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From:  Margaret Harrison <peggyh@i...>
Margaret Harrison <peggyh@i...>
Date:  Mon Jan 15, 2001  5:56 pm
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] Re: musicals with "operatic" roles


snide76258@a... wrote:
snide76258@a... wrote:

> > > What are some musicals with roles that are for an
> > > operatic soprano voice (more than just "legit" musical
> > > theater tone -- I mean a full-throated,
> > > resonant-brimming, vibrato-laden tone that would make
> > > mike run screaming into the night).
> >
>
> Most of the Rogers and Hammersteing musicals have parts like you're
> looking for.

Carrie in Carousel is pretty high for a musical theater role. Audra MacDonald
made a
triumph in this role in a revival.

> Hope Harcourt in Anything Goes is pretty operatic. Often in the old
> musicals, the "leading lady" was more of an operatic soprano, while
> the "tramp" (Reno Sweeney, Ado Annie, etc.) was more of a belter.

Yes, but it's not a high part, at least in the version that gets rented out to
community
theater. I think it's really more in the mezzo-soprano range. If a soprano
sings it,
she'd better have good low notes, or she might wind up being forced to belt low
notes and
use the head-voice high notes, which is a singing practice that I notice (and
dislike
intensely) in so many "Broadway"-style performances these days.

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

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