Mezzo(r)-Soprano

There is always that moment of disbelief and hesitation in a new coach’s or teacher’s eyes after first hearing me sing. This is not a moment of complete and utter awe at my technical and dramatic prowess mind you. Rather, one of: “Are you sure you are a mezzo?” Yes, I’m sure, and after a few more lessons, they are as well. I also am sure that I am not the only one who has been faced with this question time and time again. Having an easy top in a traditionally warm rich low fach doesn’t necessarily spell confusion. It was how I was approaching the top, and thus my musical choices that spelled c-o-n-f-u-s-i-o-n.

I would purposefully knock out an aria highlighting the easy highs and coloratura, something to the tune of Donna Elvira’s Mi tradi. My high c, is a strength. The fact that I can run through a coloratura passage that hangs around the dreaded f and f#, is a strength. What wasn’t a strength of mine was connecting the idea of both a high and low voice. Corrected technique aside, my musical choices had a large hand in the confusion.

My first year of auditioning, I fell into the same self imposed trap. I would begin with a zwischenfach (in-between) role, a role often performed by either soprano or a high mezzo-soprano. So while I thought my voice was stating, “I am a mezzo, I sound like a mezzo, even my high notes are like a mezzo’s”, my list of audition music would be screaming, “I may not know what I am, my high notes are simply second nature, perhaps I am a soprano who believes it is easier as a mezzo”. I didn’t include a solid repertoire list. It didn’t only have zwishenfach roles; it didn’t include high mezzo roles with a few zwischenfach roles. It was a bit more slap dash that that. They were arias that I sang well – regardless of what the whole role was like. So when I would introduce myself with the repertoire of both a soprano and a mezzo-soprano, I was not convincing my audience of who I am, let alone getting the point across that I know who I am - big mistake, and admittedly, not my only one.

In a blood sport like opera, where auditions can be made or