List of operatic contraltos

The contralto voice in opera and classical music has a range which typically lies between the F below middle C (F3) to two Fs above middle C (F5). In the lower and upper extremes, some contralto voices can sing from the E below middle C (E3) to two B♭s above middle C (B♭5).[2] The contralto voice has the lowest tessitura of the female voices and is noted for its rich and deep vocal timbre.[3] True operatic contraltos are very rare.[4] The following is a list of contralto singers who have regularly performed unamplified classical or operatic music in concert halls and/or opera houses.[5]

The American contralto Marian Anderson who made her Metropolitan Opera debut as Ulrica in Un ballo in maschera.[1]

A–L

The celebrated Italian-born contralto, Marietta Alboni, who made her La Scala debut as Neocle in the Italian version of Le siège de Corinthe.[6]

Eunice Alberts (1927–2012)[7]
Marietta Alboni (1823[8] or 1826[9]–1894)
Marian Anderson (1897–1993)[10][11]
Fanny Anitúa (1887–1968)[12][13]
Cecil Arden[14] (1894–1989)
Fedora Barbieri[15] (1920-2003)
Eula Beal (1919–2008)[16]
Marianne Brandt (1842–1921)[17]
Karin Branzell (1891–1974)[18]
Muriel Brunskill (1899–1980)[19]
Clara Butt (1872–1936)[20]
AnnaMaria Cardinalli[21] (born 1979)
Lili Chookasian (1921–2012)[17]
Belle Cole (1845[22] or 1853[23]–1905)[24]
Kate Condon[25] (1877–1941)
Clorinda Corradi (1804–1877)[26]
Kathleen Ferrier (1912–1953)[27][28][29]
Maureen Forrester (1930–2010)[30]
Delphine Galou[31] (born 1977)
Anna Girò (circa 1710 or 1711–1748 or later)[32]
Louise Homer (1871–1947)[33]
Edna Indermaur (1892–1985)[34]
Jenny Twitchell Kempton (1835–1921)[35]
Gillian Knight[36] (born 1934)
Anna Larsson[37] (born 1966)
Marie-Nicole Lemieux (born 1975)[38]
Gisela Litz[39] (born 1922)
Louise Kirkby Lunn (1873–1930)[40]

M–Z

The celebrated Austrian-born contralto, Ernestine Schumann-Heink, who made her operatic debut as Azucena in Il trovatore.[41]

Adelaide Malanotte (1785–1832)[42]
Bernadette Manca di Nissa[43] (born 1954)
Marietta Marcolini (c. 1780–1855)[42]
Margaret Matzenauer (1881–1963), who sang mostly mezzo-soprano roles though[42]
Antonia Merighi (died 1764)[42]
Sara Mingardo[44] (born 1961)
Sigrid Onégin (1889–1943)[45]
Rosmunda Pisaroni (1793–1872)[42]
Ewa Podleś (born 1952)[46]
Marie Powers (1902–1973)[47]
Sonia Prina[48] (born 1975)
Maria Radner (1981—2015)[49]
Geltrude Righetti[50] (1793–1862)
Anastasia Robinson (c. 1692–1755)[51]
Sofia Scalchi[52] (1850–1922)
Ernestine Schumann-Heink (1861–1936)[53]
Annice Sidwells (1902[54]–2001)
Monica Sinclair (1925–2002)[55]
Nathalie Stutzmann[56][57] (born 1965)
Hilary Summers[58]
Vittoria Tesi (1700–1775)[59]
Kerstin Thorborg[60] (1896–1970)
Claramae Turner (1920–2013)[61]
Francesca Vanini-Boschi (?–1744)[42]
Lucia Elizabeth Vestris (1797–1856)[62]
Helen Watts (1927–2009)[63]
Portia White (1911–1968)[64]
Marta Wittkowska[65] (1882–1977)

