Performed by Nathalie Stutzmann.
Score: None
Uploaded by DHO Gwen.
Aria of the Week #167 "La Chevelure" by C. Debussy Performed by Nathalie Stutzmann. Score: None Uploaded by DHO Gwen.
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Aria of the Week #133: "Ah, mio cor, schernito sen" by G. F. Handel. Performed by Nathalie Stutzmann. Score: None Uploaded by Nathalie Stutzmann. Aria of the Week #94: "Der Doppelganger" by F. Schubert. Performed by Nathalie Stutzmann. Score: IMSLP (pg 47 of viewer). Uploaded by rosen88kavalier. Towards the end of the Wigmore Hall's 2015-16 season, three mesmerising Contraltos will be performing early music repertoire under the famous Arts and Crafts Cupola. On the 23rd June, Hilary Summers will take the role of Cleofe in the Early Opera Company's concert performance La Resurrezione, under the baton of maestro Christian Curnyn. Hilary will share the stage with Sopranos Mhairi Lawson (Angelo) and Claire Booth (Maddalena), and the amazingly talented Bass-Baritone Callum Thorpe (Lucifero). If you want to catch a glimpse of Hilary in the UK before next summer, she will be performing at the Edinburgh Festival as Buttercup in HMS Pinafore, a role début. Nathalie Stutzmann takes the helm of her orchestra, Orfeo 55, on the 2nd July in a concert of Arie Antiche. Composers include Carissimi, Caldara, Bononchini, Scarlatti, and Parisotti. Her Wigmore Hall début last year was a massive success, with her voice being described as "a contralto voice of great strength, suppleness and expressivity." Sonia Prina continues her sensational relationship with the Wigmore hall with a concert of Gluck arias on the 28th June with orchestra La Barocca. Sonia's previous two concerts have both been showcases of opera arias. The first was a concert of arias by Vivaldi, while the second comprised of arias written for the star alto castrato Senesino. The Wigmore Hall has been a string supporter of the Contralto voice over the past couple of years, with five Contraltos performing in its 2014-15 season. I hope to see more Contraltos making their début at this glorious venue over the next few years!
Aria of the Week #67: "Wer Sünde tut, der ist vom Teufel" by J. S. Bach. Performed by Nathalie Stutzmann. Score: IMSLP Uploaded by rayangreene. On Friday 17 October, Nathalie Stutzmann will perform in recital with her orchestra, Orefo 55. The recital is part of the Early Music and Baroque series, and will include arias such as the furious "Gemo in un punto e fremo" and the heart-rending "Scherza infida". Hilary Summers will perform as the Alto Soloist in the Christmas performance of Messiah at the Wigmore Hall on 23rd December, with the incomparable Christian Curnyn conducting. In the January to March booking season, Sonia Prina returns to the Wigmore Hall on 3rd January with Roberta Invernizzi to promote their album Amore e Morte dell’Amore, published on the Naive record label. The Spring Season also sees the arrival of the French-Canadian Contralto Marie-Nicole Lemieux, who will perform in recital on 27th Febuary. Finally, in the Summer Season, regular Wigmore Hall performer Sara Mingardo will perform as part of the BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Recital Series on 11th May, with a programme to include works by Falconieri and Monteverdi. This week's Aria of the Week is Der Wanderer D 493 by F. Schubert, performed by French contralto Nathalie Stutzmann. When Schubert wrote “Der Tod und das Mädchen” (Death and the Maiden) I wonder if he realised just how perfect a song he had created for the contralto voice? With the singer expected to portray both the Maiden and Death in less than two and a half minutes, one could expect difficulties in characterisation occurring. However, Schubert helps the singer by writing the music for the Maiden and Death in the head and middle/chest registers respectively. The music for the Maiden encompasses a semitone less than one full octave, from E4 to Eb5. By keeping the music in the lighter head register, Schubert helps to produce the characterisation of the young maiden through the sound of the voice itself. In the contralto head register we can hear the Maiden’s youth. We can also hear her fear, in the high phrase around the Eb5, the upper end of the contralto head voice (not counting the upper extension posses by many of the great contralti). Her fear turns into resignation at the end of her phrase as the music moves gradually to the E4, the lower end of the head voice. After a couple of bars with which to adjust the registers, Death enters on a D4, which is to be sung in either the middle or chest registers. I believe it is better to sing it in the mid-register, as the warm, velvety timbre of the contralto mid-register is the perfect vehicle to express Death’s attempt to comfort the Maiden. The final phrase sees the singer move from the mid to chest register on the final word, “schlafen” (sleep), with a cadence from A3 to D3. The register change displays both the preternatural strength in Death’s “Armen” (arms) and the final command the Maiden hears, and the life leaves her physical body. This is one of the best songs for the contralto voice, and can also be useful to young contraltos, or those just starting to sing classical music, as the registration changes allow the singer to understand the fell of the different “voices”, their sounds, qualities and character. There are other songs and arias which do this, but this is also one of the simplest, requiring the singer to concentrate on phrasing, breath control and characterisation, and the simple necessity of conveying to the audience the meaning of the text. For a copy of the score, click here. Below are are few contraltos singing the aria:
This week's Aria of the Week is "Pena Tiranna" from G. F. Handel's Amadigi di Gaula (HWV 11). The singer is the French contralto Nathalie Stutzmann. Enjoy! Well, this is a first for the Contralto Corner: a piece scored for not one, but three contraltos! It comes from the work called Beatus Vir, specifically from the version (RV 795) composed for the women of the Ospedale della Pietà, a home for abandoned children where Vivaldi worked from 1703 to 1715 and from 1723 to 1740. The Pietà ensemble was all female, with women taking all the singing roles, including tenor and bass! There are records of an Anna dal Basso (the ladies were not known by surnames, but by the voice type or instrument they played) who by all accounts could sing well below C3. The particular piece in the video below, which was forwarded to me by Jean Wakefield, who also made previous suggestions of ladies to be included in the Contralto Corner, is called "In Memoria Aeterna". Richard Vendome - Artistic Director of the Vivaldi's Women project, which recreated the choir of the Pietà with women singing all parts from Soprano to Bass - suggested that the lowest of the three contralto parts, which had a much lower tessitura than the other two, was "possibly written for Ambrosina", a contralto with "a voice like thunder, just like a tenor". In the video below, the lowest part is performed by Welsh contralto Hilary Summers with the other parts being take by contraltos Nathalie Stutzmann and Alexandra Gibson. The piece is in the key of C minor, with Summers' first entry coming on a solid G3. She stays below the stave for the majority of the work, and hits both F#3 and F3 natural! In fact, as they are at "Baroque pitch", Summers is starting on a F3 and hits an E3!. Excellent stuff. |
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