Here we go again, wonder how long it will last before this thread escalate .
The Soprano Assoluta and its place in the world of Opera today
Hello everyone. it's your neighborhood Baritone, BaritoneAssoluto here and I've got a great deal to talk about. Today's topic might be something a few of us may know and a lot of us may not understand just in-depth what truly is the cause of said topic. Today's topic I will be examining will be the Soprano Assoluta voice also known as the Soprano Sfogato and its place in the world of Opera today. I'm going to start this conversation off with a video from a youtuber by the name of Primohomme. He released three videos on the "in-between" Soprano voices: Assoluta, Falcon, and the Dugazon (which is just a Mezzo-Soprano Soubrette). I started the video within 00:22 seconds of the video so we can skip the filler.
Historically, this term was given to the past "divas" of Opera's yesteryear such as Giuditta Pasta, Maria Malibran, Giulia Grisi, Adelina Patti, and Henriette Sontag. More commonly, the term has been used to describe the Greek-American Soprano of the 20th century, Maria Callas. Here's a brief history behind the usage of the name and how it was appliedinoperasofit's day:
"The assoluta's heyday was the first four of five decades of the nineteenth century, the period which coincides with the flourishing of Romanticism all over Europe, and she represented the artistic emancipation from the neo-Aristotelian proprieties of character: consistency, suitability to station, trueness to type, appropriateness of behavior, and so forth, along with the Romantic interest in human heroism, the defiance of the gods, the extremes of human character, of situtation and behavior, and a total unpredictability." (Source: The Assoluta Voice in opera: 1797-1847, by Geoffrey S. Riggs)
Here's a few characteristics of the assoluta/Soprano Sfogato voice:
It possesses a dark timbre with a rich and strong low register, as well as the high notes of a soprano and occasionally a coloratura soprano. Those voices are typically strong, dramatic and agile, supported by an excellent bel canto technique and an ability to sing in the soprano tessitura as well as in the contralto tessitura with great ease.
The common requirements for the roles associated with this voice type are:
With that being said, the Assoluta voice is more than rare in the Opera world today. We have been forced to accept the notion that only canaries can sing Lucia di Lammermoor, Roberto Deveraux and that only dramatic/spintos can sing Aid, Leonora from Destino and Trovatore, Medea, and Norma. In the days of the Assoluta, you were REQUIRED to sing Norma, Donna Anna, Donna Elvira, Medea, Tosca, Kundry, Aida, Norma, Gioconda, Countess, Armida, Armina, Elisabetta, Leonora (destino and Trovatore), Mimi. We must eliminate that notion once again and bring back the good old singing... where those singers gave it their all and didn't regret it.
The Assoluta of today is nowhere to be found (and please don't sayDevia or Gruberova because those two queens are horrible.) Angela Meade is the only one who is close to an actual dramatic coloratura soprano but she doesn't have that extra "it" to be an Assoluta (unless she retrains her entire instrument like they did back in the 19th and 18th centuries.)
Please discuss guys, I'm always ready! Once again this is your neighborhood Baritone, BaritoneAssoluta speaking and saying "Out"!
Historically, this term was given to the past "divas" of Opera's yesteryear such as Giuditta Pasta, Maria Malibran, Giulia Grisi, Adelina Patti, and Henriette Sontag. More commonly, the term has been used to describe the Greek-American Soprano of the 20th century, Maria Callas. Here's a brief history behind the usage of the name and how it was appliedinoperasofit's day:
"The assoluta's heyday was the first four of five decades of the nineteenth century, the period which coincides with the flourishing of Romanticism all over Europe, and she represented the artistic emancipation from the neo-Aristotelian proprieties of character: consistency, suitability to station, trueness to type, appropriateness of behavior, and so forth, along with the Romantic interest in human heroism, the defiance of the gods, the extremes of human character, of situtation and behavior, and a total unpredictability." (Source: The Assoluta Voice in opera: 1797-1847, by Geoffrey S. Riggs)
Here's a few characteristics of the assoluta/Soprano Sfogato voice:
It possesses a dark timbre with a rich and strong low register, as well as the high notes of a soprano and occasionally a coloratura soprano. Those voices are typically strong, dramatic and agile, supported by an excellent bel canto technique and an ability to sing in the soprano tessitura as well as in the contralto tessitura with great ease.
