Good choices. There seem to be very few major roles that really cry out for the deep tone of a true contralto. There must be a number of small character parts that benefit from that sound. Two that occur to me are the voice from the temple dome at the end of Act 1 of Parsifal and the First Norn in Gotterdammerung. How about Maddalena in Rigoletto?

 

Good choices. There seem to be very few major roles that really cry out for the deep tone of a true contralto. There must be a number of small character parts that benefit from that sound. Two that occur to me are the voice from the temple dome at the end of Act 1 of Parsifal and the First Norn in Gotterdammerung. How about Maddalena in Rigoletto?

I tend to associate contraltos with mother figures, so I think of Maddalena as a mezzo role.

There's Dalila of course. The tessitura is pretty low, but I've always felt that when contraltos sing Softly awakes my heart they sound more like a matron with an ample bosom than a seductive siren. Dalila should be sexy and sound sexy and my favourites are Verrett, Baltsa and (in the arias) Callas.

 

The aria Non erubicite from Oedipus Rex. Jessye Norman did a fine, spectacularly attired version for the The Met version on PBS after she lost weight and looked really fabulous BUT I used to have a live pirated version from her vocal peak before the weight loss and her low notes reminded one of Wotan! The role had so much more punch when she had that contralto power at her disposal. Only Ponselle, Podles or Anderson could have pulled off similar power in my opinion in that aria - all of them freaks. It needs a contralto for optimal punch.
Not opera but my sister had the perfect soprano voice for Bach choral pieces and sang in many in Germany

and she said that the alto parts lie really low for a woman and mezzos have a hard time cutting it singing the arias over the orchestra.

 

Olga in Onegin is a contralto part. It was a professional joke of Tchaikovsky to assemble a soprano with a baritone and a contralto with a tenor.
Pauline in Queen of spades (the same singer usually sings Milovzor in a baroque or classicist stylized pastoral), as I know, can be sung by a contralto. Though there is a possibility of sounding too adult, her music is very suitable for a contralto: a folk song, a russian romance (based on a poem by Zhukovski), a baroque trousers role.

 

There is also a vast Rossini and baroque repertoire for coloratura contralto.Besides music for castrati composers also wrote especially for women altos, for example Faustina Bordon. She worked with Haendel during his glorious rivalry with Porpora in London and was a wife of Hasse for a lifetime.

 

Arsace and Malcolm in Rossini's operas, for example, are definitely contralto, and need that color and weight to differentiate from the Colbran roles they sing with that
don't go that high except in upward embellishments.

 

Mamma Lucia in Cavalleria Rusticana? Not that it matters, I suppose.

 

When I hear the name Mamma Lucia I think of a woman bring out steaming hot spaghetti from the kitchen. Don't ban me from the forum.

 

Mistress Quickly in Falstaff works best with a contralto and provides contrast with the Mezzo (Meg) and the two different sopranos more spinto (Alice) and more lyric (Nanetta). The Zia Principessa in Suor Angelica is another one where the composer actually calls for a contralto in the score.

Not a particularly well known opera, but Rosa Mamai in L'Arlesiana I feel works better with a contralto (although Freni recorded the aria).

I prefer a good solid dark hued Amneris and Azucena, but the high notes in those parts are considered out of a contralto's league. Do we consider Dominguez a contralto? She was a superb Amneris and also sang Azucena as well as Erda and La Cieca.

I think the Princess de Bouillon in Adriana Lecouvreur and Madelon in Andrea Chenier are better with a contralto too.

In baroque opera there's a load depending on whether you cast a countertenor, a mezzo or a contralto in the castrato roles. The matrons in those operas work better with a contralto (Cornelia in Giulio Cesare).

Since the mezzo-soprano didn't exist as a category before the 19th century, where composers called for a contralto in classical, baroque and early opera they may have actually been writing for a voice closer to what we think of as a mezzo today (although in some cases when wanting a high/light mezzo they would request a soprano in the score).

N.

 

Sosostris in The Misdummer Marriage
Cornelia in Giulio Cesare
Eduige, Bertarido in Rodelinda
Medoro in Handel’s Orlando

 

Cornelia in Giulio Cesare is not only a matron, but a sexual interest of Tolomeo and his proxy. Baroque offers us a wide range of voices with different application. If a castrato voice is considered obviously heroic, then a contralto is not obligatory old or villainous.
And I like an idea of giving male roles of castrati to mezzos and contraltos.

 

Some that come to mind are Orfeo, Ulrica, Erda, Mistress Quickly, Fides, Tancredi, Dalila, Brangäne, Fricka. Carmen too depending on the singer. Orsini in Lucrezia Borgia, is a rarer opera: I think the aria from that was used as a showcase by Clara Butt at one point.

The definitions are sometimes wildly stretched when it comes the 'contraltos': the famous one from the 1800s called Marietta Alboni also sang Norma and Amina in La Sonnambula so just what her voice was like is a bit hard to fathom.

 

Brangaene is actually designated "soprano" in the score. I suspect that Wagner imagined Isolde's handmaid as being, and sounding, young. Her part isn't high for a soprano, but it's definitely high for a contralto. Fricka too would be a bit high for a contralto.

 

Vania in "The Life for the Tzar" and Ratmir in "Ruslán and Liudmila" by Glinka were written (and extended in a first case) for a coloratura contralto Anna Petrova nee Vorobieva.

 

 

I like the painting - who is it?
and who’s the painter?

 

Anna in Les Troyens. Several supporting roles in Strauss' operas: a pageboy in "Salome", a nymph in "Ariadne", a mussel in "Die Ägyptische Helena". Nezhata (a trousers role) in "Sadko", Solokha in "The night before Christmas" and Babarikha in "The tale of Tzar Saltan".

 

Brangäne is essentially a soprano role, originally designated as such by Wagner, and with a tessitura almost as high as Isolde’s, that most mezzo-sopranos find hugely challenging.

 

We had a soprano Brangane in Seattle and she sounded perfect. I think she gets some of the most beautiful music in the opera to sing. Gorgeous music. Alessandra Marc, a soprano recorded the Warning and it was a perfect fit.