References

Notes

Jones
McKinney (1994)
Appelman (1986)
Meyers (1996)
Unless otherwise indicated all names on this list appear in either Jander et al. or Meyers (1996)
(in Italian) Arthur Pougin, Marietta Alboni, p. 26. Cesena, Il Ponte Vecchio, 2001. ISBN 88-8312-178-3
Cody, Judith (2002). Vivian Fine: A Bio-bibliography. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 232.
"Marietta Alboni". Music of Yesterday. Retrieved 7 March 2019.
"Marietta Alboni". Find a Grave. Retrieved 10 March 2019.
Stamberg, Susan (9 April 2014). "Denied A Stage, She Sang For A Nation". National Public Radio. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
Dowd, Vincent (9 April 2014). "The opera singer who changed the civil rights movement". BBC. Retrieved 5 April 2018.
Omshanti (26 October 2009). "Fanny Anitua (1887-1968)". Music of Middle Latin America.
Various Artists (1979). "The Record of Singing...1914-1925". EMI via New York Public Library.
Arden, Cecil. "Only to Thee". Victor via AHR. Retrieved 7 March 2019.
Fedora Barbieri & Renata Tebaldi (2 November 2018). "Beautiful Singing - Le Violette". YouTube: Mister Opera.
St. Austell, Edmund (13 September 2015). "Eula Beal, Contralto". Great Opera Singers.
Hall (2002) p. 725
Hall (2002) p. 1093
The Musical Times,, "Muriel Brunskill", Vol. 121, No. 1646 (Apr., 1980), p. 267
Butt, Clara (17 May 2013). "British Contralto...Abide with Me (1930)". YouTube: Curzon-Road.
Cardinalli, AnnaMaria (22 February 2016). "Ave Maria". YouTube: AnnaMaria Cardinalli.
George E. Hendry (1903). "Belle Cole...American Contralto". Art UK. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
Johnston, Roy (2017). The Musical Life of Nineteenth-Century Belfast. Routledge.
The New York Times, "Death of Belle Cole", 6 January 1905, p. 9
Coliseum...Exposition and Congress of Woman's Achievements (from Volume 47). The Advocate: America’s Jewish Journal. 13 June 1914. p. 685.
Rutherford (2006) p. 175
Christiansen, Rupert (17 January 2012). "Kathleen Ferrier: Consoling angel and the nation's darling". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
Huizenga, Tom (15 May 2012). "Kathleen Ferrier: A Voice Not Forgotten". National Public Radio. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
Duchen, Jessica (28 April 2012). "The legendary, and tragic, voice of a generation at war". The Independent. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
Tommasini, Anthony (17 June 2010). "Maureen Forrester...Dies at 79". The New York Times.
Delphine Galou & Francois-Xavier Roth (4 July 2010). "Bach: Erbarme Dich, Mein Gott". YouTube: Mehdi-Caps-II.
Talbot, Michael, Girò [Tessieri], Anna (Maddalena), in Sadie, Stanley (ed), The New Grove Dictionary of Opera (II, p. 433). New York, Grove (Oxford University Press), 1997. ISBN 978-0-19-522186-2
"Louise Homer...Dies At 76". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. 7 May 1947.
http://digitalcommons.winthrop.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1063&context=thejohnsonian
"Famous Singer of Olden Days was San Francisco Discovery". The San Francisco Chronicle, 20 March 1921. p 4.
Nigel Simeone & John Tyrell (2015). Charles Mackerras. Boydell & Brewer Ltd. p. 259.
Oron, Ayreh (September 2005). "Anna Larsson (Contralto)". Bach Cantatas Website.
So, Joseph, "Quebec Contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux Makes a Brilliant Ontario Debut", La Scena Musicale, 30 July 2001
Ericson, Raymond (16 August 1964). "Lortzing's Operas Do Not Travel Too Well". The New York Times.
Hall (2002) p. 473
Shawe-Taylor, Desmond, "Schumann-Heink Ernestine", Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy. Accessed 4 November 2009 via subscription)
Celletti (2000), chapter: Requiem per il contralto, pp. 236–245
Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (5 November 2012). "Stabat Mater". YouTube: Ear-8002.
Mingardo, Sara (1 July 2014). "Vivaldi, Dixit Dominus, De Torrente". YouTube: Medici.tv.
Shawe-Taylor, Desmond, "Onégin, Sigrid", Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy. Accessed 4 November 2009 via subscription)
Midgette, Anne (16 October 1998). "A Voice as Rare in Type as in Beauty", The New York Times. Retrieved 30 January 2013.
Time, "Contralto on Broadway", 30 June 1947
"Sonia Prina". Houston Grand Opera. 2008. Archived from the original on 6 July 2010. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
Garry Humphreys (26 March 2015). "Maria Radner: Internationally acclaimed contralto who was due to make her Bayreuth Festival debut later this year". The Independent. Retrieved 28 March 2019.
Gallo, Denise P. (2002). Gioachino Rossini: A Guide to Research. Psychology Press. p. 44.
Dean, Winton, "Robinson, Anastasia", in Stanley Sadie|Sadie, Stanley (ed), The New Grove Dictionary of Opera (III, pp. 1360–1361). New York, Grove (Oxford University Press), 1997. ISBN 978-0-19-522186-2.
Amy Louise Peyton (1983). Nightingale of the North. Breakwater Books. p. 135.
"Schumann-Heink, Great Singer, Dead. Native of Bohemia, She Won World-Wide Acclaim in Opera and Concerts". The New York Times. Associated Press. November 18, 1936.
"Annice - Voice of the Dales". Vimeo: Dave Haygrath. 22 February 2012.
"Monica Sinclair". Naxos. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
Ashley, Tim (13 November 2014). "Handel: Heroes from the Shadows CD review – a force to be reckoned with". The Guardian.
"Nathalie Stutzmann : une voix en or", La Dépêche du Midi, 14 October 2009
"Hilary Summers". RNCM. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
Dr. Michael Lorenz (31 March 2016). "The Will of Vittoria Tesi Tramontini". Michael Lorenz.
Thorborg, Kerstin (22 May 2009). "Erda - Weiche, Wotan, Weiche". YouTube: Caruso-gugge.
Hufford, Bob (27 May 2013). "Claramae Turner". Find A Grave. Retrieved 29 March 2019.
Entry: Vestris [née Bartolozzi] Lucia Elizabeth [Eliza Lucy], in Sadie, S. (ed), The New Grove Dictionary of Opera (IV, pp. 979–980). New York, Grove (Oxford University Press), 1997. ISBN 978-0-19-522186-2
Steane, John, "Obituary: Helen Watts, contralto", Gramophone, 23 October 2009
King, Betty Nygaard; So, Joseph K.; Macpherson, James B. (June 21, 2017). "Portia White". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. Archived from the original on March 23, 2020. Retrieved May 14, 2020.
Otto Sarony Co. (July 1912). "Marta Wittkowska...Aida (Photo)". New York Public Library. Retrieved 29 March 2019.

