Word: altissimo
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1937-1937
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
When Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart made his first visit to Italy, at 14, he heard a soprano called La Bastardella sing an "unbelievable" C in altissimo, an octave above the C in alt (high C) which is the difficult top of many a soprano's reach. Later in his Magic Flute, Mozart wrote for the Queen of Night-one of the most difficult coloratura soprano roles sung today-nothing higher than F in alt, or three and one-half tones below C in altissimo. Less than a century after Mozart's death, Jenny Lind produced effortless...
...pfennigs to study voice, she thought she was a mezzo-soprano. So did her first teacher, although a subsequent teacher lightened her voice so that, when Conductor Bruno Walter heard it, he gave her small lyric soprano parts at the Charlottenburg Opera. After her accidental discovery of C in altissimo, Soprano Sack perfected her coloratura. When, as a member of the able Dresden Opera, she sang in the world première of Richard Strauss's Schweigsame Frau (The Silent Woman), and later in a revival of his Ariadne Auf Naxos, Composer Strauss wrote in extra fioriture...
| 1 |