Vocals of Mezzo-Soprano Parts in the Works of G. Verdi and G. Bizet

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to trace the signs of timbre-role in mezzo-soprano voice carriers, based on the material of the operas of the famous masters G. Verdi and G. Bizet, despite the fact that this timbre-register flavour of singing covers characters extremely different in age and social status, and by national and ethnic indicators. The methodological basis is the intonation approach of the B. Asafyev school in the works of Ukrainian musicologists, including T. Verkina, O. Kozarenko, I. Lyashenko, O. Markova, O. Roshchenko, O. Sokolova and others, using scientific comparative-stylistic, hermeneutic, biographical-descriptive, analytical-typological, research methods. The scientific novelty is determined by the fact that for the first time in Ukraine and China the interpretation of the mezzo-soprano timbre as a timbre-role was put forward, namely, indicators, finding common ground in characters fundamentally different from social-psychological, ethnic-national, epoch-historical signs. For the first time, the famous parts from the operas of G. Verdi and G. Bizet are analysed in this perspective. Conclusions. The timbre-role of the mezzo-soprano in the operas of G. Verdi and the works of G. Bizet is revealed in the fact that the images of a woman-mother, a woman-seductress differ in socio-psychological, national, geographical and historical aspects, but they are characterszed by a pronounced masculine and forceful initiative composition, they all gravitate to song numbers, but distant from the simplicity of everyday manifestations of song, to the plasticity of revealing authority, a power attitude in relations with others, which causes accentuation of strong notes in low and middle registers. And this constitutes the historical separation of this type of singing from the "Rossinian" sopranos, who combined different timbres and various textures of the upper and lower registers, of which, from the middle of the 19th century, the upper gave "lightness" to the lyric sopranos, and the lower to the mezzo-sopranos of the post-romantic formation.