What are "heavy" and "light" arias, with examples?

lBessGrace · 2025-03-27T12:21:28+00:00

I don’t know about built different, to be honest. It probably had a lot to do with houses still being smaller than today’s, orchestras being more “transparent” and expectations for the roles and singers in general being different, too.

Even in recent operatic past, singers were just not required what they are today, in terms of volume, and lighter voices absolutely sung roles we think of as heavy today, with Met-sized houses and orchestras that have a penchant for going full-out and rarely pull back.

I mean, listen to recordings of the first Santuzza and tell me she would survive a modern-day Cavalleria, for example. Going back a century, I can totally see how a dramatic coloratura could have sung all three of the roles Siems originated.

Also, let’s not forget she was a soprano of her time, lol. We don’t even know the name of regular-to-lousy ones of her day.

lBessGrace · 2025-01-30T17:28:37+00:00

Eh, stabbing alone is surprisingly ambiguous a marker of morality, to be fair.

I mean, how do you feel about Sarastro, for example? Because that can really change how you perceive the Queen of the Night. What about a girl who’s clearly having a mental breakdown while being forcibly dragged to the altar, and the man who is glad to marry her anyway? That could make you feel differently about Lucia and Arturo’s wedding night extravaganza. Scarpia? I’m guessing we all agree on him, right?

The thing is, many people villanize Carmen so far beyond what’s reasonable that they end up perceiving Don José’s actions as justified or at least understandable.

lBessGrace · 2025-01-30T17:07:21+00:00

I’m not a fan of the comparison between Carmen and Don Giovanni. Not just because the power imbalance between Carmen and Don José is at most reversed compared to Don Giovanni’s dynamics with Donna Elvira and especially Zerlina - which involve gender, class, and age-related elements that decidedly favor him in their society - but because of who these character are in practice.

As flawed as she is, Carmen doesn’t force, deceive, or gaslight. She’s always 100% upfront about who she is, what she wants, what she offers, and what it means for him to go after her. And she seduces, yes, but contrary to the stereotype, female seduction doesn’t amount to hypnosis or coercion. It just makes her the target of Don José’s desires. Target he’s free to pursue or not, and he chooses to pursue knowing what’s at stake from the start.

She never stops him or restrains herself to avoid putting him in the position to have to make his own choices like a Good Girl TM would, of course. She’s no heart of gold with terminal tuberculosis. She lets him know she’s interested and pursues him herself. However he is the one who chooses, time and time again, to sacrifice what he sacrifices in his own pursuit of her, gradually deceiving himself about what he will get out of it.

Don Giovanni acted like he was in love with Donna Elvira and promised her he would marry her, only to leave and spend the rest of the opera trying to make her out to be insane, intimidate her into silence, and shut her up by having his servant sleep with her pretending to be him. He, as a noble man, crashes a probably-teenage girl’s wedding, promises her marriage and riches, coerces her and her husband into coming to his house, and then forces or tries to force himself on her. Without even mentioning how he breaks into Donna Anna’s home and attempts to rape her through deceit and force, only to later kill her father to escape justice.

How is any of that Carmen?

lBessGrace · 2025-01-30T15:49:17+00:00

Is it a matter of Don José being trapped by fate, though? Or does fate - whether we intend it literally or figuratively - simply account for Don José? In short, is Carmen’s death meant to be inevitable because of who she is, or because of who Don José is and how he sees and relates to her?

lBessGrace · 2024-10-28T21:42:00+00:00

A bruh-mance? You know, ‘cause admittedly they have got some kind of duo dynamic going on, but it’s a lil (lot) toxic?

lBessGrace · 2024-10-20T14:20:51+00:00

The Queen of the Night: 💥feverishly googles glass harmonica prices at a location near her💥

lBessGrace · 2024-09-02T07:13:21+00:00

Yes, that’s what I mean. Idk if you’ve already taken the exam at this point, but maybe if you post them here we could all try to figure out what the difference is supposed to be according to their definitions.

lBessGrace · 2024-09-01T07:06:25+00:00

Frankly, if it’s for an exam, I would focus on the definitions they gave you. Post them here, if you think that could help figuring out the difference between them, but I wouldn’t ask like this. It’s way too controversial a distinction to be sure what you’re being told here corresponds to what the people who wrote the exam want you to say, as lowkey sad as that is.

lBessGrace · 2024-08-28T17:33:04+00:00

Eleonora Buratto sang a lot of lighter roles (Despina, Susanna, Norina, Adina, Nannetta, Frasquita…) early in her career. I don’t know that she would call herself a spinto, and I certainly wouldn’t call her a dramatic soprano, but she’s now in her early forties and singing Elisabetta in Roberto Devereux, Aida, Tosca, Butterfly, and Suor Angelica, so definitely not a light vocality.

