Tailor-made: Does this song look good on me? The Voices that Inspired Vocal Music History

Abstract

The history of tailor-made repertoire is celebrated, and, in many cases, the composer and the works live on in perpetuity while the performing artist is remembered only in historical documents. Timbres, agilities, ranges, and personalities of singers have long been a source of inspiration for composers. Even Mozart famously remarked that he wrote arias to fit singers like a well-tailored suit. This dissertation studies the vocal and dramatic profiles of ten sopranos and discovers how their respective talents compelled famed composers to create music that accommodated each singer’s unique abilities. The resulting repertoire advanced the standard of vocal music and encouraged new developments in the genres and styles of compositions for the voice. This is a performance dissertation and each singer is depicted through the presentation of repertoire originally created for and by them. The recital series consisted of one lecture recital and two full recitals performed at the University of Maryland, College Park. I was joined in the performance of these recitals by pianist Andrew Jonathan Welch, clarinetist Melissa Morales, and composer/pianist Dr. Elaine Ross. The series was presented chronologically, and the first recital included works of the Baroque and Classical music eras written for Marie Le Rochois, Faustina Bordoni, Catarina Cavalieri, and Adriana Ferrarese del Bene. The second recital advanced into the nineteenth-century with repertoire composed for Anna Milder-Hauptmann, Giulia Grisi, and Mary Garden. Finally, the concluding recital explored music of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries that was made famous by sopranos Conxita Badía, Leontyne Price, and Renée Fleming. This recital culminated in a commissioned work for the author composed by Dr. Elaine Ross. Additional featured music included works by Lully, Handel, Mozart, Schubert, Rossini, Bellini, Debussy, Massenet, Granados, Rodrigo, Gerhard, Barber, and Previn.