> > the beauty of the tone or drowning everybody around them. Very few singers,
> > now or in the past, are (were) equally great in Mozart and Verdi. There is a
> > very good reason that the singers like Callas or Tebaldi never sung Mozart.
I'm not exactly sure what you mean by 'never', but Tebaldi recorded both
Susanna's and the Countess' arias from Figaro, and not only did Callas
record arias from Abduction and Don Giovanni, but she also sang the role
of Donna Anna in a cast that included Valetti, Bruscantini and Ghiaurov.
True, both made their careers in other repertoire, but Mozart was not the
bread-and-butter repertoire it is today. Among Wagnerians and Verdians,
there are quite a few who sang Mozart: Grummer, Nilsson, M. Price,
Deutekom, Arroyo, Welitsch, Tomowa-Sintow, Grob-Prandl, Leider. So
whatever your reasons for feeling that dramatic voices can't or don't sing
Mozart, this can't really be one of them.
> toto_. I would be concerned if a dramatic mezzo couldn't
> "navigate" the coloratura of The Song of the Veil, but I would hardly
> blame her for completely ignoring "Una voce poco fa" because it's not an
> aria she will EVER be expected to sing - because the very qualities that
> make hers a DRAMATIC voice - size, power of chest register, etc. - are
> very unlikely to be qualities that I want to hear in a Rosina. By the same
> token, the qualities that are going to make a wonderful Sesto in CLEMENZA
> are going to disqualify that voice from singing an even remotely
> creditable Eboli.
Simionato and Ludwig, two well known representatives of the dramatic mezzo
fach, both sang Rosina to some acclaim (Simionato's recording of
Cenerentola is still considered to be a contender in this plethora of
Rossini singers we have today). Troyanos and Baltsa have both
been well-received as both Sesto and Eboli, and while Clemenza was not in
the repertoire during her era, Schumann-Heink, one of the great Wagnerian
contraltos, certainly knew her way around "Parto, parto"!
Now, personally, I don't care whether you sing Mozart or not, or whether
you have the ability to sing coloratura well or not. No singer is
perfect, and all but the upper echelon of singers have technical
shortcomings. I can't imagine anyone interested in casting you in opera
cares to hear something which is not your best effort. That said, aren't
there some Mozart contralto arias in Mitradite (Farnace), La clemenza
(Sesto), or Ascanio in Alba?
Mark Montgomery
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