Sources

Appelman, D. Ralph (1986). The Science of Vocal Pedagogy: Theory and Application. Indiana University Press. ISBN 978-0-253-20378-6.
(in Italian) Celletti, R. (2000). La grana della voce. Opere, direttori e cantanti (2nd edition). Roma, Baldini & Castoldi. ISBN 88-8089-781-0
Hall, Charles, J., Chronology of Western Classical Music: 1751-1900, Taylor & Francis, 2002. ISBN 0-415-94216-0
Jander, Owen; Steane, J. B.; Forbes, Elizabeth; Harris, Ellen T., "Contralto", Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy. Accessed 4 November 2009 via subscription)
Jones, Randye. "Afrocentric Voices: Marian Anderson Biography". AfroVoices.com. Retrieved 2007-02-12.
McKinney, James (1994). The Diagnosis and Correction of Vocal Faults. Genovex Music Group. ISBN 978-1-56593-940-0.
Myers, Eric, "Sweet and Low: the Case of the Vanishing Contralto", Opera News, Vol. LXI, December 1996, pp. 18–21
Rutherford, Susan, The prima donna and opera, 1815-1930, Cambridge University Press, 2006. ISBN 0-521-85167-X

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[1] Jones

[2] McKinney (1994)

[3] Appelman (1986)

[4] Meyers (1996)

[5] Unless otherwise indicated all names on this list appear in either Jander et al. or Meyers (1996)

[6] (in Italian) Arthur Pougin, Marietta Alboni, p. 26. Cesena, Il Ponte Vecchio, 2001. ISBN 88-8312-178-3

[7] Cody, Judith (2002). Vivian Fine: A Bio-bibliography. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 232.

