Whilst I was preparing the role of Carmen for a production at the end of last year, my coach remarked in passing that the role is beyond classification as a mezzo or soprano – the singer-actress playing the role is either Carmen or she’s not. Having long held the belief that sopranos have enough plum roles at their disposal and don’t need to get their thieving hands on a mezzo prise, I was reluctant to be convinced. On pondering the matter, however, I realised I was guilty of adopting the same attitude I found offensive in others: voice and character labelling. In my heart, I still believe that Carmen is the classic mezzo role – the soprano ossias offered in many scores are not Bizet’s own, and clearly reflect the desire of any singer worth her salt to play this incomparable role. The sultry tones most often associated with the mezzo voice convey the many colours of the role to perfection. However, I am more than prepared to admit that Carmen has to be more than a voice, and the character will die in the hands of the most lustrous mezzo who cannot act – more than that, who cannot be Carmen.
But if I am guilty of voice labelling the role of Carmen, I am not alone in the practice. It seems to work in broadly two ways: roles are
labelled and singers are labelled. Once a role carries the label ‘soprano’, how dare a firmly labelled mezzo – no matter how secure the top of the voice – imagine she can sing it. And don’t think the labelling stops there. Be sure you know whether you are dramatic, spinto, lyric, dramatic or lyric coloratura., high baritone, heroic tenor, buffo bass… The list goes on. Then there’s labelling by composer: Verdi mezzo, Rossini tenor, Gilbert and Sullivan soprano…
The upshot of such labelling is to give singers yet another hurdle to clear in the painful process of convincing audition panels that they are the one they want, even if the labels – role and voice – don’t match. As a mezzo, I have sung both Zerlina and Donna Elvira in Don Giovanni, roles which, for many, bear labels clearly labelled ‘soprano’. I have also sung Ulrica, Orfeo and 3rd Lady – roles which even may be thought to carry that rare and contentious label ‘contralto’. I don’t doubt that many readers are holding up their hands in horror, but why?
|
I wouldn’t expect to be cast so eclectically in an international opera house, but even in this arena, more singers are writing their own ticket, Cecilia Bartoli predominant amongst them. With the power she is able to wield – based, of course, on huge public adoration and phenomenal box office pull – she has declared her refusal to be labelled. On the opera stage, she has sung Fiordiligi, Dorabella and Despina; Susanna and Cherubino; Zerlina, Elvira, and now, I understand, she is charting the waters of Donna Anna. On disc she has scaled not only the classic mezzo bastions of Cenerentola and Rosina, but also explored the soprano territory of Almirena (Rinaldo) and, more obscurely, Sifare, in Mozart’s Mitridate.. A browse through international opera listings frequently reveals other, less stratospherically famous, daring to refuse the label: the odd Second Lady singing Musetta; Figaro’s Countess tackling Amneris. Mezzos arguing the case to sing Leonora in Fidelio need only cite Christa Ludwig; sopranos after Carmen and Rosina have Maria Callas as a formidable precursor.
Years ago, when I was very green at this game, I visited a coach who told me that ‘my role’ was Cenerentola. His opinion was that every singer should have no more than two or three roles which they should sing and my business as a fledgling lyric coloratura mezzo was to find and concentrate on those few roles. Umm. I am not convinced that such inflexibility would truly serve well in the competitive world of opera. Perhaps those Rossini tenors and sopranos who sing several ledger lines above the stave can keep busy enough on the basis of three or four show stealing roles, but for the rest of us mere mortals, surely we should refuse the label and embrace versatility as virtue, not an indication that a singer doesn’t know who they are or what they want to be. Doubtless, some experiments in label removal will be less successful than others, but it is the responsibility of the singer to recognise where they may, or have, failed, not the oft-prejudiced casting bureaucracy to refuse them the chance to test their wings.
Sarah K Tyler
|
