Every Operatic Mezzo and Contralto Voice Type, Explained

All the mezzo voice types, EXPLAINED! This is what lyric mezzo, contralto, and Zwischenfach really mean in the opera world. So if you wanted to know the difference between altos and contraltos, now you know! :)

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[robinhahnsopran]

Again, like the first video, this is JUST a crash course! Lots of further depth I had to skip here. Because there lines between all the mezzo and contralto Fächer are so permeable, I could literally write a dissertation on it and only then MAYBE cover everything 😂Drop anything I missed in a comment here!

[SewBiased]

So glad to help out! And yeah, the boxes are weird, and wildly overlapping, and there are few enough of us that we sing nearly everything anyway. My resume has like 5 MAJOR contralto roles on it, 2 soprano roles, a bunch of lyric, and a few Dramatic mezzo roles. Oh God, it occurs to me, even though I bill myself as a Dramatic Mezzo, I might have fewer ACTUAL Dramatic Mezzo roles on it than contralto/others. Yikes!

[raphaelaelin]

Oooh, there are a lot of contralto roles, which are very beautiful...
And many Mezzo-Roles are in truth Contralto Roles, but because Mezzos are singing them today, we think, they are Mezzo-Roles.

Contralto Roles are :

Dalilah - in Samson and Dalilah
Azucena - in Il Trovatore
Gaea - in Daphne
Erda - in Rheingold und Siegfried
Isabella - In Italiana in Algeri
Smeton - in Anna Bolena
Mrs. Quickly - in Falstaff
Ulrica - in Un Ballo in Maschera
Arsace - in Semiramide
Tancredi - in Tancredi
Maffio Orsini - in Lucrezia Borgia
Auntie - In Peter Grimes
Wowkle - in La Fanciulla del West
Lucrezia - von Benjamin Britten
Mallika - in Lakmé
1.Norn - in Götterdämmerung
Waltraute - in Götterdämmerung
Mary - in der fliegende Holländer
Zia Principessa - in Suor Angelica
Bradamante - in Alcina
L'Opinion Publique - in Orphée aux enfers
Arnalta - in L'incoronatione die Poppéa
Orpheus - in Ophée et Eurydice
Cornelia - in Giulio Cesare
Madame de la Haltiére - Cendrillon
Mercedes - in Carmen
La Cieca - in La Gioconda
Madelon - Andrea Chenier
Mama Lucia - in Cavalleria Rusticana

and more

Very very Remarkable are :
Gaea - in Daphne with the Aria "Daphne... Komm ins Haus... Dein Zagen kenn ich"

Erda in Siegfried "Stark ruft das Lied... Männertaten umdämmern mir den Mut... Wirr wird mir, seit ich erwacht"

Mrs. Quickly in Falstaff mit "Reverenza"

Ulrica in Un Ballo mit "Re dell abisso affretati"

Zia Principessa in Suor Angelica mit "Il Principe gualtiero"

La Cieca in La Gioconda mit "Voce di donna"

Und eine Szene mit Madelon in Andrea Chenier.

A really wooonderful and special Contralto Voice is Ewa Podles or Fedora Barbieri, but also many others ❤️

[calliea]

This is my new favorite YouTube channel! I’m so glad I found it.

[vincentr]

I want to cry 😭😭 this video deserves a billion views 👏🏻👏🏻 so informative and thorough. Simply love love love this. 😍😍😍 thank you so much for uploading

[Guardmuscian]

I personally catagorize myself as a Dramatic Bass-Baritone (can sing some Countertenor as well) and I have to say I LOVE Dramatic Mezzos and Contraltos.

[ABerenice]

Ugh, I’m so excited & looking forward to hearing about the other voice parts!!!

[professorrock]

Speaking of roles that can be sung by multiple voice types/zwischenfach, I think Dido and Aeneas is worth a special mention.

