Vocalist.org archive


From:  Margaret Harrison <peggyh@i...>
Margaret Harrison <peggyh@i...>
Date:  Sat Mar 24, 2001  7:16 pm
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] a tenor who is grumpy with mozart


Isabelle Bracamonte wrote:

> I have always felt that Verdi is so singable because
> it is beautifully written for the voice.

> Nothing interesting about Mozart to debate; I just
> thought I'd jump on the wagon and say that I find
> Verdi the easiest thing in the world to sing, and when
> I read that he hummed as he composed it validated my
> theory that he really understood the voice.

That's interesting, and validates my feeling that great
music works well in some voices but not in other voices. A
good friend of mine has a gorgeous big lyric soprano voice.
She can sing "Dove sono" and "Vissi d'arte" and "Let the
Bright Seraphim", and other Mozart and Puccini and Handel
arias rolling out of bed. But Verdi does not fit easily
into her voice and she really has to work on his arias and
never feels comfortable singing them. So it seems you're a
Verdi singer, and she's a Mozart/Puccini/Handel singer.
They all knew the voice and wrote wonderfully for it. But I
think they wrote for singers with different types of voices,
perhaps related to the different musical aesthetics of the
different periods they lived in.

As for me, with a small voice, there's much less music that
I can consider singing. But I find Verdi's "Caro nome", a
lot of Mozart and Purcell, and some Handel all work
beautifully in my voice. All those guys wrote great for the
voice, and it's fortunate for me that I love the music that
suits my voice.

Peggy

--
Margaret Harrison, Alexandria, Virginia, USA
"Music for a While Shall All Your Cares Beguile"
mailto:peggyh@i...

emusic.com