Contralto

(It.; Fr. alto; Ger. Alt).

A voice normally written for within the range g to e'', which may be extended at either end, particularly in solo writing.

1. The term.

In modern English usage the term denotes the lowest of the three principal female voices, the others being soprano and mezzo-soprano; but when the term was first used it would have denoted a male singer, originally a Falsetto singer, later a Castrato. The various attempts (e.g. Brossard, 1703; Walther, 1732; Grove5) at an etymological understanding of ‘contralto’ directly through its roots, contra (‘against’) and alto (‘high’) – thus, one part written against another high part – are misconceived. The word originated in the early 16th century as ‘contr’alto’, a local abbreviation of the late 15th-century Contratenor altus. Throughout the 16th century, however, the form ‘contralto’ was used only rarely, (See Alto (i)) being the common term. In the 17th century, as castratos became more numerous in Italy, authors sometimes sought to create distinctions. ‘Alti naturali’ was used to designate falsettists, while Andrea Adami (a castrato soprano) used the word ‘contralto’ in his Osservazioni (1711) to refer to the castratos Stefano Landi (d 1639) and Mario Savioni (d 1685), members of the papal choir. Burney, however, made no such distinction, and used ‘contralto’ for both castratos and women. In later English usage, when castratos were no longer on the musical scene, ‘contralto’ came to refer always to a woman, as distinct from a male alto (a boy alto, or a falsettist).

The term ‘contralto’ is usually limited to solo singing; in choral music ‘alto’ is preferred for boys, falsettists or women, or any combination of these.

2. Before 1800.

Until the 19th century, the only two terms commonly used for treble voices were ‘soprano’ and ‘contralto’; most roles then identified as for contralto are today sung by mezzo-sopranos. The term ‘mezzo-soprano’ was established only in the 19th century following the upper extension of the soprano’s range, so that many earlier roles written for soprano can also be sung by today's mezzo-sopranos. The identification of roles and singers as either contralto or mezzo-soprano may thus depend on whether contemporary or modern standards are considered, and there remains a great deal of terminological confusion.

In 17th-century opera, the contralto voice was often used for the representation of old women. As early as Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea (1643) the most haunting lyrical music in the score, the lullaby ‘Oblivion soave’, is assigned not to a soprano but to Poppaea's nurse, the contralto Arnalta (range a to a'. In Cesti's Orontea (1656), the old woman contralto Aristea (range e to g') makes advances towards a young man soprano (the situation being made the more ridiculous in that the ‘youth’ is in fact a woman in disguise). The comic element in the portrayal of a low-voiced, amorous old woman was often increased by assigning the part to a high tenor en travesti: the roles of Arnalta and of Alcesta in Cavalli's Erismena alternated in performance between alto and tenor (see Travesty). The contralto in the operas of Alessandro Scarlatti emerged as the constant companion of the comic bass, and the celebrated Santa Marchesini (not to be confused with Maria Antonia Marchesini, one of Handel's singers) built her career on this type of role; Scarlatti composed several for her, including Dorilla in Tigrane (1715) who flirts with the comic bass Orcone and whose comic function is stressed by her silly asides to the audience. These roles are often written in such a restricted range that classification by voice type is difficult: Dorilla's range extends only from c' to d''; it is listed for mezzo-soprano in the modern edition (1983). A similar role in Scarlatti's Marco Attilio Regolo (1719) for the maid Eurilla is listed in the modern edition (1975) for contralto, though closely equivalent in range (b to c'').

In the 18th century, librettists and composers came better to appreciate the dramatic potential of the deep female voice. In the 1720s Handel created many sympathetic roles for Anastasia Robinson, who at this stage of her career was singing in the range b to e'', including Zenobia (Radamisto, 1720) and Cornelia, Pompey's widow (Giulio Cesare, 1724). Classification of such roles remains difficult, however. Although Robinson is considered a contralto, her immediate successors in the same range are considered mezzo-sopranos, such as Francesca Bertolli and Maria Caterina Negri (both of whom often sang male roles). The leading male roles in Handel's operas, usually sung by castratos, were written in the same range (a–e''). Handel's primo uomo in the 1720s was the castrato Senesino, ‘who was always regarded in England as a contralto’ (Burney, History, iv, 1789, p.275). Quantz however referred to him as a mezzo-soprano. Neither castratos nor women played a significant role in choral music at this date: in the Anglican service, the alto parts would have been taken by boys or countertenors; in Lutheran cantatas, exclusively by boys.

