The voice of mezzo-soprano is rarely found in nature, but it has a very beautiful, juicy and velvety sound. To find a singer with such a voice is a great success for the teacher, this voice has wide application in the operatic stage, and in various directions of music.
Mezzo-soprano with a beautiful timbre is easier to enter music schools, and in the future to find work in the opera house, because Mezzo-soprano singers are always lacking and there are not as many of them as women with high singing voices.
From the article you will learn how a beautiful female voice is formed and where you can find a worthy use for it.
What is the difference mezzoprano from other voices
In the Italian school, the so-called voice, which is revealed a third below the dramatic soprano. Translated into Russian, "mezzo-soprano" means "little soprano." It has a beautiful velvety sound and is revealed not on the top notes, but in the middle part of the range, from la to a small octave to la second.
When singing higher notes, the rich, rich timbre of the mezzo-soprano loses its characteristic color, becomes dull, sharp and colorless, unlike the soprano, whose voice begins to unfold on the upper notes, acquiring a beautiful head sound. Although in the history of music there are known examples of mezzo, which could not lose their beautiful timbre even on the top notes and soprano parts sang easily. In the Italian school, the mezzo may sound like a lyric-dramatic or dramatic soprano, but in the range to be below these voices by about a third.
In the Russian opera school, this voice is distinguished by a rich and rich timbre, sometimes resembling the contralto - the lowest voice among women who can sing tenor parts. Therefore, mezzo-soprano with insufficiently deep and expressive timbre is attributed to soprano, which often constitutes a lot of difficulties for this voice. Therefore, many girls with such voices go to the stage and jazz, where they can sing in a comfortable tessiture. Formed mezzo-soprano can be divided into lyric (close to soprano) and dramatic.
In the choir, the lyrical mezzo-soprano sings the part of the first altos, and the drama - the second along with the contralto. In the folk choir, they perform the alto parts, and in the pop and jazz direction the mezzo-soprano is valued for its beautiful timbre and for its expressive low notes. By the way, many modern performers on the foreign stage are distinguished by the characteristic mezzo-soprano timbre despite the other sound supply.
The main differences of mezzo-soprano from other voices are the following features:
- In the upper parts of the range, the mezzo-soprano becomes expressionless and loses its beautiful timbre. Soprano in this part of the range only gains the beauty and expressiveness of the voice (approximately from the first octave to the second oh).
- The range from do-re of the second octave to fa may not be working at all, which is not characteristic of soprano.
- Low notes do not present difficulties and sound beautiful and deep, unlike the soprano, who find it difficult to sing these notes. Sometimes on such notes as la and salt of a small octave the soprano loses the expressiveness of the voice and these notes almost do not sound.
Why mezzo-soprano is difficult to determine
This voice is the most controversial among teachers, because it is very difficult to identify it in children and adolescents. Mezzo-soprano formed later than other voicestherefore, girls with an unformed voice in the choir are placed in the second and even in the first soprano, which presents great difficulties for them and can discourage interest in classes altogether. Sometimes high children's voices after transitional age acquire a characteristic mezzo-soprano sound, but more often mezzo-soprano is obtained from altos. Accurately determine the mezzo-soprano can be 18 or 19 years. But even here the teachers may be mistaken.
The fact is that not all mezzo-sopranos have a bright and expressive velvet timbre, like those of opera singers. Often they sound beautiful, but dim in the first octave and after it only because their timbre is not as strong and expressive as that of world famous celebrities. Opera voices with such timbre are rarely found in nature, therefore girls who do not meet operatic requirements are automatically referred to soprano. But in fact, they simply have not enough expressive voice for opera. In this case, the decisive will be the range, not the timbre. That is why mezzo-soprano is difficult to determine from the first time.
In children up to 10 years old, we can already assume the further development of mezzo-soprano along the chest tone and the undeveloped upper voice register. Sometimes, closer to transitional age, the height and expressiveness of the voice begins to decline and at the same time the thoracic voice register expands. But the exact result will be visible after 14 or 16 years, and sometimes later.
Famous singers - LIST
Mezzo-soprano is in demand not only in the opera. There are many female singers with such a voice in folk singing, jazz and pop music, whose timbre and range allow women to find a worthy use. Of course, in a pop singer it is more difficult to determine the scope of the voice and the keys available to it, but by the timbre you can identify the nature of the voice.
The most famous opera singers with such a voice are Elena Obraztsova, Cecilia Bartoli, Ellina Garancha, Katherine Jenkis, Magdalena Kozhena, Yulia Lezhnevawith a rare type of this voice - coloratura mezzo-soprano, and many others.
Among the national artists of our country with the voice of mezzo-soprano can be called Lyudmila Zykina and Nadezhda Babkina (dramatic mezzo-soprano). Despite singing in a folk style, the mezzo-soprano produces velvety timbre and voice coloring.
Pop singers with mezzo-soprano are distinguished by deep chest sounding voices. The color of this voice is well heard in such singers as Slava, Natalia Oreiro and Nadezhda Granovskaya.
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