Word: coloraturas
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...been written. Like an opera, Phantom is almost entirely sung, and its characters are outfitted with sharply etched musical motifs. Except for the title song, there is no rock music in the score; instead it is a sweeping, romantic evocation of Belle Epoque Paris for coloratura soprano, lyric tenor and full-dress symphony orchestra...
Ramey's silken voice, which ranges high into traditional baritone territory, is worlds apart from the toneless barking and roaring that too often pass for singing among basses. A flexible, liquid instrument, it can scale the trickiest Rossini coloratura passages or rattle the rafters in triumph...
Little more than a decade ago, she was teaching general music in the Cincinnati public school system to unruly fourth, fifth and sixth graders. Today her audiences range across the world's music capitals right up to the Vatican. Kathleen Battle is the best lyric coloratura soprano in the world. Engaged regularly by the finest orchestras in the U.S. and Europe, and with a thriving recital career under way, she is so good that opera producers now call for a Kathy Battle voice when casting the roles that are her specialty...
Battle's range spans two and a half octaves, from a low A to a high E. Her voice has a color and flexibility that allow her to go beyond soubrette roles to encompass the death-defying coloratura declamations of Handel's Semele, or dramatically richer lyric parts like Melisande in Debussy's Pelleas et Melisande, which she is now studying. That radiant sound emerges from a 5-ft. 3-in., 120-lb. frame like Athena leaving the head of Zeus: pure and full blown, and shimmering like celestial chimes. "Her voice is remarkably beautiful," says Met Music Director James...
Ballerina Merrill Ashley has considerably more than a character to offer in her painstaking book. Today she is one of the glories of the New York City Ballet, a sunny allegro virtuoso. In his introduction, British Critic Clement Crisp likens her style to bravura pianism or flawless coloratura. As Ashley documents it, however, her career was not a prestissimo ascent. It took a decade of intense, disciplined practice to perfect her astounding technique and years onstage to learn how to present herself effectively. In the early pages, the author-dancer shows just how lost a youngster can be, even...