[8] "Marietta Alboni". Music of Yesterday. Retrieved 7 March 2019.

[9] "Marietta Alboni". Find a Grave. Retrieved 10 March 2019.

[10] Stamberg, Susan (9 April 2014). "Denied A Stage, She Sang For A Nation". National Public Radio. Retrieved 15 June 2018.

[11] Dowd, Vincent (9 April 2014). "The opera singer who changed the civil rights movement". BBC. Retrieved 5 April 2018.

[12] Omshanti (26 October 2009). "Fanny Anitua (1887-1968)". Music of Middle Latin America.

[13] Various Artists (1979). "The Record of Singing...1914-1925". EMI via New York Public Library.

[14] Arden, Cecil. "Only to Thee". Victor via AHR. Retrieved 7 March 2019.

[15] Fedora Barbieri & Renata Tebaldi (2 November 2018). "Beautiful Singing - Le Violette". YouTube: Mister Opera.

[16] St. Austell, Edmund (13 September 2015). "Eula Beal, Contralto". Great Opera Singers.

[Hall_2002_p._725-17] Hall (2002) p. 725

[18] Hall (2002) p. 1093

[19] The Musical Times,, "Muriel Brunskill", Vol. 121, No. 1646 (Apr., 1980), p. 267

[20] Butt, Clara (17 May 2013). "British Contralto...Abide with Me (1930)". YouTube: Curzon-Road.

[21] Cardinalli, AnnaMaria (22 February 2016). "Ave Maria". YouTube: AnnaMaria Cardinalli.

[22] George E. Hendry (1903). "Belle Cole...American Contralto". Art UK. Retrieved 30 March 2019.

[23] Johnston, Roy (2017). The Musical Life of Nineteenth-Century Belfast. Routledge.

[24] The New York Times, "Death of Belle Cole", 6 January 1905, p. 9

[25] Coliseum...Exposition and Congress of Woman's Achievements (from Volume 47). The Advocate: America’s Jewish Journal. 13 June 1914. p. 685.

[26] Rutherford (2006) p. 175

[27] Christiansen, Rupert (17 January 2012). "Kathleen Ferrier: Consoling angel and the nation's darling". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 15 June 2018.

[28] Huizenga, Tom (15 May 2012). "Kathleen Ferrier: A Voice Not Forgotten". National Public Radio. Retrieved 15 June 2018.

[29] Duchen, Jessica (28 April 2012). "The legendary, and tragic, voice of a generation at war". The Independent. Retrieved 15 June 2018.

[30] Tommasini, Anthony (17 June 2010). "Maureen Forrester...Dies at 79". The New York Times.

[31] Delphine Galou & Francois-Xavier Roth (4 July 2010). "Bach: Erbarme Dich, Mein Gott". YouTube: Mehdi-Caps-II.

[32] Talbot, Michael, Girò [Tessieri], Anna (Maddalena), in Sadie, Stanley (ed), The New Grove Dictionary of Opera (II, p. 433). New York, Grove (Oxford University Press), 1997. ISBN 978-0-19-522186-2

[33] "Louise Homer...Dies At 76". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. 7 May 1947.

[34] ttp://digitalcommons.winthrop.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1063&context=thejohnsonian

[35] "Famous Singer of Olden Days was San Francisco Discovery". The San Francisco Chronicle, 20 March 1921. p 4.

[36] Nigel Simeone & John Tyrell (2015). Charles Mackerras. Boydell & Brewer Ltd. p. 259.