The common requirements for the roles associated with this voice type are:
- widely varied tessitura throughout the role, extended segments lying well into the low mezzo or contralto tessitura and segments lying in high soprano tessitura
- a range extending down to at least low B and at least up to high B with at least one whole tone required at either end
- fioratura (coloratura) singing in the most intricate bel canto style
- florid singing combined with heroic weight
- a heavy or dense sound in the lower range
- vocal power over energetic orchestral accompaniment.
With that being said, the Assoluta voice is more than rare in the Opera world today. We have been forced to accept the notion that only canaries can sing Lucia di Lammermoor, Roberto Deveraux and that only dramatic/spintos can sing Aid, Leonora from Destino and Trovatore, Medea, and Norma. In the days of the Assoluta, you were REQUIRED to sing Norma, Donna Anna, Donna Elvira, Medea, Tosca, Kundry, Aida, Norma, Gioconda, Countess, Armida, Armina, Elisabetta, Leonora (destino and Trovatore), Mimi. We must eliminate that notion once again and bring back the good old singing... where those singers gave it their all and didn't regret it.
The Assoluta of today is nowhere to be found (and please don't sayDevia or Gruberova because those two queens are horrible.) Angela Meade is the only one who is close to an actual dramatic coloratura soprano but she doesn't have that extra "it" to be an Assoluta (unless she retrains her entire instrument like they did back in the 19th and 18th centuries.)
Please discuss guys, I'm always ready! Once again this is your neighborhood Baritone, BaritoneAssoluta speaking and saying "Out"!
1 - 20 of 109 Posts
Has that sort of activity happened on this topic? I wished you would you would've told me that before. But honestly, I know the people are mature here.
Actually, it would be proper to use the term 'soprano assoluto', as soprano is masculine in Italian: 'il soprano'. 
This always confuses people. Perhaps they get 'assoluta' from the expression 'prima donna assoluta' and forget to change the ending when they want to talk about a soprano rather than a prima donna. (I don't know any Italian, so please don't hesitate to tell me if 'prima donna assoluta' is grammatically incorrect as well!Actually, it would be proper to use the term 'soprano assoluto', as soprano is masculine in Italian: 'il soprano'.
)You still owe us a POS explanation about Sam Ramey on the other thread, sir!
No, prima donna is feminine.This always confuses people. Perhaps they get 'assoluta' from the expression 'prima donna assoluta' and forget to change the ending when they want to talk about a soprano rather than a prima donna. (I don't know any Italian, so please don't hesitate to tell me if 'prima donna assoluta' is grammatically incorrect as well!
It's a very interesting subject, anyway. Personally, I'm fully convinced that the voices, and the singing, of Giuditta Pasta and Maria Callas, were very close, and that the Greek diva was indeed the heir of the Italian singer, even if more than 100 years separated them.
So if Pasta and Callas were each the prima donna assoluta of her own day, does the use of this phrase describe a particular Fach as the OP seems to use the phrase soprano assoluto, or is it more like a kind of compliment bestowed on the most famous and accomplished diva of any given time?No, prima donna is feminine.
It's a very interesting subject, anyway. Personally, I'm fully convinced that the voices, and the singing, of Giuditta Pasta and Maria Callas, were very close, and that the Greek diva was indeed the heir of the Italian singer, even if more than 100 years separated them.
No, it does refer to the same type of voice. Capable at the same time of having a very strong low register, and also the higher notes in the soprano repertory, along with coloratura. Of course, there is a price to pay (unless some day we can get an exceptional gift from Nature), as lack of homogeinity in the singing, that going to the extreme it can sounds like two voices, in just one body.
Reading about Pasta, and listening to Callas, we can see that there were a lot of similarities between the two.
Reading about Pasta, and listening to Callas, we can see that there were a lot of similarities between the two.
As the historians have noted, it is a particular fach that is described for a rare type of Soprano. There's only been one pure Assoluta in the 20th century but there's been some others who have "proto-assoluta" like qualities, but they lack some of the mean ideal characteristics that would classifiy them wholly as an Assoluta.
I can name someone who is a "wholly assoluta"
By your description, I can't see any reason for withholding the "assoluta" title from Rosa Ponselle. She had the amplitude, the timbral richness, and the flexibility to sing virtually anything. Even Callas called her "the greatest singer of us all."Here's a few characteristics of the assoluta/Soprano Sfogato voice:
It possesses a dark timbre with a rich and strong low register, as well as the high notes of a soprano and occasionally a coloratura soprano. Those voices are typically strong, dramatic and agile, supported by an excellent bel canto technique and an ability to sing in the soprano tessitura as well as in the contralto tessitura with great ease.
