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by puatry on February 16th, 2005

puatry

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What's the difference between a coloratura soprano, a soprano and a mezzo soprano?

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  • by jonikpel on February 16th, 2005

    jonikpel

    Well, I don't know that there's an exact answer that everyone would agree on. Here's one possibility, organized lowest range to highest range:

    Contralto has a range of about D3-G5
    Mezzo-soprano has a range of about G3-Bb5
    Soprano has a range of about Bb3-C6
    Coloratura has a range of about C4-E6

    Now, there are those that say coloratura is not so much a range as it is a tone or style.

    There are some (notably Richard Miller) who divide the soprano voice alone into up to nine categories: soubrette, coloratura, dramatic coloratura, lyric, lirico spinto, spinto, Jungendlich dramatic, dramatic, and Zwischenfach. Much of this has to do with tone, power, clarity, etc. I feel some of it has to do with range, too. Needless to say, there's a debate. ;)

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  • by element on September 9th, 2009

    element

    Listen to one of the greatest coloratura arias ever -aria Olympia aka Doll Song by Jacques Offenbach from
    "The Tales of Hoffman"

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  • by ladyhazel2000 on March 24th, 2007

    ladyhazel2000

    Well a mezzo has a darker quality in thier voice,a soprano can sing up to a C6 and a coloratura has a very light, agile voice and can sing above C6. I am a coloratura and I can sing up to a C7.

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  • by gracesong on October 15th, 2006

    gracesong

    Well, the first poster to this question is right in that there are different standard ranges for sopranos, metso sopranos, and altos. However, there is, in addition to the timbre of the voice, the consideration that one needs to take in that not all in-between colored voices are metsos. They could be dramatic sopranos. In addition, the spinto, as far as I've read, is a very close mix of lyric and dramatic sopranos.
    In short, everyone's voice has its own, unique fingerprint, if you will, and I'm sure there are singers who can invariably alter their sound to suit the aria.

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  • by john lipian on March 21st, 2005

    john lipian

    The primary differences are vocal color and passagio points.

    Vocal color is the the sound quality of the voice (light, heavy, in-between). A heavy sounding voice that has a high range may be a mezzo-soprano, while a light sounding voice with a high range might be a lyric soprano.

    The most important indicator though, are passagi points. Everyone has two, a first passagio and a second passagio. If you place your hand over your chest and sing in your chest voice, you will feel a buzzing sensation in the chest. As you ascend higher, the buzzing sensation will continue up to a certain point, then you will no longer feel the buzz. This is usually the same place in your voice where you start to feel uncomfortable on a note and need to start pushing more air through to make the sound while maintaining chest voice. That is your first passagio point. The second point is a little trickier, but has to do with where your head voice mechanism starts. The combination of these two notes (first passagio and second passagio) usually is a very strong indicator of whether you are a lyric soprano, mezzo, coloratura, etc..

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