The contralto voice was virtually unknown in France; the French bas-dessus was of mezzo-soprano rather than contralto pitch and quality. The contralto hardly appears in the operas of Gluck and indeed is rare throughout the Classical period; there is no true contralto role, in terms of range and weight, in any Mozart opera. In Italy, the one place where the contralto voice was and had been cultivated assiduously since the first third of the 17th century was in the ospedali (orphanages for girls) of Venice that specialized in music training for girls and young women who gave public performances. Goethe wrote of hearing the female musicians of the Mendicanti performing Ferdinando Bertoni's oratorio Saul furens in 1774: ‘The women presented an oratorio from behind a grille in the church, which was filled with listeners; the music was beautiful, and the voices were magnificent. An alto sang the role of King Saul, the central figure in the libretto. I scarcely realized that such a voice existed’. (Baldauf-Berdes, 1993, p.242).

3. 19th century.

By the end of the 18th century, Italian composers were again using the low-lying female voice in comic roles. The contralto Josephina Grassini benefited from this trend at the beginning of her career, performing leading roles in comic operas by Paisiello and Salieri among others; she also took on serious dramatic roles. Napoleon, attending a gala performance in 1800 at La Scala in celebration of his victory at Marengo, remarked on ‘the beauty of her stage appearance and the sublime accents of her voice’. When she sang the title roles in the London premières of Winter's Il ratto di Proserpina and Zaire, the Daily Advertiser noted that ‘the lady's voice is of the counter-alto kind, and much deeper than we have hitherto been accustomed to in a female’.

Rossini continued the traditions of using contralto voices for women's roles in both comic and serious opera. The coloratura contralto roles of Cinderella in La Cenerentola (1817) and Rosina in Il barbiere di Siviglia (original version, 1816) were both written for Geltrude Righetti, who had a powerful and rich-toned voice with a compass f–b''. For Marietta Marcolini, a ‘prima donna contralto’, Rossini created roles in five operas, including that of Isabella in L'italiana in Algeri (1813).

Of equal importance among female contralto roles in the early 19th century, given the decline of the castrato, were male roles written specifically for coloratura contralto voice, such as the title role in Sigismondo (1814) for Marcolini. The term Primo musico rather than Prima donna or Primo uomo for such singers made clear the association with the castrato. Adelaide Malanotte scored a triumph with the aria ‘Di tanti palpiti’ in the title role of Tancredi (1813). Benedetta Rosamunda Pisaroni created the role of Malcolm Graeme in La donna del lago (1819) and was an admired Arsace in Semiramide (1823). The Italian musico tradition ended in the 1840s with the rise of the leading tenor.

In the middle of the century, contraltos were particularly well served by Russian and French composers with both male and female roles. Anna Petrova, a Russian contralto who specialized in travesty roles, created two in Glinka's operas: Vanya in A Life for the Tsar (1836) and Ratmir in Ruslan and Lyudmila (1842). Marietta Alboni, who had a particularly flexible and powerful voice, studied Rossini's contralto roles with the composer; she sang Arsace at the opening of the Royal Italian Opera at Covent Garden (1847), and Meyerbeer transposed the role of Urbain in Les Huguenots from soprano to contralto for her. Meyerbeer also included a magnificent contralto role in Le prophète, Fidès, created in Paris in 1849 by Pauline Viardot, a singer greatly admired for her artistry and musicality by many composers, particularly Berlioz, who adapted Gluck's Orpheus for her to sing at the Opéra (1859).

The French tradition continued at the end of the century with Blanche Deschamps, a contralto with a rich and powerful voice who created the title role of Massenet's Hérodiade (1881), as well as the Mother in Charpentier's Louise (1900). She was the first Delilah at the Opéra; her immense repertory ranged from La Haine in Gluck's Armide to Fidès and Carmen. Massenet wrote dramatic roles for her in Cendrillon (1899) and Chérubin (1905).

The late Italian and German repertory for contralto is less rich. Ulrica (Un ballo in maschera), is exceptional among Verdi's operas, and in Wagner Erda in Das Rheingold and Siegfried is the single major role calling for a true contralto. Ernestine Schumann-Heink was the first Clytemnestra in Strauss's Elektra (1909) and was renowned as an interpreter of Wagner in both the mezzo-soprano and contralto range at Bayreuth, Covent Garden and the Metropolitan, where she took her farewell as Erda (Siegfried) in 1932 at the age of 70. Her American contemporary Louise Homer also excelled in Wagner roles and created the Witch in Humperdinck's Königskinder in 1910; she took her farewell as Azucena in 1929 at the age of 68.

The rich colouring of the contralto voice, particularly in the lower half of its range, has been used to expressive effect by several late Romantic and early 20th-century composers. In Brahms's Alto Rhapsody (1869) the solo voice is projected against a sombre background provided by orchestra and male voices. Mahler included an important solo contralto part in his Third Symphony and entrusted the voice with some of his most intense outpourings in Das Lied von der Erde (1907–9). The Angel in Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius (1900) is another part in which the warmth and fullness of the contralto voice is tellingly used. Among contraltos who have become identified with Elgar's music are Clara Butt, for whom Elgar wrote his Sea Pictures, Kathleen Ferrier and in her early days Janet Baker.

