Hello everybody! I hope the New Year is being kind to you all.
Jean Wakefield, a veteran contributor to the Contralto Corner, has suggested four more contraltos for us all to listen to. Many thanks Jean for your continued interest and support!
The first in the list is Sigrid Onegin, a Franco-Germanic contralto born in Sweden. She lived from 1889 to 1943, singing at the Met, Covent Garden and Bayreuth, in roles such as Orfeo, Eboli, Erda and Amneris. She also created the role of Dyrad in Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos. She sings Eboli's "O Don Fatale" from Verdi's Don Carloin the video below.
Jean Wakefield, a veteran contributor to the Contralto Corner, has suggested four more contraltos for us all to listen to. Many thanks Jean for your continued interest and support!
The first in the list is Sigrid Onegin, a Franco-Germanic contralto born in Sweden. She lived from 1889 to 1943, singing at the Met, Covent Garden and Bayreuth, in roles such as Orfeo, Eboli, Erda and Amneris. She also created the role of Dyrad in Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos. She sings Eboli's "O Don Fatale" from Verdi's Don Carloin the video below.
The next contralto is the great Armenian Lili Chookisian, the key contralto at the Met in the 60's, 70's and early 80's. She died in April last year, but her great performances have stayed with us. Like Ewa Podles, she was capable of both cavernous chest tone and a ringing C6. In the video below, she sings the fearsome aria "Re Dell'Abisso" from Verdi's Un Ballo in Maschera.
The Welsh contralto Hillary Summers is another dramatic contralto, like Chookasian and Podles, with a fierce chest register. Her she performs "Peccator Videbit" from Vivaldi's Beatus vir, the version for the Ospedale della Pietà, RV 795, which he wrote for a very low-voiced female singer. Summers handles the F3 and E3 with ease.
Swiss contralto Ursula Ferri is another "assoluta" contralto with a very wide range. In a previous post, we heard her hit a C3, and in this clip, Gaea's scene from Richard Strauss' Daphne, she sings a plethora of Eb3's on stage. Go Ursula!
RSS Feed