In the previous article we explored the role of Susanna in Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro as an example of a dream role for soubrette sopranos. In this article, we look at a role considered a dream for the coloratura soprano.
Before we discuss the role, let’s think about the voice type itself. Literally, coloratura means colour, but all voices possess colour, so what does it really mean? According to J.B. Steane, in his book Voices: Singers and Critics, the word actually has an old medieval German origin, from the word ‘Koloratur’: “In the mediaeval study of Rhetoric, ‘colours’ were figurative expressions, or stylistic ornaments along the main line of argument.” (chapter 1, p. 8) We can now see that the origins of the coloratura soprano denote a singer who embellishes, or ‘figures’ (as it used to be known) a musical melody.
One role long associated with the coloratura soprano is the Queen of Night from Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte. It certainly demands much from a soprano capable of singing it, with two arias and a dazzling display of vocal pyrotechnics, ranging from top F’s above the stave, to F two octaves lower. It also appeals because it is not a huge role musically (two arias and a small trio in the Act II Finale), yet the rewards for “pulling it off” can be a life-long career in singing this role around the world.
Then, there is the character. She is not your usual innocent, young, angelic, girl-next-door type, who just happens to find a casket of jewels placed outside her front door (Marguerite in Gounod’s Faust). Neither is she a victim of circumstance who’s either about to be married to the sinister Baron, Lord, Prince, King, etc. (usually sung by a baritone), or about to be removed from such a position (Donizetti’s Anna Bolena springs to mind).
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The Queen of Night is much more subtle than that. She first appears as a mother who has been wronged, as her daughter Pamina has been abducted. This is a worthy enough cause for Prince Tamino to fight for, and this is helped by her offer of Pamina’s hand if he rescues her from the vile clutches of Sarastro. Yet all is not as it might seem. When we realise that the Queen of Night is actually after the symbolic power of the world, and that her daughter’s abduction by Sarastro was designed to lead someone like Tamino to his temple, we begin to understand that it is the Queen who is the real villain of the piece.
In her second and more famous aria, “Der Hölle Rache”, she offers her daughter Pamina a stark choice: kill Sarastro or be disowned by her own mother! This is the moment when we realise the Queen will stop at nothing to achieve her own ends, even if that means giving up her daughter. Her final words call upon the gods of revenge to “hear a mother’s oath!”
While most coloratura soprano roles either demand “jewel” songs, or the characters end up either going mad, or with temporary madness, the Queen of Night is too good an opportunity to play a corrupt individual with designs on world domination to let pass! This is one reason why many consider it to be a dream role. One could argue that perhaps the role of Medea (by Cherubini) could compare in character to the Queen, yet Medea is driven to killing her children by being wronged, whereas the Queen’s actions are pre-meditated, leading to the events in the opera and the eventual triumph of light over darkness.
Ian Wilson-Pope
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