The common requirements for the roles associated with this voice type are:
widely varied tessitura throughout the role, extended segments lying well into the low mezzo or contralto tessitura and segments lying in high soprano tessitura;
a range extending down to at least low B and at least up to high B with at least one whole tone required at either end;
fioratura (coloratura) singing in the most intricate bel canto style;
florid singing combined with heroic weight;
a heavy or dense sound in the lower range;
vocal power over energetic orchestral accompaniment.
With that being said, the Assoluta voice is more than rare in the Opera world today. We have been forced to accept the notion that only canaries can sing Lucia di Lammermoor, Roberto Deveraux and that only dramatic/spintos can sing Aid, Leonora from Destino and Trovatore, Medea, and Norma. In the days of the Assoluta, you were REQUIRED to sing Norma, Donna Anna, Donna Elvira, Medea, Tosca, Kundry, Aida, Norma, Gioconda, Countess, Armida, Amina, Elisabetta, Leonora (Destino and Trovatore), Mimi. We must eliminate that notion once again and bring back the good old singing... where those singers gave it their all and didn't regret it.
I would caution against the assumption that nineteenth century singers were normally equally competent in the entire repertoire they sang. Certainly, there were lighter and heavier voices, just as now, and the major difference was that in those pre-Wagner, pre-verismo days, thorough bel canto schooling was expected of all front-rank singers; specialization hadn't yet divided singers into the "fachs" some of us are so fond of distinguishing.
Wagner himself asked that his music be sung "in the Italian style" (when that actually meant something), and personally praised baritone Mattia Battistini for his superb singing. But I have no doubt that he would have been overjoyed to hear his Tristan and Isolde sung by Melchior and Flagstad, who sensibly did not sing Rossini and Bellini (though Flagstad may have in her early years in Norway). Flagstad was offered Norma and studied the part carefully, but knew she didn't have the coloratura flexibility for it. Her Wagnerian predecessors Lilli Lehmann and Frida Leider did sing Norma, the former to considerable acclaim, but her Wagnerian successors Birgit Nilsson and Astrid Varnay couldn't have come within a mile of its demands. The diminishing technical facility of these leading dramatic sopranos tells the story of the gradual decline of the bel canto tradition, and the emergence of the vocal typology we're used to today.
I agree with you about the absence of the "assoluta" soprano at present. Meade doesn't strike me as a candidate; Radvanovsky may be a mite closer. Neither of them is a Lehmann, a Ponselle, or a Callas.
you're probably expecting some major disagreement from me, but you are criticizing technical trends which arouse out of the fach system, not the fach system itself. with that in mind, your criticism is valid. several examples I think of are:I would caution against the assumption that nineteenth century singers were normally equally competent in the entire repertoire they sang. Certainly, there were lighter and heavier voices, just as now, and the major difference was that in those pre-Wagner, pre-verismo days, thorough bel canto schooling was expected of all front-rank singers; specialization hadn't yet divided singers into the "fachs" some of us are so fond of distinguishing.
1) failure to teach heavier voices to sing some degree of coloratura. among healthily-produced big voices, everyone from Kirsten Flagstad to Dolora Zajick to Tito Gobbi believes that vocal flexibility is important in keeping the voice fresh.
2) teaching lighter voices that they don't need to support the bottom 2/3 of their range (except for tenors, in which case it's all types of tenors and the bottom 4/5 of the range lmao).
3) (especially in Wagner), the notion that big voices do not need to sing with legato (hell, we basically expect lyric singers to sing legato anymore. after dramatic voices, some of the biggest offenders are those girly lil coloraturas, and it seems like we've given up on the concept of male voices singing legato altogether apart from Hvorostovsky).
some counter-examples:
1) Brigitte Fassbaender: a large dramatic mezzo with ample agilty (chest register is a tad bang-y, but a wonderful performance overall)
2) Kirsten Flagstad: a huge Wagnerian voice capable of singing with elegant legato (ia slower, more tragedian legato for sure, but still a solid legato)
3) Elvira de Hidalgo: a lyric coloratura with strong support down through to the chest register
1) Brigitte Fassbaender: a large dramatic mezzo with ample agilty (chest register is a tad bang-y, but a wonderful performance overall)
2) Kirsten Flagstad: a huge Wagnerian voice capable of singing with elegant legato (ia slower, more tragedian legato for sure, but still a solid legato)
3) Elvira de Hidalgo: a lyric coloratura with strong support down through to the chest register
I don't know whether this is another thread exulting great singers of the past, but I want to say that I was around 50 or so reading the reviews of some of Callas' Bel Canto recordings in the Gramophone and they were not universally favourable. Perhaps a perceptive comment at the time was made by (I think) Andrew Porter who said something like: "A Callas, a Sutherland, a Caballe comes along, and all we can do is to talk about their failings......" There appears to be this myth about great singers of the past but frankly hearing some of them (albeit in totally inadequate recordings) I do find it difficult to enthuse.