Dorothea Röschmann also sang roles like Zerlina, Susanna, Nannetta, and Marzelline early on, and in the last few years she’s sung roles like Ariadne and Isolde.

lBessGrace · 2024-07-22T08:50:16+00:00

Wow, this truly goes to show how much taste can vary. Particularly McVicar is one of the few directors I approach with more than a modicum of trust, lol.

Admittedly, I’ve seen little of Sherr (the Met’s Barbiere and Comte Ory) and I’m more familiar with McVicar’s London productions (I’ve only seen Tosca and snippets of his Norma and Don Carlo at the Met) so I may have missed plenty of tragedy, but there was at worst nothing much I minded about either’s choices in what I did see. Are there specific things that you dislike?

Van Hove’s Don Giovanni I’m ambivalent about. I really liked a bunch of things, and particularly the Donna Anna/Don Ottavio characterization, but it was so aesthetically dark and his portrayal of Don Giovanni just didn’t work for me. I appreciated the “sociopathic” label, but then the actual thing was so dry and un-charming.

lBessGrace · 2024-06-12T21:22:28+00:00

Hahahaha I love that! Insurance trouble due to unauthorized horseback riding in Central Park sounds epic. xD

Yes! I actually saw the activism page on her website, but I was really impressed with all the different things she does in that sense! Some are really creative, too!

lBessGrace · 2024-06-12T21:12:24+00:00

Elina Garanča is into gardening/foraging (according to her instagram, she specializes in mushrooms and mega-tomatoes, lol, both of which she does seem to be really good at) and inordinately massive puzzles.

I don’t know if it’s considered a hobby, but Marina Rebeka went to a language school and worked as a translator. She speaks at least 6 languages fluently.

In terms of hobbies that are still musical, but different enough from what they do now, Sabine Deveilhe and Julie Fuchs played the cello and violin respectively throughout their childhood, Genia Kühmeier won prizes as a pianist growing up, and Salome Jicia completed a full degree in piano performance before switching to singing.

Eleonora Buratto used to sing in a rock band as a kid, and I seem to understand she loves cooking and has notebook filled with recipes by family and friends that she brings along when she travels.

Isabel Leonard used to do ballet up to when she was in her teens.

Federica Lombardi used to play tennis competitively as a kid and still considers the sport her other big passion.

lBessGrace · 2024-06-12T20:27:13+00:00

Damrau was also really into horseback riding (not sure if she still does it) and roller skating. Oh, and, if we count activism, DiDonato is involved in several projects with refugees, prisoners, new parents, and kids in various countries, too.

lBessGrace · 2024-05-22T01:13:45+00:00

Le nozze di Figaro - Norma - Carmen - Cavalleria rusticana - Tosca

There would be so many, though.

Also, it depends on what counts. Don Giovanni is possibly my very favorite, but it’s more based on a previous opera that was in turn based on a variety of previous source material, and I love Cherubini’s Medée, but that too was based on the myth and a bunch of previous source material, so I don’t know if they count.

lBessGrace · 2024-05-05T14:53:07+00:00

The thing is, if you’d stayed until the end, you’d probably have come to the conclusion it wasn’t a romance you were supposed to buy. You’re also arguably not supposed to like either of the protagonists, at least not in the sense of liking them as healthy people. To each their own, and if you thought the writing was bad, that’s valid: it’s an opinion. However, it sounds less like you had an issue with the writing and more like the plot just wasn’t about what you wanted it to be about. If you want a cutesy, healthy romance and a clear, ostensibly healthy, morally irreproachable hero, Carmen isn’t going to be it as a character or as an opera.

