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). The contralto voice has the lowest tessitura of the female voices and is noted for its rich and deep vocal timbre. True operatic contraltos are very rare. The following is a list of contralto singers who have regularly performed unamplified classical or operatic music in concert halls and/or opera houses.
A–L
- Eunice Alberts (1927–2012)
- Marietta Alboni (1823–1894)
- Marian Anderson (1897–1993)
- Fanny Anitúa (1887–1968)
- Cecil Arden (1894–1989)
- Germaine Bailac (1881–1977)
- Fedora Barbieri (1920–2003)
- Eula Beal (1919–2008)
- Marianne Brandt (1842–1921)
- Karin Branzell (1891–1974)
- Muriel Brunskill (1899–1980)
- Clara Butt (1872–1936)
- AnnaMaria Cardinalli (born 1979)
- Marie-Louise Cébron-Norbens (1888–1958)
- Lili Chookasian (1921–2012)
- Belle Cole (1845 or 1853–1905)
- Kate Condon (1877–1941)
- Clorinda Corradi (1804–1877)
- Christine Nielson Dreier (1866–1926)
- Kathleen Ferrier (1912–1953)
- Maureen Forrester (1930–2010)
- Delphine Galou (born 1977)
- Anna Girò (circa 1710 or 1711–1748 or later)
- Louise Homer (1871–1947)
- Edna Indermaur (1892–1985)
- Jenny Twitchell Kempton (1835–1921)
- Gillian Knight (born 1934)
- Anna Larsson (born 1966)
- Marie-Nicole Lemieux (born 1975)
- Gisela Litz (1922–2017)
- Louise Kirkby Lunn (1873–1930)
M–Z
- Adelaide Malanotte (1785–1832)
- Bernadette Manca di Nissa (born 1954)
- Marietta Marcolini (c. 1780–1855)
- Margaret Matzenauer (1881–1963), who sang mostly mezzo-soprano roles though
- Antonia Merighi (died 1764)
- Sara Mingardo (born 1961)
- Sigrid Onégin (1889–1943)
- Rosmunda Pisaroni (1793–1872)
- Ewa Podleś (1952–2024)
- Marie Powers (1902–1973)
- Sonia Prina (born 1975)
- Maria Radner (1981—2015)
- Geltrude Righetti (1793–1862)
- Anastasia Robinson (c. 1692–1755)
- Sofia Scalchi (1850–1922)
- Ernestine Schumann-Heink (1861–1936)
- Annice Sidwells (1902–2001)
- Monica Sinclair (1925–2002)
- Nathalie Stutzmann (born 1965)
- Hilary Summers
- Vittoria Tesi (1700–1775)
- Kerstin Thorborg (1896–1970)
- Claramae Turner (1920–2013)
- Francesca Vanini-Boschi (?–1744)
- Lucia Elizabeth Vestris (1797–1856)
- Helen Watts (1927–2009)
- Portia White (1911–1968)
- Marta Wittkowska (1882–1977)
See also
References
Notes
- McKinney 1994.
- Appelman 1986.
- Myers 1996.
- Unless otherwise indicated all names on this list appear in either Jander et al. or Myers 1996.
- Jones 2019.
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- Claude Egerton Lowe (1896). A Chronological Cyclopaedia of Musicians and Musical Events…. Weekes & Co. p. 49. Retrieved 18 July 2021.
- 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.
- Arden, Cecil. "Only to Thee". Victor via AHR. Retrieved 7 March 2019.
- 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 (April 1980), p. 267
- 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. ISBN 9781351542104.
- 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.
- Willard, Frances Elizabeth; Livermore, Mary Ashton Rice (1893). "DREIER, Mrs. Christine Nielson". A Woman of the Century: Fourteen Hundred-seventy Biographical Sketches Accompanied by Portraits of Leading American Women in All Walks of Life (Public domain ed.). Charles Wells Moulton. p. 260.
- Huizenga, Tom (15 May 2012). "Kathleen Ferrier: A Voice Not Forgotten". National Public Radio. Retrieved 15 June 2018.
- Tommasini, Anthony (17 June 2010). "Maureen Forrester...Dies at 79". The New York Times.
- Talbot, Michael, "Girò , 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.
- "Musical treat is coming next week". The Johnsonian. Vol. 11, no. 36. Winthrop University. 18 July 1925. Retrieved 19 July 2021.
- "Famous Singer of Olden Days was San Francisco Discovery". San Francisco Chronicle, 20 March 1921. p 4.
- Simeone, Nigel; Tyrrell, John (2015). Charles Mackerras. Boydell & Brewer. p. 259. ISBN 9781843839668.
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- 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.
- ^ Celletti 2000, pp. 236–245
- 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.
- "Music: Contralto on Broadway". Time. 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. ISBN 9780815334743.
- 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. ISBN 9780920502259.
- "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.
- "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.
- Entry: Vestris Lucia Elizabeth , 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
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- Hall, Charles J. (2002). Chronology of Western Classical Music: 1751–1900. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 0-415-94216-0.
- Jander, Owen; Steane, J. B.; Forbes, Elizabeth; Harris, Ellen T. "Contralto". Grove Music Online. (subscription required)
- Jones, Randye (10 September 2019). "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 (December 1996). "Sweet and Low: the case of the vanishing contralto". Opera News. Vol. 61, no. 7. pp. 18–21. Retrieved 19 July 2021.
- Rutherford, Susan (2006). The Prima Donna and Opera, 1815–1930. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-85167-X.