I was in a production a few years ago and got sort of obsessed with it, watching and listening to as many as I could find online. Literally every day for months -- or whenever I came across a new one -- I'd watch or listen to a new production. And I have never seen an opera with more voice part flexibility, usually without changing the octaves : Belinda is pretty much always a soprano (although vocal weight varies significantly), and the Sailor is almost always a tenor (except perhaps in more amateur productions like mine, where he was a mezzo.) But Dido is commonly played by both mezzos and sopranos -- and of course falcons/zwischenfachs like Jessye Norman, who to me is the definitive Dido. Aeneas is commonly sung by both tenors and baritones. I've seen the witches as two sopranos, two mezzos, two countertenors, or any combination thereof. The 2nd Woman can be mezzo or soprano. The Spirit seems equally likely to be sung by a soprano or a countertenor (or occasionally other voices.) The Sorceress/Sorceror has been played by literally every voice type imaginable -- soprano (although admittedly I've only seen one or two), mezzo (most common), countertenor (also quite common), contralto - and the rest by changing the octave -- tenor, baritone, and bass (re: bass, there is some debatable evidence that the role was originally written this way -- in general, there is a lot of confusion about how all the parts were originally written and how they have sounded over time, too much to get into here.)

It's really fun because this flexibility leaves a bit more surprise at how everyone is going to sound -- and sound together -- in different productions.

[lindsaygillis]

Thanks for sharing all this information! It was fun to hear examples of mezzo repertoire that I can potentially give to students in the future :)

[MaryanaMaskar]

Great... I've spent the latter part of the video picturing Carmen as Marlene Dietrich in a tuxedo.

[Sloppyjoey]

I'm excited for your Tenor series! I sang bass in choir and was identified as a baritone because of my vocal timbre, but my range always sat much higher, comfortably up into the Tenor-Alto range. Most people refer to it as a "Baritenor" or "2nd tenor" but after learning more about fach I believe I'm more accurately described as a "Spinto Tenor". It's fun to learn that the story doesn't end with range. My voice has always been too full & dark to describe as simply a "Tenor" yet too powerful & explosive to be described as a "Baritone". A lot of modern teachers over emphasize timbre or range and you're bringing some much needed clarity to the topic!!

[KJSCHM]

i am a contralto and it is hard for me to sing without belting😂

[sageinsuranceanswers]

Thank you!! I've really been trying to understand my "mezzo soprano" voice and this really helped :)

[kiaraeijo]

My favorite mezzos/contraltos that I listen to are Joyce Didonato, Marian Anderson, J’Nai Bridges, Dolora Zajick, Cecilia Bartoli (I love her recording of Griselda), Christa Ludwig and most recently Isabel Leonard. I’ve started listening to opera more in the last three years because my first year of grad school, I helped my graduate band director/orchestra conductor take notes for the opera program’s tech week (They did Pirates of Penzance) and that was because none of his TA’s wanted to be orchestra conductors.

[cm]

you wanna do a video on tenor/bass voice types so bad influencing you with my mind powers

[StadinBasso]

Orlando in Händel's Orlando is mostly sung by Contraltos or Counter Tenors! Whew, I could name one too.

[SobrietyandSolace]

I feel like a straight up lady tenor, honestly.

[bskeete]

Very informative. I love your sense of humor. Thanks.

[chrystallized]

I would just like to point out how underestimated Nathalie Stutzmann is.

ALSO, thank you Robin for this amazing video!!

Could you also maybe make a short or something about people who identify as "Alto-Mezzo's", please?
From what I've gathered one can be a contralto but "train" enough to cover mezzo repertoire too, or did I just get it all wrong?

Sincerely,
A very confused *possible* contralto trying to find her fach.

[shelleywalsh]

A question came up when talking to a tenor capable of singing low wanting to try singing baritone that would suit itself to his lighter voice. I as a toward the high end mezzo who nonetheless can sing low fairly well, but can’t in any way sound like a contralto could identified with him. Coincidentally just a couple days after the discussion almost the ideal contralto to suit even a high mezzo, the Smeton aria Deh Non Voler Costringere, possibly even Smeton in general or maybe trousers contraltos in general. The question then occurred to me of what others are there and what are the other best crossover roles between other voice types. Crossovers between soprano and mezzos I know pretty well. And as you say contralto roles are often taken my mezzo, due to the lack of real contraltos, but which are the most borderline. What are examples of ones most suited to mezzos. Guessing it would likely be coloratura contralto roles, but what are some other good examples besides Smeton. Ones that even mezzos that dip into soprano can effectively do. And what about men? What should my tenor friend sing if he wants to try a bit of baritone. What are the best between baritone and bass roles?