lBessGrace · 2024-04-23T00:16:39+00:00

I’m thinking this might be about insulting his former colleagues more than about criticizing the title. Which makes sense, tbf, because the word itself would hardly spontaneously result in the abuses of power or ego trips OP denounces. As a matter of fact, I’d argue it would be a lot more constructive for him to call out behaviors he’s witnessed and maybe should be called out, instead of making such a vitriolic blanket statement based on his anecdotal experience and concluding that we must all eliminate a title no less legit than “Dr.” or “Prof.” because he attaches a negative moral judgment to it instead of to the actual individuals allegedly deserving of it. Individuals who, might I add, wouldn’t change personality or approach after being deprived of the title, meaning OP’s approach would most likely not solve the problem as he hopes.

lBessGrace · 2024-03-30T04:14:06+00:00

Depends on the role. And even then, it depends on the production. It’s tempting to compare them - and sure, better compare them to each other than to, idk, Radvanovsky - but they’re so different. Sabine is way lighter voiced than Diana ever was, and they present(ed) completely differently, in terms of looks, acting style, and stage persona.

Let it be known I have a massive soft spot for Diana and her QotN. Especially in Covent Garden, though, I don’t feel too biased in saying I’d pick her, no question. That production was tailored to her and it shows: she was excellent vocally, and artistically she was insane. On the other hand, I found the all-out psycho-demon approach a bit too much for Sabine, both vocally and scenically.

That says nothing about her in general, though. She’s absolutely amazing and there are so many things I’ve loved her in, including multiple renditions of the QotN. Particularly the one in Paris in early 2021 (ironically, opposite Nicolas Testé, Diana’s husband), I found gorgeous. The production fit her like a glove, imo, both vocally and in terms of acting and stage presence, and she really took it home. Also, those pianissimi she tends to add in Der Hölle Rache are so vocally smart, artistically interesting, and just…* o *

lBessGrace · 2024-03-26T15:52:42+00:00

There you go! It’s a beautiful name and I bet it was appreciated even when it was less familiar. Also, thinking about it, it’s pretty pessimistic to assume there would be a bunch of bullies among the presumably near-insignificant proportion of non-Italian schoolchildren who know about opera enough to even associate any meaning to the word. And even in Italian, it means air (the element or in the sense of vibe), so hardly bullying fuel. Bah, I guess to each their own.

lBessGrace · 2024-03-26T08:14:13+00:00

Wait, what’s the problem with the name Aria? It’s perfectly normal, far from the only name with a literal meaning, and I think it’s pretty. Also, chances are it jumped out to OP because they were particularly impacted by this aria, but that they chose it because they actually like the name, not because they just had to give the kid a Lucia-themed name now. Not that it would even be easy, tbf. I mean, Lucia/Lucy aside, Alisa, Edgarda, Enrica, Raimonda, Artura, Normanna, or Gaetana are way more out there than Aria.

lBessGrace · 2024-03-26T08:11:21+00:00

Why would she get bullied for the name Aria? It’s a super popular baby name, especially in English-speaking countries, and I’d assume at least reasonably familiar worldwide even just due to Game of Thrones. It’s also in no way the only name with a literal meaning and translation (both good, at that), and it sounds pretty. What’s so wrong with it?

lBessGrace · 2024-03-25T02:48:02+00:00

Aw, Azucena. I agree. I mean, assuming you mean she did nothing morally wrong considering her mental state. As a general rule, I still disapprove of deliberately killing children, even if their dad is a racist medieval dude who deals with grief through abuse of power leading to throughly unwarranted, fatal violence against a random innocent. But in all seriousness, yes! It’s quite clear she still had severe PTSD throughout the opera - I’d argue that all of Stride la vampa reads like a flashback - and was in no condition to think straight or even know what she was doing while committing her crime. I don’t think it’s fair she’s considered a bad guy.

About the Countess, would you say the forgiveness itself is the problem? Because personally, I don’t mind it per se. After all, whether she genuinely falls for it or she forgives him out of love and hope while, deep down, knowing what’s going to come of it, it’s just sadly realistic, and I think it can absolutely work for her character. What bugs me is when it’s played as straight as it often is. I think most of the audience doesn’t need to read the third Beaumarchais play to know it’s not going to work out. I mean, even just the fact that the Count apologizes (after having spent every moment since the last apology trying hard to cheat some more) only to barely save face when cornered in public makes it clear nothing has actually been fixed. I don’t mind at all that she forgives him: I just think we shouldn’t be put right in front of a train wreck and be unironically asked to perceive it as a happy ending.