4. 20th century.

Contralto parts in 20th-century opera have tended to be restricted to character roles, such as Berg's: Margret in Wozzeck and the Theatrical Dresser/High-School Boy/Groom in Lulu. Strauss's in his later operas include the Widow Zimmerlein in Die schweigsame Frau and the major role of Clairon in Capriccio (more usually sung by a mezzo). Prokofiev, continuing the Russian tradition of writing contralto roles for younger characters, contributed Blanche in The Gambler and Princess Clarice in The Love for Three Oranges. Leokadja Begbick in Der Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny and Kabanicha in Kát'a Kabanová are very effective contralto roles, also frequently sung by mezzos.

English and French works have offered a somewhat richer set of roles. Although in Peter Grimes the only contralto part is that of Auntie, hostess of The Boar, in Britten's next opera, The Rape of Lucretia, the title role was written for Ferrier. Tippett wrote a vocally very strong contralto role for Sosostris in The Midsummer Marriage, while Poulenc provided a dramatic opportunity for the contralto voice in Madame de Croissy in Dialogues des Carmélites, created at La Scala by Gianna Pederzini and in Paris by Denise Scharley. Menotti composed the title role of Madame Flora in The Medium for the contralto Claramae Turner, who sang Madame de Croissy in the American première of Dialogues des Carmélites.

Despite these strong contralto roles, there has been a notable movement in opera away from contralto towards mezzo-soprano. This may be related to an increasing preference for a light, pure sound, eschewing the chest register; compared to the soprano and mezzo-soprano repertory, little contemporary music has been written for the deep, rich contralto. Even with the revival of the coloratura contralto parts of Rossini, Donizetti and Bellini, by Marilyn Horne and others, such singers are usually described as mezzo-sopranos rather than contraltos: the Metropolitan Opera, for example, does not list contraltos on its register, classifying female singers as soprano or mezzo-soprano (Myers, 1996).

The apparent bias against the term contralto in opera is perhaps based partly on the stereotype of the contralto as an old woman, a stereotype also emphasized in popular music and in the works of Gilbert and Sullivan, where the contralto roles revert to the comic type common in the 17th century (in their relation to travesty-type roles: Stedman, 1970). It may also be based on the fact that many acknowledged contraltos of this century were known primarily as concert and oratorio singers. This applies to Butt and Ferrier; the American contralto Marian Anderson was also best known for her concert performances and for the singing of spirituals. Racial prejudice kept her from the operatic stage until 1955, when she became the first black singer to perform at the Metropolitan, singing the role of Ulrica. The Canadian Maureen Forrester, although she has sung contralto roles from three centuries, including Handel's Cornelia, Mistress Quickly and Madame Flora, also concentrated on concert performances.

Butt's popular touring and the concerts of other popular contraltos, such as the American Kate Smith (famous for her rendition of ‘God bless America’ and ‘K-K-K-Katy’), have also added, unjustly, to a bias against the contralto voice in serious opera. Nevertheless, in popular singing from folk and religious song to jazz and blues, the contralto voice has been cherished. The versatility of such singers can be indicated by naming only three: Ethel Waters, who moved from vaudeville and musical comedy to evangelical touring; Ella Fitzgerald, whose extraordinary voice reached down to d and who competed with jazz instrumentalists in her ‘scat-singing’ improvisations; and Marlene Dietrich, whose film roles made special use of her sultry and husky singing voice.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

C.R. Maloy: The Contralto (Boston, 1912)

R. Celletti: ‘Mezzosoprani e contralti’, Musica d'oggi, new ser., v (1962), 110–17

J.W. Stedman: ‘From Dame to Woman: W.S. Gilbert and Theatrical Transvestism’, Victorian Studies, xiv (1970), 27–46

W.H. Mellers: Angels of the Night: Popular Female Singers of Our Time (Oxford, 1986)

J. Rosselli: ‘From Princely Service to the Open Market: Singers of Italian Opera and their Patrons, 1600–1850’, COJ, i (1989), 1–32

J. Rosselli: Singers of Italian Opera: the History of a Profession (Cambridge, 1992)

J.B. Steane: Voices: Singers and Critics (London, 1992)

J.L. Baldauf-Berdes: Women Musicians of Venice: Musical Foundations 1525–1855 (Oxford, 1993)

J.B. Steane: Singers of the Century (London, 1996)

E. Myers: ‘Sweet and Low: the Case of the Vanishing Contralto’, Opera News, lxi (1996), 18–21

OWEN JANDER, J.B. STEANE, ELIZABETH FORBES/ELLEN T. HARRIS (with GERALD WALDMAN)