Vocalist.org archive


From:  Karen Mercedes <dalila@R...>
Karen Mercedes <dalila@R...>
Date:  Tue Feb 13, 2001  2:52 am
Subject:  Re: [vocalist] Heldentenor Orotorio Repertoire


My observation is that oratorio, in general, is much "looser" in its
"faching" than opera is. This said, the works I've come across that most
consistently use a large tenor voice (spinto to full robusto or "helden")
follow. Some are oratorios; the others are symphonic choral works with
soloists.


Beethoven: Symphony #9

Mahler: Symphony #8 "Symphony of a Thousand"

Tippett: A Child of Our Time


Here's the bad news: the tenor solos in Verdi's Requiem and Beethoven's
Missa Solemnis and most other oratorios and choral symphonic works are
virtually always sung by lyric tenors, even when the female and even the
bass or baritone solist(s) is much more robustly voiced. Don't ask me why
- I don't understand it. Maybe it's because the big-voiced tenors are all
busy making much more money singing opera, where they are at a premium,
while their lighter-voiced counterparts are desperate to sing someithing -
ANYTHING - other than yet another Mozart opera. :) This said, from what I
can tell, most "tenore robusto" oratorio singing seems pretty
opportunistic, with big-voiced tenors singing (and even recording)
everything from Mozart's REQUIEM and Haydn's THE SEASONS to Berlioz's
Messe des Morts (Requiem) and Saint-Saens' Oratorio de Noel to Elgar's
Dream of Gerontius and Bruckner's Masses, plus Janacek's Glagolithic Mass
and works by Szymanowski, Dvorak, and others. The point is, these aren't
USUALLY sung by heldentenors, but apparently they CAN be, if a heldentenor
happens to be the tenor hired at the time for a particular
performance/recording. And then, of course, ANY tenor soloist can plan on
singing Handel's MESSIAH at some point, if only because there are so many
performances of the MESSIAH and so few tenors. :)

KM
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-----
We're sitting in the opera house;
We're waiting for the curtain to arise
With wonders for our eyes,
A feeling of expectancy,
A certain kind of ecstasy,
Expectancy and ecstasy....Sh's's's.

- Charles Ives



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