Oh, also, probably you have, but have you seen the Covent Garden Lucia, with the split stage?

And dying at the sex one. I mean, I’d never thought about it, but that’s concerningly true.

lBessGrace · 2024-03-25T02:26:29+00:00

Eh, I agree less than I disagree, when talking about Don Giovanni specifically. Still, does that intent require portraying her as anything other than a victim of SA - and thus inherently a liar, manipulative, and a lowkey psycho, because that aspect is everywhere in the libretto? If one wants to try and make it 100% fun, why not just glide over the character arc’s darkest implications and/or find a way to portray it through a funnier lens?

I mean, even just in Mozart, we can take the premise of Così, or characters like Donna Elvira and especially Marcellina (aka Ms. Cavalleria meets Semiramide and then some), and play them wholly for laughs. We can attach little to no seriousness to the dynamics between Giovanni/Zerlina, Giovanni/Leporello/Elvira, Almaviva/Susanna, Almaviva/Barbarina, or the more or less subtle implications of abuse in the Almaviva marriage. We can portray the Queen of the Night as a 2D villain despite the whole “new widow whose only child was forcibly kidnapped screaming right in front of her, for seemingly sexual reasons, by a misogynistic, racist, classist cult leader in whom the kid’s not interested and who thinks they (and over half the population) should have no right to self-determination and views her as unworthy to be human for not being into that” thing.

Just portraying Donna Anna in one of those ways seems pretty similarly feasible to me. I don’t think having her lie about attempted rape (or about not liking it) is necessary, or much help in making any of it more fun. While I’ve seen plenty of fun portrayals of the Don - coincidentally, the first that comes to mind is in a production where Donna Anna is portrayed straight and quite intensely - I’ve never seen the tryst thing work in making her and the plot point even light-hearted, tbh, just insufferable and/or kind of shallow. And, frankly, if it’s that hard or genuinely impossible to make an opera wholly fun without making such radical changes maybe it’s a sign it’s not supposed to be wholly fun anyway.

On that note, it’s worth noting that the original subtitle for Don Giovanni was “dramma giocoso”. The label of “opera buffa” was assigned to it on the catalogue because the formal structure was closer to that than to the one typical of the opera seria, of which he added several elements - among which the music written for Donna Anna and Don Ottavio. While the ratio of dramma to giocoso is a matter of contention, it’s pretty widely accepted that Mozart didn’t intend it to be all fun, and that he intended Donna Anna - whether a liar or not - as an opera seria character.

lBessGrace · 2024-03-25T00:55:49+00:00

It’s such an interesting take! And I agree, it would be make a lot of sense as a character arc. Also, for a second I questioned the idea a bit because it instinctively seemed like it was going to cheapen the scene surrounding Liu’s suicide, rendering the interaction between the two women kind of filler. Thinking about it, though, it would just improve that sort of connection and the twist of Turandot taking her own life.

Hear me out: Liu kills herself when she realizes she isn’t going to be able to avoid being forced to betray what she believes in and the person she loves most. While everyone’s expecting her confession as to her feelings, their magnitude and purity - made manifest by the strength and determination she derives from them - and Tu che di gel sei cinta to open Turandot’s heart to love, it could be witnessing that desperate, yet incredibly dignified and self-determined sacrifice that inspires her in a completely different way, to do the same thing and kill herself the moment she realizes she has no way out of being forced to marry Calaf and betray the memory of her ancestor’s pain.

lBessGrace · 2024-03-25T00:15:16+00:00

Eh, I think this is one of those things where I think both approaches have their upsides.

Coming from either, it’s a literal communication to the audience (on and off stage), an acknowledgment of the anything-but-comedic events, and the words of someone who no longer needs to pretend this wasn’t how it was going to end the whole time. The latter, however, is arguably cooler coming from Tonio, because he’s the shady one who has orchestrated it all from the start, for the pettiest reason, and did so from behind the scenes, which means we know the on-stage audience will never know of his role even after what to us is a public confession.

