Dear Lloyd and all: Agreed. I'd also add there is a good deal of physical appearance, charm and politics that figure into these decisions. However, Stinchelli got it wrong on Butt, Homer and Schumann-Heink by lumping these great contraltos into the mezzo-soprano team! These ladies all were occasionally traded onto the mezzo team and had many wins there, but their motivation was to keep food on the table. Butt sang some mezzo arias, but lowered the keys. Of the three singers mentioned, Clara Butt basically stuck with the contralto range. She only performed Gluck's "Orfeo" onstage. Homer and Schumann-Heink were feeding huge families and took on many roles to keep the fees coming in. I believe Karen has probably hit the nail on the head on the matter of Graves, whose voice is certainly a star quarterback on the mezzo-soprano team, in my opinion! Dolora Zajick and Jennifer Larmore are in there, too. The contralto team is, at the present time, sadly, pretty anemic! Podoles, Stuzmann, Gwen Bean and Ruth Theobald will probably have to call in the mezzos if they expect to win any games! Ed "Lloyd W. Hanson" <lloyd.hanson@n...> wrote:Dear Ed and Vocalisters:
There are many, many books which extoll the virtues of opera singers and, in the process, attempt to categorize them. The irony of all this is that few of the singers care to be so categorized and the whole idea of a category for a singer is of little value. In opera, singers are selected for roles that dramatically and vocal fit their voices but these very roles often do not fit into a particular voice category. Consequently the powers-that-be in opera casting must make decisions based more on the singers abilities for that particular role rather than the singers "fach".
Fachs were developed to categorize singers in order to protect them from ignorant or unreasonable opera impresarios or conductors. The fach system is in place only in Germany, to my knowledge. It may be referred to in other countries but I am not aware that it is given binding consideration in casting roles. And, according to some American singers who have had careers in Germany, many of the German houses are now allowed to categorize singers simply in Soprano, Alto, Tenor or Bass.
Singers would prefer to be acknowledged as artists who are capable of lifting opera roles to the level of great art. None would like to be cast in a roles for which they are inadequate either vocally or dramatically although this does happen. Considerations such as voice size, range, flexibility, etc as well as dramatic capabilities are a necessary part of the process of casting singers for roles but other considerations are also involved such as other members of the cast, size of the performing venue, etc. Such considerations are not a necessary part of the enjoyment of singers by the audience unless the singers are clearly miscast.
Opera is often treated as if it were a sport. We frequently enjoy deciding which quarterback would be best with which team and we often discuss the relative merits of the strengths and abilities of athletes. We do the same for singers in opera. It all adds to the enjoyment of the sport or the art as sport. But it seldom has much value to the idea of opera as art. -- Lloyd W. Hanson
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