto castrato Gaetano Guadagni performed in many Handel oratorio revivals, singing
parts originally composed for Cibber.

In France, the importance of a higher and lower soprano voice in solo and choral
ensembles created a more consistent terminology: DESSUS for the soprano voice
and BAS-DESSUS for the mezzo-soprano. Rousseau (Dictionnaire, 1768)
commented that the solo mezzo-soprano voice was more esteemed in Italy than in
France, but referred to the acclaim for a certain Mlle Gondr, a very fine bas-
dessus. Mozart's use of the treble voices in his serious operas remained similar to his
Baroque predecessors. He wrote young, heroic male roles for castrato (Idamantes
in Idomeneo and Sextus in La clemenza di Tito); his female roles are all for soprano,
but some fall into the mezzo range including Cherubino (a breeches role), Dorabella
and, in La clemenza di Tito, Annius (another breeches role) and arguably Vitellia.

2. 19th century.

The extension of the upper soprano range in the early 19th century caused many
singers who would previously have been simply soprano to take the classification
of mezzo-soprano. The disappearance of the castrato, who generally occupied a
similar pitch range, gave further impetus to the development of the place of
the mezzo-soprano in opera, and indeed many of the important mezzo parts in the
first decades of the 19th century are heroic, travesty roles (see TRAVESTY).
Benedetta Pisaroni, who began her career as a soprano, took many male roles,
creating Malcolm in Rossini's La donna del lago (1819) and performing both Arsace
in Semiramide and the title role of Tancredi. Karoline Unger, whose range extended
from a to d, is sometimes referred to as a contralto, but her roles and her range seem
to belie it. Maria Malibran, a fiery and exciting singer, is now categorized as
a mezzo-soprano although her greatest rival was the soprano Henriette Sontag; they
performed many of the same roles, including Norma. Her range was allegedly g to e,
but Bellini lowered the role of Elvira in I puritani for her (she never sang that
version, which was not heard until the 1980s). Some roles today associated
specifically with the mezzo-soprano were written for soprano, such as Adalgisa in
Bellini's Norma (written for the soprano Giulia Grisi).

It is not always possible to be specific in establishing distinctions between voice

types in the mezzorange: there are singers who are described sometimes
as soprano and other times as mezzo, and others variously described as contralto
and mezzo. The term MEZZO-CONTRALTO has also been used, for example for
Malibran and for Rosine Stolz, for whom Donizetti wrote two rewarding parts when
he was writing for the Paris Opra, Lonor (La favorite, 1840) and Zayda (Dom
Sbastien, 1843). Stoltz also created Ascanio in Benvenuto Cellini (1838); Halvy
also wrote roles for her.

Beginning with Azucena in Il trovatore (1853), Verdi composed a long series of

magnificent mezzoparts. Maddalena (Rigoletto) and Ulrica (Un ballo in maschera),
originally intended for contralto, have usually been sung by mezzo-sopranos.
Princess Eboli in Don Carlos, perhaps Verdi's finest mezzorole, was first sung in
Paris by Pauline Guymard-Lauters (1867), whose wide compass and powerful upper
register also enabled her to sing soprano roles. At the Italian premire of Don Carlos,
Eboli was sung by Giuseppina Pasqua, whose strength lay more in her middle
register; later she created Mistress Quickly in Falstaff (1893). Sofia Scalchi, whose
large, imposing voice had a range of f to b, sang Azucena, Amneris and other
Verdi mezzo roles and was Sibel at the performance of Gounod's Faust at the
opening of the New York Metropolitan Opera.

In Germany the three categories of female voice are even more difficult to
distinguish. Eglantine, the villainess of Weber's Euryanthe, was written for
a mezzo but created by the soprano Therese Grnbaum (1823). Adriano (Rienzi,
1842) and Venus (Tannhuser, 1845) were first sung by a soprano, Wilhelmine
Schrder-Devrient. These three roles and Ortrud (Lohengrin), Magdalene (Die
Meistersinger) and Brangne (Tristan und Isolde) were all introduced to the
Metropolitan by Marianne Brandt, a contralto whose range allowed her to sing any
part from the coloratura role of Astaroth (Goldmark's Die Knigin von Saba) to
Kundry (Parsifal). The mezzo role of Fricka (Das Rheingold) was created in Munich
by a soprano, Sophie Stehle (186970); it again fell to a soprano, Friederike Grn, at
Bayreuth in the first complete Ring cycle. Later the Liverpool-born mezzo Marie
Brema, who made her dbut as Lola in the London premire of Cavalleria rusticana,
was much praised as Fricka; she also sang Ortrud and Kundry at Bayreuth. In the first
London Ring, Fricka was sung by Hedwig Reicher-Kindermann, another mezzo with
an extraordinary compass who sang Erda in the first cycle at Bayreuth and was later a
magnificent Brnnhilde.