[37] Oron, Ayreh (September 2005). "Anna Larsson (Contralto)". Bach Cantatas Website.

[38] So, Joseph, "Quebec Contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux Makes a Brilliant Ontario Debut", La Scena Musicale, 30 July 2001

[39] Ericson, Raymond (16 August 1964). "Lortzing's Operas Do Not Travel Too Well". The New York Times.

[40] Hall (2002) p. 473

[41] Shawe-Taylor, Desmond, "Schumann-Heink Ernestine", Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy. Accessed 4 November 2009 via subscription)

[Celletti-42] Celletti (2000), chapter: Requiem per il contralto, pp. 236–245

[43] Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (5 November 2012). "Stabat Mater". YouTube: Ear-8002.

[44] Mingardo, Sara (1 July 2014). "Vivaldi, Dixit Dominus, De Torrente". YouTube: Medici.tv.

[45] Shawe-Taylor, Desmond, "Onégin, Sigrid", Grove Music Online ed. L. Macy. Accessed 4 November 2009 via subscription)

[46] Midgette, Anne (16 October 1998). "A Voice as Rare in Type as in Beauty", The New York Times. Retrieved 30 January 2013.

[47] Time, "Contralto on Broadway", 30 June 1947

[48] "Sonia Prina". Houston Grand Opera. 2008. Archived from the original on 6 July 2010. Retrieved 28 March 2019.

[49] Garry Humphreys (26 March 2015). "Maria Radner: Internationally acclaimed contralto who was due to make her Bayreuth Festival debut later this year". The Independent. Retrieved 28 March 2019.

[50] Gallo, Denise P. (2002). Gioachino Rossini: A Guide to Research. Psychology Press. p. 44.

[51] Dean, Winton, "Robinson, Anastasia", in Stanley Sadie|Sadie, Stanley (ed), The New Grove Dictionary of Opera (III, pp. 1360–1361). New York, Grove (Oxford University Press), 1997. ISBN 978-0-19-522186-2.

[52] Amy Louise Peyton (1983). Nightingale of the North. Breakwater Books. p. 135.

[53] "Schumann-Heink, Great Singer, Dead. Native of Bohemia, She Won World-Wide Acclaim in Opera and Concerts". The New York Times. Associated Press. November 18, 1936.

[54] "Annice - Voice of the Dales". Vimeo: Dave Haygrath. 22 February 2012.

[55] "Monica Sinclair". Naxos. Retrieved 29 March 2019.

[56] Ashley, Tim (13 November 2014). "Handel: Heroes from the Shadows CD review – a force to be reckoned with". The Guardian.

[57] "Nathalie Stutzmann : une voix en or", La Dépêche du Midi, 14 October 2009

[58] "Hilary Summers". RNCM. Retrieved 29 March 2019.

[59] Dr. Michael Lorenz (31 March 2016). "The Will of Vittoria Tesi Tramontini". Michael Lorenz.

[60] Thorborg, Kerstin (22 May 2009). "Erda - Weiche, Wotan, Weiche". YouTube: Caruso-gugge.

[61] Hufford, Bob (27 May 2013). "Claramae Turner". Find A Grave. Retrieved 29 March 2019.

[62] Entry: Vestris [née Bartolozzi] Lucia Elizabeth [Eliza Lucy], in Sadie, S. (ed), The New Grove Dictionary of Opera (IV, pp. 979–980). New York, Grove (Oxford University Press), 1997. ISBN 978-0-19-522186-2

[63] Steane, John, "Obituary: Helen Watts, contralto", Gramophone, 23 October 2009

[ce-64] King, Betty Nygaard; So, Joseph K.; Macpherson, James B. (June 21, 2017). "Portia White". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Canada. Archived from the original on March 23, 2020. Retrieved May 14, 2020.

[65] Otto Sarony Co. (July 1912). "Marta Wittkowska...Aida (Photo)". New York Public Library. Retrieved 29 March 2019.

List of operatic contraltos

A–L

M–Z

See also

References