To: VOCALIST <vocalist>
From: Peter Louis van Dijk
Subject: Re: Arias Transposed?
Send reply to: VOCALIST <vocalist>


>
>Your comments about Caruso singing **"Vecchia Zimmara*" *and his taking it
>across the river ( to record?) make absolutly no sense to me. Cah you
>complete this information?*
>*
>
>
I recently heard a programme about Caruso. The cast for this particular
production had a lot of fun with each other and were constantly playing
tricks on each other, also on stage. Just before this aria, the bass turned
to Caruso and whispered that he had lost his voice and couldn't sing. So
Caruso told him to mouth the words while he (Caruso) turned his back to the
audience ( he's supposed to be comforting Mimi anyway) and sang the
aria.Naturally the bass smilingly acknowledged the thunderous applause,
much to everybody's delight on stage!
Yes, they did record it for posterity, to show the range that Caruso had.
But that was a freaky "one Off" occassion.

This thread has made me rediscover two absolutely "useless" books on my
shelf, edited by Peters, viz transposed soprano arias to be sung by mezzos.
Now, if I am singing "Hear ye Isreal" in church at 9 in the morning, I
would be very tempted to sing it down a tone, but to actually audition with
it? No ways.
To the best of my knowledge there are standard tenor arias that have two
versions for when the tenor has an off night (Di quella pira comes to
mind), but I am pretty sure that the singer must have auditioned this in
the original key to be considered for the full role.

As was mentioned by someone here,a minor transposition for the same Fach is
not quite the same as changing Fach completely.I quite agree with Karen on
this one, and feel that she replied very diplomatically.
Regards
Susi
C T RSA