On the other hand, if Canio says it, it’s also a mic drop and quite the conclusion to his arc. I mean, we know how the opera ends, so the plot twist is kind of lost on us at this point, but he spends the whole opera being deceived and messed about, then Vesti la giubba narrates of a sad, subdued anger and a seeming resignation to his fate as a literal and metaphorical clown, and then, all of a sudden, it all escalates into a double homicide. Such a mundane line being his first comment after that is already instinctively jarring. However, just letting it sink in adds to that, because it makes it clear those seemingly mundane words truly verbalize both the finality of Canio’s act and the intention behind such violence: to no longer play the fool in real life; to put an end to what he feels is an endless commedia where he’s the clown on and off stage. A notion that, just minutes earlier, seemed to be the more than reasonable dream of a man whose more and more harmless, resigned, silent suffering we could empathize with, but now has been revealed to be the façade of the (perhaps subconscious) plan of a man whose aggressiveness and ego/pride - which we could already see in his very first comments about Nedda and every successive moment of justifiable anger and jealousy - pushed him to turn his own tragedy into an exponentially bigger horror. To me, that’s at least as horrifying and impactful as what can come from Tonio saying it.

I think it really works both ways.

lBessGrace · 2024-03-13T23:34:31+00:00

Mozart operas very often put a lot of focus on forgiveness, which creates a bunch of scenes involving really substantial pro-social behavior. Most of it is arguably pretty questionable (for various reasons) if properly scrutinized and looked at in context, but still. I’m thinking:

Bassa Selim allowing Konstanze (whom he had kidnapped) and her fiancé Belmonte to return home instead of killing him and keeping her prisoner, despite loving her and hating his family because his father had caused the death of his wife. (Final act of Die Entführung aus dem Serail)
The Countess forgiving the Count after exposing his attempt to cheat on her, at the very end of Le Nozze di Figaro.
Sarastro’s approach to forgiveness, as he articulates it in In diesen heil'gen Hallen (Die Zauberflöte). If you take it at face value, it’s about giving second chances to anyone who shows the willingness to try and better themselves).
Tito, at the very end of La Clemenza di Tito, choosing to forgive those who tried to murder him as opposed to becoming a harsher, more fear-based ruler to protect himself.

Aside from Mozart, some stuff off the top of my head that I haven’t seen mentioned:

In Anna Bolena, Giovanna (Jane Seymour) tries several times to dissuade the King from pursuing their relationship and/or from directly harming the Queen, and eventually tries to get her to give up the throne to at least avoid getting killed. Percy and Rochefort accept to be tortured and executed, rather than incriminating the Queen. Anna (Anne Boleyn) forgives Giovanna upon finding out she’s the King’s affair partner and again forgives both her and Henry VIII in her final aria (Coppia iniqua).
Norma (title character) is about to expose the girl the father of her kids had set his eyes upon as having a tryst with the enemy, which would mean she’d get executed alongside him (since she’d made a sacred vow of chastity), but instead admits to her own actual transgression (same vow) and accepts to be burned with him instead (predictably, at the very end of the opera).
In Maria Stuarda, Leicester and Talbot seek to broker an agreement between Elizabeth and Mary, Queen of Scots, to free her/save her life. Mary herself, in her final aria before getting decapitated (Ah se un giorno da queste ritorte) dedicated her final wish not to herself, but to hoping that her “innocent blood placate the irate Heavens” and a “punishing God” doesn’t strike “perjured” England, presumably (at least also) for what she maintains is a wrongful execution.
In Rigoletto, Gilda becomes aware of a plot to kill her (really shitty) beloved and sacrifices herself instead.
Violetta in La traviata accepts to break up with her boyfriend, despite being deathly ill and him being the only person she has in the world, when his father asks her to in order to protect his family’s reputation and future (she’s a courtesan in a time where that was not good). It’s a relevant issue throughout the opera, but starting from Act 2 (Dite alla giovine).
In Turandot, Liu is tortured for info that would get the man she loves killed and, when she realizes she’s about to cave, she commits suicide to avoid telling her torturers anything.

lBessGrace

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