Soprano

The soprano (from the Italian sopra, (dar ) on '; plural sopranos, Switzerland and the Sopranos ) is the highest human voice. In the great majority of cases it is sung by women, but they can also boys before breaking voice ( boy soprano ), rare "natural" and human -made in past centuries, castrato or by men in falsetto are sung. During the Renaissance and Baroque periods, the soprano was designated in vocal and instrumental range as treble.

A male or female singer of this voice is called soprano or soprano or soprano easy.

The range of the soprano voice normally ranges from c ' to a'', with professional singers ( and singers ) but much higher pitched sounds are possible.

Singing subjects

Some specialized compartments for singing the soprano, which developed since the 19th century, are:

• Lyric soprano
• Dramatic soprano
• Lyric coloratura soprano, for lots of great virtuosity
• Dramatic coloratura soprano, for lots of great virtuosity and drama
• Soubrette, for games from the comic range

Boy soprano

As a boy soprano, the voice is called corresponding to the soprano, but is sung by a boy before his voice broke. A deeper boy's voice is also called the boy alto. Boys 'voices traditionally sing the high tones of voice in boys' choirs.

Typical roles for boy soprano, for example:

• First and Second Boy in The Magic Flute by Mozart
• Shepherd Boy in Tannhäuser by Wagner
• Shepherd in Tosca by Puccini
• Yniold in Pelléas et Mélisande by Debussy
• Boy's voice in Elias by Mendelssohn
• Miles in The Turn of the Screw by Britten
• Oberto in Handel's Alcina
• Brundibar by Hans Krasa in Pepicek
• Pollicino in Hans Werner Henze 's opera

Significant boy sopranos were:

• Roy Goodman: he obtained in 1963 with the recording of Gregorio Allegri's Miserere under David Willcocks international celebrity.
• David Hemmings: he began his career as preferred by Benjamin Britten interpreter of roles for Knabensopranisten in his operas.
• Allan Bergius: Member of the Tölz Boys' Choir. He sang the soprano part in Mahler's Fourth Symphony under Leonard Bernstein in Vienna, Milan and on a concert tour of the United States.

Male soprano voices in adulthood

For several centuries was trying to get the boy's voice good singer by castration. The resulting castrato could train their voices even further and had faced boy a larger lung volume. This method is no longer practiced today.

Today, there are few "natural castrati ". This may have hormonal causes such as the soprano Radu Marian. When Jimmy Scott hormonal cause is based on a genetic defect. Even rarer are circumstances, such as when Michael Maniaci. Also it never occurred to voice broke, but it developed for unknown reasons, only the larynx and vocal cords not as usual. Compared to other singers, they are limited in the low registers. By using normal chest voice, she may face countertenors sing softly games well.

Men who are in a position after the breaking voice to sing soprano, are usually referred to as a countertenor, sometimes called sopranos or male sopranos. They work mostly through the use of head voice or falsetto technique, but a different sound generated as a boy's voice. Singers such as Angelo Manzotti have developed our own technology without falsetto, which leads to a clearer voice. These types of singers have a very large vocal range. When Arno Raunig there are about three and a half octaves, Edson Cordeiro even four octaves. The latter achieved a sound that is scheduled to have a stage on Mozart's Queen of the Night in the opera The Magic Flute.