And this is why you have less and less dramatic voices and more for a lack of a better term "screwed" up voices, that only sound good with microphones. Cecilia Bartoli is the only light lyric coloratura Mezzo-Soprano i know that hasn't wandered off and sung inappropriate repertory because she knows her small sized voice limits here ability to do anything dramatic.you're probably expecting some major disagreement from me, but you are criticizing technical trends which arouse out of the fach system, not the fach system itself. with that in mind, your criticism is valid. several examples I think of are:
1) failure to teach heavier voices to sing some degree of coloratura. among healthily-produced big voices, everyone from Kirsten Flagstad to Dolora Zajick to Tito Gobbi believes that vocal flexibility is important in keeping the voice fresh.
2) teaching lighter voices that they don't need to support the bottom 2/3 of their range (except for tenors, in which case it's all types of tenors and the bottom 4/5 of the range lmao).
3) (especially in Wagner), the notion that big voices do not need to sing with legato (hell, we basically expect lyric singers to sing legato anymore. after dramatic voices, some of the biggest offenders are those girly lil coloraturas, and it seems like we've given up on the concept of male voices singing legato altogether apart from Hvorostovsky).
There's a wonder why Dolora Zajick made a foundation specifically created to cultivate and to further help big-sized voices or Dramatic voices to have a career. They are being pushed aside for "lyrics" or small-sized instruments and the reasons are:
1. They're cheaper.
2. They can delude people that the sound that they make are their "own" aka with a microphone, eliminating the "work to be heard from the floor seats to the cheap seats" out of the equation.
3. They're more primed to sing then the dramatic voice and thus as a result of neglecting a big, dramatic artist/voice, they are killing the true purpose of what Opera is all about: The art and not the actually "look" of the singers.
All in all,I can't name you one person from each voice type that is going to save us because half of the ones we already know are pushing to retirement (due to age) or they lost their former vocal glory and have moved on to "easier" work (Terfel, Fleming, Otter singing and performing on broadway more).
Hvorostovsky sings with a microphone so he's not a good example for legato singing. He basically huffs and puffs his way through the intricate Verdian line and it distorts his breath and overall vocal production.
So because of a few bad reviews, must one completely ignore all of the positive and mostly pin-point accurate reviews that are not based off on a previous bias? I mean what's the purpose of a musical historian then? And no this will not turn into one of the other threads because I will regularly check that it doesn't. We're not just discussing Madame Callas (despite using as a prime example,) anyone with actual characteristics (not just because of a big or huge voice can be termed an assoluta,) are welcomed in this discussion.I don't know whether this is another thread exulting great singers of the past, but I want to say that I was around 50 or so reading the reviews of some of Callas' Bel Canto recordings in the Gramophone and they were not universally favourable. Perhaps a perceptive comment at the time was made by (I think) Andrew Porter who said something like: "A Callas, a Sutherland, a Caballe comes along, and all we can do is to talk about their failings......" There appears to be this myth about great singers of the past but frankly hearing some of them (albeit in totally inadequate recordings) I do find it difficult to enthuse.
And this is why you have less and less dramatic voices and more for a lack of a better term "screwed" up voices, that only sound good with microphones. Cecilia Bartoli is the only light lyric coloratura Mezzo-Soprano i know that hasn't wandered off and sung inappropriate repertory because she knows her small sized voice limits here ability to do anything dramatic.
Someone forgot to tell her that...............
The purpose of a musical historian is to try and get the facts not the legend; part of which is to point out that at the time reviews of those now judged great singers were not all positive. Else you get the John Ford syndrome - 'Print the Legend!'So because of a few bad reviews, must one completely ignore all of the positive and mostly pin-point accurate reviews that are not based off on a previous bias? I mean what's the purpose of a musical historian then? And no this will not turn into one of the other threads because I will regularly check that it doesn't. We're not just discussing Madame Callas (despite using as a prime example,) anyone with actual characteristics (not just because of a big or huge voice can be termed an assoluta,) are welcomed in this discussion.
lmao! I was just about to post that XD![]()
Someone forgot to tell her that...............
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