Soprano
In music, soprano is used to designate the highest voice in traditional chorale style harmony, which usually, but not always, will contain the melody, with the other voices building the harmony underneath it. More generally, a soprano is also the highest member of a group of similar instruments (Soprano-saxophone).
In general musical parlance, soprano is usually taken as referring to the highest female, or pre adolescent male, voice. The voice can be a part in a chorus or a solo singer of the soprano vocal part.
In a classical context, a Soprano us a female singer whose voice has been cultivated for opera. There are several types of Sopranos as used by opera composers, and performers are therefore classified by their characteristic singing style.
The subclassifications are as follows:
- Leggero (or soubrette)
- Coloritura
- Lyric
- Lyric Dramatic
- Heroic
Famous sopranos have often caused opera enthusiasts to divide into opposing "clubs" supporting one singer over another. The rivalry between Maria Callas and Renata Tebaldi, for example, was one of the most famous of all opera (see anecdotes in La Tosca article).
Historically women were not allowed to sing in the Church, so the soprano roles were given to young boys, and later to castrati, who were men whose larynxes had been fixed in a pre-adolescent state through the process of castration.
Famous soprano singers
- Leggero
- Coloritura
- Lyric
- Dramatic Lyric
- Heroic
See also: