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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).^[1] The contralto voice has the lowest tessitura of the female voices and is noted for its rich and deep vocal timbre.^[2] True operatic contraltos are very rare.^[3] The following is a list of contralto singers who have regularly performed unamplified classical or operatic music in concert halls and/or opera houses.^[4]

A–L

Eunice Alberts (1927–2012)^[6]
Marietta Alboni (1823^[7]–1894)
Marian Anderson (1897–1993)^[8]^[9]
Fanny Anitúa (1887–1968)^[10]
Cecil Arden^[11] (1894–1989)
Germaine Bailac (1881–1977)
Fedora Barbieri (1920–2003)
Eula Beal (1919–2008)^[12]
Marianne Brandt (1842–1921)^[13]
Karin Branzell (1891–1974)^[14]
Muriel Brunskill (1899–1980)^[15]
Clara Butt (1872–1936)
AnnaMaria Cardinalli (born 1979)
Marie-Louise Cébron-Norbens (1888–1958)
Lili Chookasian (1921–2012)^[13]
Belle Cole (1845^[16] or 1853^[17]–1905)^[18]
Kate Condon^[19] (1877–1941)
Clorinda Corradi (1804–1877)^[20]
Christine Nielson Dreier (1866–1926)^[21]
Kathleen Ferrier (1912–1953)^[22]
Maureen Forrester (1930–2010)^[23]
Delphine Galou (born 1977)
Anna Girò (circa 1710 or 1711–1748 or later)^[24]
Louise Homer (1871–1947)^[25]
Edna Indermaur (1892–1985)^[26]
Jenny Twitchell Kempton (1835–1921)^[27]
Gillian Knight^[28] (born 1934)
Anna Larsson^[29] (born 1966)
Marie-Nicole Lemieux (born 1975)^[30]
Gisela Litz^[31] (1922–2017)
Louise Kirkby Lunn (1873–1930)^[32]

M–Z

Adelaide Malanotte (1785–1832)^[33]
Bernadette Manca di Nissa (born 1954)
Marietta Marcolini (c. 1780–1855)^[33]
Margaret Matzenauer (1881–1963), who sang mostly mezzo-soprano roles though^[33]
Antonia Merighi (died 1764)^[33]
Sara Mingardo (born 1961)
Sigrid Onégin (1889–1943)^[34]
Rosmunda Pisaroni (1793–1872)^[33]
Ewa Podleś (1952–2024)^[35]
Marie Powers (1902–1973)^[36]
Sonia Prina^[37] (born 1975)
Maria Radner (1981—2015)^[38]
Geltrude Righetti^[39] (1793–1862)
Anastasia Robinson (c. 1692–1755)^[40]
Sofia Scalchi^[41] (1850–1922)
Ernestine Schumann-Heink (1861–1936)^[42]
Annice Sidwells (1902–2001)
Monica Sinclair (1925–2002)^[43]
Nathalie Stutzmann^[44]^[45] (born 1965)
Hilary Summers^[46]
Vittoria Tesi (1700–1775)^[47]
Kerstin Thorborg (1896–1970)
Claramae Turner (1920–2013)
Francesca Vanini-Boschi (?–1744)^[33]
Lucia Elizabeth Vestris (1797–1856)^[48]
Helen Watts (1927–2009)^[49]
Portia White (1911–1968)^[50]
Marta Wittkowska^[51] (1882–1977)

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.
^ Cody, Judith (2002). Vivian Fine: A Bio-bibliography. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 232. ISBN 9780313254741.
^ 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.
^ ^a ^b 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 [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.
^ "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.
^ 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.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f 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 [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.
Celletti, R. (2000). "Requiem per il contralto". La grana della voce. Opere, direttori e cantanti (in Italian) (2nd ed.). Rome: Baldini & Castoldi. ISBN 88-8089-781-0.
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.

[FOOTNOTEMcKinney1994-1] McKinney 1994.

[FOOTNOTEAppelman1986-2] Appelman 1986.

[FOOTNOTEMyers1996-3] Myers 1996.

[4] Unless otherwise indicated all names on this list appear in either Jander et al. or Myers 1996.

[FOOTNOTEJones2019-5] Jones 2019.

[6] Cody, Judith (2002). Vivian Fine: A Bio-bibliography. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 232. ISBN 9780313254741.

[7] Claude Egerton Lowe (1896). A Chronological Cyclopaedia of Musicians and Musical Events…. Weekes & Co. p. 49. Retrieved 18 July 2021.

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

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

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

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

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

[Hall_2002_p._725-13] Hall 2002, p. 725

[FOOTNOTEHall20021093-14] Hall 2002, p. 1093.

[15] The Musical Times, "Muriel Brunskill", vol. 121, no. 1646 (April 1980), p. 267

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

[17] Johnston, Roy (2017). The Musical Life of Nineteenth-Century Belfast. Routledge. ISBN 9781351542104.

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

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

[FOOTNOTERutherford2006175-20] Rutherford 2006, p. 175.

[WillardLivermore-1893-21] 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.

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

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

[24] 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

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

[26] "Musical treat is coming next week". The Johnsonian. Vol. 11, no. 36. Winthrop University. 18 July 1925. Retrieved 19 July 2021.

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

[28] Simeone, Nigel; Tyrrell, John (2015). Charles Mackerras. Boydell & Brewer. p. 259. ISBN 9781843839668.

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

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

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

[FOOTNOTEHall2002473-32] Hall 2002, p. 473.

[Celletti-33] ^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Celletti 2000, pp. 236–245

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

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

[36] "Music: Contralto on Broadway". Time. 30 June 1947.

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

[38] 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.

[39] Gallo, Denise P. (2002). Gioachino Rossini: A Guide to Research. Psychology Press. p. 44. ISBN 9780815334743.

[40] 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.

[41] Amy Louise Peyton (1983). Nightingale of the North. Breakwater Books. p. 135. ISBN 9780920502259.

[42] "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.

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

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

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

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

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

[48] 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

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

[ce-50] 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.

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

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PROFILPELAJAR.COM

List of operatic contraltos

A–L

M–Z

See also

References

Notes

Sources