3. 20th century.

The difficulty of categorizing mezzo-sopranos did not abate in the 20th century and if
anything grew more acute with a continuing decline in the use of the term contralto
for a particularly rich female voice with an extended lower register; there are
therefore high and low mezzo-sopranos. In addition, a distinction in vocal timbre
can be drawn between lyric mezzos and dramatic mezzos, which categories are not
tied directly to range (and parallel the lyric and dramatic soprano). Further,
coloratura mezzosare not identified by an upper extension of the voice (as sometimes
with sopranos) but rather by extraordinary agility, which may be found in mezzos of
all combinations of range and timbre.

Lucy Arbell, the inspiration of Massenet's last years, first sang in one of his works at
the Opra in 1906 (as Persephone in Ariane). Massenet then wrote Thrse (1907) for
her, the title role of which was perfectly suited to her strong, vibrant mezzo-contralto
and vivacious personality. She created Queen Amahelli in Bacchus (1909, the sequel
to Ariane); then, in his last unequivocal success, Don Quichotte (1910), Massenet
provided her with another tailor-made role, Dulcine. She sang two more Massenet
premires, as Postumia in Roma (1912) and, after the composer's death, as Colombe
in Panurge (1913). Arbell was also renowned for her interpretation of Charlotte
in Werther. Delilah, a role seized upon by mezzos and contraltos alike, figured
largely in the repertory of Louise Kirkby Lunn, the English mezzo, who was equally
at home in French, Italian and German opera; a notable Ortrud, Fricka and Brangne,
she sang Kundry in the first production of Parsifal in English, at Boston in 1904. She
was also greatly admired as Gluck's Orpheus.

Puccini's mezzo roles are generally minor, but in the early 20th century Strauss wrote
several superb mezzo roles. Most are older women: Herodias in Salome and
Clytemnestra in Elektra are the obvious examples (though the latter role was created
by a contralto, Ernestine Schumann-Heink). Two sympathetic travesty roles in operas
by Strauss, Octavian in Der Rosenkavalier and the Composer in Ariadne auf Naxos,
both written for a soprano, are now usually sung by mezzos. The finest Octavian in
the post-World War II period, mezzo-soprano Christa Ludwig, was also a particularly
fine interpreter of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde and of lieder; Ludwig's compass
was remarkable, spanning such soprano roles as Leonore (Fidelio) and the
Marschallin on the one hand and Brahms's Alto Rhapsody on the other. Shirley
Verrett, like Malibran a century before, had a range that allowed her to take on
both soprano and mezzo-soprano roles; she was the first to perform both Dido and
Cassandra in the same performance of Berlioz's Les Troyens in 1973 Josephina
Veasey (a noted Fricka) had alternated in these roles at Covent Garden in 19723
and the first of the 20th century to sing both Adalgisa and Norma (as Giulia Grisi had
in the 19th century). The German mezzo Brigitte Fassbaender was particularly
admired in such travesty roles as Sextus (La clemenza di Tito), Cherubino, Hnsel
and Nicklausse (Les contes d'Hoffmann), but especially Octavian; her other roles
include Dorabella, Carmen and Eboli. Anne Sophie von Otter has also excelled in
trouser roles across a wide range, from Mozart's Cherubino and Sextus to Octavian
and Composer, as well as the dramatic coloratura role of Rossini's Tancredi.

In the mid-1930s, the Spanish mezzo Conchita Supervia initiated a renewal of interest
in the comic operas of Rossini by singing the title roles of La
Cenerentola and L'italiana in Algeri at Covent Garden (Rosina in Il barbiere was still
being sung in a transposed soprano version). Her successor Teresa Berganza was also
especially admired as Carmen, in Rossini's comic operas and in the Spanish song
repertory. After 1970, Frederica von Stade excelled in much the same
coloratura mezzo repertory, as well as in the roles of Charlotte and Octavian and in
17th- and 18th-century opera. Cecilia Bartoli has risen to stardom in such roles as
Cinderella and Dorabella.

After the bel canto revival of the 1940s and 50s, mezzos once again began to tackle
the leading male roles in Rossini's serious operas. The leader here was Marilyn
Horne, who displayed amazing virtuosity and style as Arsace (Semiramide), Malcolm
(La donna del lago) and Tancredi. Although Horne describes her own voice as a
Rossini contralto (Ellison, 1997), she also has the upper range for Adalgisa
(Norma), and has sung 18th-century opera, notably the title roles in
Handel's Rinaldo and Gluck's Orfeo. Mezzos who have followed Horne in the
Rossini dramatic coloratura repertory include von Otter, Jennifer Larmore, Vesselina
Kasarova and Sonia Ganassi.

