Duets for two sopranos
Canta!
I am putting together a recital for a lyric and a spinto. We would like
one of the segments of the recital to be opera duets for two sopranos. Most
of my repertoire knowledge is in art song not opera. Can any of you help
me? I need suggestions!
Thank you in advance!
Susan Nace
Capa081348
>Subject: Duets for two sopranos
>From: "Canta!" <ca...@concentric.net>
>Date: 4/11/99 10:13 AM Pacific Daylight Time
>Message-id: <7eql8n$d...@journal.concentric.net>
You could do worse than the Letter Duet, Le Nozze di Figaro Act III (which was
used in The Shawshank Redemption, to great effect) or Mira, O Norma.
There are spectacular mezzo-soprano duets in Lakme and Rosenkavalier as well,
if one of your singers can manage the mezzo part.
Good Luck!
Pat Finley
Un Bel Di...
james jorden
--
james jorden
jjo...@ix.netcom.com
http://www.parterre.com
"Style is the most important thing in the world. Fashion is the least."
-- Quentin Crisp
Dee D. Hays
james jorden wrote in message <3710E6D5...@ix.netcom.com>...
How about the duet between Butterfly and her servant in Madama Butterfly? I
can't think of the name but they are strewing cherry blossoms around the
house getting ready for Pinkerton's return.
Dee Hays
Canton, SD
DS445
Rivale. It was recorded some years ago by Renata Scotto and Mirella Freni.
Obviously, in Norma, you must use the original keys with two soprano's. There
are wonderful duets in Strauss. Arabella and Rosenkavalier. Oh, here is also
a great duet that ends the first act of Smetana's Dalibor for the two sisters,
Milada (spinto-dramatic) and Jitka (lyric ingenue type).
Don
Mark D. Lew
<ca...@concentric.net> wrote:
> I am putting together a recital for a lyric and a spinto. We would like
> one of the segments of the recital to be opera duets for two sopranos. Most
> of my repertoire knowledge is in art song not opera. Can any of you help
> me? I need suggestions!
Not too long ago I asked a similar question on behalf of a soprano friend
planning a similar recital, and I got several answers. Although I
appreciated the suggestions, nearly all of them involved mezzos, and none
of them turned out to be useful to me.
My friends are now planning to perform the Arabella duet, which someone
already mentioned here, and the Norma-Adalgisa duet from Norma. I don't
know Arabella at all, but my friends were already planning that one. The
Norma duet is often performed by soprano and mezzo, but it lends itself to
soprano-soprano better than most of the soprano-mezzo duets which get
mentioned over and over (Butterfly, Hoffmann, Lakme, etc.).
Three others which intrigued me were duets from "Anna Bolena", "Elisabetta,
regina d'Inghilterra", and "La Juive". Alas, I can't recall the details,
but I'll try to recollect.
The Anna Bolena duet was rejected as being too similar to the Norma one to
warrant doing them both.
The Elisabetta duet, I think, was a lengthy piece with lots of bravura
coloratura for both singers throughout the whole range. I rather liked it,
but my friends felt it was more than they cared to learn.
The Juive duet I honestly don't remember at all; I just remember that it
intrigued me.
mdl
Mike Richter
misattributions?). I might suggest it for an encore, but not as part
of the regular program.
Mike
Alfredo Germont wrote:
>
> How about the cats' duet? from Verdi (?)
> You know the one where you only sing mia-ou.
> I think it is for two soprani if i'm not wrong...
--
mric...@cpl.net
http://mrichter.simplenet.com
CD-R http://resource.simplenet.com
Mark D. Lew
> How about the cats' duet? from Verdi (?)
> You know the one where you only sing mia-ou.
> I think it is for two soprani if i'm not wrong...
No, it's for two mezzos. You could transpose it up, but I've found that the
piece resists transposition. The range (for both parts) is fairly large,
but the tessitura is in the lower end. You *could* sing it, say, a fourth
higher, but then the shapes of the phrases and how they sit in the soprano
voice aren't really natural. It really is best for mezzos, I think.
The duet is by Rossini, not Verdi. Most (all?) of the music in the duet is
recycled from his _Otello_, originally written for tenors and, in the case
of at least one phrase, violin.
mdl
Alfredo Germont
Matthew Good
Everyone else seems to have missed out mentioning the glorious ending to
Monteverdi's "L'Incorronazzione di Poppaea".
Mark D. Lew
<Trista...@voltaire.dircon.co.uk> wrote:
> Everyone else seems to have missed out mentioning the glorious ending to
> Monteverdi's "L'Incorronazzione di Poppaea".
That one was recommended to me last time, but when I looked at the score I
found that, in spite of my reference books labeling both parts "soprano",
both parts were way down in the mezzo range. (I assume the part of Nerone
was written for a castrato.) I doubt it would be of much use to two
sopranos described as "a lyric and a spinto".
Incidentally, another thought for the original poster: Have you considered
singing duets originally written for men? There are probably as many
tenor-tenor duets as soprano-soprano ones. More important, I should think
that baritone parts transposed up an octave (especially Verdi baritones)
would be better suited for a soprano spinto than would be many mezzo parts.
There are oodles of tenor-baritone duets, of course, and I think you'll
find many of them suit your voices rather well. If you have a flair for
the dramatic, I should think that something like, say, "In vano Alvaro"
(from Verdi's Forza) would be irresistible.
mdl
David Shengold
The Letter duet (Countess/ Susanna) from Act 3 of LE NOZZE DI FIGARO- ideal
recital fare. The two Dorabella/Fiordiligi duets from COSI can also be done
by two sopranos, depending on vocal coloration.
David Shengold
Susannah
Thomas H. Israel
recording.)
TOM
Susannah <dsc...@hyper.net.au> wrote in article
<01be856a$2eabef40$339c26cb@default>...
John Lynch
contained duets by
Carissimi and Monteverdi, and though the style was all wrong I found it a
pill to
purge melancholy. It was one of the very few LPs that I replaced with a CD
when
it appeared.
"Thomas H. Israel" wrote:
--
John Lynch
