It’s the Mezzos and Countertenors Aria Count!
These women and men made some very interesting choices this year. One might expect to hear Carmen or Cherubino a lot from mezzos, but we heard our Spanish Siren’s Habanera once in round one and once in round two and the Card Aria once in round two. Cherubino and his teenage angst only made it to round one. We heard voi che sapete twice, and non so più once. That’s it. There was also an interesting lack of Rossini. We heard Cruda sorte twice in round one and once in call backs and Non piu mesta once in the second round. There was not a single Una voce poco fa although we did hear Rosina once in round two in the form of Contro un cor che accende amore.
By FAR the aria we heard the most in this vocal category was Strauss’ Composer. Sein wir wieder gut was sung 11 times in round one, 3 times in round two and once in callbacks for a total of 15. Parto (La Clemenza di Tito), Am I in your light (Doctor Atomic), and Smanie (Così) were brought in six times each . We heard Sesto three times in the first round, twice in the second round, and once in the callbacks and Dorabella three times in round one, once in round two and twice in the callbacks. We heard Kitty Oppenheimer twice in each of the rounds. We heard Wie du warst (Rosenkavalier) five times throughout the auditions.
In the French aria category, Charlotte edged out Dalila but not with only one aria! From Werther we heard Va! twice in round one and twice in callbacks. We also heard Charlotte’s Qui m’aurait dit la place twice in round one, and once in callbacks for a total of seven Charlottes. Dalila’s Amour, viens aider was heard four times total, twice in rounds one and two. As we mentioned, Carmen’s Habanera showed up twice as did Non, vous n’avez jamais, je gage (Les Huguenots). Enfin je suis ici (Cendrillon), Ne me refuse pas (Herodiade), and O la pitoyable aventure! (L’Heure Espagnol) were three of many interesting French arias we only heard one time.
Some of the wonderful bel canto that made it to the auditions this year was Sgombra e la Sacra Selva (Norma), All’afflitto (Roberto Devereux), each heard twice, but Se Romeo (I Capuleti e i Montecchi) was definitely the most sung bel canto aria in this voice category with four hearings.
There was not much in the Slavic category this year. We heard Onegin’s Olga three times, and Pique Dame, once. English arias were interesting and varied, and this is where the countertenors come in too! We heard Dawn, Still Darkness (Jonathan Dove’s Flight) twice, and I know a bank (Midsummer – Britten) once. We had a kind of mirror with the countertenors and mezzos hearing Dove and Britten with I bought this suitcase in New York from Flight, and the Rape of Lucretia’s Give him this orchid each sung four times throughout auditions.
Additionally there was a smattering of fabulous Handel arias sung by both mezzos and countertenors including Dopo Notte (Ariodante), Tu, prepararti a morire (Ariodante), Svegliatevi (Giulio Cesare), Iris Hence away (Semele), Addio, addio o miei sospiri (Amadigi di Gaula), Furibondo (Partenope), Vivi, Tiranno (Rodelinda) , Pena Tiranna (Amadigi di Gaula), and Sdegnata sei con me (Arianna in Creta).
Next up: tenors! stay tuned!
Add Comment