As with the soprano repertory, the revival of early 19th-century mezzo-

soprano coloratura roles encouraged an interest as well in 18th-century and earlier
opera. Horne was again prominent, as was Janet Baker, who sang the title role in
Handel's Giulio Cesare and recorded a particularly moving Dido (Purcell) as well as
Rameau's Phaedra (Hippolyte et Aricie) and Handel's Ariodante. This earlier
repertory has also attracted younger singers trained in early music vocal techniques,
calling for a reduction or elimination of vibrato and the distinctive use of head and
chest voice so that higher notes are ringing but not loud or forced and lower notes are
full and rich. Lorraine Hunt-Lieberson's voice was particularly suited to Handel's
operas and oratorios; she sang such title roles as Xerxes, Ariodante and
the soprano parts of Susanna and Theodora.

Composers have continued to write new roles and to adapt old ones: Britten
composed Kate in Owen Wingrave for Baker, for whose mezzo Walton altered
the soprano role of Cressida. Baker also enjoyed success in Maria Stuarda and
excelled as Dido in Les Troyens. Tatiana Troyanos made her debut as Hippolyta in
the New York premire of Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream and created Jeanne
in Penderecki's The Devils of Loudun (1969); her other roles included Carmen,
Charlotte, Adalgisa and Ariodante. Yvonne Minton, in addition to many other
operatic roles, created Thea in Tippett's The Knot Garden and sang Helen in his King
Priam. Jan De Gaetani specialized in avant-garde repertory, singing, among many
premires, the first performance of Crumb's Ancient Voices of Children and Maxwell
Davies's A Stone Litany; she also recorded Pierrot lunaire and sang and recorded
much early music, including the medieval Play of Herod.

The mezzo-soprano in opera has frequently been cast as nurse or confidante

(Brangne in Tristan und Isolde, Magdalena in Die Meistersinger, Emilia
in Otello and Suzuki in Madama Butterfly) or the mature married woman (Herodias
in Strauss's Salome, Adelaide in Arabella and Kate Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly).
The same is true of operetta, where the works of Gilbert and Sullivan provide
multiple examples, and musical theatre. Gertrude Lawrence, a featured soloist and
actress in works by Gershwin, Noel Coward and Moss Hart, made her last stage
appearance as the widowed schoolteacher Anna in the Rogers and Hammerstein
musical The King and I. Other such roles in musical theatre include the title roles
of Annie get your Gun (Ethel Merman, renowned for her belting style), Hello
Dolly (the husky-voiced Carol Channing, also sung in revival by Merman)
and Evita (Patti LuPone, but sung in the film version by pop star Madonna). Whereas
the lower female voice often has been considered unromantic by operatic composers,
conjuring up the dowager duchess or elderly aunt (Carmen and Dalila are striking
exceptions), it has been considered especially sensual and sultry in popular music,
jazz and cabaret, where the upper extension of the soprano voice has largely been
avoided. Doris Day, Edith Piaf and Judy Garland are among the actresses whose
voices are of mezzo-soprano pitch. Blues and jazz singers, such as Sippie Wallace
and Billy Holiday, have also cultivated this range.

Bibliography

H. Klein: Great Women Singers of my Time (London, 1931)

 R. Celletti: Mezzosoprani e contralti, Musica d'oggi, new ser., v (1962), 11017

W.H. Mellers: Angels of the Night: Popular Female Singers of our

Time (Oxford, 1986)

J. Tick and J. Bowers, ed.: Women Making Music: the Western Art Tradition, 1150
1950 (Urbana, IL, 1986)

J. Rosselli: From Princely Service to the Open Market: Singers of Italian Opera and
their Patrons, 16001850, COJ, i (1989), 132

H. Matheopoulos: Diva: Great Sopranos and Mezzos discuss their

Art (Boston, 1991)

J. Rosselli: Singers of Italian Opera: the History of a Profession (Cambridge, 1992)

J.B. Steane: Voices: Singers and Critics (London, 1992)

J.B. Steane: Singers of the Century (London, 1996)

C. Ellison: Mezzos in the Middle of a Lyric Explosion, New York Times (7

Nov 1997), B 1, 30

Owen Jander, J.B. Steane, Elizabeth Forbes/Ellen T. Harris (with Gerald

Waldman)